Philosophy › The 19th century
Karl Marx
1818–1883· Philosopher· Politics, society & justice
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
German philosopher, economist and revolutionary who argued that class struggle drives history and that capitalism would give way to communism.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
The idea: how a society produces its goods shapes its politics, laws and ideas, and capitalism exploits workers. A Young Hegelian in Berlin, he turned Hegel's dialectic toward material life. Exiled to Paris and Brussels, he co-wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848) with Engels, then spent over three decades in London, often poor, writing Das Kapital. 'The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.' Main objection: revolution came not in industrial Britain but in agrarian Russia and China.
Why it matters
His ideas inspired labor movements, social democracy and 20th-century Communist states, including the USSR, China and North Korea, and reshaped history and sociology.
Legacy and sources
His writings, notebooks and letters fill the still-growing MEGA collected edition; Engels's letters and Prussian police spy reports document his life in exile.
Still debated
How much responsibility he bears for regimes that ruled in his name, given that he wrote little about how a communist society would actually work.
Inside this (4)
Connections (6)
▸G. W. F. Hegel had his dialectic turned "right side up" by Karl MarxWell documented
The connection
As a Berlin student, Marx joined the Young Hegelians, who used Hegel's ideas to criticize religion and the Prussian state. He kept Hegel's dialectic but rejected its idealism: 'With him it is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again, if you would discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell.'
When and how
Berlin, 1836–41, five years after Hegel's death; Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right followed in 1843, the famous image in 1873.
How we know
Marx's 1837 letter to his father describing his conversion to Hegel, his 1843 critique, and the 1873 afterword to Capital calling himself 'the pupil of that mighty thinker.'
Debates and open questions
Whether Marx remained a Hegelian; Louis Althusser saw a sharp 'break' around 1845, while Georg Lukács and others find Hegel throughout his work.
▸Karl Marx developed Historical materialism and class struggleWell documented
The connection
Marx, working with Engels, made it the backbone of his thought: how people organize production, and who owns the land, tools and factories, shapes law, politics and ideas. He used it to argue that capitalism, like feudalism before it, was a passing stage.
When and how
Brussels, 1845–46, in The German Ideology, which they left 'to the gnawing criticism of the mice'; classic summary published in Berlin in 1859.
How we know
The 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy; at Marx's 1883 funeral, Engels credited him with discovering 'the law of development of human history.'
Debates and open questions
How much is Engels's work, and whether Marx meant strict economic determinism; Engels's 1890 letters insisted economics decides only 'in the last instance.'
▸Karl Marx co-wrote The Communist ManifestoWell documented
The connection
The Communist League, a small society of German workers abroad, commissioned a program at its London congress in late 1847. Marx wrote the final text in Brussels in January 1848, under deadline pressure, reworking Engels's drafts, including his question-and-answer 'Principles of Communism.'
When and how
London congress, November–December 1847; written in Brussels; printed anonymously in German in London in February 1848.
How we know
The first edition, Engels's surviving drafts and League correspondence; Engels's later prefaces say its core idea belonged to Marx.
Debates and open questions
Exactly how much each man contributed; the style is Marx's, but much of the structure follows Engels's earlier drafts.
▸Karl Marx wrote Das KapitalWell documented
The connection
Marx spent some fifteen years researching in the British Museum Reading Room, supported largely by Engels, whose family owned a Manchester cotton mill. He drafted thousands of pages, published only Volume 1 himself, and left the rest unfinished at his death in 1883.
When and how
London, 1850s–1867; Volume 1 published in Hamburg by Otto Meissner in September 1867, in 1,000 copies.
How we know
His manuscripts, held at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam and published in the MEGA edition, document the work.
Debates and open questions
How much Engels reshaped Volumes 2 (1885) and 3 (1894) while editing them; the original manuscripts show substantial changes, and Marx's full plan was far larger.
▸Karl Marx inspired Critical theory (the Frankfurt School)Well documented
The connection
Marx argued that capitalism alienates workers and that ruling ideas serve ruling-class interests. The Frankfurt School kept this method of critique but asked why the predicted workers' revolution never came in the West. Their answer blended Marx with Freud: mass culture and psychology kept people content within the system.
When and how
The Institute for Social Research was founded in Frankfurt in 1923, funded by Felix Weil; Horkheimer's 1937 essay 'Traditional and Critical Theory' named the approach.
How we know
Its members described themselves as working in the Marxist tradition and wrote extensively on Marx's ideas.
Debates and open questions
Orthodox Marxists accused them of trading politics for cultural pessimism; György Lukács mocked them as living in the 'Grand Hotel Abyss'.
▸Karl Marx was critiqued by Hannah ArendtWell documented
The connection
Arendt took Marx seriously but argued he blurred key distinctions. In The Human Condition she separated labor (endless toil to stay alive), work (making lasting things) and action (acting together in public). Marx, she said, glorified labor and treated politics as a means to economic ends, leaving no room for freedom as shared action.
When and how
She developed the critique in early-1950s lectures and manuscripts on Marx, and in The Human Condition (Chicago, 1958).
How we know
The Human Condition devotes long sections to Marx; her unfinished 1950s manuscripts on Marx and Western political thought have since been published.
Debates and open questions
Marxist scholars argue she misread Marx's broader idea of labor; others see her critique as aimed at modern economics generally, liberal as well as Marxist.