Introduction
Karl
Marx, the son of Hirschel and Henrietta Marx, was born in Trier, Germany, in
1818. Hirschel Marx was a lawyer and to escape anti-Semitism decided to abandon
his Jewish faith when Karl was a child. Although the majority of people living
in Trier were Catholics, Marx decided to become a Protestant. He also changed
his name from Hirschel to Heinrich.
After schooling in Trier (1830-35), Marx entered Bonn University to study law. At university he spent much of his time socializing and running up large debts. His father was horrified when he discovered that Karl had been wounded in a duel. Heinrich Marx agreed to pay off his son's debts but insisted that he moved to the more sedate Berlin University.
After schooling in Trier (1830-35), Marx entered Bonn University to study law. At university he spent much of his time socializing and running up large debts. His father was horrified when he discovered that Karl had been wounded in a duel. Heinrich Marx agreed to pay off his son's debts but insisted that he moved to the more sedate Berlin University.
The
philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl 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
History
KARL
MARX makes different statements about ideology at different points in his
career; however, his most straightforward statement about ideology appears in The
German Ideology, which he wrote with Frederick Engels. Ideology itself
represents the "production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness,"
all that "men say, imagine, conceive," and include such things as
"politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc." Ideology
functions as the superstructure of a civilization: the conventions and culture
that make up the dominant ideas of a society. The "ruling ideas" of a
given epoch are, however, those of the ruling class: "The ruling ideas are
nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships,
the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the
relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of
their dominance". Since one goal of ideology is to legitimize those forces
in a position of hegemony, it tends to obfuscate the violence and exploitation
that often keep a disempowered group in its place (from slaves in tribal
society to the peasantry in feudal society to the proletariat in capitalist
society).
His
ideas have since played a significant role in the development of social
science
and the socialist
political movement. He published various books during his lifetime, with the most notable
being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1867–1894), many of which
were co-written with his friend, the fellow German revolutionary socialist Friedrich
Engels.
Moving to Paris in 1843, he began writing for other radical newspapers,
the Deutsch-Französische
Jahrbücher and Vorwärts! As well as writing a series of books, several of which were co-written
with Engels. Exiled to Brussels in Belgium in 1845, he became a leading figure
of the Communist
League, before moving back to Cologne, where he
founded his own newspaper, the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung. Exiled once
more, in 1849 he moved to London together with his wife Jenny and their
children. In London, where the family was reduced to poverty, Marx continued
writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he
believed it could be improved, as well as campaigning for socialism and
becoming a significant figure in the International
Workingmen's Association.
Marx was
banished from Paris in 1845 as a dangerous revolutionary. He went to Brussels,
Belgium. In the spring of 1847 Marx, along with Engels, joined a secret society
called the "Communist League." At the league's request they authored
the " Communist Manifesto," which outlines the theory of the class
struggle, and of the revolutionary role of the proletariat. Due to his
revolutionary activities, Marx was banished from Belgium in February 1848,
finally ending up in London in 1849 where he lived until his death.
In 1864 the "International Working Men's Association" was founded in London. Marx was a central figure in the new organization, and author of its first statement, and a host of resolutions, declarations and manifestos. His health was undermined by his strenuous work for "International." The first volume of "Das Kapital," Marx's most important work, appeared in 1867. Ultimately ill-health prevented him from completing two other volumes.
On March 14 1883 Marx passed away peacefully in his armchair. He lies buried at Highgate Cemetery in London.
In 1864 the "International Working Men's Association" was founded in London. Marx was a central figure in the new organization, and author of its first statement, and a host of resolutions, declarations and manifestos. His health was undermined by his strenuous work for "International." The first volume of "Das Kapital," Marx's most important work, appeared in 1867. Ultimately ill-health prevented him from completing two other volumes.
On March 14 1883 Marx passed away peacefully in his armchair. He lies buried at Highgate Cemetery in London.
His contribution towards society
Karl Marx's most famous books on communism today are Das Capital
and The Communist Manifesto, he has also written: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, Grundrisse, The German Ideology, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and Theses on Feuerbach.
All of the books he has written deal with Communism/Marxism.
Karl Marx said “Capital is dead labour, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.”
Marxism (conflict
structuralism)
Labour/working class
theory
Labour theory of value
Marxism sees the overall structure of society primarily
determined (or influenced) by the economic system- the means of production, such as the land, factories and offices
necessary to produce society’s goods.
These means of
production are privately owned, and most people depend on the owners for
employment. Karl Marx argued that the workers produce more than what is needed
for employers to pay them their wages- this “extra” produced by the workers is
what Karl Marx called Surplus value,
and provides profit for the employer.
For example, in
a burger chain, it is the workers who make, cook, package or packing and serves
the burgers, but only half the burgers they sell are necessary to pay their
wages. The rest of the burgers provide profit for the burger chain owners. This
means the workers who produce the burgers do not get the full value of their
work, and they are therefore being exploited.
Change in institutions
Economic
institution is the base of the society and the others are the super structure
of it. Economic institution influences all social institutions when change
comes in economic institution all the institution accept change.
Control of society
Norms come from
the Elite class (bourgeoisie or the capitalist class) of the society and the
powerful makes the norms and controls the behaviour of the people by social control.
The control by direct force by police and law and indirect force by syllabus,
education and mass media.
Class system in Marxism
Capitalists and workers class
Karl Marx argued
that there were two basic social classes in capitalist industrial society; a
small, wealthy and powerful class of owners of the means of production, (which
he called the bourgeoisie or the capitalist class- the owning class) and
a much larger, poorer class of non-owners (which he called the proletariat or working class). The proletariat, because they own no means of
production of their own, had no means of living other than to sell their labour, or labour power as Karl Marx called it, to the bourgeoisie in exchange
for a wage or salary. The Capitalist exploited the working class, by making
profit out of them by keeping wages as low
as possible instead of giving the workers the full payment for the goods
they had produced.
