Davis Kriesel

Philosophy
4-23-2016
Ren Descartes: The Rationalist
and
Carl Marx: The Materialist
For this essay I have chosen to compare and contrast the views
of Rationalism and Materialism and the fathers of those two areas of
philosophy. Ren Descartes was the founder of Rationalism, a system
of reasoning and first-hand experience to prove undeniable truths that
is still used widely today. Carl Marx was the prophet of Materialism,
which emphasized the power of material conditions over history and
human condition. I decided to compare these two because they were
revolutionary thinkers with a huge impact on the world that would
follow them. Communism is highly centric to Marxism and materialism
and scientific endeavors, education, and human rights are highly
centric to Rationalism so we will compare what I consider some of the
greatest minds to ever live. To fully understand their differences and
similarities we need to know their upbringing, influences, and
experience before they became the respected men they are today.
Following that explanation we can look deeply into the theories they
developed with an understanding of how and why they developed.

The life of Ren Descartes began in 1596 when he was born in

the French Province of Touraine. Shortly after his birth, about a year,
his mother died of Tuberculosis and his father was a well-respected
lawyer who traveled too much to have ample time for the young boy.
At the age of nine Descartes was sent to La Flche, a boarding school
where Descartes would live out his initial studies and adolescent life.
He was a bright mind in a feeble body, so much so that the school
allowed him to sleep in late and miss sports events because he did so
well in his academics. Descartes studied Greek, Latin, History, Liberal
Arts, Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Music, Dancing, and Fencing.
He also earned degrees in Civil and Cannon Law from the University of
Poitiers. Descartes lived the life of a gentleman as he was until one day
in 1619 he had a revelation. This revelation would later prove to be
the foundation for Rationalism as a whole because it was the idea that
a universal method of reasoning based on mathematical principles,
which, if followed closely enough would guarantee the absolute
certainty of the results truth. The idea that the conscious self was the
only basis for certainty and what we can know. From there we find the
birth of Rationalism and its ascent into the realm of accepted theory.
Carl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany. Marxs father was
also a well-respected lawyer of a conservative background and his
parents were both of the Jewish faith. Marx was said to be a bit of a
hectic, rebellious and hard to control child yet he was regarded as

highly intelligent and driven with motivation almost to the point of

obsession. This would prove to be a huge part of Marxs philosophies
later in his life. At the age of 17 Carl Marx went off to school to attend
the University of Bonn. His father wanted him to attend at the more
serious and prestigious University of Berlin so thats where he went. In
Berlin Marx fell in with the radicals and free-thinkers of his day and
became interested in Hegelian philosophies. This led Marx to study
philosophy and earn a doctoral degree in hopes of becoming a
professor of philosophy. Unfortunately for Marx the Prussian
government of the time did not want Hegelian influenced professors to
be able to manipulate their youth so they banned Hegelians from
professing at public colleges. Marx eventually found a job at a liberal
publishing company. This company came under fire for criticizing the
Russian government so they were shut down in April of 1843, but not
before Marx came across a series of article that changed his life. These
articles made him question Hegels theories of the driving force of
history. Written by Ludwig Feuerbach, the article was called Theses on
the Hegelian Philosophy and it brought up the point that all history is
judged by material conditions. Humans react and revolt through
economic hardships and conditions meaning that the material and
fiscal power of some establishment was what judged its place in
history. Simply put, the article expressed the theory that reality is
material rather than spiritual as was commonly accepted. The Prussian

government had by now labeled Marx as a threat to society, a kind of

revolutionary radical and not one to be underestimated. It was because
of this threat he posed that Marx was banned from Prussia. Marx and
his wife then moved to Paris, which was the hub for free intellectuals
and radicals from all over the world. It was there that Marx was also
involved with some radical groups, one of which was focused towards
the teachings of Saint-Simon. Saint- Simon advocated the emergence
of a strong and powerful middle class, the notion that those who have
will constantly struggle against those who have not and vise versa.
Simon also stated that economic situation determines history such as
war and revolution. Marx took these lessons with him to a German
workers group called communists (sounds familiar doesnt it?). The
communists demanded that property and land be held in common with
all people and all share resources. Marx began to advocate these ideas
with several groups with the help of his close friend and philosophical
partner, Friedrich Engels. Engels was said to bring Marxs deep thinking
ideas to life giving them solid foundations in fact and translating Marxs
less than traditional thoughts into easy to understand concepts.
Together they spread the influence of communism and Marxism until
Marx was banned from both Germany and Paris. Engels, being from a
wealthy background, helped give Marx the means to move to London.
The irony of this situation is speculated as Marx needing the freedom
provided by capitalism to criticize capitalism. Carl Marx released one of

