Classical Marxism

Classical Marxism refers to the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially Leninism and Marxism–Leninism.

Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, sociologist, political economist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx addressed a wide range of issues, including alienation and exploitation of the worker, the capitalist mode of production and historical materialism, although he is most famous for his analysis of history in terms of class struggles, summed up in the opening line of the introduction to the Communist Manifesto: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." The influence of his ideas, already popular during his life, was given added impetus by the victory of the Russian Bolsheviks in the 1917 October Revolution, and there are few parts of the world which were not significantly touched by Marxian ideas in the course of the twentieth century.

As the American Marx scholar Hal Draper remarked, "there are few thinkers in modern history whose thought has been so badly misrepresented, by Marxists and anti-Marxists alike."

The early influences on Marx are often grouped into 3 categories: German Philosophy, English/Scottish Political Economy and French socialism.

Main influences: Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel; Ludwig Feuerbach.

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