...Socialism is the antithesis of individualism, which gave birth, to the capitalistic system of society. Socialism came as a countering force against the injustice and incompetence of capitalism, which involved exploitation of peasants and workers by those who own the instruments of production. The advocates of Socialism regard the State as the instrument of achieving the greatest good of the largest community. It does not minimise the importance of the individual but seeks to subordinate the individual to the community. Gandhiji also looks upon the state as an instrument of oppression of the common people. It attaches importance to such liberty only as may be necessary' for the fullest development of the personality of the individual, consistent with the total need of the community. It thinks that the interest of the individual can be best safeguarded and promoted by maximising the control of the State. But according to the latter, i.e. the democrats, the above end may be secured by curtailing the functions of the State to the lowest possible minimum. Thus, the two schools of thought differed more in their political methods than in the legitimacy of ends. Socialism is both an economic and a political doctrine. It seeks to abolish private ownership of the means of production on the ground that such ownership and management lead to social inequalities and incompetence. Hence, the socialists want to promote the common economic, political and moral interests of the people by replacing...
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...Explain the link between anarchism and utopianism. 15marks Utopianism is the idea of the perfect society with the abolition of want, conflict and oppression. This is a core theme within anarchism due to their desire to achieve a utopian society without the need for an oppressive and unnecessary state. Due to the end goal of anarchism it has to have a positive and optimistic view of human nature. Collectivist anarchists see humans as social creatures alike to the ideas of socialism which is where this branch of anarchism roots derived from. They believe that humans have the ability to be cooperative in their behaviour if there weren’t an oppressive state forcing people to be alienated from others. Individualist anarchists have roots from liberalism therefore they see the importance and hold a belief in enlightened human reason. However their positive view of human nature is a contradiction as Proudhon highlighted that corruption can be a part of everyone even if their core is morally enlightened. This shows that there is a clear link between utopianism and anarchism as anarchism is based on this idea of a perfect society. The main achievement of anarchism is to form a stateless society as they see it as evil and unnecessary. Godwin disagreed with Hobbes view of human nature instead Godwin believed that it wasn’t human nature that was greedy and selfish but it was the sovereign state that is a corrupting influence on individuals lives. Therefore to achieve utopianism society...
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...Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownershipand democratic control of the means of production,[7] as well as the political ideologies, theories, and movements that aim at their establishment.[8] Social ownership may refer to public ownership, cooperative ownership, citizen ownership of equity, or any combination of these.[9] Although there are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them,[10]social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms.[5][11][12] Socialist economic systems can be divided into both non-market and market forms.[13]Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money with engineering and technical criteria based oncalculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws than those of capitalism. Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system.[22] By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets, and, in some cases, the profit motive with respect to the operation of socially-owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend.[23][24][25] The feasibility and exact methods of resource...
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...Bigger and better, the machine became the iconic image of a period characterized by innovation. The machine became a metaphor and symbol for Carl Marx’s political ideology advocating for the destruction of capitalism and the redistribution of wealth. Infuriated with the injustices of the industrial revolution, the work force believed in a political theory that refined the machine and advocated for the communal ownership of production and distribution. In effect, socialism provided a simple and temporary solution for the suffering of the working class in 1840. However, socialism’s temporary solution resulted in a platform for corruption leading to reactions like fascism that attempted to reinvent the machine. Europe once again was forced to...
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...Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, writers of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, reflected the conflict theory primarily discussing the two opposing parties, bourgeoisie and proletariat. This statement of belief opposes the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, as it has constantly coerced or deceived the working class just so to maintain social order. Marx and Engels believed “that by theorizing they were actively influencing history. The Communist Manifesto can be understood as one attempt to influence history by spreading information about the communist movement” (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). In the conflict perspective, an organization functions to maximize their benefits. “The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.” The working class cannot use to its advantage a capitalist-established structure. The political structure ruled by capitalists was favourable to their class. As Engels retells Marx’s idea “, (ever since the dissolution of the primeval communal ownership of land) all history has been a history of class struggles, of struggles between exploited and exploiting, between dominated and dominating classes at various stages of social development.” The whole world was said to be affected by these capitalists who wanted to “create a world after its own image.” Their view on society is parallel to an arena where fighting occurs to gain power and status. From the feudal society, a series of revolutions in the instruments...
