...This paper will be about the main elements of Karl Marx’s work, which includes the Paris Manuscripts, which will focus on alienation. The Communist Manifesto, which will focus on Marx’s political and economic theories and Capital Vol. 1., Marx’s final work about how profits are made by the capitalist. Karl Marx was a liberal reformist who believed that capitalism could be reformed and inequality and exploitation of the working classes could be addressed and abolished. (Stones, p.22) . In 1844 Karl Marx wrote and published “The economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844”, better known as “The Paris Manuscripts.” This was Karl Marx’s first work, where he writes a study about alienation of workers. (Hughes p.27) What does one mean by alienation? Karl Marx states that the alienated person feels a lack of meaning in his life, or a lack of self-realization. (Hughes p.27) “One must understand, he argues, that there are three types of alienation. The first type of alienation is alienation from oneself. The second type of alienation is alienation from his fellow human beings. The third type of alienation is alienation from the world as a whole. These three forms of alienation are interconnected, and Karl Marx describes the connections between them. This is the core of his approach to the problem of alienation (Monthly Review, 2000, p.36-53). An example of alienation does not have to stem from the workplace, however. For example, I know many persons who attend the same church as I...
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...Commodity Fetishism vs. Capital Fetishism Marxist Interpretations vis-à-vis Marx’s analyses in Capital Dimitri Dimoulis and John Milios Abstract In Marx’s analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production and more precisely in his theory of value, the key to decipher the capitalist political and ideological practices and structures is to be found. In this context, many Marxists believed that the analysis of “commodity fetishism” in Section 1 of Volume 1 of Capital renders the basis for understanding ideological domination and political coercion under the capitalist rule. The authors argue, that “commodity fetishism” is only a preliminary notion, which allows Marx to arrive, in subsequent Sections of Capital, at the concept of the “fetishism of capital”. 1. Introduction From the days of his youth Marx was familiar with the statements of ethnographers on the subject of fetishism and used the term in his own writings.1 Equally important was in this context the influence of Hegel.2 In this paper we are not going to deal with the different meanings that the notion of fetishism acquires at different points of Marx’s work, an issue which is related to the various concepts of fetishism in political economy, political philosophy and the social sciences.3 We will focus on the analysis of commodity fetishism, in an effort to contribute to the comprehension of the different dimensions of this concept, especially in Marx’s Capital. For this purpose, we will pursue the following course:...
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...7: El derecho como poder de clase 1. Introducción Hay que recordar que Marx vivió en una época en que Alemania iba saliendo de un estado de atraso económico y de reacción política para incorporarse a sus vecinos de occidente como una democracia capitalista1. El utilitarismo y el primer socialismo inglés, el pensamiento socialista francés y los comienzos del radicalismo alemán inspiraron la juventud de Marx2. Aquí está la segunda influencia poderosa que recibió: La filosofía hegeliana que aspiraba a una concepción comprensiva y dinámica de la sociedad mediante el uso del método dialectico3. En el prefacio de la Crítica de la Economía Pura, el mismo Marx dice cómo fue impulsado a estudiar la estructura económica de la sociedad capitalista. Una de las razones fue la necesidad de definir su actitud ante la controversia política de la época, que tenía un contenido económico. La otra fue su deseo de explicar, mediante la crítica de la filosofía política y jurídica hegeliana los determinantes de las diferentes formas del estado y de las instituciones jurídicas. Llegó a la conclusión de que las raíces de éstas se centraban en lo que él llamó la suma total de las condiciones de vida social. De esta conclusión derivó los dos elementos que constituyen la base sociológica de su análisis económico: la interpretación económica de la historia y la teoría de las clases y de la lucha de las mismas4. El hombre, dice Marx, es un productor social de sus medios de subsistencia. La producción social...
