Karl Marx

During the nineteenth century, there were a variety of philosophers who had many different theories regarding the type of society in which they lived in. Two major philosophers of the nineteenth century include Karl Marx and Ayn Rand. Karl Marx believed in socialism and disagreed with capitalism, whereas Ayn Rand believed in economics. Each philosopher used a significant means of principles to support each of their moral beliefs; Karl Marx utilizes kants ethics in company with Ayn Rand utilizing arsetitilian basis. Both philosophers’ theories with reference to their society can be compared and contrasted in numerous ways.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and innovative socialist who was renowned for his publishment of his two novels the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, which were anticapitalist works that formed the foundation of his beliefs of Marxism. Marxism can be described as Marx’s political and economic theory based around communism. Karl Marx was born on May fifth 1818 in Trier, Prussia to his parents Heinrich and Henrietta Marx. Throughout his early childhood, Marx was educated at home until the age of twelve, and afterwards spent five years at Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium, which was a Jesuit high school. In October 1835, Marx began his education at the University of Bonn majoring in the Law and Philosophy of G.W.F Hergel. Subsequent to his college studies, Marx traveled to Paris in the year of 1843. Within Paris was where Marx met Friedrich Engels, who shortly became Marx’s collaborator, colleague, and eternal friend. Mutually Marx and Engels initiated publishing a criticism regarding the philosophy of Bruno Bauer which was published in the year 1845 as The Holy Family. A couple years later Marx shortly moved to Brussels where was originally introduced to the beliefs of socialism by Moses Hess. Whilst at this time in Brussels, Marx began writing The German Ideology which had established his first speculation on historical materialism. Marx had on no account found a willing publisher, therefore his novel along with a few others, were never published until after he died. Marx’s belief of socialism can be defined as the means of all production is owned by the state; in other words, it is collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, creating an egalitarian society. Marx believed in dictatorship of the working class requiring two major aspects; establishing economic equality and the elimination of selfishness from human nature itself. During this time period there were two key classes of the nineteenth and mid twentieth century; the bourgeoisie and proletariat. The bourgeoisie were the upper class rich who had control over all business, whereas the proletariat were the lower class who had no control over any means of production in society. According to Marx, the proletariat were exploited by the bourgeoisie who owned all business. Marx had also believed that the proletarians would eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie and an establishment of Communism would rise where all means of production and property were equally shared among all people and no classes existed.

Ayn Rand was an American writer and philosopher who was also renowned for her publishment of the novel Fountainhead and many other works based on her beliefs of capitalism and her personal philosophy of “objectivism”. Her philosophy of “objectivism” can be described the philosophy for living on Earth. In other words, individual achievement is more adequate than the traditional altruism theory closely attached to laissez-faire capitalism. Ayn Rand was originally born in Russia on February second 1905 to her parents Fronz and Anna Rosenbaum. In her early childhood years she attended grade school and later on a University in which she studied history, philosophy and screenwriting. Subsequent to observing the Bolshevik Revolution and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Rand escaped to America in 1925 making her way to Hollywood working as a screenwriter. Ayn Rands wrote many prominent novels which include Fountainhead, a narrative about an independent and rigid architect, and Atlas Shrugged, also a narrative about the function of the mind in human existence and about what happens to the world when the thinkers and producers mysteriously disappear. Two most admired novels she wrote were The Virtue of Selfishness, describing the foundations and principles of morality of self-interest, and her second novel was Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, describing capitalism and why it is the solitary moral social system. Both novels contributed to her philosophy of “objectivism”. Objectivism was classified as mankind having direct contact with reality through intellect perception, and the proper moral of life was pursuit of happiness. Rand once wrote “My philosophy, in essence is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with a productive achievement as his noblest activity, and