shed capitalism and introduced communism. Many are worried that the United States will be seen as being too controlling, essay on marxism, and that it should let the Iraqi people work out their own problems. He wants to retain his class power. Feminist theory Similar to conflict and Marxist theories, feminist theorists see much social inequity in society. CRITICISM According to Leszek Kołakowski, the laws of dialectics at the very base of Marxism are fundamentally flawed: some are "truisms with no specific Marxist content", others "philosophical dogmas that cannot be proved by scientific means", yet others just "nonsense"; some Marxist "laws" are vague and can be interpreted differently, essay on marxism these interpretations generally fall into one of the aforementioned categories of flaws as well.
Marxism And Marxism
Marx, "The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value" the working class is forced to work for the capitalist since in the "Capitalist" stage of social development all the sources of production are in the hands of the Capitalist who deliberately keeps the wages at low essay on marxism by creating unemployment essay on marxism a ready army of the unemployed. Marx explains that capitalism ultimately leads to decreasing rates of profits, boom and bust cycles, which progressively get worse until the whole system collapses on itself. Significance of Marx's Contribution to Economics Essay on marxism the worst detractors of Karl Marx recognize that he was a masterful economist.
His rigorous analysis of capitalism in Das Kapital is considered an unparalleled seminal work which explains in detail how Capitalism works. Marx's labor theory of value, decreasing rates of profit and increasing…. Works Cited Marx, Karl. Online Version. November 19, html Karl Marx. Das Kapital. The English editionedited by Frederick Engels ONLINE VERSION Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value. htm Kreis, Steven, essay on marxism. Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. html His father, however, essay on marxism, had agreed to baptism as a Protestant so that he would not lose his job as a respected lawyer in Trier, essay on marxism. Grounded in the dialectical process of epistemology, Marxist theory evolved into principled sociology.
Yet Marxist sociology rests on the dialectical understanding of the natural world, including that of human nature. Although Marxist philosophy is comprehensive and epistemological, Marx found its pragmatic application in focusing on the function of economic systems and the effect of economic systems on socioeconomic class stratification. Implications of class stratification include class conflict and false consciousness, both of which are exacerbated by capitalist modes of production and the social and political institutions that support them. Introduction Dialectical and Historical Materialism Building on Hegelian dialectics, Marx and Engels propose an epistemology in which the natural world is interconnected, systemic, pre-determined, and continually changing Stalin, Dialectics is a method of reaching a truthful….
References Eyerman, R. False consciousness and ideology in Marxist theory. Acta Sociologica 24 : html Little, D. False consciousness. htm Lukacs, G. History and Class Consciousness. Cambridge: MIT Press. Marx, K. Translated: Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, edited by Frederick Engels. pdf Munro, J. Some basic principles of Marxian economics. University of Toronto. htm Sewell, R. What is dialectical materialism? In Defense of Marxism. htm Stalin, J. Dialectical and Historical Materialism. feminist theories: Criminology Critical theories of criminology are associated with the writings of Karl Marx. Marx viewed the entirety of human existence as a class struggle between the haves and the have-nots of the world. Marx viewed crime as a symptom of social injustice, essay on marxism.
The archetypical criminal-who-is-not-really-a-criminal in the eyes of such a criminologist might be Jean Valjean: a man whose family is starving to essay on marxism, so he steals a loaf of bread. Similarly, if members of the underclass believe they have no potential social mobility or access to education, they essay on marxism resort to selling drugs or petty theft as a way of getting some kind of a part of the 'American…. References Chapter 6: Critical theories: Marxist, essay on marxism, critical, and feminist.
The dominant ideas and morality of bourgeois society serve as a vital defense of the material interests of the ruling class. Without this powerful ideology, the capitalist essay on marxism just would not last for any length of time. Marxism suggests three stages or concepts of law and lawlessness: i an expose' of rich and powerful and their crimes - this is acceptable but purely moral; ii a demonstration of crime and its connections with property - e. showing how theft accounts for a small amount of property crime compared with fraud yet theft is policed much more strenuously; iii what was intended to be a major concern for the next stage - crime and law.
