...heavy, the river floods, bursts its banks, and may take a new course. This represents the dialectical part of Marx’s famous theory of dialectical (or historical) materialism." Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history first articulated by Karl Marx (1818–1883) as the materialist conception of history. It is a theory of socioeconomic development according to which changes in material conditions (technology and productive capacity) are the primary influence on how society and the economy are organised. Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life. Social classes and the relationship between them, plus the political structures and ways of thinking in society, are founded on and reflect contemporary economic activity. Since Marx's time, the theory has been modified and expanded by thousands of Marxist thinkers. It now has many Marxist and non-Marxist variants. Objectives of Study: • To define Historical Materialism. • To discuss about the basic philosophy behind the concept of historical Materialism by Karl Marx. • To study about the Recent Versions of Historical Materialism. • To findout the limitations of the Concept of Historical Materialism. Research...
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...Engels believed that “civilization moves in a vicious circle in which it is constantlky reproducing but is never able to overcome”(293). Engels believed that a capitalist is verys similar to all the previous rulingclasses. The capitalists removed profit value from the labouring class.Engels talks about historical materialism in society and the contradiction of the capitalist era. the development of human society has moved through a series of stages, from hunting and gathering, through pastoralism and cultivation, to commercial society.[5] Friedrich Engels wrote: "I use 'historical materialism' to designate the view of the course of history, which seeks the ultimate causes and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in the changes in the modes of production and exchange, with the consequent division of society into distinct classes and the struggles of these classes."[6] According to Marxist theorists, history develops in accordance with the following observations: Social progress is driven by progress in the material, productive forces a society has at its disposal (technology, labour, capital goods, etc.) Humans are inevitably involved in production relations (roughly speaking, economic relationships or institutions), which constitute our most decisive social relations. Production relations progress, with a degree of inevitability, following and corresponding to the development of the productive forces...
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...In this paper an excerpt titled “Theoretical” from Engels’ Anti-Dhüring will be examined in reference to Engels’ ideologies regarding materialism, the social work order, and the fundamental problems confronted in the clash between the social production and capitalist appropriation. In the chapter titled Theoretical, Engels lays out the basic conflict between what we know as socialism and capitalism, doing so by first examining what he calls the “Materialist conception of history” (Engels 1939, p. 292). In his materialistic history he claims that the exchange and bartering of products, and their production is the “basis of every social order” (Engels 1939, p. 292). He states that in every society that has ever appeared in history, the distribution and production of goods and the division of society into estates and classes is “determined by what [and how it] is produced… and the exchange of [said] product.” (Engels 1939, p.292) Thus, according to Engels, the basis of our society revolves around production, and consumption, which can clearly be seen even today. Historical Materialism can then be defined as the forces of production, the exchanges of products, and the division of labor according to one’s ability to produce. However in society, often people live from the work of others often called the Bourgeoisie by Engels (p. 292), and it is because of the capitalist mode of production that such a ruling class could be created, and benefit from the work of others. It is here then...
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...Adrienne Korson Marxism: For and Against Marxism is essentially a critique of Capitalism. In order to understand Marxism, one needs to evaluate the history of Marxism. Heilbroner described Marxism as being “inescapable” (Heilbroner, 15). Marxism is credited with the contribution for uncovering an unsuspected level of reality beneath the surface of capitalism. His mode of inquiry for uncovering the hidden reality of capitalism is through his own invented process of socioanalysis. Because of Marx’s legacy of revealing the reality of capitalism, Heilbroner compares him to Freud and Plato, all whose works are inescapable for the truths they have unveiled. Freud and Plato both unveiled hidden realities. Marx shared a further similarity in the sense that his “combination of insight and method permanently altered the manner in which reality would thereafter be perceived” (Heilbroner, 17). Marx’s works in his book Capital is still more relevant today than Adam Smith’s renowned work Wealth of Nations. Marx‘s book placed importance on technology and crises and social tension, and more importantly, undertakes the task of critiquing the political economy. However, the problem of Marxism is within trying to define it. Heilbroner believes that there exists a set of premises that can assist in defining Marxist thought, “so that any analysis that contains these premises can be properly classified as Marxist” (Heilbroner, 20). There are four main premises as described by Heilbroner; the...
