Analysis of the Marxist Philosophy

A Term Paper

Presented to

Prof. Ma. Cecilia B. Tangian

Department of History

CASS, MSU IIT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

History 70 (Philosophy of History)

Second Semester, SY 2014-2015

By

Mary Claire A. Real

March 16, 2015

ABSTRACT

Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly

influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists.

Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew out of various

sources, and the official philosophy in the Soviet Union, which enforced a rigid reading of

Marx called dialectical materialism. Marxist philosophy is not a strictly defined sub-field of

philosophy, because the diverse influence of Marxist theory has extended into fields as varied

as aesthetics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, theoretical psychology and philosophy of

science, as well as its obvious influence on political philosophy and the philosophy of history.

The key characteristics of Marxism in philosophy are its materialism. According to Marx, the

economy formed the foundation upon which all other elements of society are based. Karl

Marx's economic works are based heavily on the Classical economics of his day. That being

the case, Marxism is a worldview and method that focuses on class relations and societal

conflict that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, and a dialectical view

of social transformation. Marxist methodology uses economic and sociopolitical inquiry and

applies that to the critique and analysis of the development of capitalism and the role of class

struggle in systemic economic change. Moreover, Marxism builds on a materialist

understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the necessary economic

activities required to satisfy the material needs of human society. and its commitment to

political practice as the end goal of all thought.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 2

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .......................................................................................................... 3

Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................... 4

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 5

Research Methodology .......................................................................................................... 6

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ........................................................................................................... 7

III. WHO IS KARL MARX? ............................................................................................................................ 12

IV. WHAT IS MARXISM? ............................................................................................................................. 15

V. WHAT ARE THE TWO SOCIAL CLASSES AND THE FORMS OF CLASS STRUGGLE? .................................. 20

VI. HOW IMPORTANT IS MARXIST THEORY TO THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE? ................................................ 28

VII. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF MARXIST PHILOSOPHY TO THE WORLD’S POLITICAL ECONOMY? .............. 34

VIII. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY/CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 40

REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................42

INTRODUCTION

Karl Marx was the most influential modern thinker. He was certainly the greatest

social scientist of the last two centuries. Marx most be numbered among the founders of the

modern study of history, sociology, and economics. But he is most often remembered as the

prophet of proletarian revolution. Furthermore, Marxism is a philosophy of history yet also an

economic doctrine. Marxism is also a theory of revolution and the basic explanation for how

societies go through the process of change. Marxists believe that they and they alone have the

analytical tools to understand the process of historical change, as well the key to predicting

the future. As Marx put it, “Communism is the riddle of history solved.” Marxists also

believe that they and they alone have an empirical, scientific approach to human history and

society. Marx argued that the state exists primarily as an instrument of coercion; Or to put it

another way, no fundamental change can occur in the political sphere without a social and

economic revolution. For Marx, political life is an illusion, and political life is only veil for

the real struggle. To Marx, the fundamental division in every society is that between the

exploiters and the exploited, between the owners of the means of production those who have

to sell their labor to the owners to earn a living.

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Statement of the Problem

1. Who is Karl Marx?

2. What is Marxism?

3. What are the two social classes and the forms of class struggle?

4. How important is the Marxist Theory to the Social Structure?

5. What is the impact of Marxist philosophy to the world’s political economy?

Objectives of the Study

1. To know who is Karl Marx.

2. To learn what is Marxism.

3. To acquire knowledge about the social classes and the different kinds of

class struggle.

4. To have an idea on the importance of the Marxist theory and its contribution

to the Social Structure.

5. To comprehend and realize the impact of Marxism to the world’s political

economy.

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Significance of the Study

This study will administer a cleared and simpler analysis and explanation of Marxism.

This study will also show the essence of the Marxist philosophy and this will be a significant

endeavor in understanding the philosophy. This study will also be beneficial to students in

History, Political Science and Economics. Moreover, this analysis will provide ideas and

vivid explanations base on my capability and understanding to a certain student or within this

institution in accordance to the said subject.

Research Methodology

A descriptive research methodology was used for this study. A collection of data was

administered from several sources. The researcher also used comparisons for some ideas,

research for more books, clippings, journals and digital books to gather more knowledge

about the topic. Lastly, the researcher did several analysis to reach vividly the objective of this

term paper.

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II. Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the related literature and studies after the thorough and in-depth

search done by the researcher. This will also present the analysis and conceptual framework

of Marx to fully understand the research to be done.

Related Literature

Karl Marx was not of working class stock, but the son of a well-off lawyer in the

Rhineland city of Trier. His life story can be told in broad strokes, since for our

purposes, Marx was a man of thought not action. He began his career as a university student

aiming at a law degree and later aiming at a professorship in philosophy. If the situation in

Germany had been different, if the Prussian government would have allowed it, he most

probably would have been a professor. Instead, he became an intellectual outsider and critic,

a professor of revolution. He became a teacher of revolutionaries rather than a revolutionary

himself.

Graduating with a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Berlin in 1836, Karl Marx

began to write for a liberal weekly newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung, and his articles began to

gain him widespread attention. The Prussian censors closed down the journal in March, 1843

and Karl Marx found himself unemployed. For the rest of his life, Marx made a living as a

free­lance writer. For many years he was the European correspondent for Horace Greeley's

newspaper, the New York Tribune. All in all, Marx wrote about 500 articles for the Tribune.

