Karl Marx
believed that history was a series of class struggles. Marx thought society was made up of two class
groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
The bourgeoisie was the wealthy, factory owners and the proletariat was
the workers. In Marx’s theory, the
proletariat would eventually tire of being mistreated by the bourgeoisie and
would revolt.
This revolution
would be very violent and bloody but Marx believed that it was inevitable. Marx thought that capitalism would overthrow
itself. Because the bourgeoisie depend
on the workers in the proletariat, capitalism cannot survive without the
presence of a lower class. When this
revolution occurred the existence of the lower class would dissolve and in its
place would be a classless society.
That is what Marx asserted was best for society: a society with no class system. Marx wanted a society with free education and for wealth, land, and labor to be shared by the society. “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” is Marx’s motto when it comes to how people should live in society.
Marx’s idea of
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is outlined in his book that he wrote with
his life long companion, Friedrich Engels, entitled The Communist Manifesto.
Once again I got this information from here and the Little History of
Philosophy textbook by Nigel Warburton.
By: Lauren Williams Section 9 Group 3
Just to be clear: Engels was Marx's collaborative WORKING companion. Karl was happily married.
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