ure, difficult to penetrate. But throughout there are certain basic concepts that shine, which were understood and embraced by Marx’s followers. As Hegel believed that the goal of human history was the realization of the world spirit; Marx embraced the theory and believed it was the abolition of capitalism, the victory of the proletariat, the disappearance of the state, and the ultimate liberation of all humankind. Marx insisted that material conditions determined the governance of the world. Following Hegel, who said that truth evolves by a “dialectic method,” Marx called his own philosophy “dialectic materialism.” He posited a world of change but stated that it was embedded in material conditions, not in a clash of ideas. To Marx, ideas were merely a reflection of the material world.Based on their relationship to factories and machines (the means of production), Marx grouped human beings into classes. Capitalists were one class, because they owned the means of production. Workers were a separate class, the proletariat, because they did not own any of the means of production and their income came only from their own hands. Because these two classes had differing relationships to the means of production, they had antagonistic interests and were destined to engage in class struggle, according to Marx. Unlike his contemporaries, who lamented the increasing hostility between workers and capitalists, Marx perceived the conflict as a necessary factor in the advancement of human history. He, furthermore, sought to validate his thesis by the study of the past. He pointed out that in the Middle Ages the feudal class dominated society but eventually lost the struggle to the commercial classes. Now, in turn, the rising proletariat was destined to overwhelm the capitalists.Through studying history and economics, Marx found justification for, as well as irrefutable proof of the “scientific” foundation of hi...
