Marx short notes PSIR
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Marx calls his theory “Praxis” –
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Combination of theory and action.
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Action should be based on theory.
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Capitalism dehumanises man.
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Marx calls socialist before him as utopian coz –
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They lacked scientific understanding of socialism.
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They lacked viable program of action.
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“Violence is mid-wife of change. There has been no birth without blood.”
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Marxist Socialism – Communism.
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Aim of Marxism – To achieve communism.
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“Workers of the world unite”.
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“You have nothing to loose accept your chains”. Chains – nation, religion, False Consciousness.
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Young Marx – Economic and Philosophic Manuscript, Alienation, Neo-Marxist.
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Mature Marx – Communist Manifesto, Revolution, Orthodox Marxist – Marxism – Praxis (Revolutionary Doctrine).
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Reductionist – Monocausal explanation – Weber’s criticism to Marx explanation of history.
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History – Dialectical movement of material.
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Proposals of socialism –
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Social ownership over means of production.
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Production for need and not for greed.
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Objectives of socialism –
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Minimise inequality, and maximise equality.
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Main value of socialism – Equality.
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Socialist before Marx –
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Louis Blanc
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Charles Fourier
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Communist revolutions are also knows as – Bloody Revolution.
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Communism –
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Classless and stateless society.
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No private ownership.
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Marxist believe in “Proletariat Nationalism”.
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State –
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Hegel (Idealist) – god, worship
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Marx (Materialist) – instrument of coercion, destroy/revolt
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Influences on Marx –
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French Revolution –
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Socialist ideas emerged for first time.
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British school of political economy –
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Adam Smith –
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Critic of Mercantilism (Protectionism) – Because it leads to wealth of kings.
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Exponent of laissez faire.
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German Philosophy –
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Influenced by Hegel and also criticises Hegel.
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Influenced by Materialism of Feuerbach.
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Thoughts of Hegel –
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Hegel – Official Philosopher of Prussia (Germany)
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“State is march of god on earth”.
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Reason for Marx’s criticism of Hegel – As Hegel establishes state as march of god, so if Marx has to inspire working class to revolt against state he has destroy Hegel’s theory.
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“False Consciousness”, “Hegel is standing on his head, he has to stand on his feet to understand reality of state” – Marx proves that “State is an instrument of capitalist class”.
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State and god are same. Because god gives us security, protection, fulfil our needs, aspirations and this is exactly what state does.
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“Real is Rational. Rational is Real”.
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1st Statement – Epistemology. Whatever understood is only by use of reason is real. Therefore god is an absolute idea and Idea is real.
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2nd Statement – Polity. He equates state with god. State perform all such functions that we expect from god.
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Hegel’s philosophy of history – Evolution of human history.
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Idea moves in a dialectical form.
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History – Dialectical movement of idea.
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Dialectics –
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Contradiction of opposition.
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History ends as dialectics end.
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State is march of god.
Dialectics of ideas
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To understand dialectical movement, Hegel gives three laws of dialectics –
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Unity of opposites – To every idea or thing of universe exist its opposition.
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Negation of Negations – Higher truth will move ahead, lower truth will die.
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Quality changes into quantity – Change happens gradually, initially quantitative change happens and finally complete change takes place.
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Proof of state is a march of god on earth –
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In different things we see different amount of reflection of god, but max is seen in state.
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The state which emerge victorious in war is considered nearest to god.
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Historic Materialism – Economic interpretation of History/Economic Reductionism –
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Means whatever happens in history, it is due to economic factor.
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He wanted to create history. He wanted to end once stage of history i.e capitalism and bring new stage of history i.e communism.
Ways of interpreting history – (Acc to Marx)
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Scientific – Marx – Value free, not biased, pure facts – Inductive – From particular to general.
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Acc to Marx – “In order to think, man has to live, in order to lice man has to eat, in order to eat man has to produce.”
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Ideological – Hegel – Biased, pre-defined purpose, – Deductive – General to particular (Conclusion is predetermined).
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Philosophical – Teleological, purposive.
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“It is not our consciousness that determine our existence, it is our existence that determine our consciousness.” – Marx
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Origination of Society –
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Production.
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Production is a social activity.
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People came together for the sake of production.
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On this explanation man is productive, creative, since production can’t be done in isolation therefore man is social.
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Ideologies –
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Capitalist – Utilitarian, individualistic.
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Socialist – Creative and social.
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Base and Superstructure Model –
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Nature of economic structure will shape nature of institution which are present in superstructure.
Theory of Class and Class Struggle –
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“The history of all hitherto existing societies have been a history of class struggle.” – Marx
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Economic structure/Mode of Production –
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Types of relation of production – Their relationship is dialectical –
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Owners (Exploiters)
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Non-owners (Non-Exploiters)
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Implication of theory of class –
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Real Identity – Identity of his class.
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Only two class – Owners and Non Owners.
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No compatibility between rich and poor – Rich understand it and poor ignore it.
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Stages of history explained by Marx –
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Pre-historic – Primitive communism – Initially property was owned collectively. Powerful becomes state.
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Slave Society (First historical age) – Two classes – Masters and Slaves. Class struggle existed, therefore state existed.
