karl marx and his political philosophy
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Karl Marx and His Political PhilosophyTRANSCRIPT
THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYOF KARL MARX
Born on May 5, 1818, in Tier, a part of the German Rhineland ceded to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
His parents, whose ancestors included numerous Jewish scholars and rabbis, were converts to the Lutheran faith.
The conversion represented an attempt by the family to overcome the obstacles to its socioeconomic ambitions posed by
German anti-Semitism.
KARL MARX:LIFE and LEGACY
Married Jenny von Westphalen, daughter of a relatively prominent Prussian government official from his hometown of Trier. The Westphalen
family did not approve of the match.
Established a friendship with Friedrich Engels, son of a wealth textile manufacturer and the like-minded exponent of radical political causes. For the rest of his life, Marx found in these two people the emotional, financial
and the intellectual support he needed to pursue his scholarship.
KARL MARX:LIFE and LEGACY
Became immersed in urban life and the
philosophical system, Hegelianism, from
which his own thought evolved.
Part of a group of theorists, known as young Hegelians, that antagonized powerful
supporters of the status quo by claiming the time
had come to challenge the Prussian absolutism of King
Frederick William III
Marx first majored in
law but soon changed to philosophy.
After earning a doctorate in 1841, he became the editor of the Rheinische
Zeitung, a journal dedicated to revealing
how Prussian authorities systematically oppressed
Rhineland peasants.
To escape Prussian repression, Marx next
traveled to Paris, where he began to work on a
series of essays that became known as The
Economic and Philosophic
Manuscripts of 1844.
KARL MARX:LIFE and LEGACY
While in Paris, Marx continued to work as a journalist and editor of the Deutch Franzoesche Johr Buecher. The radical
quality of his work get him into trouble with the
authorities once again and eventually led to his expulsion from France.
Settled next in Brussels, he joined a group of German
emigres , calling themselves the Communist League who were attempting to organize a clandestine working-class revolutionary movement.
Wrote the Communist Manifesto of 1848 to explain the differences between the league’s brand of
socialism and rival approaches by such theorist as Henri Comte de Saint Simon, Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, Michael Balourin and Pierre Joseph
Proudhon.
KARL MARX:LIFE and LEGACY
Ends with the famous words: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all
countries, unite!”
Represents Marx insistence on the unity of theory and what he calls praxis or practice.
Marx’s goal is to stimulate action by communicating his ideas to the widest audience possible of intellectuals and workers
alike. As he wrote in his 1845 Theses on Feurbach. “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways.
The point however, is to change it.”
KARL MARX:HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
Hegel considers this pattern to be abstract and metaphysical.
From Hegel, Marx learned that history follows a meaningful pattern of progress and not simply a process of only tangentially
related events.
Marx searches for it in the most concrete material aspects of human existence: production of the basic means to support life
itself.
Marx argues, before human beings can engage in imaginative thought, they must first discover ways to feed clothe, and house
themselves.
According to Marx, therefore, the manner in which people work to secure the means for survival provides the underlying
connecting thread of history.
KARL MARX
GEORG HEGEL
KARL MARX:HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
ADVANCED COMMUNISM
CAPITALISM = NEW THESIS
FEUDALISM = NEW THESIS
SLAVERY = NEW THESIS
PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM
END OF DIALECTICAL CHANGE
NEGATION OF CAPITALISM BY THE PROLETARIAT THROUGH VIOLENT
UPHEAVAL.
NEGATION OF FEUDALISM BY CAPITALISTS THROUGH VIOLENT
UPHEAVAL
NEGATION OF SLAVERY BY FEUDAL LORDS THROUGH VIOLENT
UPHEAVAL
NEGATION OF PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM BY SLAVEHOLDERS
THROUGH VIOLENT UPHEAVAL
SYNTHESIS
SYNTHESIS
SYNTHESIS
SYNTHESIS
THESIS
ANTITHESIS
ANTITHESIS
ANTITHESIS
ANTITHESIS
KARL MARX:HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
Marx offers historical materialism to explain not only the entire scope of human history but the qualities of particular epochs as well. He thus argues that legal, intellectual,
political, social, religious, and cultural institutions—in other words, everything going on in a culture other than economics—are defined by the economic conditions that exist in that
culture at any particular time.
