Karl Duncker

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Germany, when Europe was going through rapid social changes after the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. His interest in philosophy was greatly influenced by a German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, when he read about his works at University. Subsequently, he gained understanding from the materialistic ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach and further developed them into his own sociological theories. Marx discovered that the society…

Marxism is based on the theories of Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a political activist in the 19th Century, who challenged many social and political issues. In the Enncarta Reference Library, Marxism is defined as “a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies” (REF: 1). This means that according to Karl, there is a definite definition between the social classes. As a result of the different social classes Marx claimed that the “Free…

of societal alteration. “Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy that examines the effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development” (Marxism, n.d.). The theory originated from the works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Initially, Marxism applied sociopolitical and economic inquiry well-known as historical materialism to critique and analyze the development of capitalism and class struggle role in organized economic revolution. In the realm of reality, the…

The concept of utilitarianism gives rise to a question- What do human beings stand to gain from giving autonomous machines the power to make decisions for us? In order to answer this question, we have to firstly, consider the cost-benefit analysis of autonomous machines substituting human beings in the decision making process. “Replace one human worker with a general-purpose artificial intelligence, and the total unemployment of the species is yours for the extrapolating”- Stuart Armstrong From…

Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was an outstanding piece of work both for the fields of Sociology and Economics when it was published in the late seventeenth hundred. In this masterpiece Smith talks of the increase of productivity in society due to the phenomenon of the division of labour and through this division of labour specialisation of skills was introduced. Adam Smith also speaks of the “natural “order of society, exchange, division of labour and the relations between the three ranks…

Introduction The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels is the formal document that attempts to comprehensively consolidate the aims and ambitions of Communism and explain the underlying theory that drives it. It argues that all historical developments have class struggle as a driving force. Class struggle has been defined as the exploitation of one class by another. The process of “March of history” is introduced which focuses on the growing incompatibilities between class…

Firstly this text will look at Durkheim’s concept of anomie, this concept states that if a society experiences a major social change, the result of this will cause disruption and lead to a breakdown in social norms due to this, individuals have a sense of “normlessness”. This in turn leaves them to feel cut off from society or anomic. This text will then look towards Marx’s concept of alienation. The concept of alienation maintains that in an industrialised capitalist society, a worker will…

J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ was written in 1945, however, the ambience of the play was set within 1912. Throughout the play, a consistent political theme is embedded through Priestley’s creation of two contrasting ideological viewpoints between his characters. Both characters are on the extremes of the political spectrum; Birling embodies a maximal capitalist viewpoint whereas Inspector Goole represents an impenetrable socialist perspective. This stark diversity is a result of…

The Communist Manifesto, written by social scientists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is one of the most controversial and important documents in modern world history. It deals with many ideas but the three main ones are class struggle, alienation and communism. These three aspects are still alive and well today which just goes to show how timeless this piece of work is. This essay will discuss these three ideas and critically asses Marx’s and Engel’s views on class struggle, alienation and…

In the book The Jungle we are trying to figure out whether Sinclair is for socialism. And we are also trying to figure out a socialism government would have helped Jurgis. Jurgis struggled with many things in this book. So let us tell you what. Most socialists talk about a need for private ownership and only advocate the need for state owning the important parts. Sinclair wanted a socialist government because everyone had equal opportunity. Although most readers did not realize it, his…