He deprecated his newspaper writing: “The continual newspaper muck annoys me. It takes a

lot of time, disperses my efforts and in the final analysis is nothing.”

He was exiled from Germany for radical activities in 1849, a few months later he was

asked to leave France. After a brief time in Brussels, he settled in London in 1851. For the

rest of his life, Marx and his growing family lived in London, often in extreme poverty and

isolation. There was considerable revolutionary unrest throughout Europe in 1848, but the era

of revolution was over. Marx never accepted this. For the rest of his life he looked for signs of

the inevitable overthrow of capitalism. For the rest of his life, he worked in isolation writing

drafts of his book Das Kapital. Although he lived in London for almost forty years, he never

felt at home there or even learned the English language. He would go to the reading room of

the British museum every day and read and make notes for his researches into economic

matters.

In his early London years, the family was very poor. His wife had to pawn her jewelry

to pay the rent. Sometimes Marx could not even leave his lodgings because his suit was at the

pawnbrokers. His wife, Jenny von Westphalen, a charming aristocratic woman who lived

with Karl through thick and thin, suffered through grinding poverty because her husband was

not much of a provider. Marx wrote to Engels about his wife’s “floods of tears the whole

night long which tire my patience and make me angry. I feel pity for my wife.’’ (Mazlish,

1987) Karl Marx wrote to his friend Friedrich Engels in 1852:

My house is a hospital and the crisis is so disrupting that it requires all my attention.

My wife is ill, Jennychen is ill and Lenchen has a kind of nervous fever. I couldn’t and can’t

call the doctor, because I have no money for the medicine. For ten days I have managed to

feed the family on bread and potatoes, but it is doubtful whether I can get hold of any today.

How can I deal with all this devilish filth? (Rius, 2003) Later on, as Marx published more and

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as his family friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels set up a pension, the Marx’s were better

off. Although he certainly loved his wife, Marx was not the sort of man to put his family

ahead of his writing. He later remarked that he had but one regret, if he “had the choice to

make again, he would not have married.” As one biographer of Marx, David McClellan

wrote, “the price of Marx’s vocation was high: of his seven children (one died at birth) only

two survived him, and both of these committed suicide.’’ (Mazlish, 1987) His family certainly

did not qualify as a model marriage: Marx was an avid collector of “French Postcards” and he

fathered at least one illegitimate child.

Few doubted Marx's intellectual gifts, but many found him to be a most difficult

personality. Marx was a fierce hater and he was a man given to sarcastic verbal attacks on all

who disagreed with him. Carl Schurz, a German American politician and personal friend of

President Abraham Lincoln commented:

Everyone who contradicted him he treated with abject contempt; Every argument that

he did not like he answered either with biting scorn at the unfathomable ignorance that had

prompted it, or with opprobrious aspersions upon the motives of him who had advanced it. I

have never seen a man whose bearing was so provoking and intolerable. Everyone who

contradicted him he treated with abject contempt. (Mazlish, 1987)

Marx directed his anger even more towards his fellow revolutionaries. Mikhail

Bakunin, his Russian rival and the founder of anarchist, said: “He called me a sentimental

idealist and he was right. I called him vain, treacherous, and morose; And I too was right.”

Theoretical Framework

The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions and the economic

activities required to satisfy society's material needs. It is understood that the form of

economic organization, or mode of production, gives rise to, or at least directly influences,

most other social phenomena – including social relations, political and legal systems, morality

and ideology. The economic system and these social relations form a base and superstructure.

As forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social

organization become inefficient and stifle further progress. As Karl Marx observed: "At a

certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with

the existing relations of production or this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms with

the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms

of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an

era of social revolution. 1

These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form

of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between

the minority (the bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the

population (the proletariat) who produce goods and services. Taking the idea that social

change occurs because of the struggle between different classes within society who are under

contradiction against each other, leads the Marxist analysis to the conclusion that capitalism

exploits and oppresses the proletariat, which leads to a proletarian revolution.

1 A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Introduction 1859

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Capitalism (according to Marxist theory) can no longer sustain the living standards of

the population due to its need to compensate for falling rates of profit by driving down wages,

cutting social benefits and pursuing military aggression. The socialist system would succeed

capitalism as humanity's mode of production through workers' revolution. According to

Marxism, especially arising from Crisis theory, Socialism is a historical necessity (but not an

inevitability)2

In a socialist society private property in the means of production would be superseded

by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of

private profits, but on the criteria of satisfying human needs – that is, production would be

carried out directly for use. As Engels observed: "Then the capitalist mode of appropriation in

which the product enslaves first the producer, and then appropriator, is replaced by the mode

of appropriation of the product that is based upon the nature of the modern means of

production; upon the one hand, direct social appropriation, as means to the maintenance and

extension of production on the other, direct individual appropriation, as means of subsistence

and of enjoyment.3

2 Free will, non-predestination and non-determinism are emphasized in Marx's famous quote "Men make their own history ..." The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx 1852. 3 Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chapter three 1882

III. Who is Karl Marx?

Karl Marx was one of the nine children born to Heinrich and Henrietta Marx. He was

born in the City of Trier, Germany on the 5th of May 1898. Marx comes from a family of

Jewish but then converted to Christianity due to his father’s career as a lawyer.