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...Abdinasir hussein Soc 401 Professeor Roberts Mid-term paper Freud and Marx will never be forgotten as their legacies carry on through their respective theories. Each of their theories are extensive however, for the purposes of this essay I will compare and contrast their theory regarding freedom and the relationship between the individual and society. Freud and Marx, it can argued were both, as individuals, dissatisfied with their societies. In the process of discussing both Freud’s and Marx’s positions regarding these areas of focus their answers to the following question will be evident and their reasoning explained. Is it possible for human’s to create a society that would not cause so much suffering and, therefore maximize the happiness of all individuals in society? Or in other words, is the desire for freedom and pleasure of the individual irreconcilable with the needs and demands of society? Freud’s response is no. Marx’s answer is yes. In the following paragraphs I will provide a synopsis of Freud’s main argument in Civilization and It’s Discontent and in doing so explicate his support for his answer, then I will do the same for Carl Marx in the Marx / Engels Reader, and lastly I will discuss which theory I find more persuasive and why. Since it is necessary to discuss and define key concepts and terms in order to understand Freud’s support for his answer I will give a synopsis of the book titled Civilization and It’s Discontents. Freud begins this book by defining...
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...Marxism Today Student’s Name University Affiliation Marxism Today Identify an emerging country and discuss why Marxism might be an option for the country and discuss how Tocqueville may view the country if he were to visit it today. Karl Marx is considered as the father of communism (Wright, Levine & Sober, 1992). He is an individual who has made a lot of contributions in policies of the economy as well as various writing that he has made. This has especially influenced many of the leaders in the emerging countries especially in the way that they run their economies. The main idea that was raised by Karl Marx is that of communism that is highly applied in countries such as china and Korea and has been a major contribution to the prosperity if these economies. He advocated for the unity of the workers. Emerging countries on the other hand are defined as that is on the road attaining industrialization. The theory of Karl Marx can be highly applicable to these economies to help them in the process of industrialization. The country we are going to focus on in this assignment is India. India is considered as in of the emerging economies in the world that for a very long time had practiced capitalism on a very large scale and it is recently losing the sense for the capitalism system. India has been struggling with its economy in terms of bringing about economic growth and also in the terms of providing quality standards of living for their people and this has been caused...
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...the news headlines are filled with results of process philosophy; homosexual “marriages” being legalized, divorce rates are sky high, domestic violence rates up above normal, etcetera. The biggest of the issues in my opinion that involves process philosophy is the national legalization of homosexual “marriages”. The phrase most frequently used is “gay marriage”. This wording however does not align within a biblical worldview because marriage is between a man and woman. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). By adhering to our biblical worldview, we would and should follow God’s holy word. Marx “adopted the idea of materialism” since he “dispensed with the idea of God” (Martin, 2006, p. 156). Being a materialist, Marx also shared the idea of “dialectical materialism”, which contains three presuppositions. One of those is the idea that “progress is inherent in change” (Martin, 2006, p....
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...The theory of Historic materialism by Karl Marx understands the history economically; the institutional changes like changes in social, political and legal institutions are being explained by changes in economic system over the period of time. There are three basic needs of human beings - Food, clothing and shelter. Humans satisfy these three basic needs by their own means. These needs are never changing but the means to produce, procure these needs change over the period of time. Human nature depends on their material needs and the way they produce these means. ‘It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.’ For example: nature of beings of 21st century is very much different from the nature of humans existed in tribal and ancient times because the means which ancient people used to procure basic necessities were different from the processes used now a days. According to Marx, there exist two classes in the society: the owners and the non-owners of the means of production. Owners own all the means such as land, labour, etc. and form the strong minority which tends to dominate the majority, which consists labour and people from other lower sections of society. The majority by its political and monetary power supress majority forming the ruling class and they make all the religious, cultural and political rules in society. This conflicting situation gives rise to the ‘class struggle’...
