Page 206 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. —Marx

Marx removed from Hegel’s theory the assumption that national cultures are the effective units of
social history—an assumption that never had any close logical relation to his system—and replaced
the struggle of nations with the struggle of social classes. Thus he took away from Hegelianism its
distinctive qualities as a political theory—its nationalism, its conservatism and its counter-
revolutionary character—and transformed it into a new and very powerful type of revolutionary
radicalism. Marxism became the progenitor of the more important modifications to be, of present
day communism.

11.1 Life Sketch

Marx was born on March 5, 1818 in the predominantly Catholic city of Trier in the Rhineland in
a Jewish family. His father Heinrich, a son of Marx Levi, was a rabbi in Trier. The surname Marx
was the abbreviated form of Mordechai, later changed to Markus. The paternal side had an
illustrious ancestry. Heinrich’s father was a successful lawyer. His uncle Lion Philips was a
successful businessman who later founded the famous Philips Electric Company. Heinrich converted
himself to Lutheranism in 1817, but did not abandon his religion. His wife Henriette converted
herself in 1825. Karl converted himself in 1824. Perhaps it was the consciousness of his Jewish
background that heightened his awareness about “his sense of marginality, his ambivalence toward
society, and eventually of his conflicting qualities—thinker and prophet, scientist and moralist”.
Marx studied law at the University of Bonn in 1835 and at the University of Berlin in 1836. He
changed his course to philosophy under the influence of the young Hegelians. He completed his
doctorate in philosophy in 1841. The accession of Wilhelm IV in 1840 sealed Marx’s prospects for
an academic career. Marx married his childhood sweetheart, Jenny, daughter of Baron Ludwig
von Westphalen, his spiritual guide since his adolescence in 1843. Jenny (six years older than
Marx) and Marx married after a seven-year period of courtship. Together, they led a hard but
happy life, though Jenny was known to have remarked that instead of writing the Capital, Marx
could have made money.
From 1842 to 1848, Marx edited radical publications in the Rhineland, Belgium and France. He
became the editor of the liberal Rheinische Zeitung which he remained till 1843. In 1844, while in
Paris, he became interested in the working-class movement and political economy. Around this
time, Marx and Engels began working on the German Ideology (1847).
In 1848, Marx and Engels helped in the founding of the Communist League, which existed till
1850. In 1848, Marx was expelled from the Prussian territories, compelling him to move to London,
where he stayed till the end of his life. He worked and studied in the British Museum from 1850
to 1860. There was no evidence that Marx actually spoke to peasants, workers or landowners.
Though he wrote about industrial and financial processes, he knew only two who were connected
with them— his Uncle Philips and friend Engels. He wrote for the New York Tribune, which paid
one pound for each of his articles, and that was his only regular income. He was helped financially
by Engels. He lived a life of poverty, the reason being attributed to mishandling of money. Three
of his six children died of want. His own health did not remain well. Jenny died in 1881. She
played an extremely helpful role by editing Marx’s manuscripts and preparing them for publication.
Marx died on March 14,1883. He was buried at the Highgate cemetery in London. His death went
unnoticed in Britain. It was the London correspondent in Paris who reported his death, which was
featured in the London Times.

200 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY