Karl Marx questions?

Question

Can someone please help me out with these questions.

1. In what field of art or science etc did he make a contribution?

2.What did people think before this contribution?

3. What did he do that unique or new?

4.What factors helped him make this contribution?

5. How was the world changed by his activities?

Answer 1

1) Political Science
2) Monarchy, Democracy....
3) Comunism
4) dissatisfaction in his own life
5) As Thomas Edison said, "That's just one more way that doesn't work...." (although there are some who haven't figured that out yet.)

Answer 2

First, there are no easy tidy answers to your question. They can be answered only very very broadly. One could say Karl Marx was responsible for the cold war. One could say Karl Marx was responsible for the modern labor movement.

1. In what field of art or science etc did he make a contribution?
Philosophy, Art, Literature, Political Science.

2.What did people think before this contribution?
When? Then? Now? Marx's theory is still studied in Universities around the world.

3. What did he do that unique or new?
Marx was born into the heart of the industrial revolution. He witnessed workers maimed, killed, then tossed aside. Paid pennies a day, chained to their desks, made to work in the most unimaginable conditions. These conditions were not able to be sustained. The few rich who owned the factories, mines, mills, corporations, etc... were making much money on the backs of the suffering masses, the workers. (sound familiar? how much does the Gap pay their workers in Asia? or Nike? or Wal*Mart's suppliers? This is the root of why Marx's message has sounded out so true with the disenfranchised.) He had noted in history this had happened before. It happened with slavery, and the slaves revolted. It happened with the serfs, and the serfs revolted. He predicted the same would happen with the workers. He predicted that the workers would prevail, and this would initially lead to socialism. Finally, when all nations adopted this structure, then communism could exist. This is how the domino theory started. The problem is the "communist" leaders of Europe, Stalin, Lenin, etc.. had no interest in Marxism. There ended up a split worldwide between the east (Asian) communist leaders, and the West (European) communist leaders.
Marx saw progress though mass uprising, Lenin, for example thought the revolution should come from the top down. Russia, quickly became a state capitalism economic system. There were in no way communism, as you can see, communism cannot truly exist under Marx's philosophy until all nations are communist.

There is much much much more....you should get some books on his philosophy, his economics. He has done much to influence our 20th century and beyond. Work your way up to Das Kapital, it is a monster, and quite a difficult read.

4. What factors helped him make this contribution?
See above.

5. How was the world changed by his activities?
See, above.

Regardless of whether you agree or not, it is an important pillar of western civilization, and as such deserves to be studied. Below links are good starting points.

Answer 3

I'm surprised by the animosity in the answers so far.

1. Sociology: Marx is often considered the first sociologist.

2. Marx criticized several previous thinkers, such as Hegel and Smith. Perhaps most importantly, he criticized the idea that the economic system functioned as a natural system. Previously, it was thought that one's station in life was just part of a divine plan. It was also believed that if one did not become successful, then certain virtues must be lacking. If you were not rich, you must be lazy or you must be deficient in culture, intelligence, manners, etc. This relates to his idea of a false consciousness.

3. He dissected economics and society in a way that hadn't been done before. He looked at power relations using social scientific (or what was accepted as social scientific at the time) theories.

4. Being from a well-off family certainly allowed him to get an education and spend time working on his treatises.

5. Any attempt to answer this would be a gross oversimplification. There is no simple causal relationship, though there was a shift in human understanding (perhaps a Kuhn paradigm).

--in response to other answers, remember that democracy and communism are not opposites. Marx's idea of communism was very democratic; his ideas centered upon equality and the end of slavery, poverty and the unequal distribution of property. He believed that capitalism was extremely undemocratic because it supported a status quo in which a working class would always be exploited by the propertied class. In that sense, you can say capitalism and communism are opposites.

Answer 4

Ever heard of Marxism? Socialism? Communism?

1. Political Science, History (pseudo-history, maybe is a better term)

2. Some liked it. Most didn't.

3. Not much. He built upon work by others, especially Hegel and Sir John More.

4. He is said to be the last of the Enlightenment thinkers. He was influenced by the failure of the French revolution, the rise of industry and the middle class and the rise of Liberalism.

5. Marxism. Socialism. Communism. Millions upon of millions of innocent people murdered on behalf of a Utopian delusion; half the world gripped in criminally dysfunctional social-democracy.

Marx had no understanding of human nature. He assumed that when the state assumes control of all property, that those in charge would eventually just give it up. What a moron.

Answer 5

Literature

It sucked

Invent a 'new' political mainstream.

The fact that he 'sucked' at other things

Er....Communism is attributed to his brain...but I'm not sure it changed the world in a different way if he did not write his manifesto.