Law is seen as ideology, as a level in capitalism, essay on marxism, as tied to the economic relations of capitalism - in a number of unclear methods which were to be cleared up later. Marxist theory, meanwhile, differs from the first paradigm in that it does not seek reconciliation, but rather, it identifies conflict present within society and takes a radical step towards confronting and putting a stop to this conflict in a radical fashion. Made popular by Karl Marx, Marxist essay on marxism stems from his analysis and observation about the inherent nature of capitalist society to induce conflict, specifically between those who are economically affluent and deprived.
What makes Marxist theory an interesting study in social science, particularly in fields concerning social dysfunctions, is that it attempts to show that in every aspect of the individual's life with his or her society, there is an ever-present conflict among people who want to possess power and control over the others Hagan and Greer, The truthfulness of the claim that conflict is inevitable, especially in a highly-structured and dynamic economic society, made Marxist theory applicable…. Bibliography Hagan, J. And S. Robertson, I. NY: Worth Publishers, Inc. Marx himself asserted that "prostitution is only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the laborer. Prostitutes may feel essay on marxism they are free, but in the larger economic picture, they are actually oppressed workers reinforcing and perpetuating an exploitative capitalistic process.
Marxist feminists also base their arguments on other tenets of Marxism. Some Marxist feminist theories involve challenges to existing class relationships, especially as they create a double oppression for women -- one upon her class position and one upon gender and discriminatory practices within family structures. An Orthodox Marxist feminist would argue that gender-based inequalities are a product of the capitalist period. Thus, when capitalism is overthrown by socialist revolutions, to be followed by communism, women will be liberated to stand as equals in a classless society. Marxist Perspective for Understanding Society Although the United States and other Western nations fought a cold war against Communism for a significant part of the twentieth century, Western nations were not immune to the influence of Karl Marx, an intellectual and ideological founder of Communism.
Even during the Cold War, Marxism entered disciplines in social sciences in the United States and students of sociology, history, essay on marxism science, and a few other disciplines can no longer ignore Marxist perspective for understanding society today. Indeed, key components of Marxist perspective -- all of them revolving around the basic premise that essay on marxism can be defined by class struggle -- are very helpful in analyzing how a society functions, essay on marxism. And Marxism today is not confined to the writings of Marx only but has been enriched by other scholars who helped to make Marxism a very useful and important tool for evaluating complexities of societies.
References Andreou, essay on marxism, C. Philosophy of Economics. Retrieved on 5 Nov, essay on marxism. htm Bohmer, P. htm Burns, essay on marxism, E. Capitalism's Imperialist Stage. The Greanville Post. Marxism, and class, gender, and race: Rethinking the trilogy. Another fundamental element of liberal theory and ideology is the right for each individual to pursue and hold private property. According to Locke, each individual has the opportunity and the right to work to better oneself through the accumulation and improvement of their own private property, "it is allowed to be his goods who hath bestowed his labor upon it," Locke, This is also a crucial feature in the foundations of capitalism as well.
It ensures that as long as one works and labors hard enough, he or she will be entitled to a certain amount of private property to compensate for that labor, "As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property," Locke, It is with this idea that many societies have promised their underprivileged or poor the chance to rise above their inherited ranks…. Works Cited Locke, John. The Second Treatise on Civil Government, essay on marxism. Prometheus Books. Amherst, New York. Marx, Karl, Engels, Frederick. The German Ideology. International Publishers.
New York. In the car Nick sees him look sideways as though lying and thinks "And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him, after all" 65, Chapter 4. Nick's middle class ideology leads him to scorn those who would strive to get ahead. It is the traditional view of the underclass toward upstarts from within. In the end, he loses "love" Jordan. The text does not validate his character as an ideal. The relationship of Tom and Gatsby clearly reinforces the class system. Essay on marxism articulates a power-oriented racist vision, saying "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things" 13, Chapter 1.
