Karl Marx: Key Influences and Lasting Impact
The Enlightenment’s Influence on Marx
Marx’s thinking was decisively shaped by four major influences. Firstly, the ideology of the Enlightenment and its concept of enlightened reason, which is practically oriented toward social progress. The author who most influenced him was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with his defense of the natural equality of men.
Hegel’s Philosophy and Marx’s Materialist Turn
Secondly, the philosophy of Hegel played a crucial role. Marx accepted the materialist transformation of idealism and Feuerbach’s notion of religious alienation as an unmasking of all idealistic and religious thought. From Hegel, he adopted the notion of dialectic as the essence of nature and history and as a means of knowledge: reason is dialectical because reality and history are too. The opposition of opposites is transformed in Marx’s thought into the concept of “class struggle” as the engine of historical progress. Without struggle, without revolution, change or social progress is impossible.
The Impact of English Political Economy
Fourthly, Marx was greatly influenced by English political economy, particularly Adam Smith and David Ricardo (1772-1823), a British economist of Jewish origin. Ricardo’s major work, “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,” states that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor it contains. Thus, the value of a commodity increases as the amount of labor needed for its manufacture increases and decreases otherwise. Besides, capital gains are included in the prices of goods. Marx elaborated on these ideas to develop the notion of economic alienation based on alienated labor and capital appreciation. Moreover, Marx criticized political economy for concealing man’s alienation in the capitalist system and for presenting this mode of production as necessary and consistent with human nature. Political economy accepts the historical conditions of the capitalist system as eternal conditions, without explaining the historical process that has occurred, and it treats relationships between people as relations between things, thus hiding the situation of exploitation of some classes by others.
Marx’s Enduring Legacy and Influence
The projection of Marx’s thought has been enormous, both in the rise of socialist or communist systems originating from the Russian Revolution and in the appearance of ideological and philosophical currents that have generated social and cultural movements still in force today, such as the Frankfurt School. The fundamental line of social and political application of Marxism was the Soviet one, that is, Lenin-Marxism-Leninism. Lenin was considered the most faithful and profound interpreter of Marx and Engels, for being the first to realize their ideas. Marx had insisted on many occasions that Marxism was not a speculative theory, as stated in the eleventh thesis on Feuerbach, “Philosophers have merely interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”
Marxism-Leninism’s Global Implementation
Marxism-Leninism has been implemented not only in the Soviet Union but also, with major changes, in China through the thought of Mao Tse-Tung, in Cuba through Fidel Castro’s revolution, and in the Asian countries of Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union, it became a political party within the democratic system, except for Cuba and the Asian countries, which are perceived as approaching Western democracies.
Marxism’s Relevance in the 21st Century
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union, it seems that the influence of Marxism has declined. Yet, his criticism of capitalism and his revolutionary zeal are still topical.