This concession was likely professional in reply to an 1815 law banning Jews from

high society, his father was baptized as a Lutheran rather than a Catholic because he ‘’equated

Protestantism with intellectual freedom.’’

Karl Marx was educated at home until he was 12 and attended a Jesuit high school in

Trier for five years from 1830 to 1835. In October 1835, Marx commenced his education at

the University of Bonn. Marx enthusiastically took part in student life because of the

university’s lively and rebellious culture but then, his father insisted that he enroll in a more

serious institution, the University of Berlin.

In the University of Berlin, he studied law and philosophy and was presented the

philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. Marx was not fascinated at first with Hegel, but he eventually

became involved with the Young Hegelians. In 1836, he was becoming more politically

passionate and he was secretly engaged to a sought-after woman from a respected family in

Trier who was four years older than him, Jenny von Westphalen. This, including his

increasing radicalism made his father furious.

Marx did not alight and received his doctorate from the University of Jena in 1841, but

his profound politics stopped him from acquiring a teaching position. In lieu, he started to

work as a journalist and in 1842, he turn out to be the editor of Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal

newspaper in Cologne.

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One year and three months later, he finally married Jenny von Westphalen and moved

to Paris. In 1843, the political heart of Europe is Paris, there along with Arnold Ruge, he

founded a political journal called Deutsch – Franzosische Jahrbucher (German-French

Annals). In August 1844, he met a contributor named Friedrich Engels, the two began writing

a criticism of the philosophy of Bruno Bauer, a Young Hegelian, and the result was published

in 1845 as the Holy Family.

Later that year, Marx transferred to Belgium after being expelled in France while

writing for another radical newspaper. In Brussels, he worked on his materialist conception of

history and refined the manuscript which was later published as The German Ideology. At the

start of 1846, Marx founded a Communist Correspondence Committee. Socialist in England

was inspired by his ideas and so held a confabulation and formed the Communist League.

During a Central Committee meeting in London in 1847, the assembly asked Marx

and Engels to write a declaration of the League’s position, the Manifesto of the Communist

Party. This was published in 1848, and shortly after in 1849, Marx was expelled from

Belgium.

From Belgium, Marx moved to London. In London, he founded the German Worker’s

Educational Society and a new headquarters for the Communist League. Also he still

continued his work as a journalist. Marx became increasingly focused on Capitalism and

economic theory, that being the case, he published the first volume of Das Kapital in 1867.

Marx spent the rest of his life writing and revising manuscripts for additional volumes, which

he did not complete unfortunately. However, the remaining two volumes were put together

and was published posthumously by Engels.

Marx passed away on March 14, 1883 in London due to Pleurisy. He is buried at

Highgate Cemetery in London. While his original grave is a nondescript stone, the

Communist Party of Great Britain hoisted a large tombstone along with a bust of Marx in

1954. The stone is engraved with the last line of the Communist Manifesto – ‘’ Workers of all

lands unite’’ as well as a quote from the Theses on Feurbach.

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IV. What is Marxism?

Marxism is a philosophy of history. It is also an economic doctrine. Marxism is also a

theory of revolution and the basic explanation for how societies go through the process of

change. Marxist believe that they and they alone have the analytical tools to understand the

process of historical change, as well as the key to predicting the future.

Marxism can be defined in two separate ways:

1. Critical Theory: a philosophical tool for analyzing and explaining social-

historical-political events, relationships, and ideologies.4

2. Prescriptive Method: An economic system meant to create human equality

and justice through economic equality and the elimination of personal

property. This element of Marxism is utopian; it believes it can permanently

eliminate certain types of human suffering by creating social equality.5

Marxism is a perspective that involves a number of differing ‘’sub-perspectives’’.

The main Marxist ideas are the following:

Marxism emphasize the idea that social life is based upon ‘’conflicts of

interest’’. The most fundamental and important of these conflicts is that

between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat.

4 Review of Marxism and The Communist Manifesto, Tom Drake, page 2 5 Review of Marxism and The Communist Manifesto, Tom Drake, page 3

The concept of social class is more than a descriptive category; social class is

used to explain how and why societies change. Class conflict represents a

process whereby change comes about through the opposition of social classes

as they pursue what they see to be their collective interest in society.

Marxism is a political theory whose main concern is to expose the political and

economic contradictions inherent in Capitalism. And to point the way towards

the establishment of a future Communist society.

Radically there are considered to be two great classes in Capitalist society.

(The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat)

1. Bourgeoisie – those who own and control the means of production

in society.

2. Proletariat – those who simply sell their labor power in the market

place of Capitalism.

However, at any given moment, a number of class fractions will exist, the Bourgeoisie

may be subdivided into;

1. Haute (High) – owners of large companies

2. Petit (Small) – owners of small business

3. Professions – people who help control the day-to-day running of

industries (while not the owner).

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Marx characterized human history in terms of the way in which ownership of

the means of production was the most important single variable involved in the

characterization of each distinct period in history.

Five Major Epochs:

a) Primitive Communism– characteristic of early human

history where people held everything in common.

b) The Ancient Epoch (slave society) – societies based

upon slavery where the means of production was owned

and controlled by an aristocratic elite.

c) Feudal Society – where land is the most important

means of production, and owned or controlled by an

aristocratic class.

d) Capitalist society – where technological development

has allowed a bourgeoisie class to exploit factory forms

of production for their private gain. The main relations

of production in this epoch are between employers and

employees.

e) Communist Society – the means of production are held

‘’in common’’ for the benefit of everyone in the society.

