Marx

_____________ produced to subsist and to satisfy their needs have use value.

Commodities

For Marx, freedom is one benefit of capitalism.

false

Exploitation

is a set of social relations on which capitalism is built.

Workers are alienated from their labor because

it no longer belongs to the worker, but rather to the capitalist.

Over time, the workings of the capitalist system

would exacerbate this contradiction, and its resolution can be had only through social change.

Marx uses the term "________ of ___________" to refer to the ways in which people provide for their needs.

"the forces of production"

This alienates workers in four ways:

1. Workers are alienated from their productive activity, in that they no longer labor to satisfy their own needs. 2. Workers are alienated from the product of their labor, which now belongs to the capitalist. Instead of finding expression in producing, workers turn to consuming to express themselves. 3. The cooperative nature of work is destroyed through the organization of the labor process, alienating workers from their fellow workers. Additionally, workers often must compete against one another for work and pay. 4. Workers are alienated from their human potential, as the transformative potential of labor is lost under capitalism.

Which of the following is NOT true of Marx's concept of labor?

A) Labor involves others. B) Labor transforms ourselves. C) Labor transforms society. D) Labor stifles our needs.

Which of the following is NOT a form of alienation?

A) alienation from the product of their labor B) alienation from their productive activity C) alienation from their species being D) alienation from other workers

Which of the following is NOT one of Marx's forms of value?

A) use B) exchange C) surplus D) price

What three traditions influenced Marx's intellectual orientation?

Hegelianism, socialism, and political economy

Marx has faced a number of criticisms.

Most importantly, actual existing communism failed to fulfill its promise. Though these experiments may have distorted Marx's thought, Marxist theory certainly did not reflect its practice. Second, history has shown that workers have rarely been in the vanguard of revolutionary movements, and indeed have resisted communism in some places. Third, Marx failed to adequately consider gender as factor in the reproduction of labor and commodity production. Fourth, some have accused Marx of focusing far too much on production, without giving enough attention to the act of consumption. Last, Marx's historical materialist approach uncritically accepts Western notions of progress.

Marx's powerful critique has as it basis ...

a unique approach to reality — the dialectic.

Marx's understanding of commodities (products of labor intended for exchange) is central to understanding his ideas about the nature of __________.

capitalism

There are a variety of interpretations of Karl Marx's (1818 - 1883) theory of __________. This arises from both its unfinished nature and Marx's shifting points of emphasis across his lifetime.

capitalism.

The two main "classes" under capitalism are:

capitalist and the proletariat.

For Marx, successful revolutions were those that:

changed the relations of production to better match the forces of production.

For Marx, every period of history contained fault lines upon which potential conflict could result, and, thus, every historical period had its own __________ _____________.

class formations.

The conflict created by the contradictory positions of two groups the ,proletariat and the capitalists is at the heart of capitalism.Because these represent groups in conflict, Marx called them ________.

classes.

Under non-capitalist forms of exchange,

commodities are traded for money, which is then traded for another commodity (C1 - M - C2).

In The Communist Manifesto, what specter did Marx say was haunting Europe?

communism

Marx thought that capitalism had fully developed itself and that it was ready to enter a new mode of production, _____________.

communism.

Thus, the normal operation of the capitalist system, through ___________ and ____________ produces an ever greater number of workers who will eventually rise up to overthrow the system.

competition and exploitation,

Marx wrote in response to the rapid changes taking place in Europe in response to industrialization, particularly in Germany. This period of _____ and ______ is the context for Marx's notion of alienation, and his critiques were designed to show that capitalism was the basis for alienation and to develop a plan for action for overcoming the structures of capitalism.

dislocation and poverty

The relations of production act to _______________ ______________ ____________, as do the prevalent ideas within society.

dissuade revolutionary behavior

Marx used ___________ and ___________, our ideas of which stem from the nature of commodity exchange in capitalist society. These mask the fact that we are neither equal with one another nor able to freely control our labor or the products of our labor.

equality and freedom,

Under capitalism, where workers produce for others and exchange commodities for money, products have _______________ ________________.