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...THE FAMILY The Consanguine Family (The First Stage of the Family) The Punaluan Family The Pairing Family The Monogamous Family The Iroquois Gens The Greek Gens [The Rise of Private Property] The Rise of the Athenian State The Gens and the State in Rome The Gens Among Celts and Germans The Formation of the State Among the Germans Barbarism and Civilization Appendix: A Recently Discovered Case of Group Marriage INTRODUCTION After Marx’s death, in rumaging through Marx’s manuscripts, Engels came upon Marx’s precis of Ancient Society – a book by progressive US scholar Lewis Henry Morgan and published in London 1877. The precis was written between 1880-81 and contained Marx’s numerous remarks on Morgan as well as passages from other sources. After reading the precis, Engels set out to write a special treatise – which he saw as fulfilling Marx’s will. Working on the book, he used Marx’s precis, and some of Morgan’s factual material and conclusions. He also made use of many and diverse data gleaned in his own studies of the history of Greece, Rome, Old Ireland, and the Ancient Germans. It would, of course, become The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State – the first edition of which was published October 1884 in Hottingen-Zurich. Engels wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in just two months – beginning toward the end of March 1884 and completing it by the end of May. It focuses on early human history, following...
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...Journal of Moral Education Vol. 34, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 391–398 EDITORIAL Marxism and moral education W. John Morgan* University of Nottingham, UK It is obviously necessary to begin with Karl Marx. According to Vorlander, ‘The ¨ moment anyone started to talk to Marx about morality, he would roar with laughter’ (Vorlander, 1904, p. 22; Lukes, 1985, p. 26). Yet the normative element is central to ¨ Marx’s thinking and the resolution of the paradox is to be found, according to Lukes, in the distinction between a bourgeois morality of law and a revolutionary morality of class emancipation. Marx is interested fundamentally in the moral education of the proletariat through the liberating process that accompanies revolution. It has been argued that in order to explain the motives of the socialist revolutionary, Marx needs such a theory of moral education that is, at the same time, his normative objective. In particular, it is said, ‘he needs an account of how vast numbers of working people acquire a commitment to make a revolution in their common interest’ (Miller, 1998, p. 377). Moreover, this must be powerful enough to break the economic, social and ideological grip of the capitalist system that he has analysed and exposed in such detail. The mode of production is the economic key, as it was for the emergence of capitalism. However, the development of capitalism itself creates a fresh social and psychological context, providing the proletariat with the opportunity...
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...implemented an interim government headed by Kadett. • Kadett intended to implement Liberalism. Slide 5: Monarchic Absolutist Regime -» Interim Government Slide 6: 1917 – October Revolution • Lenin returns from exile with the purpose to end with Liberalism and to impose Communism. • Lenin joins Trotsky and both lead a group of Bolsheviks that assault the parliament. • Through force, the Bolshevik Party dissolved the parliament (violence will accompany the Soviet Revolution until its end). • Bolsheviks, dissatisfied with the liberal regime of Kerensky, make a revolution killing the Tsar and the imperial family. Slide 7: Interim Government -» Proletarian Dictatorship (Lenin) Slide 8: Climate of oppression • According to the ideals of Marxist-Leninist theory, it is necessary to remove the population’s...
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...comparisons, or what has been called "suggestive contrasts." Scholars of comparative politics compare in order to discover similarities and explain differences. As infrequent and highly complex events, revolutions have attracted a great deal of attention from comparativists. In this article, we will address the following topics: • The Concept of Revolution • Why Revolutions Happen? • Can Revolutions be Predicted? • What Do Revolutions Accomplish? • What Are some of the Failures of Revolutions? • Comparing Characteristics and Outcomes of Some Revolutions • Questions The Concept of Revolution: According to the American philosopher Richard Rorty "revolution," like such other words as "reason," "democracy," and "socialism" is a "thick word" which can be contrasted with such "thin words" as truth, dialogue, and justice. How do we define a "revolution?" How are revolutions distinct from other forms of political change such as Coup d'état, rebellion, mutiny, insurrection, or uprising? All of the above nouns may denote acts of violence aimed at changing or overthrowing an existing order or authority. However, there are important legal and political differences among them as well. Coups d'état is a sudden seizure of state power by a small faction that does not necessarily change the social system. It can be regarded as a "palace revolution." Insurrection (or uprising) refers to popular revolts that are limited or can be viewed as a dress...
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...A "...the pigs had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism." P.17 The pigs Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer adapt Old Major's ideas into an actual philosophy, which they formally name Animalism. B "In the end, it was named the Battle of the Cowshed, since that was where the ambush had been sprung." P.44 "Old Major's Dream" is the major cause of the Battle of the Cowshed. Though the animals don't know when the rebellion will take place, but when it happened the were all surprised that a rebellion had taken place and they had won. In the Battle of Cowshed, the animals in Animal Farm fought Mr. Jones and his men. Mr. Jones WAS the farmer of Manor Farm, but since the animals won the Rebellion, it is now called Animal Farm and owned by animals. The pigeons alerted the animals that Jones and his men were going to attempt an invasion on the farm to get it back. Jones and his men broke the barred door holding sticks while Mr. Jones was holding a shotgun. The animals fought wisely and Snowball, the cleverest pig on the farm, led the attack. Snowball ran right up to Jones and attacked him. Jones tried to fire at Snowball, but the sheep behind Snowball was shot and killed. Jones fell to the floor and his gunshot right up and fell into the mud. Boxer ran right up to a boy and attacked him with his tremendous force. The boy fell face first into the mud. Jones and his men were retreating, and the animals had won. After this, they all saw...