ECONOMIC CONDITION
Forces of production Relations of production
Refers to the technology that people utilize to create the physical
necessities of life.
Refers to the division of people into economic classes based on the
function they perform in the production process.
For Marx, the connection between economic classes is by definition manipulative. It always involves the subjugation of one class by another. As long as economic classes exist, he stipulates, the majority will always work and be exploited and the dominant class will
always reap the profits.
KARL MARX:HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
Superstructure (everything other than economics going on in a particular society at a particular time: political, social, religious,
legal, educational, cultural institutions of every kind, etc.)
Substructure (economic conditions = forces and relations of productions)
Forces of production
Relations of production
Which together make up substructure
Complement each other and bring about a thesis.
Forces of production
Relations of production
contradictions Resulting in an
Antithesis that in turn will change existing political,
social, and cultural institutions—
superstructure
KARL MARX:MARXIST ANTHROPOLOGY
Marxian scholarship also owes a debt to the research of Lewis Morgan, known as the
Father of American Anthropology.
Concluded that the first human beings lived in societies where there was no
private property and everyone worked cooperatively on every task to meet the
demands of the common good.
To Marx, the societies Morgan identified are examples of primitive communism.
Lewis Morgan
Karl Marx
KARL MARX:MARXIST ANTHROPOLOGY
FEUDALISMCAPITALISM
bourgeoisie
proletariat
who owns the industries
who works for the bourgeoisie
Marx describes the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat as a form of wage slavery. He predicts
that as the bourgeoisie continue to enrich themselves, the proletariat will continue to get poorer and poorer.
Unemployment and economic crises will multiply.
KARL MARX:MARXIST ANTHROPOLOGY
Period of advance communism
A final equilibrium between the forces and relations of productions
will be achieved, resulting in the cessation of dialectical change.
This period bears a marked resemblance to that of primitive communism.
During advance communism, according to Marx, equality will again
prevail because machines will all do the work and
everyone will own all the machines.
Will be characterized by the appearance of “really
human morality which stands above class
antagonism.”
KARL MARX:MARXIST ANTHROPOLOGY
Once a society’s economic substructure is transformed into an authentically level playing field, he concludes morality will become authentically respectful, tolerant, gentle, and kind in return.
With this authentic equality, also will come the demise of government, religion, and the traditional family because they are part of an ideological false consciousness.
GOVERNMENT
RELIGION
TRADITIONAL FAMILY
The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things.
Religion will no longer be necessary because to Marx, its purpose is to drug or stupefy the subordinate class into
passively accepting injustice on earth in favor of a perfect life in heaven—an opium of the masses.
Traditional monogamous family will disappear because its hierarchal structure relegates children and especially women,
to an inferior status.
KARL MARX:THEORY OF ALIENATION
GEORG HEGEL
Another aspect of Hegelianism that Marx adapts to suit his own materialistic orientation is Hegel’s theory of alienation.
Hegel maintains that the most effective method for appropriating the universe is to conquer it through
mental concepts.By thinking about the universe, we can make it our
mental property and achieve the peace of mind we so desperately desire.
Universe…
KARL MARX
The correct means by which human beings can gain control of their lives and the universe
is by working creatively to produce the necessary ingredients for survival.
KARL MARX:THEORY OF SURPLUS VALUE
stipulates that a commodity’s value or price depends on the number of human labor hours spent producing it.
labor theory value
Marx observes that superior capitalist technology enables workers to produce enough value and make enough money in, say, four hours to feed, clothe, and house
themselves for a day. Yet their bosses insists on, say, eight-hours work day.
Hours exerted by workers, that produce value essential for their survival—socially
necessary labor
Value produced by workers in excess of socially necessary labor—surplus value—
source of exploitation in capitalist societies.
KARL MARX:THEORY OF SURPLUS VALUE
Power of human labor variable capital
Machinery, buildings, and raw materials constant capital