In this society, class conflict is finally resolved and so

this represents the ‘’end of history’’ since no further

form of society can ever develop.

Marxist tend to divide Capitalist society into two related ‘’spheres of

influence’’.

A. Economic Base (infrastructure)

B. Political and Ideological Superstructure

Those who own and control the means of production are powerful in such

society because they are able to use wealth to enhance and expand their power.

However, this economically powerful class has to translate this power into

political power and ideological power.

Marxist use the concept of hegemony-leadership with the consent of the led to

express this relationship. There are two ways in which a ruling class can

consolidate its hegemony over other classes:

*Force/Repressive State Apparatuses (ex. Police and Army)

*Ideology/Ideological State Apparatuses (mass media, social workers,

teachers, and a form of ‘’soft policy’’).

Marxist theory emphasizes the total critique of Capitalist society.

Individuals are not the focal point of Marxist theories, ‘’individuals’’ are only

significant when they act together as a class.

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Alienation is used to refer to the way in which Capitalist society degrades both

the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Proletariat are alienated from the

society because although they are responsible for producing goods co-

operatively, the fruits of their labor are appropriated by the Bourgeoisie for

their private use. The Bourgeoisie are alienated from their fellow human

beings because of their exploitation and oppression of the rest of the society.

V. What are the two Social Classes and the forms of Class Struggle?

1. Bourgeoisie: This term in the Marxist vocabulary, simply means Capitalist, or

management of those who control the means of production.

2. Proletariat: The industrial working class – wage labor. But Marxist look very

carefully at who belongs here – no artisans, no peasants, and no farm laborers. The

Proletariat is the factory workers ‘’those who have nothing but their hands.’’6

In Capitalism, two social classes confront each other. The Proletariat and the

Bourgeoisie. The contradiction between these classes is the immediate reflection of the

significant contradiction of Capitalism, the contradiction between capital and labor.

1. Bourgeoisie – one of the basic classes of the capitalist society. In the Communist

Manifesto, Friedrich Engels describes the Bourgeoisie as:

‘’By bourgeoisie is to understood the class of modern capitalist who own the

means of social production and exploit wage – labor.’’ 7

The primary economic trait of the Bourgeoisie is the ownership of means and

production and the attainment of wage-labor. Economic supremacy leads to political

supremacy and at the same time enables the Bourgeoisie as the governing class to force

society to accept its own ideology as the dominant one.

The economic position of the Bourgeoisie and the resultant economic and political

consequences lead to a number of contradictions, which affect both the whole system of

6 Karl Marx and Marxism, page 5 7 Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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capitalist production relations and the relations within the Bourgeoisie as a class. In contrast

to all the preceding exploiting classes, the Bourgeoisie is forced to revolutionize constantly its

production forces, to develop production and technology and step up exploitation. This

continues to increase the economic contradiction between the capitalist and the mass of the

exploited and at the same time creates the conditions for the organization of the exploited

masses, leading them to become aware of their common interest and the need for

revolutionary action. The competition and struggle leading to a concentration of production

and capital is then reflected also in the deepening contradictions within the bourgeoisie itself,

above all, in the permanent tendency of the large bourgeoisie and the monopolies to swallow

up the small capitalist.

The process of constant socialization of production increasingly clashes with the

contradictory process. This deepening contradiction becomes one of the objective reasons for

the overthrow of the capitalist production relations and the victory of socialist revolution, in

which the working class plays the conclusive role.

2. Working Class – ‘’By the proletariat is understood the class of modern wage –

earning workers, who, not having their own means of production are forced, to be

able to live, to sell their labor force.’’8

- ‘’ The proletariat in the Marxist-Leninist sense includes all

categories of wage – earners who are deprived of production

means and thus are force to sell their labor, are exploited by

8Ibid p.25

capitalist entrepreneurs, and who are creating surplus value

increase the value of capital.’’9

The working class does not own any means of production and is therefore

forced to sell their labor force that is the objective economic condition of its decisive

hostility towards exploitation and towards the social order which engenders it. The

working class is not burdened with the psychology of private ownership, and therefore

is the most revolutionary force within the capitalist society.

The working class is the creator of the basic values produced by capitalist

society, it creates the surplus value which results in the increased value of capital

which is then appropriated by the capitalists who are thus enabled to continue their

exploitation.

The working class is the most progressive social class but it can assert its

progressive qualities systematically only in conditions in which the private ownership

of production means, as well as exploitation, has been abolished, that is, after

obstacles to a continuous and even development of technology, production and

productivity have been removed in favor of the immediate producers.

The participation in work involving the most advanced technology and method

of production, means also that the working class works in large teams. That, creates

objective conditions for the development of the further characteristics which

determine the historic mission of the working class. The factory, educates the workers

to accept discipline, self-discipline and organization. In this the working class differs

9 Problems of Peace and Socialist No.5/1961, p.84

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from the other groups in capitalism which work for the greater part alone or in small

teams. Collective work educates the working class also to become aware of common

interest with other workers, and the need for unity in action against the exploiting

classes. Experiences gained in battles fought against the capitalist teach the workers

that their strength lies, above all, in unity, in subordinating their personal interest to

the interest of the whole class. In this way, class consciousness grows out of the

objective conditions, as a result of the economic status of the working class, and out of

the awareness of their common interest.