exchange value

Revolution arises from ________ ___________ agitating for change in the relations of production that favor transformations in the forces of production.

exploited classes

Capital grows by

exploiting workers to generate ever greater amounts of surplus value, usually by lowering workers' wages

Both Hegel and Marx used the dialectic to focus on material contradictions in society.

false

Karl Marx is the main character in The Communist Manifesto.

false

Marx felt that we would all be better off if capitalism had never emerged.

false

n addition, capitalists constantly compete with one another over capital by capital by finding new ways to generate profit and surplus value in order to maintain an edge. Marx calls this

drive the general law of capitalist accumulation.

Actions undertaken in the name of _______________. For example, although it is an accepted economic method for dealing with inflation, raising interest rates protects the wealthy, while causing unemployment among the poor.

economic necessity disguise political decisions

Capitalism inverts our notion of_____________ and ____________: it is capital that is freely and equally exchanged, not individuals who are free and equal.

equality and freedom

The social relations of a society shape its productive capabilities.

false

To Marx, capitalists treat workers poorly because capitalists are bad people.

false

Because it is often unclear where a commodity's value comes from, it takes on an independent, external reality. Marx called this the ____________ ______ _____________ , when the value of an object or commodity is believed to be tied to something "natural" or independent of human action, such as markets.

fetishism of commodities

The ____________ type of ideology is emergent from the structure of society, and can be seen in things like the fetishism of commodities, or money.

first

For Marx, when groups of people become aware of their conflicting relations with other groups, they are a class:

for itself.

Despite his criticisms, Marx was aware of the benefits of capitalism, and generally understood it to be a good thing. The productive capacity of capitalism could ......

free people from need, and it delivered people from the traditions that have dominated them throughout history.

Marx criticized capitalism from a _____________ perspective, based upon his understanding of what capitalism, as a revolutionary force in modern society, was capable of, and what its limits were.

future-oriented

The ____________ type is used by the ruling class to hide the contradiction of this system when it becomes apparent.

second

Marx viewed human nature as

historically contingent, shaped by many of the same relations that affect society.

Marx's insights into actors and structures must be understood in the context of his views on ____________ __________, which is the basis for his critical analysis of the contradictions of capitalism.

human nature

In his view, a contradiction exists between our ...

human nature and work in the capitalist system.

Unlike most social theories that have implicit assumptions about __________ ___________, Marx elaborates a concept of human nature that also informed his view of how society should look.

human nature,

The foundation of Marx's analysis of the contradictions of capitalism is built on which of the following concepts?

human nature, labor, and alienation

Many of these ideas cloud the true relationships that underlie capitalist society. Marx called these kinds of ideas ____________.

ideologies

Marx thought that ________________ could be used to cover the contradictions under capitalism.

ideology

Exploitation is peculiar under capitalism because:

it is accomplished by the objective economic system.

Marx understood that inherent within capitalism was also a system of power:

it is both economic and political; it both coerces and exploits workers.

Marx's critiques of the capitalist system

its tendency towards crises, the necessity of inequality — are still relevant today.

An important factor in this is Marx's ideas about _______. By objectifying our ideas and satisfying our needs, _____ both expresses our human nature and changes it. Through this process, individuals develop their human powers and potentials.

labor

Marx's future-oriented perspective has its basis in his

materialist conception of history.

Under capitalism, ...

money is used to purchase a commodity, which is then sold to create a greater amount of money (M1 - C - M2). The purpose of this form of exchange is to create greater and greater sums of money.

Just as the fetishism of commodities obscures the relationship between commodities, value, and human labor, reification

obscures the underlying relationships within the capitalist system and allows supposedly natural and objective social structures to dominate people.

The primary reason for exchange is to

obtain a commodity for use.

Capitalists exploit workers by

paying them less in wages than the value they produce.

Under capitalism, the forces of production lead to a set of relations of production which ...

pit the capitalist and the proletariat against one another.

Because capitalists are continually accumulating capital while also competing with other capitalists, Marx believed that more and more members of society would eventually become proletarians in a process he called _______________________.

proletarianization.

