Marxist Theory

• Karl Heinrich Marx is a significant figure in political thought, known for his influence and critiques.
• Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, analyzed 19th-century capitalism, advocating for 'scientific socialism' distinct from 'utopian socialists' like Owen, Fourier, and Saint-Simon.
• Like Hegel, Marx emphasized the importance of studying history.
• Marx introduced dialectical materialism, focusing on the mode of production of material means determining human existence and relationships, disagreeing with Hegelian dialectical idealism.
• An understanding of reality requires understanding of the base (mode and relationships of production) and the superstructure (political, cultural, and intellectual dimensions).
• Marx viewed history as a series of class struggles, dividing social evolution into five stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and communism.
• Marx primarily focused on analyzing contemporary capitalism and its role in revolutionizing production but criticized its inequities, wastage, and exploitation.
• Marx was born in Trier, Rhineland (Prussia), into a Jewish family and later embraced Christianity.
• He studied History, Law, and Philosophy, earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Jena.
• Marx's socialist views led to his expulsion from Prussia, forcing him to seek refuge in France and Belgium, and later migrate to England in 1849, where he remained until his death in 1883.

Beginning of an Intellectual Journey

• Marx extensively wrote on Philosophy, Economics, Politics, and Society, making it difficult to categorize him within a single discipline.
• Initially drawn to Hegelian Idealism, he later shifted towards Humanism and Scientific Socialism.
• Marx's alternative theory of historical evolution is Dialectical Historical Materialism, opposing Hegelian and Darwinian theories to explain human history.
• Marx engaged in debates with contemporaries like Proudhon, Bakunin, and various socialist groups in Europe.

Theory of Alienation

• Marx's Theory of Alienation is one of his original works, found in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
• This theory is built upon Hegelian views of alienation and Feuerbach's ideas, particularly concerning Phenomenology.
• Hegel defined alienation as the state of consciousness encountering the external world, with nature being a self-alienated form of Spirit/Absolute mind.
• Feuerbach's perspective reverses this, suggesting that humans are not self-alienated from God, but rather God is self-alienated from humans.
• Hegel believed consciousness overcomes alienation by recognizing external objects as mere phenomenal expressions of consciousness.
• Marx criticized Hegel for equating the existence of objects with alienation, arguing it makes the objective world a phantasm and distinguishes between objectification and alienation.
• Objectification is based on the material existence of objects. Alienation is a state of consciousness from human and object relationships.

Understanding Alienation

• Marx believed alienation is overcome by 'object-creating praxis' and changing the conditions of object creation.
• For Marx, alienation relates to real, existing objects and object-related activity.
• For Hegel, abolishing alienation exists merely at the level of consciousness, which becomes impossible to abolish real alienation therefore humans must legitimize.
• For Marx, alienation is rooted in historical situations, its consequences, and where the creation of objects in capitalist society impairs man's sense of himself and purpose.
• Alienation is overcome when object production leads to the unfolding of human potentiality.
• In capitalism, production occurs in alienating circumstances, turning objectification into dehumanization.

Alienation in Capitalist Society

• The object created by the laborer stands as an alien being against him.
• The product of labor does not belong to the laborer, but to the capitalist
• Marx viewed labor becomes a dehumanizing act when it becomes an involuntary rather than a voluntary activity.
• The society that abolishes alienation will abolish the alienating conditions in which labor is performed, not labor itself.
• It is crucial labor serves as a meaning for the worker's existence instead of becoming part of the capitalist process.
• Objectification will continue in communism but alienation will not.
• Dimensions of alienation include the separation of man from nature, from humanity, and from himself.
• Alienation from nature prevents the laborer from shaping the world because the world is his master.
• Alienation occurs when workers cannot own their product, and the alienation of labor occurs when they sell it to another.

Consequences of Alienation

• The object produced by labor exists externally to the laborer, being an autonomous power and a hostile force.
• Work is imposed for the satisfaction of others' needs, not one's own. The worker experiences monotony.
• Dead objectified labor dominates the living, and the worker becomes an appendage of the machine.
• Workers feel freely active only in animal functions, human functions are reduced in this state.
• The quote "the less you have, the greater is the saving of your alienated being" illustrates that for Marx property negates personality. The worker is alienated and the capitalist is too.
• Marx argued the cause of alienation is fixation of activity and becoming an objective power above them, can be resolved if humans can accomplish any branch of work they want.
• In a state of communism, one can do any job that pleases them at any time.

Dialectics

• Marx modified Hegel's dialectical method by applying it to material conditions, denouncing dialectical idealism as well as mechanistic materialism.
• Marx's theory of society and history is dialectical materialism, later developed by Engels.

Marxian Dialectical Materialism:

• Transformation of quantity into quality: Quantitative changes lead to qualitative revolutionary situations.
• Unity of Opposites: The laws of unity of opposites is contradiction.
• Negation of Negation: The laws of negation is thesis-antithesis and synthesis.
• Marx argued that the material and the ideal are different opposites.
• The Mind (idea) is secondary; matter can exist without mind, but mind is rooted in matter.