The objectively given conditions of the economic and social status of the

working class mold its class mentality and lead it to class awareness. However, they

create conditions which make the working class willing to accept progressive

ideology, to become the systematic exponent of Marxism-Leninism. The pressure of

class hostility and the intolerable position of the proletariat in the capitalist society

give rise to various forms of resistance to the employers, the state authorities and in

extreme cases to the whole regime. In this struggle the workers may reach the early

stages of class militancy, but they are not capable of arriving at the socialist conviction

that there is an irreconcilable conflict between their interest and the capitalist order, at

the conviction that capitalism must be abolished, that a revolution and a socialist

dictatorship is necessary.

The status of the working class is such that spontaneously it inclines towards

socialism. But socialist awareness could arise only when this spontaneous feeling and

movement was put on a scientific foundation, when it united with scientific socialist

theory. The Marxian proletarian parties are the embodiment of this unity of socialist

theory and working class movement. The leadership of the masses consists in the

purposeful guidance of the working class and the working masses by the party in the

sense of the objectively given historical laws - towards socialism.

Forms of Class Struggle

The existence of classes is connected only with a certain historical phases of

development of production and that Class Struggle leads necessarily to the dictatorship of the

proletariat and that the dictatorship itself is only a transitional stage leading to the abolition of

classes.

Classes and class struggle are, above all, the product of economic development. Karl

Marx proved that the apportioning of wealth in the sphere of distribution is the product of the

distribution of ownership in production.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels elaborated the theory of classes and of class struggle

using historical and economic material.

A comprehensive definition of class, in the spirit of Marx was given by V .1. Lenin:

"Classes are large groups of people which differ from each other by the position they

hold in a given historical system of social production, by their relation to means of production

(for the greater part safeguarded and laid down by law), their role in the social organization of

labor and thus by their methods of acquiring and the size of their share of social wealth at

their disposal. Classes are such groups of people of which one can appropriate the work of the

other, because it holds a different place in a given system of social economy".10

10 V.I Lenin, The Great Initiative, Prague, 1946, p.5

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This definition describes not only the essential feature of Marxist teaching concerning

class membership (relation to means production), but it takes into account also a number of

further economic factors which make possible a more detailed analysis of classes. But in its

analysis of the class structure, Marxism does not limit itself to economic factors alone. It

investigates also the subjective and ideological aspects which play a part in the formation of

social consciousness. The scientific character of the Marxist theory of classes is the result of

the fact that it is capable of discovering the most significant characteristic which underlies the

most complex variety of social relations, all the objective and subjective factors which cause

the division of society into classes’ strata and groups.

"The history of all the societies up till now is a history of class struggle", wrote Karl

Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto. They had in mind the history of

mankind since the emergence of class society, i.e. from the time that society became divided

into the exploited and the exploiters.

Marx did not invent class struggle in order to find scientific support for his political

conviction. Marx did not even discover it, class struggle was recognized and described long

before him. Marx's merit lies in the fact that he proved conclusively that the division of

society into classes is nothing "natural", "divine" or "eternal", but that it is the result of the

economic situation people find themselves in.

Class struggle is therefore an objective historical law which has its objective

foundation in the contradiction of production relations and remains in effect as long as these

objective differences are in existence. For this reason class struggle is not only a question of

subjective wishes, not merely a problem of an ethical character. Therefore it cannot be

abolished by some kind of ‘’humanitarian’’ measures, neither can there be a true or alleviation

of class struggle as long as there exist the objective contradiction which engenders it.

Class struggle has been in existence throughout the period of history characterized by

a division of society into classes. For a long time, had the character of a spontaneous struggle

in which the suppressed classes aimed at the immediate improvement of their economic

conditions.

Economic struggle is also one of the first forms of the class struggle of the proletariat.

The working class fought to begin with by means of strikes and mass campaigns for the

improvement of their economic situation, the raising of wages, shortening of working hours

etc. But economic struggle even though it is the earliest form of class struggle and is the

immediate consequence of social contradictions and of the interest of the proletariat, by itself

cannot lead to the economic liberation of the working class. The economic supremacy of the

capitalists is conditioned by and continually renewed through their political power. For this

reason political struggle for the overthrow of the political power of the Bourgeoisie and the

introduction of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the highest form of class struggle. Here no

longer stands a fraction of a class against the fraction of another class, but the confrontation is

between the classes as such. It is the Marxist party which leads the working class to become

aware of the possibilities of the class struggle and the subordination of the economic struggle

to political actions. The party provides the political organization and gives the working class

its own ideology. I.e. the recognition of social laws, the realization of its own interest and the

recognition of the goals and the means to be employed to reach these objectives. The

economic, ideological and political struggle form a unity and culminate in a socialist

revolution and the introduction of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which overthrows the

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political and thereby also the economic supremacy of the bourgeoisie and thus creates

conditions for the setting up of a classless, socialist society.

VI. How important is the Marxist Theory to the Social Structure?

The concept of a social structure has often played a large role in social theorizing. The

general idea is that society consist of an ensemble of durable, regulative structures within the

context of which individuals live and act. Sometimes structures are interpreted functionally:

the ensemble of structures constitute a system, and discrete structures satisfy important social

functions.

For Marx, the analysis of social class, class structures and changes in those structures

are key to understanding capitalism and other social systems or modes of production. In the

Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels comment that ‘’the history of all hitherto existing

society is the history of class struggle.’’