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Feudal Society – Two classes – Lords and Serfs. Class struggle exist hence state exist.
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Capitalist Society – Two classes – Capitalist and Workers – Class struggle exist hence state exist.
These societies have been existing before revolution.
After Revolution –
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(1) Socialism – “Dictatorship of Proletariat”. Two classes exist – Workers and capitalist. Transitional stage – Acc to ability to acc to work.
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(2) Communism – Classes end, Class struggle end, state will “wither away” – Acc to ability to acc to need.
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Capitalism to Socialism – Revolution – Capitalist will not give property willingly.
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Socialism to Communism – Evolution – Property is already controlled by workers.
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State will announce that private property is abolished. Therefore communism is established leading to end of state and classes.
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Perfect Democracy – Since democracy means empowerment of masses. Therefore communism is perfect democracy.
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System of Democracy – From each acc to his ability, to each acc to his need.
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Freedom for Marx – When man can do what he wants.
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Marx on History –
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Matter is a moving force of history.
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History changes when mode of production changes.
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Historical change means structural change, means total change.
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Explaining change in mode of production –
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Unity of opposites – Within capitalism exists its contradiction.
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Negation of negation –
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Capitalism gets negated.
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Socialism comes into existence.
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Quantity changes into quality –
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Change doesn’t occur overnight.
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Old gives rise to new.
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Both can’t coexist for longer.
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Old becomes “fetter”, once old destroys, new age begin.
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Contradictions of Capitalism –
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Contradictions between –
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Man and society
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Freedom and equality
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As it creates man inhumane.
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Man’s labour becomes means of his own exploitation.
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Theory of Capitalism –
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Capitalist dig their own graves – destroys itself.
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In order to make profit capitalist have to keep cost of production low, which results in lower wages of workers.
Theory of Revolution – “Do or Die”
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Revolutionary consciousness – When exploitation reaches extreme. Opposite to false consciousness.
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Two type of consciousness – Level of consciousness is directly proportional to level of exploitation.
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Class in itself – Low level. Workers understand that their class is different from that of capitalist.
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Class for itself – Heightened level. Interests are also different. They will take up arms.
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Unique features of Marxist Revolution –
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Communist revolution is only meant for the countries where capitalism is advanced, because only there people will understand contradictions of capitalism.
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Marx never supported idea of CP, because he wanted people to be their own leaders.
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Lenin’s take – He brought revolution in Russia which was primarily feudal not advanced capitalist.
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Lenin believed that people won’t develop consciousness on their own.
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Members of CP will inject consciousness.
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Contrary to Marx ideas Lenin brought –
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Middle class individuals.
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Peasantry (Lacks consciousness)
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After revolution CP became new exploiters.
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Marx was more harmed by his own admirers.
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Theory of Surplus Value –
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Surplus Value – Difference between cost of production and exchange value.
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As capitalist do not share surplus with workers capital keeps accumulating leading to increase in bargaining power of capitalist and decrease in bargaining power of workers.
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Capitalism is a system where workers work for their own exploitation.
Hegel’s Theory of State –
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State is representative of god. Because god and state take care of us.
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Acc to law of dialectics negativity gets negated.
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Marx’s Explanation –
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Hegel is standing on his head.
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State is not an instrument of altruism, the law of the state is only meant for the capitalist class.
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State is superstructure hence it is not autonomous.
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Ideas of young Marx –
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Theory of Alienation – Feeling of estrangement. In capitalism there is no scope for true happiness. True happiness (when we do what we really want to do) is liked to true freedom.
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Pre-requisite for freedom – Man can enjoy freedom only when society takes care of his basic needs. Only possible in socialism, because distribution is based on needs.
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Source of influence on Marx –
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Hegel – Alienation – Estrangement from god.
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In this world we do not enjoy real happiness, because we get separated from god, however separation ends as we follow state.
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Fuerbach – Materialist, Marx + Fuer – Young Hegelians.
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Feurbach held that god is a sorrow of alienation. It means god is a source of sorrow.
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If we want to be happy we have to come out of influence of god, god reminds of our weakness.
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Marx’s View – Rejects theory of Hegel.
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Hod has not made man, man has made god.
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Man will not find any freedom in religion, because religion is opium of masses.
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Alienation can end only when capitalism end and communism gets established.
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Essential features of human nature –
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Man is created by nature.
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Man is social by nature.
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Capitalism does not allow man, the fulfilment of these essential qualities of human nature.
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Explanation of alienation in four stages –
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From act of production – “Cog in the wheel.” Man does not decide what to produce, he can be easily replaced by machines.
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Product of labour – Due to development man can’t even visualise that what shape his labour has taken.
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Alienation from himself – Cumulative effect of all three stages is that man gets alienated with himself. Acc to Marx alienation is also experienced is also experience by capitalists.
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Mature Marx –
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Politician, Revolution, orthodox marxists, Historical Materialism, class struggle, dialectics and revolution are core principles of Marx. Soviet marxist tried to project his as god bound to come true.
Young Marx –
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Philosopher, meaning of true freedom, recognise consciousness, man feels alienation, humanist.
Neo-Marxist –
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Who believed in alienation rather than revolution is the main idea.