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...Karl Marx and Max Webber both many had many philosophies of the capitalism and its effects on society. Their ideas helped pave the way and expand on theories of previous sociologists. Both men have a deep insight of socioeconomic class in the origins and development of modern capitalism. This paper will analyze the impact of capitalism on society as perceived by both men and the areas in which they agreed, disagreed, and expanded on the ideas of the other. In many ways, the Weberian theory was “rounding out” Marx’s theories, working within the traditions of Marxian (Ritzer, page 26). Weber viewed Marxists as economic determinists who offered single-cause concepts on societal life (27). Marx’s material orientation and its effect on society was something that Weber did agree with completely. Weber had a strong belief that most ideas are what shapes an economy, while Marx believed that it is the economy (and the materials within it, help to define our ideas (27). Weber was said to have taken Marx’s ideas and, “turned Marx on his head” (27). The inverse relationship between Marx and Weber transcends into many tremendous ideas on capitalism and the effects on society. Both sociologists have unique ideas on the driving measures that led to the development and the rise of capitalism. One of Weber’s most famous works called the, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, dealt with the origins of capitalism and their “ethos”; ideas that are engraved into religious beliefs. Weber...
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...University Eco 400 Prof Elkhana Faux Karl Marx On Our Recession I am choosing Karl Marx as my reference and using his theories to try to form a subjective view of how he would try to explain the problem that is ongoing in the financial global recession. He would blame the recession do to the Overproduction of the system and its struggled to sell it all. Marx would have been bold in his prediction that a host of problems in the current system (capitalism) namely overproduction, declining rates of profit, class inequality and speculative bubbles would inevitably produce a serious global recession. Marx would argue that since the development of capitalist monopolies around the world at the end of 19th century, there has been a systematic tendency toward stagnation in businesses. Monopolies have eliminated competition, set prices to increase their profits, but do not invest in expanded reproduction (new factories, new technology, new machinery), and therefore the economy tends to face a problem of low growth. Overproduction as Marx would call it is transformed by reformist theorists into under consumption, the idea that the mass of workers are paid too little to buy back what they did produce. This surely leads to the program of persuading owners to advance their own interests by paying the workers more. Those workers will then be able to consume and purchase more, and thereby crises will be forestalled or dampened. Marx would say that overproduction demonstrates the necessary...
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...Capital Gains A majority of people in America can hardly imagine an existence without capitalism; individuals consume without a thought when we buy the latest cell phone or a new pair of hundred dollar designer jeans. It is clear that most of the world supports some form of capitalism and therefore, at least for now, capitalism has won the struggle between economic systems. Capitalism began in 1200 CE with rug merchants. Just like many traders, today, the rug merchants had to borrow money to buy their wares in order to then resell them for profit, but they had to pay back the money borrowed—usually with interest. This was called mercantile capitalism and it was a global phenomenon, from the Indian and Chinese Ocean trade to Muslim merchants who funded trade caravanserai across the Sahara. Later, merchants in Britain had expanded capitalism by developing stock companies which financed even bigger trade missions. Increased wealth of course resulted by the increased investment, but it only affected as small percentage of the population and did not create cultural influence from capitalism. Mercantile capitalism only affected a small percentage of the population, whereas industrial capitalism impacted majority of the population. Industrial capitalism was something altogether different, both in practice and scale. According to Joyce Appleby’s definition of industrial capitalism: “An economic system that relies on investment of capital in machines and technology that are used...
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...Karl Marx’s Capital and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women are both texts that have influenced modern ideas and withstood the test of time. Though on very different topics, Wollstonecraft writing of the plights of women and Marx commenting on capitalistic society, the both explore similar ideas and a structure within society that demonstrates a system of the weak and the powerful, and the issues with this societal structure. This paper will be scrutinizing the strengths of each writing, and how they are still congruent to modern society as it still stands. In Capital, Karl Marx states that the manner through which the social production takes place appears to based on both freedom and equality within the capitalistic...