Marx thought that classes cannot be defined by beginning observation and analysis

from individuals, and building a definition of a social class as an aggregate of individuals with

particular characteristics. For example, to say that the upper class is all families with incomes

of $500,000 or more is not an adequate manner of understanding social class. The latter is a

stratification approach that begins by examining the characteristics of individuals, and from

this amassing a view of social class structure as a whole. This stratification approach often

combines income, education, and social prestige or status into an index of socioeconomic

status, creating a gradation from upper class to lower class. The stratification approach is

essentially a classification, and for Marx classes have meaning only as they are real groups in

the social structure. Groups mean interaction among members, common consciousness, and

similar types of behavior that are connected in some way with group behavior.

31

Categories such as upper class, middle class and lower class, where those in each

category may be similar only in the view of the researcher are not fully Marxian in nature.

Classes are groups, and Marx discusses the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, not

individual capitalists and individual workers. As individuals, these people may be considered

members of a class, but class only acquires real meaning when it the class as a whole and the

social relationships defining them that are considered.

In terms of individuals as members of classes, they are members of a class as they act as

members of that class. For example, Marx notes that burghers or members of the bourgeoisie

in early capitalist Europe:

the class in its turn achieves an independent existence over against the individuals, so

that the latter find their conditions of existence predestined, and hence have their position in

life and their personal development assigned to them by their class, become subsumed under

it.

To the extent that individuals are considered in the social system, they are defined by their

class. For Marxists, class structures exist as objective facts, and a researcher could examine

class and membership of a class, but would have to understand the nature of the whole social

and economic structure in order to do so. To the extent that these members act in society, they

act as representatives of their class, although Marx would leave some room for individual

freedom of action.

Classes are formed by the forces that define the mode of production, and classes are an

aspect of the relations of production. That is, classes do not result from distribution of

products (income differences, lender and borrower), social evaluation (status honor), or

political or military power, but emerge right from relationship to the process of production.

Classes are an essential aspect of production, the division of labor and the labor process.

Classes are constituted by the relationship of groupings of individuals to the

ownership of private property in the means of production. This yields a model of class

relations which is basically dichotomous [since some own and others do not, some work and

others live off the fruits of those who labor]: all class societies are built around a primary line

of division between two antagonistic classes, one dominant and the other subordinate.

In describing various societies, Marx lists a number of classes and (antagonistic) social

relationship such as "freeman and slave, lord and serf, oppressor and oppressed" that

characterize different historical stages or modes of production. While Marx also mentions

various ranks and orders of society, such as vassals and knights, the forms of struggle between

classes are primarily viewed as occurring around control and use of property, the means of

production, and production as a whole, and the manner in which these are used. The basic

struggle concerns who performs the labor, and who obtains the benefits from this labor.

An elite is not necessarily a class for Marx. Examples of elites are military elites,

priests or religious leaders, and political elites – these may very powerful and oppressive, and

may exercise formal rule at a certain time or place. An elite could form a class, but a political

or military elite is not necessarily a class – an elite may be based on recruitment (rather than

ownership) and may not have much ultimate say in determining the direction of society. Or

the elite may be based on religious, military, political or other structures. This would

especially be the case in pre-capitalist or non-capitalist societies. For Marx, and especially in

capitalism, domination came from control of the economy or material factors, although it was

not confined to this. Thus, the dominant class was the class which was able to own, or at least

33

control, the means of production or property which formed the basis for wealth. This class

also had the capability of appropriating much of the social surplus created by workers or

producers. An elite may have such power, but might only be able to administer or manage,

with real control of the means of production in the hands of owners.

At several points, Marx notes how the class defines itself, or is a class only as it acts in

opposition to other classes. Referring to the emergence of the burghers or bourgeoisie as a

class in early capitalist Europe, Marx notes how the separate individuals form a class only in

so far as they have to carry on a common battle against another class; otherwise they are on

hostile terms with each other as competitors.

Both competition and unity can thus characterize a class; there can be very cut-throat

competition among capitalists, but when the property relations and existence of the bourgeois

class is threatened, the bourgeoisie acts together to protect itself. This becomes apparent when

rights of private property or the ability of capital to operate freely comes under attack. The

reaction of the bourgeoisie may involve common political action and ideological unity, and it

is when these come together that the bourgeoisie as a class exists in its fullest form. In

commenting on France, Marx notes that the French peasantry may be dispersed and lacking in

unity, but

In so far as millions of families live under economic conditions of existence that

separate their mode of life, their interests and their culture from those of the other classes, and

put them in hostile opposition to the latter, they form a class.

It is when the peasantry as a group is in opposition to other classes that the peasantry form a

class. These quotes do not provide an example of the same with respect to the proletariat, but

in his other writings Marx noted that the proletariat is a true class when organized in

opposition to the bourgeoisie, and creating a new society.

Class, for Marx, is defined as a (social) relationship rather than a position or rank in

society. In Marx's analysis, the capitalist class could not exist without the proletariat, or vice-

versa. The relationship between classes is a contradictory or antagonistic relationship, one that

has struggle, conflict, and contradictory interests associated with it. The structure and basis of

a social class may be defined in objective terms, as groups with a common position with

respect to property or the means of production. However, Marx may not be primarily

interested in this definition of class. Rather, these classes have meaning in society and are

historical actors only to the extent that they do act in their own interests, and in opposition to

other classes. Unlike much other sociology, Marx's classes are defined by class conflict.

