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Unit 11: Karl Marx: His Life and Works, Materialism and Dialectical Materialism
Sukanya Das, Lovely Professional University
Kirandeep Singh, Lovely Professional University

Unit 11: Karl Marx: His Life and Works, Notes
Materialism and Dialectical Materialism

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Life Sketch
11.2 Marx as a Poet
11.3 Marx’s Doctoral Dissertation
11.4 Dialectics
11.5 Materialism and History
11.6 Economic Determinism
11.7 Summary
11.8 Key-Words
11.9 Review Questions
11.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit Students will be able to
• Know about Karl Marx Life and his Work.
• Discuss Marx’s as a poet.
• Explain doctoral dissertation.
• Understand dialectics.
• Discuss materialism and history.

Introduction

Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) was truly the last of the great critics in the Western intellectual
tradition. His ideas exerted a decisive influence on all aspects of human endeavour, and transformed
the study of history and society. They significantly changed anthropology, the arts, cultural studies,
history, law, literature, philosophy, political economy, political theory and sociology by establishing
a link between economic and intellectual life. By developing a theory of praxis, i.e. unity of thought
and action, Marx brought about a sea change in the entire methodology of the social sciences. He
was “a brilliant agitator and polemicist, a profound economist, a great sociologist, an incomparable
historian.
However, from its very inception Marxism was faced with a variety of criticism and critical acclaim.
In fact, the controversies within Marxism are such that Marxism, like Liberalism, has become an
umbrella ideology. In the context of Marx’s writings, scholars spoke of two Marx: the young and the
old. The young Marx was concerned with alienation, human nature and morality; the old was more
deterministic, with his in-depth study of the workings of capitalism. The link between the two was
the Grundrisse (1857-1858) and the Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy (1859).
Another crucial fact was that four of Marx’s writings were written in collaboration with Friedrich
Engels (1820-1895), his friend and comrade. After Marx’s death, Engels edited and published

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