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...KARL MARX AND THE CONCEPTS OF SOCIETY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE BEING AN ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED BY EKOTT, IMOH BERNARD 1.0 INTRODUCTION The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl Heinrich Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. Although he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death in 1883. Until quite recently almost half the population of the world lived under regimes that claim to be Marxist. This very success, however, has meant that the original ideas of Marx have often been modified and his meanings adapted to a great variety of political circumstances. In addition, the fact that Marx delayed publication of many of his writings meant that is been only recently that scholars had the opportunity to appreciate Marx's intellectual stature. Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a comfortable middle-class home in Trier on the river Moselle in Germany on May 5, 1818. He came from a long line of rabbis on both sides of his family and his father, a man who knew Voltaire and Lessing by heart, had agreed to baptism as a Protestant so that he would not lose his job as one of the most respected lawyers in Trier. At the age of seventeen, Marx enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn. At Bonn he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, the daughter of Baron von Westphalen , a prominent...
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...From Capital Vol 1 In chapter four Marx says that the starting point of capital is through commodies. Marx states “from the exchange of various use-values, and consider only the economic forms produced by this process of circulation, we find its final result to be money” (329). Marx explains his idea with two kinds of circulation which are C-M-C and M-C-M. C-M-C stans for commodities transformed into money. In senario the money that is obtained from the commodity s used to get another commodity. This is in terms as an exchange like if a person where to sell a shirt for $20 dollars, and then use that money to buy bread. M-C-M stands for buying in order to sell meaning that a commodity turns into money. The difference is that the end money has “surplus value (332)”. Marxis states that the final M in M-C-M' is “M'= M+Δ= the orignal sum advanced, plus increment”(332). M-C-M represent modern capitalism because the end result is money. Meaning in the end of M-C-M we exchange money for money. There is a constant cycle but the the beginning point is money, therefore in reality the M-C-M is the general formula for capital. Aristole says states that there is an opposition between this cycle. He calls the conflict between this cycle Oeconomic to Chrematistic. As stated by Aristole Oeconomic is “True wealth consist as such values in use; for the quantity of possessions of this kind, capable of making life pleasant, is not unlimited”(333). The opposition is Chrematistic where it...
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...Edward Bernstein, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Karl Marx, born on 5th may 1818, was born into a middle class Jewish family. During his teenager years Marx studied law in the University of Bonn in 1835, until he transferred to the University of Berlin the following year to study his main interest of philosophy. During this time Karl started to work on his doctoral thesis, “some contrasts in the philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus” (Singer, P,. 2000, p-5). This was accepted in 1841 by the University of Jena. Marx became interested in journalism and began to write on philosophical, political and social issues for a new founded liberal newspaper, the Rhenish Gazette. Karl Marx also studied Hegel and the dialectical method. Hegel discussed the mode of production. This was about society and how it functions in the world of work. The bosses of the working class held the forces of production, for example owning factories and machines. However the working class held the relations of production, as they worked for the bosses to earn money for their families, using the skills that they held and learning new skills on the job, for example learning how to operate a certain machine in a factory. Karl worked on his philosophical positions during 1844 as he was fired from his job at the gazette, however could afford to not work because of a pay out from the gazette. During his time out from working a friendship between Engels and Marx began. Engels was the son of a German industrialist...
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...Alienated Labor, he explains how Capitalism alienates people and turns them into objects as opposed to subjects or people. He goes over, in this, the effects the division between capital and labor, private property, and greed on the “have nots” of society. In the workplace, the working class, the labourers, undergo a process to which the title of Marx’s manuscript is named. To be separated from one’s work, to be seen as a replaceable, to then be seen as an object, and finally to view others as such, This is the is the process of Alienation Marx depicts in his manuscript. This process that we have so readily accepted as a part of society. As Marx says, “We have accepted its language and its laws” (pg 58). Is this process actually forced...
