Stites, Francis N. John Marshall, Defender of the Constitution,
Oscar Handlin, ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1981.
Marsilius of Padua (1275–1342) Italian politi-
cal philosopher
As part of the CONCILIARISMmovement in the MIDDLE
AGES, Marsilius argued against papal supremacy in the
CATHOLICChurch and developed an early secular con-
ception of politics. In his Defensor pacis(Defender of
the Peace), Marsilius asserted a view of CHURCH AND
STATE relations later associated with the Protestant
reformer Martin LUTHER. He stated that churchmen
(priests, bishops) should be subject to the temporal
rulers in both worldly and spiritual matters. Clergy
activity should be confined to church services and
teaching Christianity. The state should be controlled
by the people; hence, the popular will should regulate
the church. This contradicted traditional Catholic
teaching on religion and politics (St. AUGUSTINE, St.
Thomas AQUINAS), which made the church superior to
the state in all matters and the pope supreme. Pope
John XXII denounced him as a heretic.
Marsilius derived his political and ecclesiastic
theory from ARISTOTLE’s TELEOLOGY, UTILITARIANphiloso-
phy, and REPUBLICANISM. As such, his secular DEMO-
CRATICprinciples foreshadow MODERN, LIBERALpolitical
thought, such as the SOCIAL-CONTRACT ideas of John
LOCKE.
Educated in medicine at the University of Padua,
Marsilius became the rector of the University of Paris
in 1313.
Further Reading
Gewirth, A. Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Political Philosophy.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.
Marx, Karl (1818–1883) German political and
economic philosopher, the father of Modern communism
The COMMUNISTsystems of the 20th century owe their
origins to the ideas of Karl Marx. Millions of people in
the former SOVIET UNION, the People’s Republic of
China, Vietnam, Cuba, and Western Europe have lived
with the consequences of Marx’s theories. The combi-
nation of fatal attraction and disastrous results make
MARXISMone of the most interesting but tragic of polit-
ical philosophies, and Marx’s influence extends be-
yond the formal communist and SOCIALIST nations.
His concepts of CLASSconflict, HISTORICISM, material-
ism, and ethical relativism have had enormous in-
fluence. No other ideology, except LIBERALISM and
CHRISTIANITY, has exercised such a history-changing
effect as Marxism.
Karl Marx grew up in a traditional Jewish family
(from a long ancestry of teachers or rabbis), though
his German father converted to Protestant Christianity
to be able to enter the legal profession. Marx studied
philosophy (especially HEGEL) at the University of
Berlin, eventually receiving a Ph.D. degree. Refused
academic employment in CONSERVATIVEGermany, he
became involved in radical politics, finally emigrating
to France and then Great Britain. Much of his adult life
was spent in London, unemployed and supported
financially by his fellow communist thinker, Friedrich
ENGELS. In his notable writings (The Communist Mani-
festo, Capital, The German Ideology,etc.), Marx devel-
oped an original and highly coherent theory of history,
politics, economics, and revolution. His antireligious,
antitradition perspective kept him a social outcast in
conventional European society all his life, but he was
the hero of radicals everywhere.
Marx begins his political thought with a view of
HUMAN NATURE that conceives of human beings (or
“species-being”) as production. Humans differ from
other creatures in producing their material subsistence
and, in the economic process, their own identity. His-
torical technology becomes the key to understanding
humanity, in Marx’s mind. People may think that their
social, psychological, artistic, or spiritual lives define
humanity, but Marx reduces all life to work. The way
people work determines their nature. Like the Old Tes-
tament God, people create.
But throughout history, this human creativity has
been stifled, frustrated, and alienated. Humanity is
meant to produce freely, happily but is bound to social
institutions and activities that oppress people. Hu-
mans are supposed to be in control of their destiny,
like gods, but they are controlled, like slaves. In
capitalist society, they experience ALIENATION: fearful
separation from the object of their production (which
they do not know), from their subjective nature (as
producer), from nature and society (which they
should dominate, but dominates them), and from
other humans (with whom they should cooperate, but
who compete and conflict with them). Communism
will overcome all these agonies and make a free, pro-
ductive, just, and happy society. All problems will
fade with communist society. The state ownership ofMarx, Karl 201