For Marx, what distinguishes one type of society from another is it’s mode of

production, and each mode of production engenders a distinctive class system in which, one

class controls and directs the process of production while another class is, or other classes are,

the direct producers and providers of services to the dominant class. The relations between the

classes are antagonistic because they are in conflict over the appropriation of what is

produced, and in certain periods, when the mode of production itself is changing as a result of

developments in technology and in the utilization of labor, such conflicts became extreme and

a new class challenges the dominance of the existing rulers of society. The dominant class,

according to Marx, controls not only a material production but also the production of ideas; it

35

thus establishes a particular cultural style and influence as a result of changes in the mode of

production generate political doctrines and movements in opposition to the ruling class.11

The theory of class is at the center of Marx’s social theory, for it is the social classes

formed within a particular mode of production that tend to establish a particular form of state,

animate political conflicts, and bring about major changes in the structure of society.12

11 Social class. (2015). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550940/social-class 12 Social class. (2015). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550940/social-class

VII. What is the impact of Marxist philosophy to the world’s political economy?

Denigrate by some, misunderstood by others and celebrated as one of the world's great

thinkers by many more, Marx continues to be a divisive and much discussed individual.

Both a scholar and a political activist, Marx addressed a wide range of political as well

as social issues, and is known for, among other things, his analysis of history. The

interpretations of his theories, particularly those on political economy, have in the course of

history generated decades of debate, inspired revolutions and cast him as both devil and deity

in political and academic circles.

As defined, Marxism is a political economic system based on the central belief that

wealth and private property is detrimental and at times dangerous for individuals. Marxists

strive to control the factors of production in a socialist system in order to gain enough

infrastructure to support a communist utopia, where private property and a government do not

exist. Marxism is divided into two polar camps of thought; one which does not believe in the

possibility of a Communist Utopia (as Marx never did) and another which believes that a

classless society can be created not only in relation to the means of production but in inter-

class relations as well. This divide is labeled as a schism between Marxists and Communists.

Karl Marx believed that the world consisted of a set pattern of history. He believed

that history had a few important eras highlighting the different relationships between different

sets of people. Inequality has been common to all these relationships. He believed that the

world needed to complete a particular stage of history before moving on to the next stage.

37

Therefore, feudalism was necessary for capitalism, and capitalism is necessary for the

proposed next stage. Marx believed that inequality would become so widespread due to

capitalism that the world would have to undergo a chaotic revolution due to his belief that the

capitalist system could not support itself. He believed that there was a fixed amount of wealth

in the world and that the capitalist system made capitalists accumulate private property to no

end. He argued that the division of labor which is an important component of capitalism

divides people into workers of different jobs; this categorization naturally led to inequality.

After capitalism set up the necessary infrastructure, the world would move to socialism where

the state would control individuals, destroying the division of labor to end inequality. After

the world had stabilized, it would move to communism, where people no longer had a need to

accumulate private property since everyone would in a sense become Renaissance men and

women who would be bound by no one occupation. Anyone could work as they saw fit and

provide for the rest of society. This is Marx's idea of the communist utopia.

The idea of the individual and how the individual should be treated has changed

throughout history. In the middle ages, the individual was servant to both lord as well as God.

Individuals labored on the land in order to produce resources for the lords, who would then

forward it to the kings, who were supposedly leaders chosen by God. The Catholic Church ran

in a rather hierarchical system with Jesus as the head and individuals making up the body.

Marxists believe that the ultimate goal is to free the individual from the state. All throughout

history, people have been split into different classes due to inequality. These inequalities

cause conflicts between individuals of different classes. He argued that under capitalism, this

is no exception because the division of labor divides people into different jobs, continuing this

inequality. The accumulation of private property and state intervention exacerbates this

problem even further. He believed that the state needs to strictly control individuals until the

society comes out of the capitalist system, and then it can move towards the communist utopia

where individuals rule themselves without a state that caters to the interests of the wealthy

specifically, but rather a vehicle that caters to the interests of the majority under strict

Democratic control. Contrary to popular assumption Marx does not promote the dissolution of

governing entities but rather to change them into entities of protection rather than

exploitation. With this achieved that which was previously recognized as the State apparatus

has been replaced with what is commonly referred to as a Workers State. Hence, it would be a

misnomer for the new apparatus to be called a "State".

The state is the institution that regulates the distribution of wealth and private

property. Therefore, the role of the state was an important topic for those who were interested

in how this distribution was to be handled. Also, throughout the history of the world, there

had always been the question of how to protect and mediate the actions of individuals. It

makes no sense for individuals to come together in a society unless there is some sort of

coherence between the wants, needs, and abilities of those individuals. The state is the power

that regulates these things.

The classical view of the state is the idea of an institution with sovereign power over

its citizens. In other words, a state has power (which is the monopoly over force and violence)

to make sure its citizens act within the bounds of the law. An institution is sovereign if it

answers to no higher power. Marx believed that the different structures of the state systems

throughout history have allowed for inequality and class conflict. Therefore, he believed that

the state would not be necessary after capitalism had been overthrown. He believed that the

current state supports the capitalist system which perpetuates the exploitation of workers by

39

their employers. He believed that a revolution by the proletariat was required in order to set

up a new socialist government which would organize the necessary social and technical

infrastructure built by capitalism to advance to the communist utopia. Therefore, even though

he argued against the capitalist system, he believed that the capitalist state is a necessary

institution before the creation of the socialist state and eventually the communist utopia can

begin.

