Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx

What does the phrase "unity of opposites" mean?

- Each form of social organization (short of communism) contains contradictions (I.e. 'opposite' classes with contradictory interests). - Each class exists in an antagonistic relationship to the other - Class struggle is inherent in societies divided into classes

What are two important elements of the superstructure?

- Ideology - The state

The labour process is the activity whereby humans act upon and transform nature. What are the two main elements of the labour process?

- Labour power - The means of production

Marx became a communist in 1844. What factors prompted him to view the working class as the agent of revolutionary change?

- Originally, he thought workers would be the revolutionary agent of change because they were they suffered the most oppressive and wretched conditions - Later, he thought the workers could be a revolutionary agent of change for two reasons: 1. He began to develop a materialist view of history, which understood the workers' role in the production of goods as a compelling force to struggle against capitalism. 2. Working class rebellion by weavers convinced Marx that workers were not the "passive" element but the "dynamic" element of revolutionary change.

What are some important implications of Smith's concept of natural price?

- The capitalist economy tends toward equilibrium due to the forces of supply and demand - Smith's theory describes a capitalist economy - For Smith, capitalism is natural (i.e. it is in human nature to be enterprising, trade, barter, etc.)

Describe some common, non-Marxist conceptions of history

- The great man view of history: history is a succession of brilliant leaders, innovators, etc. - A religious view of history (events proceed according to design by God) - common in Middle Ages - An idealistic view of history: progress of the human mind and human reason gradually grow and people become steadily more enlightened (common view of history during the Enlightenment period) - History is a "succession of emergencies" - liberal politician H.A.L Fisher

What are the two subdivisions of 'the means of production'?

- The land and raw materials from the land ('objects of labour') - The tools we use (instruments of labour)

What were some of Feuerbach's key ideas?

- There was human nature/ "species being" - Human nature is broader than mere self-interest - Human nature is shaped by community

What material factors - other than the Enlightenment - fomented idealism within the utopian socialists and revolutionary communists?

- highly repressive 19th century regimes, that precluded open organising work - underdevelopment of industry

Describe some of Adam Smith's main ideas

- state intervention into the economy is harmful - If individuals pursue their own private interests, this will bring about an economic equilibrium - Every commodity has a "natural" / equilibrium price, where supply and demand balance - Every class then earns income from the sale of the commodity at this 'natural' price (i.e. workers, bosses and landlords earn wages, profits and rent respectively)

What were the two main points of Marx and Engels' were arguing for in their paper in 1848? Why did they argue for these things?

1. A single, indivisible democratic German republic - because they felt the German bourgeoisie could be pressed into playing a progressive role, similar to earlier French and English revolutions. 2. A war with Russia - because the Tsar of Russia was the strongest counterrevolutionary force in Europe and it's armies were crucial to quashing the revolutionary movements in 1848-49.

What factors led to the breakdown of the First International?

1. After the fall of the Paris Commune, socialists were slandered and thought to be discredited. The international was subject to such criticisms, and the British trade unions withdrew their support from the International. 2. Bakunin's anarchist influence within the First International grew. In the late 1860s, he argued for immediate uprisings everywhere while Marx argued that revolutionary prospects were declining. After the British trade unions left, Marx decided to dissolve the International.

What two assumptions is the dialectic based on?

1. All things are contradictory in themselves 2. Contradiction is at the root of all movement and life, and it is only insofar as it contains a contradiction that anything moves and has impulse and activity

What does it mean to 'see society as an organism'?

1. It means understanding that individuals cannot live outside of society. Humans are social animals, not isolated individuals. 2. History is as natural to society as growth and decay are to the living body. Society can only be understood historically.

What were three limitations of the ideas of the Enlightenment?

1. It treated human nature as unchanging and self-interested. 2. It mainly looked at the mind. It treated people's passions and thoughts as more important than their social or economic position. It was idealistic, meaning it saw change as the result of new ideas being developed. 3. Elitism. If ideas were how society changed then it was up to the philosophers to change society. The illiterate and superstitious masses were to be intellectually subservient to them.

Explain why humans are fundamentally social creatures

1. Labour is the essence of man 2. Labour is a social activity 3. Humans are social creatures.

Describe Marx's method

1. Reality is complex, made up of many different elements 2. To understand this reality, we must use the power of abstraction to break it down into its 'simplest determinations'. 3. Having isolated these, we can use them to reconstruct concrete reality, this time as a "rich totality of many determinations and relations" So to summarise: we move first from the concrete to the abstract, breaking down the concrete into its simplest determinations" and then from abstract to concrete, using these to reconstruct the whole.

Describe the three stages of Hegel's philosophical method/ the Hegelian dialectic

1. Simple unity, when we see the object itself before any change takes place 2. Negation, when the object gives rise to its opposite 3. Negation of the negation, where the opposites are reconciled into a greater unity

What were the two key ways that David Ricardo's ideas advanced beyond Adam Smith's?

1. Smith argued the 'natural' price of a commodity was determined by the price of it's components, wages, profit and rent. Whereas Ricardo argued that the value/ 'natural price' of a commodity was determined by the amount of labour required for the commodity's production. 2. The interests of labour, capital and landowners are antagonistic. The three must fight the division of the value produced by labour between themselves. Wages and profits are inversely related, and the interest of the landlord is opposed to the interest to every other class in society

What were the two wings of pre-Marxist modern socialism?