This Nordic racism is symbolic of a biased class consciousness out of which Tom operates. He wants to retain his class power. It creates…. Hegemony In general Marxists tend to focus on the role of the mass media as being concerned with the proliferation of the status quo as opposed to pluralists who focus on the role of the media as one of promoting free speech.
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Any change in the mode of production is bound to have a corresponding effect on social relations. Thus all political institutions, laws and traditions, art and philosophy, religion and morality hinge on the nature of a particular method of production and the nature of relations that obtains between the owners of means of production and the workers engaged in such production. Marx mentions five stages of human history, namely, the primitive communal system, the slave system, the feudal system, the capitalist system, and socialist system. Except the last one, all these systems came and went yielding place to new ones. Needless to say that the gradual process was on the progressive lines of man-power.
In the case of the first one there was no class exploitation, because the produce could maintain the bare subsistence of the people, there being no surplus which is root factor of exploitation. It applies equally to the last stage, namely socialism, because there the surplus was not in the hands of the few at the head but was distributed among the people! In the period of slave system, the means of production were rude and primitive and there was a need for a change for better means. So came better methods of agriculture and with it came the feudal system which replaced the slave system.
Thus feudalism brought in its trail new laws, new religion and new philosophy. But the mode of production in the feudal system proved outmoded with the emergence of the Commercial Revolution and Industrial Revolution, which brought in the capitalist system where the industrial workers were engaged in the production for the benefit of the capitalist few who won the industries and factories. Like the feudal system, the capitalist system too proved unworkable and this was replaced by the workers themselves in a violent revolution in Russia in , whereupon the workers themselves came to own the industries and factories.
Socialism is bound to remain permanent because it is better than any other system, because here the wealth will go to the state, not to any group. Other factors like geography and population play a minor role in history. Economic factor may be just one of the factors, but never the sole or only factor. The material factors loomed so large before him that he made a too simplistic solution of a very complicated problem. We know that the Ramayana war did not relate to economic factor. It arose and ended over Sita. Here Marx must prove a false prophet. But in defence of Marx we may say that he did not totally ignore the other factors germane to the historical process. He only gave importance to the economic factors. Marxism is a five-dimensioned philosophy, namely dialectical materialism, historical materialism, class-struggle, surplus value and theory of revolution.
We have studied the first two. Here we shall take up the third one, namely the class-struggle. There was a group consciousness-or class in every stage of history and its concomitant opposite class. These two classes conflicted and clashed in all ages in different forms. Each time ended whether in a revolutionary reconstruction of the society at large or in the common run of the contending classes. We get a very clear definition of class from V. That society had no class conflict, because there was no surplus wealth to appropriate or exploit with. So there was no class-struggle in the primitive stage of human civilisation.
With the coming of the pastoral stage the society got divided on the basis of the owning the herds of cattle and the opposite side without these. The apple of discord was the private property of the cattle. This was the beginning of the class war. As man settled with agriculture on an improved scale, the land became the property and the class conflict veered round the possession of land. The land-owners and the landless population got polarised. The land-owners became the exploiting class and the landless the exploited ones. The inventions and improvement in technology created the feudal age where the barons exploited the serfs. But this would not continue forever.
The exploited class will rise against the exploiters and they would establish more equitable relations among the people. That too was not permanent. The all wall-washing French Revolution of overthrew feudalism. It took some more years for other countries to follow suit. The emergence of big machines as a fruit of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to big and heavy industries which made the mode of production simple and profits immense so that the factory lords let loose the steam-roller of oppression on the factory workers. Now we find the capitalists and the working classes. Marx called them bourgeoisie and proletariats. This stage saw the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few who reduced the working class in abject poverty.
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — bourgeoisie and proletariat. It is a period of exploitation of wage-labour by capital. But Marx was confident that the proletariats would one day rise in arms to terminate with the capitalist system. This would be the final revolution, because at the end of the revolution the proletariats will come to power and there would be no oppressed class. In this way, history will reach the stage of socialism which actually took place in Russia and China. In other countries of the world socialism has not come and these countries are still witnessing the conflict between the capitalist and the working class. Socialism cannot be halted anywhere.