Theory of Historical Materialism

• Historical materialism explains human history through economic development.
• Historical materialism explains the modes of production and exchange.
• Beginning with primitive communism, history progresses through slavery, feudalism, and culminates in capitalism, creating distinct classes engaged in struggle.
• The economic structure with production relations shapes society and aligns with specific social consciousness forms.
• Society's productive forces are animate energy being replaced by inanimate energy, they conflict with relations of production, thus dividing society into classes.

Materialist Interpretation of History:

• Marx explains human history by the growth of productive forces such as machines and labor power and relations of production.
• Marx also talked about Asiatic mode of production.
• The forces of production and relations of production and the base and the superstructure have to be distinguished.
• Productive forces require mediation of human consciousness as well conscious activity for preservation.

Historical Materialism

• Constructs conception of history out of the Hegelian system.
• Marx borrowed concepts like civil society and property and set them in a relationship to the concept of state.
• Marx says forms of state have roots in the material conditions of life, differentiating from Hegel.
• Marx viewed that the life process of the human mind and process determine the course in history.
• The ideal is nothing more than the material world translated by thought.

Marxian scheme vs Hegelian Scheme:

• Consciousness determines existence:
• In Marxian: social being determine their consciousness. Means social conditions determine consciouness. -The political structure reflects the socio-economic, the economy structure produces ideas.
• Marx stated consciousness is nothing but the ideas of material conditions. Changing men are products of other circumstances.
• Marx's epistemology becomes a vehicle for shaping reality. It synthesizes classical materialism with classical idealism. Reality is always human interacting with another.
• Marx argues man shapes nature which shapes man's needs. Marxist's positions are different from pragmatists.

Theory of Class War

• The most important is ownership and control of means of production to understand marxism philosphy.
• Bourgeoisie: Those who own or control means of production are the exploiters.
• Proletariat: Those who own labour power who are expoited.
• Classes is defined by one's place in production.

Features and Importance

• Characteristic factors of the proletariat classes: they are not property owners so need for work.
• "History of all hitherto society is the history of class struggles"
• Clear differentiations most clear in capitalist society. Its the high point in class and class conflict.
• Bourgeois epoch is the distinct feature. Society is more fractured in 2 parts which are bourgeoisie/proletariat.
• Objective fact of existence of class can be distinguished from its subjective class consiousness.
• Because the labour is divided, there is historical emergence of classes.
• General antagonism is always between rich and poor but its polarized into capitalist and proletariat in capitalism.

Theory of Surplus Value

• In capitalism, exploitation is the expropriation of surplus value by the bourgeoisie from labour of the proletariat.
• Rooted in the labour theory, labour determines the value of commodity.
• Human labour cannot create value on its own; use tools owned by the capitalist.
• Capitalist buys labour and applies it to raw material to make commodities for exchange value.
• The wage and exchange determines the surplus.
• Theory explains the process of exploitation and is a capitalistic production mode.
• Surplus is commodity sold more than what workers wages are.
• Worker produces commodity for capitalist and it depends on capital involved.
• The capitalist has constant (the means of production) and variable (wages for worker)
• Surplus is the product value workers produces compared to that of what he earns.

How capitalist appropriate labour

• Time helps value of capitalist to appropriate part of labour.
• Unpaid surplus overtime increases. Workers paid the bare minumum or only enough to survive physically which includes family.
• Those who have labour are working class who sell everything to live.

Theory of Revolution

• Disjunction between relations of production and means of production causes revolution.
• As scientific knowledge grows production grows which gets out of step.
• Production goes bad when it fetters on the production process.
• The capitalist mode production comes from fedual, the Bourgeois is made from the womb of the slave society.
• The Bourgeois make the grave diggers themselves.
• Assert that its the last antagonistic form of social process even thogh its antagonistic from the individual prospective it also comes from social classes.
• Social force creates conditions for the resolution. The proletarian cannot rise to power unless all other officials are out.
• Commuinist's views and aims is scorn to be hidden to achieve the forcible throw of capitalist order.

The question of whether subjective or objective makes revolution

• Does the proletariat bring the revolution or the consiousness of the prolateiat?
• Comprehension shapes things, praxis revolutionizes through human action, therefore there needs to be dialectal change.
• The organization leads to ultimate human emancipation.
• Its the objective itself that does not bring revolution unless proleteriat grasps the need to change with their viewpoint.
• Workers need the understadning that in capitalism they are objects to be exploited.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat

• Important concept but didn't write clearly and systematically about the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• He had not discovered the concept of classes and class struggles.
• Classes relate to development, the class struggle will lead to proteriat dictatorsip.
• Dictatiorship becomes abolishment and a classlet society.
• Its and necessary intermediate for capitalist to socialism to communism.
• Communism means for Marx form of society to bring revolutionary ideas.

Vision of a communist society

• Communism is abolition of classes and labour.
• Economic terms : Society of acssoiated produceres.
• Term Politics: Power of universal intersts instead of partisan interests.
• State in capitalism long terms serves capitalist interests. It promotoes and legitimises the explotation by the bourgeiosie.
• One stage is society will ensure the end. The solution is the final return to man and community. Communism solves the conflict between existence.