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...he became the single most important theoretician and prominent leader of a growing international labor movement. Since Marx participated in the Revolution of 1848 as an influential newspaper editor (in a revolution that was defeated by the monarchists, and the defeat of which led scores of liberal Europeans to emigrate to the United States and elsewhere), he found it preferable to leave the stifling and backward conditions of his fatherland and to go into exile. He spent the rest of his life in London, the powerful center of advanced capitalism and modern industry. As one of the organizers of the international working class movement he found that most labor radicals had all sorts of moral misgivings about capitalism, and a number of utopian ideas of an ideal society of the future, but no solid...
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...|eliminating Kant’s “things-in-themselves” (external reality) and making the self, or the ego, the ultimate reality. Fichte | |maintained that the world is created by an absolute ego, which is conscious first of itself and only later of non-self, or the | |otherness of the world. The human will, a partial manifestation of self, gives human beings freedom to act. Friedrich Wilhelm | |Joseph von Schelling moved still further toward absolute idealism by construing objects or things as the works of the | |imagination and Nature as an all-embracing being, spiritual in character. Schelling became the leading philosopher of the | |movement known as romanticism, which in contrast to the Enlightenment placed its faith in feeling and the creative imagination | |rather than in reason. The romantic view of the divinity of nature influenced the American transcendentalist movement, led by | |poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. | |C | |1 | | | |Hegel ...
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...that most of the crucial political and ideological battles of the Cultural Revolution were fought over the issue of the nature of social class structure in post-revolutionary China. What does the Cultural Revolution teach us about class structure and struggle under socialism? The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution[1] was a political and ideological struggle spanning the decade from 1966-1976. More implicitly, it was a struggle spurned into motion by Mao Zedong to reinstitute his mass line and turn China back to the ‘Socialist Road.’ Mao urged the Chinese to undergo a ‘class struggle’ whereby those truly on the path to Communism would rise against the new bureaucracy who were implementing ideology inconsistent with the main tenets of Maoism. However, what ensued was catastrophic and referred to by Feng Jicai as “Ten Years of Madness.”[2] While the class structure of post-revolutionary Chinese society had effectively eradicated the feudal class structure, a new, elite bureaucratic class had emerged. Indeed, these new elite and the remnants of the old bourgeois class bore the brunt of the violent onslaught of Mao’s Red Guards during the CR. In this essay, I argue that class struggle, and struggle under socialism in the CR was paradoxical as “most radicals in the revolutionary campaign against revisionism were representatives not of the proletariat…but of the bourgeoisie itself.”[3] While many joined Mao in is his crusade for utilitarian reasons, many also joined seeking to...
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...4 March: City of God – Utopian Reader – include a little bit on it – 22 volumes in all. Christianity – Augustine – classicly trained greek scholar. City in north Africa. Story like apostle Paul – orginially a person who persecuted Christians – north African wealth family from – found enlightenment in Christianity. Once he joined became one of the early scholars trained in greek – regulized Christian theology. Influence on western world – top four or five who influenced. Confessions and City of God his writings…look up! What’s the purpose of improving human society – complex – why do it? Can human society be made better? Why bother, what is the point, justification? Takes effort, misery involved, change, unknowns, takes energy, takes risks. HAPPINESS – justification for improving society. What do you have to have to be happy? What is happiness – PHI 101 – happiness according to whom? Lack of misery; literally the elimination of misery. Secondly, food – gives pleasure – Happiness is lack of human misery and maximizing /pleasure and happiness. Bliss 24/7 – hedonism Epicureanism – eliminating misery and maximizing happiness. The justification of utopianism = why did plato want the republic? Justisifcation for improving human society among the Greeks? Poor always poor, always unhappy, death claims everyone - it is rational to maximize pleasure and eliminate misery. Do eternally accouding to plato. Opinions – 1. Relativism is a retreat in the 20th century. Can’t...
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...Frédéric Bastiat The Law The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533 The Translation This translation of The Law was done by Dean Russell of The Foundation staff. His objective was an accurate rendering of Mr. Bastiat's words and ideas into twentieth century, idiomatic English. A nineteenth century translation of The Law, made in 1853 in England by an unidentified contemporary of Mr. Bastiat, was of much value as a check against this translation. In addition, Dean Russell had his work reviewed by Bertrand de Jouvenel, the noted French economist, historian, and author who is also thoroughly familiar with the English language. While Mr. de Jouvenel offered many valuable corrections and suggestions, it should be clearly understood that Dr. Russell bears full responsibility for the translation. The Law The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellowcitizens to it. Life Is a Gift from God We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life — physical, intellectual, and moral life. But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted...
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