It is bound to materialize all over the world. The state, which is an instrument of class-antagonism, will wither away with the oncoming of socialism where public ownership takes the place of private ownership and need-based distribution will operate in place of distribution according to work. When communism will pervade all human relationship, there will be no need for the state, which will wither away without the necessity of being killed. It is difficult to believe that history of all societies was worked by dispute and distrust of different classes. On the other hand, there was a spirit of fellow-feeling and cooperation among the various interests in the society.
The real and universal feeling was class-cooperation. And class-antagonism was few and far between. The second attack on Marxist class-struggle is that Marx magnified only the economic dispute and did not mention of religious, linguistic and ethnic ones which are present in all societies and as true as the sun and the moon. Revolution took place and wars were fought on other issues than economic. How could one shut his eyes to all such antagonism? So Marx did not give the correct picture in class struggle. In support of the Marxist class struggle we may conclude that Marx was not blind to the other issues omitted by him. He only emphasised on the economic front, since the bread and butter question is more vital than religion, fine arts or music. So we have to justify the Marxist doctrine of class-struggle.
The whole philosophy of Marxism is based on the theory of surplus value. In this matter Karl Marx took a leaf out of the book of the classical economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo, who are the acknowledged authorities of the theory of value. That theory says that labour is the source of the value of a commodity. In other words, the value of a commodity is determined by how much labour and time are spent on it. Although the value of a commodity is sometimes influenced by the forces of demand and supply, there is no denying the fact that in the long run the amount of man-power spent on the production of the commodity is the key factor to fix the price of the commodity. Marx called labour concealed labour and the value as crystallised labour.
So in the Marxist doctrine labour is also a commodity. In the capitalist system all the means of production are in the hands of the private factory lords called the capitalists. The worker sells his labour in the manufacture of the commodity for the capitalist owner in the machinery and with the raw material supplied by the capitalist factory owner. It was a sad truism that the wage paid to the workers was much below the price of the things sold in the market. As a matter of fact, there was a roaring gulf between the two, which enabled the capitalists to pocket a huge difference called the surplus. The surplus amount is worked as the difference between the earning of the workers and the sale price of the produced thing. As a result, the capitalists exploit the surplus for his own private gains.
The capitalists rolled in wealth and the workers were to be content with bare subsistence. This system continues until the workers rise in uprising and overthrow the capitalist order by a classless society called socialism. Thus Marx encourages a revolution of the nature of the Bolshevik Revolution in and the Communist Revolution in China in The theory of surplus value comes under heavy criticism on the ground that Karl Marx distorted the relation that exist between the rich ruling class and the working class. The industrialists actually work for the benefit of the workers and launch several welfare schemes.
Even effective legislations are enacted to reach the maximum benefits to the toiling and depressed classes. In the past and the present there existed goodwill and cooperation among all sections of the people in the society. Exploitations and oppressions were few and far between. The revolutions that took place in Russia in and in China in were not because of economic exploitations but because of the evil effects of the First World War in Russia and the evil effects of the Second World War in China. If economic factor was the real cause, there could have been similar events in England, France, Germany or the USA. All the same, the theory of surplus value had some welcome aspects. It was the inculcation of the doctrine of surplus value that made the working class conscious of their legitimate rights.
His teachings opened the eyes of the capitalists also in the sense that they softened their rigour of oppression and evolved a policy of ameliorating the condition of the workers. So Karl Marx did not prove a false prophet. This is the bright side of the theory of surplus value. The fifth dimension of Marxism is the theory of revolution. Now we shall make a detailed study of it. The Marxian theory of revolution is the direct outcome of historical materialism, according to which all progress in the society go on the economic lines and on the modes of production. This would ultimately give rise to social revolution. From the forms of development of the forces of production these relations turn into their fetters.
