Karl Marx (1818-1883) recognizes the idea of the dialectical process but he is against Hegel’s idea of an absolute mind. When Marx was a student in Germany his studies on thinking were rounded around the ideas of Hegel. Marx believed strong in communism, which is sometimes called Marxism or the Marx synthesis. He believed in dialectical materialism which he based directly from George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Although Marx based his ideas on Hegel, he was not completely in unison. Unlike Hegel, Marx did not think that everything is about ideas, but rather that everything is material.
As stated before, Marx is a strict communist. He is not what we would call today, a “Big business” type of person. He was a strong believer against alienation. He thought that alienation is prevalent is a capitalist society. He viewed, like many, that alienation was a selfish quality. That is it described as bad thing someone does to other people to help yourself, especially in an economic sense. Soccio puts it on page 396 as, “Alienation occurs when that worker no longer feel at one with the product of his or her labor. An alienated individual rarely feels at home with himself or herself, or with others. Alienation is a state of powerlessness, frustration, repressed resentment, and despair. I results from the transformation of a human being into a commodity.” A modern example of this would be an owner or boss of a large scale company that inflicts harm on the employees. For instance, cut backs…….
According to Karl Marx, if a slave thought that slavery was good then it would be okay as long as it is was the slave truly believes. It would not be hurting anyone, if the slave and the master are both happy what the harm? Marx argues. Soccio argues on page 397 that, “The result, therefore, is that …the worker…feels that he is acting freely only his animal functions-eating, drinking, and procreating, or at most in his shelter and finery-while in his human functions he feels only like an animal. The animalistic becomes human and the human becomes animalistic.” Thus no harm is done, so as long as the slave feels he has a good life then there is nothing ethically wrong with this scenario, Marx claims.
Marx’s idea on communism (Marxism) all started when an influential group of French laborers who were unhappy with their situation of work. Marx and the workers felt that the property should all be owned evenly, thus giving way to the name, “communist.” Marx and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) worked together to create the Communist Manifesto. This piece of writing included all the ideas of rights for employees and how workers should own the means of production. Marx explains this in his “Communist Manifesto” on page 384 in Soccio; The communists disdain to conceal their views on aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their claims. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries unite!” Basically, Marx is saying that rights need to be given to workers and Communism is not the terrible idea that American today believes, and is taught today.
Karl Marx coined the phrase, “Religion is the opium of the people.” This simple phrase is still mentioned today and has numerous levels of meaning. He says that it is a way for people to use drugs to escape their real life. Similar to drugs, where the drugs will give you a “high” and all your problems, at that particular moment, will be put to bay. Religion is the same way, in that is gives you a reason to feel content with your life. For example, religion tells you that there is a afterlife. The idea of an afterlife helps many people get through the day, the week, and even their whole life. Marx would say that it puts people to sleep with their problems in the real world. He further goes on to say that religion is only prevalent because people do not feel content with their life, without religion.
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