KARL MARX’S EARLY

LIFE AND THEORY OF

MATERIALISTIC
CONCEPT OF HISTORY

SUBMITTED BY: AHSAN JAVED (Roll No. F18-2143)

SUBMITTED TO: MISS SARA AHMAD (Western Political Thought)

DATE: 30/09/19

DEPARTMENT: M.A POLITICAL SCIENCE

Karl Marx, in full Karl Heinrich Marx, was born on 5th of May 1818, in Trier,
Rhine Province, Prussia (Germany) and died on 14th of March 1883, in London,
England. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human
history, and his work has been both lauded and criticized. His work in economics
laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labor and its relation to
capital, and subsequent economic thought. Many intellectuals, labor unions, artists
and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx’s work, with many
modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal
architects of modern social science.
Karl Heinrich Marx was the oldest surviving boy of nine children. His father,
Heinroch, a successful lawyer, who took part in agitations for a constitution in
Prussia. His mother Henrietta Pressburg, was from Holland. Both parents were
Jewish, but year before Marx was born, his father was baptized in the Evangelical
Established Church. Karl was baptized when he was 6 years old.
Marx was educated from 1830 to 1835 at a high school in Trier. In 1836, he was
enrolled at the University of Berlin to study Law and Philosophy.
In June 1843 Marx, after an engagement of 7 years, married Jenny Von
Westphalen. Jenny was an attractive, intelligent and much admired woman, four
years elder than Karl and came from a family of military and administrative
distinction.
Four months after their marriage, the young couple moved to Paris, which was then
the center of socialist thought and if the more extreme sects that went under the
name of communism. There, Marx, first became a revolutionary and a communist
and began to associate communist societies of French and German workingmen.
He was, however, expelled from Paris because of his political and social liberalist
thought and went to London which was to be his home for the rest of his life.
From 1850 to 1864 Marx lived in a material misery and spiritual pain. His funds
were gone, and except on one occasion he could not bring himself to seek paid
employment. In March 1850 he and his wife and four small children were evicted
and their belongings seized. Several of his children died, including a son Guido
and a daughter Franziska, for whom his wife rushed about frantically trying to
borrow money for a coffin. For six years the family lived in two small rooms in
Soho, often subsisting on bread and potatoes.
Following the death of his wife in 1881, Marx developed a lung disease that kept
him ill health for the last 15 months of his life, and as a result, he died at the age of
64 in 1883.
HISTORICAL CONCEPTION OF MATERIALISM:

It is an attempt to explain the origin and development of society from a

materialistic perspective.
BACKGROUND:

It is important to note that Marx lived during industrial capitalism where poor
condition of the working class, excessive exploitation, poverty and economic
inequality were prominent in the society.
Marx knew that in order to understand the present he had to understand the past.
He believed that future could be predicted by observing the pattern of society
development throughout the history.
Since his approach has always been scientific in nature, he wanted to see that if
there is any identifiable law which explains the development of society. He
believed that he had he answer through his theory of history, also known as
Dialectical Materialism or Materialist Conception of History.
Before talking about the theory in detail it is important to shed some light on the
difference in Idealist concept and Materialist Concept and also on dialectical
approach to come up with a better understanding of Marx’s theory.
IDEALISTS:

They believe that the world around us is nothing but a reflection of ideas and
concepts and hence materialism is just a mere imperfect image of the ideas. First
comes idea and then the world as they say.
MATERIALISTS:

Their belief is the right opposite; they believe that what is real is the material world
and ideas are just the reflection of it. First comes the world and then the ideas. Karl
Marx was a materialist.
DIALECTICS:

Dialectics is a theory to explain change. Progress or development is the result of

struggle between 2 or more contradictory forces.
 Stage A (Status Quo) with some contradictions and limitations

Stage B (Reaction Stage) with less contradictions and limitations

Stage C (Progress Stage) with even less contradictions and limitations

Stage A (Thesis) is the present stage with contradictions; then struggle happens
and the reaction stage starts Stage B (Anti-thesis); after which the final stage of
progress becomes prominent Stage C (Synthesis) where the contradictions are at
their lowest.
These are the stages of development, according to Marx, with each stage
representing class struggle.
For Marx human history is the struggle for survival, against nature and against one
another – one class against other.
According to Marx there are 2 methods of domination:
1) By controlling means of violence/force (army, police, court)
2) By controlling the thoughts, belief and ideas of the working class.
With the latter being a long term one done through Economic base which
creates an Ideological Superstructure (Justifying the division of labor,
class difference, inequality of wealth, status and power).
Marx’s analysis of history is based on his distinction between the means of
production; literally those things such as Land, Natural Resources and Technology,
that are necessary for the production of material goods and the social relations of
production. In other words, the social relationship is the class that owns the
material goods (haves) and the class that don’t (have-nots). Together they comprise
the mode of production. Marx observed that within any given society the mode of
production changes, and that European societies had progressed from a feudal
mode of production to a capitalist mode of production.
Marx was of the opinion that all human history has been determined by economic
factors (mainly who control the means of production and distribution)
He believed that the capitalist mode of production is capable of tremendous growth
because the capitalist can and has an incentive to reinvest profits in new
technologies. Marx considered the capitalist class to be the most revolutionary in
history because it constantly revolutionized the means of production.
Marx believed that the mode of production has evolved and has gone through the
following stages:

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MODE OF PRODUCTION:

Asiatic Mode of Production:

It is charachterised by primitive communities in which ownership of land is
communal. The concept of private property did not exist and the properties were
owned by the community as a whole. This concept is also known as ‘primitive
communism’.
Ancient Mode of Production:
According to Marx every part of history had its end point, so primitive
communism was to go and slavery came into being. People who had political,
physical and material strength had authority over others. So two classed were
found (Masters and the Slaves) and this is where the concept of private property
emerged.
Feudal Mode of Production:
Two classes – the feudal lords and serfs were formed at this stage. Lords owned
the land in their favor and their job was to lease the land and to employ agricultural
labor in their lands. The owners who were leased had to pay taxes and the labor
was given wages.
Marx pointed out that this stage too was exploitative in nature and the labor was
not paid its due. This stage could not grow much as industries started to develop
and migration to urban cities became prominent.
Capitalist Mode of Production:
Marx was very much bothered about this stage as this represented the most heinous
and migration was found from rural to urban areas. Those who worked in
agricultural lands shifted to industries. There were two classes; the working class
(proletariat) and the bourgeoisie.
The primary issue with this mode of production was the ‘surplus value’. In
essence, surplus value arises from the fact that the value of the commodities
produced by the worker in the course of a day is greater than the value of his/her
on labor value.

The capitalist can sell the commodities for a greater value than that given to the
workers in shape of wages. Surplus value in simpler words is the unpaid labor of
the working class.
Marx believed that socialism was inevitable as the gap between the proletariat and
bourgeoisie will increase so much that the working classes will rise up in
revolution and overthrow the elite.
He believed that will create the dictatorship of the proletariat and a class-less
society. “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs will
be created.” (Karl Marx).