Karl Marx is possibly one of the most divisive thinkers ever. Some swear by his ideas, others dismiss them as pure evil. As per usual, the problem is more complicated. A lot of it gets clearer when you look at the historical, personal and theoretical context. There is many a biography that has been written, in fact, there is so many Wikipedia has its own page dedicated just to listing Marx Biographies. To reach such prominence, if you need a simple reason to read Marx, you must be vaguely interesting. If you want to know more about just the young Marx I foreground in Episode 8 and 9, you might spent an evening watching this movie:
Some poetic license surely taken, but not complete fantasy either.
I mention two texts written by Marx (and Engels) in the episode and one good feature about Marx living in the 19th century AND having acquired decent prominence is that his writings are easily accessible online, even in commented and edited versions.
Check for The Communist Manifesto here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
And for the Economic Philosophical Manuscripts https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Economic-Philosophic-Manuscripts-1844.pdf here.
If you prefer to read another language – Marx has been widely translated and googling should get you there. Whatever language, it’s worth reading.
Just a Thought
At the end of the episode I included a special preview of a new format I am trying out, which is just 3-5 minutes long and has a bite-sized thought, just to keep you going. It is standalone, but will usually relate to previous episode in some way. The first one is on Marx and AI and I mention a WITHPod episode which you can find here:
WITHPod – 2-year-olds vs. Al: who’s more creative? Cognitive scientist shares the SURPRISING answer.