Which of the following is NOT a contradiction discussed by Marx?

proletariat/lumpenproletariat

Under capitalism, the relationship between labor and human expression changes:

rather than laboring to fulfill their needs or express ideas, workers do so at the demands of capitalists.

The dialectical approach does not

recognize the division between social values and social facts. To do so leads away from any real understanding of the problems people face. Additionally, the dialectical method does not envision the social world as being dominated by a cause-and-effect relationship; instead, it looks at the reciprocal relations among social factors within the totality of social life. These relations include not only contemporary phenomena but also the effects of history, as dialecticians are concerned with how the past shapes the present and how the present lays the seeds for the future. Because of this complex set of relations, which often fold back in on themselves, the future is both indeterminate and contingent on individual action. Indeed, this relationship between actors and structures is at the heart of Marx's theory. Structures both constrain and enable individuals, having the potential of both helping them to fulfill themselves and contributing to their exploitation.

Thus, the reality that value originates from labor and the satisfaction of needs is obscured. Marx used the term ______________ to describe the process whereby social structures become naturalized, absolute, independent of human action, and unchangeable.

reification

Historical materialism refers to:

relations between people conditioned by the way they provide for their needs.

He uses the term "___________ of ____________" to describe social relationships that dominate the productive capacities of a society.

relations of production

Just as freedom and equality are ideas to be cherished, ________ also contains positive dimensions, but it has been used to disguise the true set of relations that undergird capitalism.

religion

Marx also viewed ____________ as an ideology.

religion

To change the relations of production, Marx felt _________ was necessary.

revolution

To change the relations of production, Marx thought _____________ was often required.

revolution

Though we have powers that identify us as unique animals, our species being, the possibilities for realizing human potential within the capitalist system are frustrated by the ....

structures of capitalism itself.

While a worker may earn eight dollars a day in wages, s/he may produce ten dollars a day worth of value, creating what Marx called

surplus value.

Taking from G.W.F. Hegel (1770 - 1831), Marx believed that

that any study of reality must be attuned to the contradictions within society and, indeed, he sees contradiction as the motor of historical change.

To Marx, the notion of "equality" under capitalism derives from:

the act of exchange.

At the heart of capitalism was ...

the contradiction between the demands of the capitalist to earn a profit and the demands of the worker, who wants to retain some profit to subsist.

Proletarianization refers to:

the growing number of wage laborers.

Society would then be characterized by a very small number of capitalists exploiting a large number of poor proletarians subsisting on low wages. Marx called this group of proletarians the...

the industrial reserve army.

The relations of production are:

the kinds of associations people have with one another in satisfying their needs.

For Marx, the real value of a commodity stems from:

the labor needed to produce it.

Which of the following terms describes the desire for more profit and more surplus value?

the law of capitalist accumulation

Capitalism is not the only historical epoch in which individuals are exploited, but it is

the only one in which the mechanisms of exploitation are hidden behind independent, objectified, and reified structures, such as the market.

Under capitalism, there are two main groups:

the proletariat, who are wage-laborers, and the capitalists, who own the means of production.

Unlike Hegel, Marx believed that...

these contradictions existed not simply in our minds (i.e., in the way we understand the world), but that they had a concrete material existence.

Capital is a social relation.

true

For Marx, human nature has changed across history.

true

One of the criticisms of Marx's theory is referred to as "the missing emancipatory subject."

true

The fetishism of commodities is one form of reification.

true

He suggests that the ways societies provide for their material well-being affects the ....

type of relations that people will have with one another, their social institutions, and the prevailing ideas of the day.

The focus of Marx's work, however, was

undoubtedly on the historical basis of inequality, and specifically inequality under capitalism.

Capital is

unique to the circulation of commodities under capitalism.

What does Marx's central concept of surplus value refer to?

value of product - value of components

Whereas workers are wholly dependent upon

wages, capitalists are dependent upon money invested to create more money.

The political decision to privilege the _______ at the expense of _______ is hidden behind economics.

wealthy;workers