Marxism

Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. Marx drew on G.W.F. Hegel's philosophy, the political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and theorists of 19th century French socialism, and was perhaps inspired by the earlier Paris Commune, an organized civil protest in France and brief socialist ruling of Paris, to develop a critique of society which he claimed was both scientific and revolutionary. This critique achieved its most systematic (albeit unfinished) expression in his masterpiece, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, more commonly known as Das Kapital. Today, outside the officially "communist" nations, membership of Marxist political parties is relatively small, but Marxism continues to enjoy significant intellectual respect in many circles.

See also

Other articles about Marxism

• antagonistic contradiction
• communism
• council communism
• contributors to marxist theory
• Communist Philosophy of Nature
• Criticisms of communism
• Economic Determinism
• dialectical materialism
• dictatorship of the proletariat
• false consciousness
• historical materialism
• Marx's theory of alienation
• Marxian economics
• Marxist philosophy
• Marxist film theory
• Marxist historiography
• Marxist literary criticism
• Western Marxism
• Marxist humanism

Related topics

• anarchism
• Anarchism and Marxism
• crisis theory
• communist state
• communist party
• historicism
• History of the Soviet Union
• History of the People's Republic of China
• Khmer Rouge
• Lao People's Revolutionary Party
• Lewis H. Morgan
• labor theory of value
• materialism
• political economy
• political theory
• Polylogism
• social-conflict theory
• social evolutionism
• socialism