Karl Marx on Political Philosophy

Running Head: KARL MARX ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Karl Marx on Political Philosophy
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1KARL MARX ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Karl Marx was a political philosopher of the nineteenth century. Often considered as a
radical thinker, the political philosophy expounded by him is unique in all respects and marked
an important landmark in the evolution of political thinking. Born in Rhineland, in Germany in
1818, Karl Marx found himself attracted to communist thinking of political philosophy
(Barbalet, 2015). He is considered to be one of the most influential political thinkers of his time
and beyond. Karl Marx advocated the philosophy of communism, which was in complete
contrast to the existing power structure of the world at that time. This essay seeks to discuss
about Karl Marx and his political philosophy. The philosophy advocated by him is communism,
which was looked at critically during his lifetime. The philosophy of communism found
widespread support in the following decades and the whole world once stood in the brink of
being divided based on his philosophy. The essay then discusses the critical analysis of Marxian
philosophy. It concludes with the relevance of communist philosophy in the contemporary world.
The main purpose of this essay is to examine the political philosophy of Karl Marx as
propounded by him during his lifetime.
Karl Marx was born in 1818, in Rhineland, which is located in Germany (MacGregor,
2015). His family had a liberalist political outlook and initially belonged to the culture of
Judaism. However, they changed their beliefs to Protestantism for societal reasons. Marx
attended University of Bonn, in Germany, before leaving for University of Berlin (MacGregor,
2015). There, he studied philosophy, law and theology. These courses helped him to frame his
own ideological thinking and gave him the capability to judge the prevailing societal and
economic conditions based on his ideology. Karl Marx attained his Post-Doctoral fellowship in
Philosophy where he compared and contrasted the views of Epicurus and Democritus.

2KARL MARX ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Karl Marx was born at a time when capitalist form of power structure prevailed in the
society. Feudalism was still in existence during the nineteenth century. Feudalism refers to that
social set up where there were ‘feudal lords’ who formed an important part of nobility (Moseley,
2018). The Head of the State granted lands to the feudal lords in return for their military help and
alliance to the throne. The feudal lords cultivated these lands with the help of tillers and workers
who were not given enough remuneration with respect to the work they were forced to do. These
workers became slaves to the feudal lords and were often exploited by them. Exploitation is one
of the necessary evils of the capitalist society. Capitalism encourages healthy competition among
the individuals of a society based on profit motives (Walder, Isaacson & Lu, 2015). Such power
structure allows the competitors to earn more profits if the production level increases
simultaneously. The feudal lords, conditioned by such power structure, used to push for more
production from the land tilled by the workers, but in order to earn higher revenues, they would
fail to give appropriate wages to the workers, sometimes no wage at all. This deteriorated the
standard of living of the concerned workers and aggravated their problems with the passing of
years. The structure of capitalist society led to the prevalence of a system of inequality among
those people with wealth and those who had to work in order to earn their living.
The laborers work in order to earn a minimum standard of living. For them, labor is a
form of self-identity, a form of belongingness (Barbalet, 2015). However, the nature of the
capitalist society, which often resulted in the exploitation of the workers, they were not able to
earn in accordance with their hard work. They felt undervalued and hence, were estranged from
their employers. According to Marx, this resulted in the ‘alienation’ of the workers (Marx, 2015).
The employers felt they were the sole owners of the products manufactured and the workers
simply facilitated the process.