Karl Heinrich Marx

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Karl Heinrich Marx
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Marxs Background

• Marx was born in a middle-class home in Trier on
  the river Moselle in Germany on May 5, 1818.
• His family was Jewish, but converted to
  Protestantism in 1824
• His education consisted of graduating from High
  School in Trier. Marx then entered the
  university, first at Bonn and later in Berlin,
  where he read law, majoring in history and
  philosophy.
• He finished his university course in 1841,
  submitting a doctoral thesis on the philosophy of
  Epicurus (Greek philosopher who believed that the
  world is a random combination of atoms and that
  pleasure is the highest good) but he did not
  leave uni, he stayed there to continue studying.
• Marxs views throughout University were those
  that could have been said to be Hegelian
  idealist.
• Hegel was a German philosopher who interpreted
  nature and human history and culture as
  expressions of a dialectical process in which
  Spirit, or Mind, realizes its full potentiality.

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Marxs Background (cont)

• Marx was a member of the Left Hegelians and they
  sought to draw atheistic and revolutionary
  conclusions from Hegel's philosophy.
• In October 1842 Marx became editor-in-chief of a
  movement started by radical bourgeois who
  created a paper in opposition to the Prussian
  government, called the Rheinische Zeitung. After
  becoming the main man in charge of this movement
  he moved from Bonn to Cologne.
• The newspaper's revolutionary-democratic trend
  became more and more pronounced under Marx's
  editorship. The government didnt like this and
  so they shut it down.
• In 1843, Marx married, at Kreuznach, a childhood
  friend he had become engaged to while still a
  student.
• Marx then went to Paris in 1843 in order to
  publish a radical journal abroad, together with
  Arnold Ruge. Publication was discontinued owing
  to the difficulty of secretly distributing it in
  Germany because it was again seen by the
  government as, "merciless criticism of everything
  that exists.

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Marxs Background (cont)

• Marx didnt have much of a social life, but when
  Frederick Engels came to Paris, In September
  1844, for a few days Marx had found his closest
  friend. There were two reasons for this 1) Engel
  had been with Marx in uni, and also part of the
  Left Hegelians and 2) Engel was a great supply of
  income to Marx and his poverty stricken family.
• After Marx had finished his studies and had
  gained a reputation as a political exile through
  the way in which he talked of Religion ruling the
  government and political systems with a basis of
  Economic and Materialistic structure, he and
  Engel began their first work on Marxism.
• Marx and Engel called this new and basic form of
  Marxism, The German Ideology. In this work,
  largely produced in response to Feuerbach's
  materialism (A well respected view in the Left
  Hegelians), Marx and Engels set down the
  foundations of Marxism with the materialistic
  conception of history, and broke from Left
  Hegelian idealism.

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Marxs Background (cont)

• Therefore the Left Hegelian society and views
  were very quickly disintegrated until we hear
  almost nothing of it nowadays.
• The very fist lines that Marx was to make in his
  message of Marxism was "The philosophers have
  only interpreted the world in various ways" Marx
  wrote in an outline for the beginning of the
  book, " the point is to change it.
• These new books and the new pieces of literature
  that Marx was pouring out were threatening to the
  political regimes of the time. To put it simple
  People in power didnt like him.
• Marx was banished from Paris in 1845, considered
  by both governments a dangerous revolutionary.
• Marx then moved to Brussels. In the spring of
  1847 Marx and Engels joined a secret propaganda
  society of which they quickly rose to the top and
  named it the Communist League. Marx and Engels
  took a prominent part in the League's Second
  Congress at whose request they drew up the
  Communist Manifesto, which appeared in February
  1848.

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Marxs Background (cont)

• This new communist group based in Brussels was
  yet again a threat to the government and Marx was
  finding himself in more and more trouble with the
  people in power.
• Coincidently
• On the outbreak of the Revolution of February
  1848, Marx was banished from Belgium.
• Marx then went back to Germany, Cologne, where he
  finally published his book that he had started
  working on as part of the Left Hegelians and with
  huge success he soon had established a whole new
  form of communism based on his theories and his
  theories on religion.

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Marxs Theories

• His theories and reasons for coming up with
  Marxism and communism comprise mostly of theories
  on Religion.
• These are Religion can only be understood in
  relation to other social systems and the economic
  structures of society. In fact, religion is only
  dependent upon economics, nothing else so much
  so that the actual religious doctrines are almost
  irrelevant.
• Marxs opinion is that religion is an illusion
  that provides reasons and excuses to keep society
  functioning just as it is.
• This is a functionalist interpretation of
  religion because it has the main gist of the fact
  that understanding religion is dependent upon
  what social purpose religion itself serves, not
  the content of its beliefs.
• Marx never really liked religion when he was
  studying it, and he had a few motives for coming
  up with theories of the basis of religion .
• First, it is irrational religion is a delusion
  and a worship of appearances that avoids
  recognizing underlying reality.

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Marxs theories (cont)

• Second according to Marx is that religion makes
  useless all that is dignified in a human being by
  rendering them servile and more agreeable to
  accepting the status quo. In the preface to his
  doctoral dissertation, Marx adopted as his motto
  the words of the Greek hero Prometheus who defied
  the gods to bring fire to humanity I hate all
  gods, with addition that they do not recognize
  mans self-consciousness as the highest
  divinity.
• Third, religion is hypocritical. Although it
  might profess valuable principles, it sides with
  the oppressors. Jesus advocated helping the poor,
  but the Christian church merged with the
  oppressive Roman state, taking part in the
  enslavement of people for centuries. In the
  Middle Ages the Catholic Church preached about
  heaven, but acquired as much property and power
  as possible.
• Religious distress is at the same time the
  expression of real distress and the protest
  against real distress. Religion is the sigh of
  the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless
  world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless
  situation. It is the opium of the people.
• Marx is pretty much saying that religion is meant
  to create illusory fantasies for the poor.
  Economic realities prevent them from finding true
  happiness in this life, so religion tells them
  this is OK because they will find true happiness
  in the next life. Marx is not entirely without
  sympathy people are in distress and religion
  does provide solace, just as people who are
  physically injured receive relief from
  opiate-based drugs.

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Marx

• Whatever ones final conclusion about the
  accuracy or validity of Marxs ideas on religion,
  we should recognize that he provided an
  invaluable service by forcing people to take a
  hard look at the social web in which religion
  always occurs. Because of his work, it has become
  impossible to study religion without also
  exploring its ties to various social and economic
  forces. Peoples spiritual lives can no longer be
  assumed to be totally independent of their
  material lives.

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Bibliography

• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
• www.faculty.rsu.edu/felwell/TheoryWeb/Marx.htm
• www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionThe
  ology/Theory
• Introducing Marx! by Rius
• Communism by David Downing