A summary of the Marxist view of society
The elite or capitalist class
includes the power of wealth that has access to the resources to manufacture or
produce products. The working class on the other hand is individuals that have
no power and their hard work is sold to capitalist class to produce these
products. The elite have an advantage over the working class in that they keep
this class enslaved, so that they have to rely on the elite for income and they
can maintain this power position of wealth
Class conflict
Karl Marx argued
this exploitation created major differences in interest between the two
classes, and this created conflict.
For example, the
workers’ interest lay in higher wages to achieve a better lifestyle, but these
would be at the expense of the bosses’ profit. The bosses wanted higher profits
to expand their business and wealth, but this could only be achieved by keeping
wages as low as possible or by making the workers produce more by working
harder. The interests of these two classes are therefore totally opposite, and
this generates conflict between the two social classes (Class conflict). Marx believed this class conflict affect all areas
of life.
The ruling class
Karl Marx argued
that the owning class was also a ruling
class. For example, because they owned the means of production, the
bourgeoisie could decide where factories should be located, whether they should
be opened or closed down, and they could control the work force through hiring or firing. Democratically elected governments could not afford to
ignore this power of the bourgeoisie; otherwise they might face rising
unemployment or other social problems if the bourgeoisie decided not to invest
its money.
Dominant ideology
Karl Marx
believed the ruling or dominant ideas in any society, what he called dominant ideology, were those of the
owning class (hence it is sometimes also called the ruling class ideology) and the major institutions in society
reflected those ideas.
For example, the
law protected the interest of the owning class more than it did the working
class; religion acted as the “Opium of the people”, persuading the working
class to accept their position as just and natural (rather than rebelling
against it), by promising future rewards in heaven for putting up with their
present suffering: the bourgeoisie’s ownership of the mass media meant only
their ideas were put forward. In this way, the working class were almost
brainwashed into accepting their position. They failed to recognise they were
being exploited and therefore did not rebel against the bourgeoisie or elite
class.
Marx called this
lack of awareness by the working class of their own interest false consciousness.
Revolution and communism
However, Marx
thought that one day the circumstances would arise in which the workers did
become aware of their exploitation, and develop class consciousness.
Class consciousness is awareness in the members of a social class of
their real interests and their exploitation.
The workers
would join together to act against the bourgeoisie through strikes,
demonstrations and other forms of protest. This would eventually lead to a
revolution against and overthrow of the bourgeoisie. This means that the
production would then be put in the hands of the state and run in the interest
of everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. A new type of society- communism- would be created, which
would be without exploitation, without classes and without class conflict.
Marx therefore
saw society as the base on the exploitation of one large class by a small group
of owners, creating social classes with opposing interests, and inequalities of
wealth and power in society. Rather than seeing society functioning
harmoniously as the functionality do, Marxists see society based on conflict
between rival social classes (class conflict) in social institutions serving to
maintain the interest of a ruling class. However, like functionalities,
Marxists see the behaviour of individuals as still largely determined or
moulded by social institutions.
Explanation of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value
Marx inherited the labour theory of value from the
classical school. Here the continuity is even more pronounced; but there is
also a radical break, For Ricardo, labour is essentially a numeraire, which
enables a common computation of labour and capital as basic elements of
production costs. For Marx, labour is value. Value is nothing but that fragment
of the total labour potential existing in a given society in a certain period
(e.g. a year or a month) which is used for the output of a given commodity, at the
average social productivity of labour existing then and there, divided by the
total number of these commodities produced. and expressed in hours (or
minutes), days, weeks, months of labour.
Value is
therefore essentially a social, objective and historically relative category,
It is social because it is determined by the overall result of the fluctuating
efforts of each individual producer (under capitalism: of each individual firm
or factory). It is objective because it is given, once the production of a
given commodity is finished, and is thus independent from personal (or
collective) valuations of customers on the market place; and it is historically
relative because it changes with each important change (progress or regression)
of the average productivity of labour in a given branch of output, including in
agriculture and transportation.
This does not
imply that Marx’s concept of value is in any way completely detached from
consumption. It only means that the feedback of consumers’ behaviour and wishes
upon value is always mediated through changes in the allocation of labour
inputs in production, labour being seen as subdivided into living labour and
dead (dated) labour, i.e. tools and raw materials. The market emits signals to
which the producing units react. Value changes after these reactions, not
before them. Market price changes can of course occur prior to changes in
value. In fact, changes in market prices are among the key signals which can
lead to changes in labour allocation between different branches of production,
i.e. to changes in labour quantities necessary to produce given commodities.
But then, for Marx, values determine prices only basically and in the
medium-term sense of the word. This determination only appears clearly as an
explication of medium and long-term price movements. In the shorter run, prices
fluctuate around values as axes. Marx never intended to negate the operation of
market laws, of the law of supply and demand, in determining these short-term
fluctuations
Criticism
Many economists
believe that the Marxist labor theory of value has been
"discredited". The criticism revolves around the undue stress Marx
put on labor, ignoring other sources of value (such as technology
or know-how) Nonetheless certain elements of the
theory are still believed to be valid, in particular, argument that interests
of employee and employer are not the same, and that markets do not have a
long-term tendency towards stability and equilibrium.
Bibliography
Book: - Introducing
sociology by ken brown
Web references:-
www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96may/marx.html
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article284
www.6sociologists.20m.com/marx.html
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