Engels Vs Locke

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From the 15th to the 19th century, many great thinkers had emerged like Niccolò Machiavelli, John Locke, and Karl Marx/Frederick Engels. All of these great thinkers share a common ground which was the improvement of society. In 1532, Machiavelli published The Prince detailing a practical guide for ruling through authoritarianism; while on the other hand, John Locke’s fundamental belief is in the people’s equality and their natural rights. In addition, Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto that seems to argue against Locke’s perspective since his book; The Second Treatise of Government represents views based on sovereignty for the people, while Marx believed in communism. As a result, their varying beliefs on issues of rulers and role…show more content…
Marx and Engels disagreed with Locke’s belief that claims people should have a right to their private property because they had worked for it. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote, “But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labor, and which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation” (22). This is important because Marx makes a point that in society, laborers do not necessarily acquire any property, but rather it exploits them. The property is owned by the bourgeoisie and the proletariats are merely workers. This shows that the issue is a matter of social and not personal power. To him, property is a form based on “antagonism of capital and wage labor”, which clearly is not improving the society because only the bourgeoisie class is gaining from it. He is convinced that even if the proletariats work, they would still not be able to become a bourgeoisie since all the money and power remains at the top. With that in mind, Marx wanted a more utopian-like society where there is no class culture and property is distributed evenly to the people in the hope that it would eliminate the idea of a
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