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...system characterized by persistent crises that have an inclination towards mounting severity. Critiques of capitalism argued that this tendency of the system to unravel combined with a socialization process that links people in an international market, produce the objective conditions for revolutionary change. The three Marxist critiques of capitalism were Karl Marx, Weber and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Marxists describe capital as "a social, economic relation" among people. In brief, we can say that they seek to abolish capital. According to the Karl Marx, capitalism is a progressive chronological stage that would ultimately stagnate due to internal contradictions and be followed by socialism. In Karl Marx's view; working class will affect adversely due to dynamic of capital. This will lead to the social conditions for a revolution. Capitalism promotes Private ownership. This means that the people having more money will have control over the production and distribution. This type of economic structure will create non-owning classes on the ruling class, and eventually as a basis of ceiling of human freedom. Both Karl Marx and Weber were against the concept of capitalism. Both noticed significant development of technology and production organization but they disagree in explaining reasons that caused it. According to the Weber, it is the ethics of Protestantism, which place high value on work and saving money in compare to...
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...Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a revolutionary German economist and philosopher. He stood against industrial change and was the leading thinker of Communist movement. One of his most crucial contributions to socialism is the four theories of labor, one of which is the theory of exploitation. In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx presents his theory of classes, which is the foundation for his theory of exploitation. At his time, industrialization was taking place in many large cities and the working class was forced into poverty. The worsening situation of the working class made him believe in the labor exploitation by capitalist class. Exploitation is not unique to capitalism. Throughout the history, it has always been a feature of all class societies, which are divided into two main classes, the class of the exploited which produces most wealth, and the class of the exploiters which expropriates the wealth. However, there is an important difference between exploitation under slavery and feudalism and that under capitalism. Under slavery and feudalism, exploitation is obvious to both the exploited and exploiters. Under capitalism, however, it is well hidden by the labor-wage system and private property right. It seems to be an equal exchange that workers are hired, labor for a given amount of time, and receive their wages. But this is not a case of justice for Marx. To Marx, labor is a commodity, whose price – wages – is also determined by supply and demand just like any other commodities...
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...arl Marx was communism’s most zealous intellectual advocate. His comprehensive writings on the subject laid the foundation for later political leaders, notably V. I. Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, to impose communism on more than twenty countries. Marx was born in Trier, Prussia (now Germany), in 1818. He studied philosophy at universities in Bonn and Berlin, earning his doctorate in Jena at the age of twenty-three. His early radicalism, first as a member of the Young Hegelians, then as editor of a newspaper suppressed for its derisive social and political content, preempted any career aspirations in academia and forced him to flee to Paris in 1843. It was then that Marx cemented his lifelong friendship with Friedrich Engels. In 1849 Marx moved to London, where he continued to study and write, drawing heavily on works by David Ricardo and Adam Smith. Marx died in London in 1883 in somewhat impoverished surroundings. Most of his adult life, he relied on Engels for financial support. At the request of the Communist League, Marx and Engels coauthored their most famous work, “The Communist Manifesto,” published in 1848. A call to arms for the proletariat—“Workers of the world, unite!”—the manifesto set down the principles on which communism was to evolve. Marx held that history was a series of class struggles between owners of capital (capitalists) and workers (the proletariat). As wealth became more concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists, he thought, the ranks of an increasingly...
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...“Explore the ideas of Karl Marx, discussing his theories and views toward capitalism. Discuss how these matters compare to modern day economic conditions, and consider the ethical and sustainability matters that are raised for today's managers.” Karl Marx; an economist, sociologist, revolutionary and historian, whose theories continue to influence economic thought for managers today. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5,1818 – March 14, 1883) put forth many theories with regards to economics, politics and society that established the base on which Marxism was formed. His critique of the philosophies of other theorists and critical analysis of capitalism has influenced economic perception, and contributed largely toward the current understanding of capital and labour and the relationship that exists. In Karl Marx’s criticism of capitalism, he discussed many social matters such as ‘alienation’, the dominance by the ‘bourgeoisie’ over the ‘proletariat’; issues with regard to labour, such as the de-skilling and dehumanisation of workers as technological advances came about and capitalists strived to maximise ‘surplus value’ through the ‘exploitation’ of human labour. Although times have changed and this type of work environment is not as common, it is still an ever present situation in places such as China and India where cheap labour is employed to maximise the return for those in ‘control’. Advancements in technology continue, to the extent where the duties of workers can be performed...
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