The Communist Manifesto is a famous book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, both of whom were German philosophers. Specifically, it is a political pamphlet that categorizes/splits society into two classes: the first is the proletariat, and the second is the bourgeoisie. The proletariat consists of laborers or workers, while the bourgeoisie comprises those who own most of society's wealth. It serves as a foundational text for modern socialist and communist thought, opposing the concepts of capitalism. Socialists argue that wealth should be distributed equally among citizens and that all citizens should be treated equally. On the other hand, capitalists insist that people should pay taxes to the government.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both argued that this would create a clash between classes. They suggested that a proletarian (worker class) revolution would eventually overthrow the capitalist system, resulting in a classless society where citizens collectively own the products. The book provides a framework for understanding historical materialism, dialectical materialism, and the class struggle. In general, the Communist Manifesto remains a crucial work for understanding the foundations of socialist and communist ideologies and their influence on political and social thought.
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