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...The question we could ask is: what exactly is technology? Technology is generally used to meet the many challenges of globalization, and to control two concepts namely ‘time and space’ in human communication. This means that people working with technology create new ways and means to control and reduce ‘time and space’ in order to meet the global challenges we are faced with. We see that in the 21st century technology is another term used to represent our modern life style, thinking and behaviour. Technology is also used by people to improve their surroundings, and it involves having to have some sort of knowledge in order to use certain machines and tools to do so. Furthermore technology is used to control the world in which we live, and more specifically people use it to improve their ability to do work and improve products. This whole idea as to how we view technology is seen as the technological determinism approach. It has also been said that technology cannot work on its own, but rather it is found to work hand in hand with the environment in which we live (Lian, 2007). Therefore in my essay I will be looking at various types of technology from a technological determinist and cultural materialist perspective, and then looking at how these two approaches compare or differ from one another. This would also lead me to seeing if the cultural materialist approach does see society as being free agents and actually adapting technology to fit the culture. 1. The main ideas of...
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...SOCS 350 Midterm Exam Click Link Below To Buy: http://hwcampus.com/shop/socs-350-midterm-exam/ Grade Details - All Questions Page: 1 2 Question 1. Question : (TCO 1) Which of the following is a predicted outcome of continued global warming? Question 2. Question : (TCO 2) The realist-constructionist debate in environmental sociology is characterized by differences in materialist versus idealist explanations of social life. Which of the following distinguishes a constructionist perspective on environment problems? Question 3. Question : (TCO 3) The 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists whose work led to discovery of the causes for the thinning of the earth's atmosphere by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Which of the following was NOT one of these scientists? Question 4. Question : (TCO 4) Who is/was the "original affluent society" according to Marshall Sahlins? Question 5. Question : (TCO 5) The hau of material objects refers to: Question 6. Question : (TCO 6) What has been the result of air quality from strict emission controls? Question 7. Question : (TCO 7) According to Malthus, population grows: Question 8. Question : (TCO 7) Which of the following does Sen claim will NOT insure food availability? Question 9. Question : (TCO 3) What percentage of the world's original forests remain? Question 10. Question : (TCO 5) According to your text...
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...Contemporary theories in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind lend support for the materialist position regarding the mind-body problem. A few of these theories: naturalism, and behaviourism form the basis of why I am a materialist. Dualist approaches offer counter-arguments to Materialism, such as Spiritualism and Interactionism but both empirically fall short. Current research materialistically concludes that mental states are nothing but physical states. As a materialist I would say: There are no souls, the mind is just the brain, everything can by expressed or explained physically. The naturalist in me would more thoroughly assert that nothing exists beyond the natural world, that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the natural universe. That the changing universe at every stage is a product of these laws and this is what forms the basis of my material beliefs. I do not believe in the supernatural, or souls. I believe that biology, neurology and psychology fulfill the soul's supposed function and that the universe developed naturally, without any "creator". inversely, a popular rebuttal to Naturalism is Spiritualism. The Spiritualist would assert we do indeed have souls, and that when we die our soul’s survive the death’s of our bodies by ascending into a spirit existence. While this can be argued for theoretically and rationally, there is no empirical evidence to support such a belief. That leads me to doubt in the validity of...