The idea of private property is regarded differently by the various political economists.

Marxists see private ownership of the Means of Production as unnecessary once inequality

has been destroyed. The accumulation of private property and capital is what drives

capitalism. Since capitalists need to compete in order to keep making profits, they must

choose to accumulate capital in order to live as capitalists (otherwise, they will end up as

workers themselves). It is the desire for private property itself that drives the capitalist system,

and therefore must be abolished in the communist utopia. Marx did not necessarily advocate

the state to actively intervene in order to remove the private property, but he believed that

individuals would naturally see private property as unnecessary once the division of labor

(and therefore inequality) has been eliminated.

Government became the instrument of economic transformation that was to bring

about the conditions necessary to support communism without going through the creative and

dynamic capitalist phase. 13

The second inheritance of Marxist thought was more democratic, taking off from a

notion of Engels that a revolutionary transition could take place by parliamentary means,

13 Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.135

through revisionism. Eduard Bernstein, who was born in Berlin in 1850, the son of a

locomotive engineer, became a friend of Engels. He believed that capitalism was not about to

collapse, that polarization between workers and capitalist was not occurring and that

parliamentary institutions would provide a means to improve the conditions of the working

class and bring them to power. 14

Redressing the economic grievances by political action was viewed as the devil’s

work, providing opportunities to troublemakers, misfits, adventurers, radicals of all sorts.

Liberal democracy, which may have represented the triumph of capitalism over aristocratic

rule, elevated the bourgeoisie, the commercial and entrepreneurial middle class, to power. But

this was precisely the group that had economic power over the unrepresented workers and the

poor in general. Thus it became the obvious that political and economic power did not check

and balance each other, and that liberal democracy was the instrument which supported by

law the exploitation of the workers. Marx believed that it would not help to reform the

government under such circumstances. To seek to correct the inequalities produced in the

economic marketplace through compensatory political action would have provided a Band-

Aid solution where an operation was necessary. What was required was not reform but

revolution—and with it a social democracy which realized equality. For Marx, this premise

constituted general historical law of motion in social affairs.15

Marx thus becomes for the modern era what Socrates was to the antique: the symbol

of people’s power over their destiny.

14 Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.135 15 The Marxist Method,Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.127

41

For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute,

in one way or another to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which

it has brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he

was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions

of its emancipation.16

This is not a bad evaluation. Marx used a powerful deductive system for a prescriptive

end. He sought to apply knowable truths as scientific laws, in order to define both potentiality

and actuality. He believed that once the problem of material scarcity was solved, it would

become possible to solve the philosophical problems posed by Plato and Rousseau, exorcise

the ghost of Hobbes, and expose the liberal solution. Conventional politics would become

unnecessary and disappear because public and private purpose would be the same. There

would be neither rulers nor ruled. Marx, in short, proposed to abolish a political model that

had prevailed from the time of Plato.17

16 Friedrich Engels, ‘’ Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx,’’ in Marx and Engels, op. cit., pp. 167-68 17 Marxist ideology, Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 pp.129-30

VIII. Findings of the Study/Conclusion/Recommendation

Marxism is a philosophy, a world-view, a system of social and economic analysis,

and, it became political doctrine. In understanding Marxism it is also important to understand

the time in which Marxist ideology developed, which was during the culmination of The

Enlightenment, the middle and late 1800s, when America still had slaves, women did not have

the right to vote anywhere, women had very few rights at all in most places, the poor were

extremely bad off in Europe, imperialism and colonialism were the order of the day, the world

truly was dominated by a handful of extremely wealthy men, and science was being more

widely embraced by average citizens throughout Western Civilization than ever before.

Marxism is based on philosophical materialism. Philosophical materialism is the view

that all things in the universe are natural and follow the laws of nature, i.e. that there is no

such thing as the supernatural.

Marx, and his associate Engels, developed a philosophy known as dialectical

materialism. Dialectical Materialism is the merger of the ideas of dialectics and materialism

and basically states that all things in the universe are material, that evolution is constantly

taking place at all levels of existence and in all systems, that defined boundaries are manmade

concepts which do not actually exist in nature, and that the universe is an interconnected

unified entity in which all elements are connected to, and dependent upon, each other. The

philosophy holds that science is the only means by which truth can be determined.

43

Metaphysical materialism states that the mind, or thought, is purely the product of the

material composition of the brain. In other words, the physical and chemical makeup of the

brain governs thought, nothing else.

Marx also developed the philosophy of historical materialism, which is essentially the

application of dialectical materialism to the study of history and sociology. Historical

materialism was seen as a scientific approach to understanding history and applying that

understanding to present situations.

According to Marx, the economy formed the foundation upon which all other elements

of society are based. Karl Marx's economic works are based heavily on the Classical

economics of his day.

That being the case, Marxism is a worldview and method that focuses on class

relations and societal conflict that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development,

and a dialectical view of social transformation. Marxist methodology uses economic and

sociopolitical inquiry and applies that to the critique and analysis of the development of

capitalism and the role of class struggle in systemic economic change. Moreover, Marxism

builds on a materialist understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the

necessary economic activities required to satisfy the material needs of human society.

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