Karl Marx (1818–1883)

Marx was a theorist of capitalist society. He sought to understand the origins, essential features and function or impact of the capitalist mode of production and what its future was. Capitalism is system in which wage labour is sold to the owner of capital. This engenders a relationship of exploitation between the capitalist and the working class. The exploitation and alienation of the working class eventually result in the members of this class becoming conscious of their state. This consciousness, however, comes into conflict with the dominant ideas propagated by the ruling class. This leads to final crisis in which labour leads the revolution to take over the means of production and bring about the transition to socialism, a new and egalitarian mode of production.