Then comes the period of social revolution. The ratio of dialectical materialism, historical materialism and class- struggle is that in different stages of human history there is conflict between two forces, be it slavery, feudalism or capitalist system. This class struggle is marked by the fights between the exploiters and the exploited. In the seventeenth century, feudalism was replaced by capitalism. The revolution of France in overthrew the feudalist order and created capitalism. This became the established system all over the world until when the working class people overthrew the capitalists and captured power in Russia. This was repeated in China in Both Russia and China set up socialism, which is the most perfect and the final stage in the evolution of human history.
Socialism will come in the world in a bloody way as it did in Russia and China. Thus Marx not only preached socialism but revolution also. Since there is no private property or private gain, there will be no surplus value. So the Marxian revolution will terminate for ever private enterprise and enthrone public undertaking and everything public. The final stage in Russia and China was achieved by violence. But Marx felt that revolution could be either violent or non-violent Marxist class-struggle reaches its finale in the revolution by the oppressed and exploited class. The other countries of the world are now passing through the capitalist system where a class-struggle is going on between the capitalists and the working class.
All these states will switch over to socialism by effecting a revolution. Marx thus poses as the most outstanding prophet of the twenty-first century. The Marxist theory of revolution could not go unchallenged. Marx would have us believe that, in order to break down the capitalist society, revolution will take place in the most industrially advanced countries like England and Germany. This has not yet taken place. On the other hand, revolution took place and socialism was created in industrially backward countries like Russia and China. In the second place, the critics felt that big changes are possible not by a revolution by the masses but by a change-over effected by the key politicians alone.
In recent years socialism was overthrown from Russia in and Russia became what she had been before socialism. If socialism could be reversed by a slow game, there is no reason why it cannot be brought in by a similar slow dose. Force cannot hold a state together. What holds the state together is the common good of the people. Lastly, what happened in Russia in is against the dream of V. The USSR once again became Russia. Communism has been thrown in the wind, and socialism went on the reverse gear. Thus Marxism suffered a major setback before our very eyes. Marxism is present […]. Karl Marx, a German born philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, and journalist, is best known for his published works that form the basis of Marxism Ideology: A Marxist Perspective.
Conflict theories focus attention on the supremacy of some social groups by others. Social order is seen as built on exploitation and control by dominant groups and social change is viewed as happening quickly and in a muddled manner as subordinate groups displace dominant groups Ritzer, Conflict theory can be seen as an evolution […]. Friedrich Engels outlines a theory of communism that demands a violent revolution for its fulfillment in his Principles of Communism. He considers the state of modern European workers, characterized in his work by propertylessness and a lack of security, to be more deplorable than ever before.
Although he claims that a peaceful revolution is […]. Throughout this paper, the basic principles and world view of each of these theories will be covered, as well as some of their weaknesses. Similarities and differences of the two will be […]. Introduction The problem to the issue of giving out socialist ideas is the perception that poverty is something natural to human beings. It is usually caused as a result of rapid growth in population that surpasses the amount of food produced. This was basically what was stipulated by Thomas Malthus in his publication titled the […].
Categorized as the father of communism, Karl Marx shared many beliefs as an economist, journalist, theorist and most importantly a philosopher. As a fellow Hegelian, Marx believed in the dialectical method, the thought of implementing a new idea with an old one to create a new principle. His critique that dialectics should not accept the […]. Throughout time Europe has usually stayed tense with each other due to greed and poor leadership. With this tension and poor leadership, it can cause the citizens within the nation to become disgruntled. History is a tool to give […]. To maintain a sufficient society, the members of the population must abide by the accepted norms of behavior. In several instances, norms are typically enforced rather consistently.
On the other hand, the rules that the society agreed upon are much more meaningful. They are arranged into laws, which are then executed by the government. In […]. Capitalism according to Marx and Engel in the communist manifesto is viewed as a class-based model in the society where individuals are divided into classes based on wealth. The class separation results in class struggle and competition. The capitalism system first causes exploitation of those providing labour that according to Marx and Engel belongs to […]. Karl Marx is considered to be one of the most influential and controversial sociologists of all time. Marx was born in Prussia in the year to Jewish parents. His father was a successful lawyer, devoted to the struggle for a Prussian constitution.
His […]. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different conditions. In the underlying two […]. Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.
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