Karl Marx was one of the founders of sociology and his ideas on society are still relevant to this day. Marx believed that as societies developed, people began to move away from economic class because of their place in the hierarchy. Marx even predicted an upcoming protest among workers due to the extreme disparities between owners and workers. “Marx also believed that the fall of capitalism would lead to a rise of communism which would be more equitable for everyone in society” (Openstax 1.2). Marx had many theories that did not come to fruition during his lifetime, but he predicted that this was the only solution to the process of events that led to the death of capitalism. Marx identified himself as having a view of conflict theory, which states that society is in constant competition with individuals vying for power and time. Inequality shines at the extremes but is certainly fair halfway, so it is everyone's responsibility to push to the top, whatever the cost. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayMarx was born on May 5, 1818 in a small town in southwest Germany, where he was the oldest boy aged from a family of nine children. . He was born into an upper middle class family, his father was a lawyer and his mother came from a wealthy background. Both of his parents were Jewish, but his father converted to Lutheranism due to certain laws that prevented him from achieving a higher position in society. Marx often identified himself as an atheist, although he had many experiences with rabbis from whom he came. Marx was described as an energetic young child who often got into trouble, although he was homeschooled by his father until the age of twelve. He then enters high school, where his principal becomes involved in his first philosophical ideas and pushes him to continue. Its principal, however, was very much in favor of teaching liberal ideas to his students and only employed teachers who shared the same ideology. The school began to gain a reputation and the authorities caught wind of it and decided to investigate the principal and his teachers. People thought his way of teaching was dangerous for students and could affect their children's performance. Marx graduated at the age of 17 and decided to continue his studies at a university. He attended the University of Bonn as a law student in late 1835. Marx, however, struggled to complete all of his assignments and even had difficulty introducing himself. The next semester was no better for him as he rarely showed up to school, as he drank at local bars instead of doing his homework. Things got so bad for Marx that he was arrested for public drunkenness. This lasted for about a year and Marx continued to fail his classes or barely pass them. His father was extremely angry that Marx was wasting his life instead of studying to become a lawyer. So, he transferred Marx to the University of Berlin as punishment and told Marx that he had better take his education seriously, otherwise there would be serious consequences. Instead of following his father's advice, he insisted on attending philosophical gatherings with his new fiancée he met in his hometown. He became extremely interested in the ideas of many earlier philosophers and began to study their articles and treatises. Later, in 1838, Marx's father died, which cost him dearly. He had lost his father, whom he respected enormously, and he had lost the financial advantages thathis father granted it. He soon discovered that he was alone with his fiancée. Marx decided to change his major from lawyer to philosopher because he decided it was his true passion in life. Remembering that he had no money to study and become a philosopher, Marx became a journalist. He joined a very radical news company called RhinelandNews, which expressed their radical ideas about the occupation of Prussia. But luck was on his side, as Marx had risen through the ranks and become editor-in-chief of the newspaper. This is where I believe Marx began to convey his philosophical ideas in a text that others could read. He began writing about communism and its effects on governments and the people living under their governments. Although many rallied around his ideology, he criticized one of the Russian monarchs who later asked the authorities to close his newspaper and put an end to his ideology. Marx was once again unemployed and broke. However, that didn't stop him and his finances from getting married soon after. Moving on to Marx's early life and his struggles as a budding philosopher, Marx began to question what it meant to be free. Marx surprised many philosophers and others around him when he asked this question, because no one had really thought about it this way before. Marx ironically laid the foundations for conflict theory. It focused on power, inequality, and what it meant to be free. Marx believed that everyone had to work together to survive as a species and that this would create a hierarchy in society. A sort of natural hierarchy, where the most powerful, or the most skilled, were at the top and the useless at the bottom. Marx and many other philosophers were already familiar with this theory, but Marx believed that it was up to the individual to do whatever it took to reach the top, whatever the cost. He often viewed prehistoric societies as communist societies because everyone was equal and worked together toward a common goal. However, later in society, Marx noted that people who were at the top of the hierarchy did not need to work at all to be maximally fed and that people at the bottom were not even close to being equal to those at the top. the top and these people had to work and provide for the upper class group. This is where Marx drew the line between natural hierarchies and social hierarchies. Because natural hierarchies are due to skill and strength, where social hierarchies are determined by class or money. Marx believed this was due to labor and the way a society's resources were distributed. Basically, in modern terms it can be described as basic economics and it was the most important aspect of life for him. “Although Marx did not write much about gender, it was an essential category for understanding the division of labor, production, and society in general” (Matwijkiw 83). He wanted to understand how a change in the economy impacted the hierarchy or even control of government. He soon discovered how economics impacted social class. If you were at the top rung of the corporation, then you owned the factory and the resources in that factory, but if you were at the bottom rung of the corporation, then you were essentially selling your labor to the owner for a salary you lived on. This was a shocking surprise to Marx because it was not at all natural and is how capitalism can be exploited for the benefit of the upper echelons of society. This means that the upper class canmake all profit choices. They can cut their employees' salaries and create a bigger profit margin at any time. This is a good theoretical explanation of why Marx believed that the fall of capitalism would ultimately lead to communism, which I pointed out in the first paragraph. In another analogy, Marx believed that the fall of a society would be an economic crisis or collapse, which would cause mass panic and be detrimental to the lower class. This could only be possible when economies became too far apart in terms of social class. The resources produced could not be purchased by the lower class of citizens, leading to a surplus and eventual economic collapse. Another way to bring down the social hierarchy would be for citizens to revolt and demand higher pay or more important positions in society, this would also cause a lot of problems. The only way for capitalism to survive is to “overcome challenges by remaking itself through relentless innovation” (Marks 198). I learned a lot about this in history class when we were studying the Industrial Revolution and how it repeatedly failed due to workers' refusal to work in unsafe conditions or for too little pay. Solutions to their problems came quickly, as new laws were designed to benefit the lower classes and to protect them in society so that the economy would not collapse and destroy everything. Marx impacted sociology in a way that no other philosopher had before him, particularly in the 19th century. He demanded that people question their own freedom and what it meant to live in a hierarchy. He also explained the dangers of exploiting capitalism and upper-class greed. He had many followers who soon believed in his ideologies. Marx believed that history repeats itself, like many others, but in a more personal way. He believed that certain models of society would never disappear unless we lived in a true communist society. These patterns include the social conflicts between the lower class and the upper class that I explained previously. I often think of Marx as a historian and philosopher because instead of simply understanding and manifesting his ideas, he looked to our society to truly understand where we all came from and how these patterns developed. “Some scholars even reduce Marxism to historicism” (Blyukher 531). This makes perfect sense to me, especially when we think about prehistoric times when there were no social hierarchies. It was just a matter of who was going to get food today and who was going to take care of the children. There is no one in between and no one above them, and I guess we can agree that these two roles are almost equally valuable. However, when machines were invented and work became the norm, capitalism began to emerge and take control of people themselves. Then it was no longer about who got food and who looked after the children, but rather about people generating resources for the people above them and not for themselves. Instead, they traded their work for wages to take care of themselves and their families. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article now from our expert writers. Get a custom essay Marx died on March 14, 1883 in London, where he later lived and worked as a philosopher. He was cursed.