This week’s readings presented Marx’s thought of Feuerbach’s work, whose concepts I am not familiar with, however, I can infer that Feuerbach has discussed materialism and religious self-alienation in length; and explored Marx’s view on materialism, production of consciousness, communism and much more. The collection of Marx’s theses and his other writings reflected upon many of his doctrines, including materialism, religion, and alienation, but perhaps the most iconic work would be his empathy on propertyless labor selling their labor and humanity to their oppressor, property-owners. This exploration seems to be absolute and inevitable under his vision of capitalism. While it is most certainly true for a majority of labors, it cannot …show more content…
He used the class struggle in France and the coup d’etat as an example to strengthen his argument, dictatorship will always be the nature of the bourgeoisie. The oppression may have dynamic forms, but it will always haunt the working class. Their cognizance of the regime’s true intent and their interest will unite them against the ruling class. Hard to argue against that as it is debatable whether are there countries that follow Marx’s communism, and France did not follow the ideology of communism. Assuming China does follow his doctrine of communism, how can he justify the oppression that the government agencies enforce against ordinary citizens? Labors are still being exploited; the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. This seems to contradict with his stands on the advantages of communisms. The proletariat has a history of participating in lengthy revolutions, yet progress on their working condition and fair treatment are still backtracking. Judging from Hegel’s influence on Marx, I believe the title “theses” was a reference to Hegel’s work on dialectic, in which he presented three dialectical stages: creating a thesis, negating that
This assessment of turning objects and persons into something of value is a fragmented yet archetypical manifestation of Marx’s greater philosophical works. The literary criticism that implements Marx’s theories of socialism and dialectics is the basis on interpreting literary works.
In the first section, “ Bourgeois and Proletarians. “Marx highlights his vision of history, focusing on the development, struggle and eventual
Class struggles are a key idea in Marx’s “Communist Manifesto”. Marx opens his Manifesto with the line “The history of all hitherto existing
when conducting my readings for this assignment i was really confused at first, it was like i was reading another language. Marx writes in a very weird confusing way. after reading, reading, and reading i finally started to get it little by little.
Marx believes that under capitalism the human beings ability to plan production to match the developing and ever changing needs of society is reversed into a drive for profits.
For Karl Marx, the changes in religion ultimately reflect the changes happening in society, because the religious world is just a reflection of the real world. If this is the case here, the use of technology in a religious setting would make sense, as our technological world is ever expanding and will further benefit the people at the top of religious hierarchies. In terms of online for-profit churches, Marx might argue that the market is driving the religious realm to cater to technological advances. Marx states in The Communist Manifesto, “The feudal system of industry…now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets”, meaning that longstanding religious traditions, such as confession and synagogue teachings before Bar/Bat
Generally, Marx’s position on religion is drawn up in an entirely negative manner. In his writings, he expresses his belief that religion is a set of doctrines intended to stabilize, while at the same time bring into servitude the working class people. In addition to that, he argues that the society’s inclination towards religious excitement serves to represent a reaction to disaffection. Also, Marx contends that, since religion causes human beings to feel delusive happiness it makes an erroneous mental representation in as well as of itself. Indeed to him, it is an instrument utilized to sustain cultural systems together with ideologies that in most cases encourages oppression in the society (Parsons 38-46).
Marx’s contact with Hegelian philosophy in college changed his perception on social and economic classes in society and inspired him to pursue the idea of socialism further in college despite his father’s wishes. While in college, Marx had begun studying law and had planned to become a lawyer. At the University, there were many who had preached the ideas of Hegel, but Marx turned away at first, not wanting to lose his father’s support and funding
Karl Marx was a flexible thinker whose ideas shifted and developed as a result of the furthering of his studies. Within the beginning of his career, Marx had a vision of fulfilling labor through a model of ‘true’ freedom
Marx’s studies the theory of the individual and mainly focus in three areas, which are the complete development of the individual, the problems of alienation and freedom.
This essay argues that the propositions put forth by Karl Marx in his political essay “Estranged Labour” presents a nuanced and logically sounder theory behind his concept of human nature than Hobbes does in his essay “The natural condition of Mankind”. Marx’s perception was that man’s labour is intrinsically a part of his human nature, and the alienation of this labour drastically negates what it means to be man. Whereas Thomas Hobbes presents that man’s natural state is one of conflict, and that this conflict can only be overcome through rules set forth by the sovereign, only then can men live in peace with each other.
The division of labour ensures that each worker only does one job, and the labour market decides which job any particular worker will do. During labour, the worker uses capital not under his own control. The capital available determines the nature of the work. On top of all this, the worker has no choice but to work, as wages are needed to provide the worker's means to life. Work is seen to be 'not voluntary, but forced' (3). This shows that in a capitalist society, the worker is separated from the decisions of whether or not to work, what the work will be, and what form the work will take. This alienation of labour is the separation of man from his life-activity.
Marx’s (1987) “materialist conception of history” (p. 146) provides an outline through which he presents the intimate connection between society and the provision of material need through the ages. His theory begins with the pre-modern individual, whose existence consists only of productive actions vital to only his own survival, such as gathering food and building shelter. Marx considers this
As Marx's writings were so diverse and had such great variety, the circumstances under which these writings were written are extremely important to understand. The next few points are to
For it is our task — and this is the fundamental conviction underlying this book — to understand the essence of Marx’s method and to apply it correctly. In no sense do we aspire to ‘improve’ on it. If on a number of occasions certain statements of Engels’ are made the object of a polemical attack this has been done, as every perceptive reader will observe, in the spirit of the system as a whole. On these particular points the author believes, rightly or wrongly, that he is defending orthodox Marxism against Engels himself.