Marx was born at Trier in Rhineland (Prussia) in a Jewish family. He embraced Christianity during his childhood. He studied History, Law and Philosophy at Bonn, Berlin and Jena. He received his doctorate (Ph.D. Degree) in Philosophy from the University of Jena. It was during his student days that he was attracted to socialism—a doctrine, which was considered quite dangerous by the rulers of those times.
Because of his socialistic convictions and his radical anti-state views he was expelled from Prussia and was forced to take shelter in France and Belgium. While he was in France he continued organising the German workers working in that country. Consequently the French Government under the pressure of the Prussian Government expelled him from France. In 1849, he migrated to England and stayed there till his death in 1883.
Marx has written so extensively on various issues of Philosophy, Economics, ‘Politics and Society that it is difficult to discuss all his complex ideas in a few pages. Because of a wide range of issues on which he wrote it is equally difficult to put him in a straight jacket of any one discipline. During his student days Marx was attracted to Hegelian Idealism but he soon shifted his interest to Humanism and ultimately to Scientific Socialism.
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He was also influenced by some of the major movements of his times. During his formative years the idea of evolution, in one form or the other, was very much in the air, while one version of evolution was articulated by Hegel. Although Marx accepted a few of the contemporary themes’, he rejected some others. His most seminal contribution lies in offering an alternative theory of historical evolution—the theory of Dialectical Historical Materialism.
Through this theory he rejected the Hegelian and Darwinian theories and propounded his own theory to explain the course of human history. Marx also entered in polemical argument with many of his contemporaries, particularly Proudhon and Bakunin and various socialist groups of Europe.