‘Marx in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is a introduction to the thought and man of a German philosopher, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx.
On the main content ‘Marx’s Life and Works’ Strathern describes Marx’s biography along with his thought and philosophy.
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Kingdom of Prussia, and his family is a German Jewish affluent family. The cosmopolitan atmosphere and comfortable bourgeois surroundings were to have significant influences on Marx. And his father Herschel converted to Christianity. This enabled Karl to join German middle class society and European culture (Kant and Voltaire). Marx entered the Bonn University, and a year later Marx transferred to the University of Berlin to continue law studies. In there, Marx encountered philosophy and Hegel’s idealistic vast, all-embracing and ever-evolving system of philosophy. This dynamic system affected all history and all phenomenons. Hegel’s philosophy of history applied government and society. By Hegel, the Prussian state is the ideal liberal society made by a link of the state and citizens. But Hegel’s philosophy was idealism, it insisted that all was moving toward the absolute spirit, was made Marx disappointed but he influenced by Hegel’s dynamism and the dialectical method. Equal to Hegel, another large influence on Marx’s thought was the materialism of a German humanist and moralist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx participated in the Left Hegelians, and he attempted to mix the dialectical theory of consciousness and historical reality by the school with the materialism learned by Feuerbach. After worked at journalist of a liberal newspaper, Marx was exiled from his homeland, move to Paris, Brussels and London, met and formed a friendly relation with a bourgeois Communist Friedrich Engels, and joined the Communist League and wrote the ‘Communist Manifesto’ with Engels. In this era he intensively study Economics of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and form his own materialist epistemology to percept activities in the world. In London, Marx continued to study philosophy of Hegel and Feuerbach, classical economics and collect economic statistics to prepare for his original economic work. By 1859 Marx completed his first economic work ‘Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’. In this book, he stated his economic materialism. Social life based is on economic relations. A superstructure of laws and social consciousness reflects the economic structure. Capitalism productions, private property, money and profit motive alienate men from the world and nature. Marx’s massive masterworks, ‘Das Kapital’ published in 1867, which investigates the mechanisms of capitalist economics. Marx viewed history as a succession of class struggles. As capitalism developed, the internal pressures arose, and the revolution by workers collapses the capitalist system. Karl Marx died in 1883. One of Marx’s contributions to philosophy is that it takes place within society, which is run on economic lines.
Strathern comments on forming and content of Marx’s thought along with his life, philosophical background and works. Author particularly explains how Marx formed his philosophy and thought, and the significance of Marx’s thought. The thought realized us what are the value and significance of existence in the modern society. And author also comments Marx didn’t nothing but attack for the capitalism. A socialist society or freedom of workers were fulfilled by reformations of capitalism. And Marx thought the socialist society and the communist society (fulfilled by a revolution) can be formed by adoption of the merits of the advanced capitalist economic and production system.
Also author points out mistakes of Marx. For example, private property and profit motive make us wealthy, and give us freedom in capitalist societies. But socialist societies deprived people of motives for work and innovation, freedom and humanity. And Marx misjudged the role of the capitalist. Capitalists are not wicked men, they are challengers devoted themselves entirely to business, production, innovation and gaining private property by using their own property. The innovation improves technology, science, our working, social and economical conditions. One of the problem of Marxist theory is that he couldn’t foreseen the development of reforms in politics, mass production, technology, science and education driven by the capitalism economics.
Author stands philosophically neutral in judging Marx’s thought. He both criticise and follow thought of Marx. It’s very regrettable majority of people dismissed with prejudice which formed by the dogmatic Marxist theory. I think, for example, concepts of commodity, capital and value-from by Marx are very significance also in today. We should reconsider proper or better capitalist society and capitalist production system by the thought of Marxist philosophy. This book is very helpful to study Marx for quite beginners.
Also you can read this book as an interesting brief biography of Marx. Author describes penniless and wandering life humorously. So I recommend this small book to the reader who what to get a basic understanding of Marx.
Marx in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)
Paul Strathern
Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 17 April 2001
96 pages $9.95
ISBN: 978-1-56663-355-0
Contents:
Introduction
Marx’s Life and Works
From Marx’s Writing
Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates
Chronology of Marx’s Life and Times
Recommended Reading
Index