The philosophy of Karl Marks and Friedrich Engels is steadily connected with the Era of Enlightment, which gave it an ideological basis, and with the wide range of social relations concerning the Industrial revolution, which gave it a space for practical application. Postulates of Marxism derive from the Immanuel Kant’s dialectic idealism, English political economy and French socialism, which are equally reflected in its works. Reaffirming the humane Enlightment tradition, Marx and Engels created their own model of social justice, which derives from the reformation of the economic fundamentals of the society.
The main concern of the authors is an injustice of notion of social stratification, …show more content…
The mode of production constitutes a combination of the productive forces and social relations of production. From the standpoint of historical materialism, social relations of production constitute a set of involuntary relations the members of a society should enter in order to maintain the production of goods and therefore support the functioning of such society. The range of obligations, prescribed by these relations, fluctuates between different stages of material conditions development, and is inherent to different classes. The social class is viewed as a group, distinguished on a basis of ownership over the means of production and control over the labor force. According to Edward Andrew, members of class are those, who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests and engage in collective action, which advances those …show more content…
This state of affairs overthrows the classes as proletarians become the ruling force of a society. The new mode of production contains no private ownership of the means of production, no inheritance rights, concentration of capital in the state-owned banks and equal liability of all to work (Marx and Engels, 26). The total equality, according to Marx, will become the instrument to diminish the class struggle and prevent the upheavals.
Therefore, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels created a unique system of political philosophy. Grounding on the Enlightment views, classical political economy and French socialism, they gave their own explanation of the XVIII and XIX centuries social upheavals and historical process overall. Their model of social justice seems utopic and unrealizable, however it thoroughly explains the contradictions, which arise in a capitalist