the most influential works in philosophy and economy called Das

Capital volume one. Marx was never able to finish his second and
third volumes because he was stricken with grief after his wife and
daughter both passed (two of his sons had also died in childhood).
Marx died in 1883 at the age of 65 and his works were interpreted and
protected by Friedrich Engels.
Both of these men had fairly turbulent lives highly influenced by
studies and social situation and both developed promising and popular
ways to interpret the natural world. During the time of Descartes the
fall of the Roman empire marked a surge of new instruments and
scientific freedom which gave way to people being able to make
careful observations and assess them based on facts that have already
been established. This focus towards rationality and reasoning in the
field of science caused the rise of Rationalism. The rationalist believes
that knowledge is only obtainable through first-hand observation and
irrefutable proof. The matter in question must be subjected to testing
and comparison to accepted knowledge for assessment of its validity.
That way of thinking and gaining knowledge sound pretty familiar
because its the same method used today through modern science and
philosophy as well. Descartes pointed out something no else had, and
that was that we were not looking at the actual causes and effects
around us, that we are essentially making wild guesses when we have
the answers in front of us. Rationalism has become the forefront of the

modern world due to its influence on the scientific method. The

scientific method being the meticulous, mathematical, and fact based
system we use to determine true from false and this has caused huge
advances in human society.
Marx was born in a time and place that was more focused on
figuring out society and its problems before they tackled the questions
that are less applicable to everyday life. Marxism is a form of both
philosophy and economy because of how relevant it is to the majority
of mankind. The working class was a large portion of every community
then and they still are today so obviously when someone brought
forward ideas supporting their interests, those ideas were given
support. Like Marx learned from the teaching of Saint-Simon, the
underclass will always clash with the upper class for the unfair
distribution of resources and power. Simons teachings in combination
with those of the communist workers group Marx became involved
with, gave the notion that these classes cannot coexist peacefully and
stably. The clear solution then was to eliminate the classes so that
there wouldnt even be separation of class. Marxism stresses the point
that people need to share and work together to obtain an equal, just,
safe, and productive world. Marx had first-hand experience with the
struggle of power when his forward thinking was reviled by the nation
he was born to and one that was harbored as the patron of free
expression (Germany and France).

In comparison of the two they actually seem to have more in

common than they do differences. This presented me the challenge of
making comparison on two philosophies that are loosely based and
built off one another. Marxism contained many aspects of Rationalism
because rationalism had become so accepted in society by the time
Marx was born. Reversely Descartes was expressing and exploring
some of the same things as Marx such as economy. They both saw that
material situations had an impact on the behavior of mankind and that
the physical observable world was best to rely on for the correct
information. Both encompassed a meticulous system of testing and
challenging accepted theories and knowledge. In contrast to one
another Descartes was from a rather wealthy family and was able to
stay out of squalor on the dime of his family and inheritance until his
exorbitant life style caught up with him. Marx was not so fortunate to
receive anything when his father passed and had to live in poverty for
most of his life. Descartes was also said to be a much better behaved
than Marx in the aspect that Marx was hard to handle and had his own
way of doing things. This left Descartes being the academic likeness of
a choirboy and Marx being more of a troubled genius. Marx had
received the compassion of a friend in financial need and saw the
benefit of sharing and distributing the wealth but Descartes likely did
not hold the same thoughts simply due to the time he lived in. One can
only speculate the differences of their personalities because they are

long passed, but through their works we can find the central points to
their thoughts and behaviors alike.
All together I personally would like to a see a mix of the two
systems be successful. To see a world where intelligence is very
protected and given to its people as an investment to make us better.
Where community and aspirations meet and collaborate in the minds
of our youth to inspire betterment for themselves and their fellow man
equally. This would truly be a perfect system in my eyes, but to have a
perfect system you need a perfect world with perfect beings and we
are nothing of the sort. In turn the search for solutions for humanitys
problems continue. Each day we find new ways to improve our lives
and the lives of those around us, and judging by history this will
eventually lead us to our goals.

Bibliography:
o Wikipedia, Carl Marx
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx)
o Wikipedia, Ren Descartes
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_Descartes)
o Wikipedia, Marxism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)
o Wikipedia, Rationalism
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism)
o Textbook, Archetypes of Wisdom by Douglas J. Soccio
o Film, Pandoras Box produced by BBC, 1992.
(topdocumentaryfilms.com/pandoras-box/)