Karl Mar: Historical and Dialectical Materialism, Theory of Social

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains” is not just a rallying line — it is the conclusion of an entire theory about who owns what in a capitalist economy, why that ownership structure shapes everything from law to ideology, and why Marx thought conflict between classes, not gradual consensus, was history's real engine.

In two minutes

Karl Marx analysed society through historical and dialectical materialism, arguing that a society's economic structure shapes its legal, political and ideological institutions, and developed an influential theory of social class, social conflict and alienation centred on the relationship between those who own the means of production and those who sell their labour.

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