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...Materialism is a belief in matter, whereas dualism is not its opposite and "vs" has no relevance or meaing because materialism cannot vs dualism. Those who are deprived of the spiritual insights undersand dualism in a lower pedestal than the meaning it has or indicates. Dualism is a state of being or existence in two seemingly opposite entities. Dvaita (dualistic) as clearly defined in Sankhya Philosophy as opposed to Advaita (non-dualistic) monism as clearly defined by Adi Shri Shankaracharya. Though Plato did believe in Dualism and reached a stage of defining the fifth element Ether but he could not grasp the spiritual essense of it completely due to lack of spiritual progress in life. That pertains to matter is materialism. That pertains to Spirit is spiritualism. Spirit and matter are dual states of existence, like night and day, black and white, good and evil and all such seemingly opposites. But, the fact remains that the seemingly opposites cannot exist in isolation from the source and remains within or connected to the source and therefore everything in the world is one unit of undifferentiated Brahman or Sat Chit Ananda (Truth(Existance), Consciousness and Bliss). If the cosmos is a one Monistic Unit of Undifferentiated Brahman, due to the illusion of the senses, the undifferentiated brahman is seen by human beings as differentiated and having separate entitties. Here the division begins, the pattern of two is dualism, then the pattern of three, the pattern of four and...
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...Epiphenomenalism and Physicalism Physicalism, which is often, in contemporary philosophy interchangeably called Materialism, asserts that the physical world, and everything in it conforms to a certain condition, that of being Physical, either as a causal force or as material. The main argument against Physicalism, Jackson’s argument claims that there exists a contradiction between the existence of Qualia (The felt qualities of experience) and Physicalism. Jackson’s argument is given in the form of a thought experiment in which Mary, a neuroscientist, isolated in a black and white room is given all of the physical facts regarding other people, and so must therefore know everything there is to know about other people. However, it is evident in the second premise that because she learns something new about these people upon being released, she must not have known everything there is to know, though the facts she understood hold true, her experience yields new...
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...Shawna Potratz 08/04/2013 PHI-103 Richard Mohline What is Mind? To believe that seeing and touching is the only real truth is to believe that there is no such thing as an idea. For some people this is possible, but in order to make something real it must exist as an idea or a thought first. There are many arguments to picking a side of either Physicalism or Dualism and many people only have one opinion and then close their mind to other options. Only by understanding both sides can someone make a decision as to whether they are a physicalist or dualist. However, Dualism is the only real truth, for without an idea or thought; there can be no physical object to obtain. Some would say that everything started with a thought. It is clear that truth in reality is often something you can see or touch or taste, but what about feelings? How can someone feel love or have admiration for one’s beauty if none of those emotions can be touched or tasted. As humans we are built to feel and think. Some might say that religion plays a big role in one’s decision, if so then what of Atheism. They are human to; they feel pain and emotion all the same. They also think and idealize the same as someone of religious belief; therefore, religion cannot apply in such arguments because some great philosophers’ had none. As a child we are taught what things are and what to call them. The name of an object started as an idea. If your mother was to teach you that a pen was the only writing...
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...Marvin Harris: Cultural Materialism perspective Theory: A model of human behavior. Model involving a logical explanation of some phenomenon Model tries to generalize about social behavior A theory in social sciences must be empirically testable or supported by evidence Materialist versus Idealist views of Culture Food as Feed (required for physical existence/survival) Food as symbolic: as Status/prestige, Health, class, group identity, sexuality, gender, power, ritual, protest Why don=t Hindus eat beef? Or, why don’t Jews and Muslims eat Pork? MATERIALIST: ABecause it is more profitable to preserve the cow=s for other uses” IDEALIST : ABecause they consider the cow sacred, and will not kill it for food” Theories are based on Assumptions Materialist View: Humans are rational beings. They will weigh the costs and benefits of actions. Biological needs such as food, sex are more important than other needs. Work is less desirable than leisure. Behaviors influence ideas. Idealist View: Human seek meaning in action. Symbolic understanding orients all human action, including the satisfaction of biological needs. We cannot understand human behavior without understanding the system of meanings that govern behavior from the actor’s point of view. Ideas influence action. Harris= materialist explanation of the Asacred cow@ in India Beef was consumed in the past...
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