A hypocritical individual (why would someone who believed in Marxism so heartily have a maid, for example?...) who had a half-baked idea. Sadly, fools got hold of this idea and believed it to be a work of genius. Step forward seventy years of fear, oppression and death.

I think Marx was and is misunderstood by many people. For example, he never assumed that a revolution would take place in a highly developed country, this country (and therefore the population of this country) firstly has to experience an extremely uncomfortable economic situation that becomes unbearable for the majority -then a revolution could happen.
For me, one of the great thinkers, whose influence is tremendous. His writings on economy and history show a great ability for analysis and for seeing things in a wider context. But despite his intelligence he was not able to foresee the impact of his writings - we all know about the abuses that happened in the last century, therefore only 4 stars.

Selfish and devious. Ugly, in every possible sense of the word. Unable to get along by his own means, he needed Engels to inflict his nonsense on the world. Sometimes I wonder if Engels wasn't still worse. Curse them both.

Brilliant yet flawed idealistic intellectual who lacked common sense regarding human nature and basic predictions on history. Incapable of forcasting the totalitarian direction of his own theories when put into actual practice. Perhaps personally well-meaning, but as is sometimes said, too often the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Smart, but flat out wrong. Believed in the certainty of human events in the future. Decent historian and economist, terrible predicter of future events.

had an excellent idea. too bad those so called communists completely misused his ideas.

Communism is not a natural state of man.

had a lot of misguided followers...

Fabricated his facts and Figures. Subversive literature from a violent man.

Philosophy is the love of truth and by that definition Karl Marx as a supreme hater and a liar is not a philosopher. His writings are misguided revolutionary polemics based on hate filled envy and blood lust for power not economics, philosophy or science. He hijacked the dialectic from Hegel and materialism from Fuerbach. He was a moral and intellectual degenerate. Whose notable personal achievements were: 1). His utter failure to seek gainful employment to support his own large family. He was cruel acrimonious tyrant to all subordinates but a shameless fawning lickspittle with patrons. (Tenure anyone?) 2). The rape and abandonment of a mentally retarded serving girl who conceived and bore his child. 3). He never accepted the consequences or defended his writing when charged and fled from criminal prosecution. 4). His work was so filled with willful lies, misrepresentations and observations that were already false when he wrote them in 1848-1883 that only the invincibly delusional would find him compelling 155 years later. 5). Political systems based on Marx are responsible for the deaths of approximate 190 Million people in the twentieth century and yet they still claim it could work. National Socialism is a peculiarly German manifestation of Marxist theory with the race subordinating class but the core components are still there: Historical predestination and the growth of the state as God.

An idealist who miscalculated human nature.

I like his brother Groucho even better....

it could work

I agree with nasha. I recently did a report on Marx, he was a genius. Lenin and Stalin are a misrepresentation of Karl Marx. The decisions should be made to benefit the masses. Marx had some great ideas and would've worked wonders if there weren't oppressive dictators who followed him.

Karl Marx can be described in one word . . . Demonic. His "philosophy" inspired other demonic individuals to murder millions of innocent human beings. Karl Marx, no doubt, has one of the hotter rooms in hell.

First, he got it totally wrong. His theory predicted that socialist revolution would inevitably come to highly industrialised societies. They didn't - peasant societies - Russia, China, Cuba - turned to communism, not Germany, Britain and the United States. Second, his followers unleashed upon the world a reign of terror, oppression and inhumanity which is the inevitable bedfellow of socialism. This disgusting and evil writer deserves total condemnation.

His book is the moral equivalent of Mein Kampf.

An amazing life and amazing philosophy. Too bad he was mis-represented by both commies and capitalists