Karl Marx

Marx

• Intro: Karl Marx is best known not as a philosopher but as a revolutionary, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century.

• Inspired by-

Hegel	Ricardo	Louis blanc
Laws of dialectics. Gave dialectical idealism- ideas are the moving force behind historical processes. History moves in the from of dialectics of ideas to reach a stage of absolute idea in which all contradictions are resolved. Hegel developed three laws of dialectics: Unity of opposites- for every idea their is counter idea and they both exist together Negation of negation: the lower truth will be negated and higher truth will be left. Quantity changes into quality  Marx criticised Hegel: he is standing on his head.	Labour theory of value by Ricardo that says value of a good is proportional to how much labor was required to produce it.	talked about bringing socialism through revolutionary means

• His ideas-
• He criticised Adam smith due to his laissez faire theory in his book “ critic of political economy” saying it leads to only a few accumulating all the wealth.
• Says  violence is the midwife of change and even child birth is not without bloodshed.
• Calls his socialism as scientific, praxis( action oriented theory). 
• Marx socialism was to establish communism.
• workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.
• Philosophers have only interpreted the world, what matters is to change it. - Marx
• in order to think, one has to eat and in order to eat, man has to reproduce. thus production is the first historical act of man rather than thinking. Hence demonstrating that manual labour is superior to mental labour since production comes prior to thinking
• for Marx society is a division of labour. Basic reason why man forms society is for production. Hence economy is the basic structure of the society.
• base and superstructure model:
  
• Base represents economic relations b/w class and the socio-political institutions like family,school constitute the superstructure.
• Super structure is the reflection of basic structure and as base changes so does superstructure.
• the class which controls the basic structure(means of production) controls the institutions of super structure.
• Hegel says  state represents universal altruism. but for Marx State represents class institution which works as instrument of coercion by bourgeoisie class. Workers cannot expect justice from such a state.
• haves: those who own the means of production and have nots
• religion and nationalism are false consciousness. Workers must look at their material condition only then will they develop revolutionary consciousness
• For him true freedom was freedom from basic necessities and in communism state takes care of your basic necessities (from each according to his work to each according to his need). No private property so no search for profit so no competition so no accumulation of resources.
• 
  Thomas Piketty in his book “capital and ideology” writes- human societies have always been unequal. all unequal societies, to be sustainable, need a justification of this inequality. This justification is what Piketty terms “ideology”.
• Young Marx(Neo Marxists, Frankfurt school of Marxism) and mature Marx( das capital and communist manifesto)
• For him capitalism carries with itself the seed of its own decay. In capitalism everyone looks at each other as a competitor and not fellow human. Capitalism creates contradiction b/w man and society. To remain competitive capitalists pay less to workers. Towards end small capitalists get driven out of market and join the ranks of proletariat. Ultimately middle class disappears and there remains huge gap in society . Their hardships will keep increasing. This relative deprivation will further increase their consciousness. State of inequality is a state of disequilibrium and the nature is bound to move towards equbm. The more the workers works, the more the profit so more is the bargaining power of the capitalists. Hence worker’s labour is causing his own demise.
• Historical Materialism: also called materialistic interpretation of history. For Marx , The force that moved history was not ideas, but the relation between men in the process of production. And this relation repeats in various epochs
• Dialectical materialism—> conflict b/w classes due to material conditions and history moves
• Dialectical idealism—> conflict b/w ideas and history moves( end of history Francis Fukuyama)
• Level of consciousness

1. Class in itself
2. Class for itself : when workers truly realise their economic condition, and hence they cant be further exploited.
• History of all hitherto societies is the history of class struggle.
• change in history takes place when change in relations of production take place
1. Pre historic
1. no pvt property
2. primitive communism
3. no class struggle so no state needed
2. Slave society
1. master and slave
2. since class exist so class struggle exists and hence state needed to protect the masters
3. Feudal stage- lords and serfs
4. Capitalism- capitalists and workers
5. Socialism( dictatorship of proletariat)
1. stage immediately after revolution
2. workers(exploiters) and capitalists(exploited)
3. so state exists but controlled by workers
6. Communism( end of history)
1. pvt property abolished
2. no class and hence no class struggle
3. end of history
4. state of perfect freedom due to state of perfect equality

• For young Marx man is by nature creative and social
• Four levels of alienation

1. Alienation from process of production
2. Alienation from product
3. From society
4. From oneself - cumulative result of above three.
5. capitalism destroys human essence and hence communism becomes a necessity.

• Marx's critics: 
• Has been criticised as economic reductionist as he has reduced a complex phenomenon of history on single factor and says economy has and will determine all changes that will happen ( deterministic).

Non Marxists:

1:

Karl popper calls Marx as reductionist and deterministic and his theory as unscientific as it is not open to falsification. Acc to popper, scientific theories are possible only in open societies like democracy and not communist societies that are closed. Says Marx has committed the guilt of historicism

2:

Max Weber- mono causal explanation of history

By Marxists:

1: 

Gramsci- Marx underestimated role of superstructure specially of culture.

2:

Althusser- calls economic reduction-ism. Gives multi structural approach(base structure influenced by many factors) to understand history hence called structural Marxist.

Gave concept of interpellation.

3: Michael Foucault

Says Marx emphasises on relations of production but forgets relations of power. People may derive power from concept of patriarchy/heteronormativity. Power for Foucault can come from various sources entirely unrelated to economic class.

• Conclusion: That Marx still looms so large in our present world is indeed the measure of his greatness."-Hannah Ardent