1. The Utopian Socialism of Saint-Simon, Fourier and Robert Owen 2. The revolutionary communism of Babeuf and Blanqui

What two developments began to challenge the ideology of the feudal system?

1. The growth of science 2. The growth of a new class (the bourgeoisie)

Lenin argued that Marx united which three ideological currents from the nineteenth century?

1. classical German philosophy 2. classical English political economy 3. French socialism

What is the dialectic?

A philosophical method and way of thinking that could provide the basis for an understanding of society and the historical process by looking at things in terms of their contradictions.

What was the Enlightenment?

An intellectual movement that stressed reason, thought and the individual to challenge the feudal order and support the emerging capitalist society.

Compare how Aristotelian physics and Newtonian physics explained the motion of objects.

Aristotelian physics explained the motion of objects in terms of purpose: objects move when they are disturbed from their natural resting place in God's design. Newtonian physics explained the motion of objects mechanically, i.e. in terms of the actions of outside forces.

The dominant ideology under feudalism was promulgated by the Catholic Church. What were Aristotle's ideas and how were they useful to the Catholic Church in justifying the feudal social order?

Aristotle argued that everything in the world had a purpose. This was useful to the Catholic Church in two ways: 1. It reinforced the idea that everything had been created by God; if everything has a purpose, that implies that everything is by design and that design was made by an all-powerful deity. 2. It corresponded to the structure of feudal society. in which everyone had their pre-ordained place in the feudal system.

Why are ideologies important for the ruling class?

Because it is important for the ruling class to persuade the direct producers to accept their situation.

Describe Engels' life up to meeting Marx

By 23, Engels had enjoyed a career as a radical journalist and Young Hegelian. He used to be a "Free" revolutionist (i.e. 'free' from religion, enlightened, etc). In 1842 he moved to Manchester to work in the family factory, where he was then confronted with industrial revolution, working-class poverty and Chartism: an experience which made him recognise the revolutionary role of the working class. In 1845 he moved to Brussels with Marx and became a full-time revolutionary.

What did Russian revolutionary Aleksandr Herzen mean when he wrote "the philosophy of Hegel is the algebra of revolution"?

Capitalism is not the end of history. It is merely one stage, and contained within capitalism is its own contradiction.

"The truth is the whole". What did Hegel mean by this?

If we only concentrate on individual things, we only see the differences between them. Oak and acorn. When we look at things from the standpoint of the dialectic however, we see that they are all part of the same process. Things acquire their real meaning only when we see them as moments in a process of change.

Explain the role of Marx and Engels in the League of the Just

In 1846, Marx and Engels established the Communist Correspondence Committee, with the aim of winning control of the League of the Just. In February 1847, they won that control, and transformed the League from a conspiratorial secret society into an open revolutionary organization: the Communist League. Marx had 'dictatorial' influence over the League.

Explain how production is 'material'

It is the activity through which people seek to meet their needs by acting on and transforming nature. This implies a certain organization of production, the possession of appropriate tools, etc.

Where did Hegel's dialectic go wrong?

It was all upside down. Rather than reality shaping thought, it was thought that created reality, just as God creates the world.

What are the two aspects of human production? What are these aspects called?

Material and social. They are called the 'forces of production' and 'relations of production' respectively.

When was Marx born?

May 5, 1818

What pictures does mechanical materialism paint about society? What is the alternative to understanding society through mechanical materialism?

Mechanical materialism paints a picture of society as a collection of separate individuals, each pursuing their own interests independent of everyone else. The alternative to this is to understand society as a living organism

Explain why mechanical materialism could not explain living organisms well.

Mechanical materialism saw change as the result of the action of outside forces. A block moves for example, when you push it. But this does not apply as well to change within living organisms, which go through a process of development. An acorn becomes an oak, for example.

What class was Marx growing up?

Middle-class. His dad was a legal official and a moderate liberal. He grew up in a comfortable and prosperous middle-class home. He had a liberal education with a strong emphasis on the classics. After high school, Marx went to study law.

What was the Enlightenment's main intellectual weakness? Where did this weakness come from?

No concepts that could explain why and how historical change takes place. The Enlightenment tended to treat history as the unfolding of human reason. This weakness came from the limits of mechanical materialism, which strongly underlay the ideas of the Enlightenment. While able to explain natural sciences well, it could not do the same for living organisms.

Was Marx deterministic? Did he think socialism was inevitable? Is it?

No to all three questions. The outcome of Marx's dialectic (unlike Hegel's) was not predetermined. Everything depends on the consciousness, organisation and confidence of the working class.

Can we understand society merely by observing it?

No, because things are not always as they seem. It seems like the Earth stays still and the Sun moves around it, when precisely the opposite is true. Thus, the mere appearance of things can be deceptive.

Is control/ effective possession of the means of production the same as legal ownership?

No, not necessarily. Marx argued that you do not have to legally own something to effectively possess and control it. It is the power and effective possession that matters - not the legal ownership. That effective possession and control is the basis for laws.

Are human beings disembodied spirits, living in a realm of pure reason?

No, they are people who are trying to survive in their conditions. The beliefs they have will be attempts to make sense of their situation, and to guide their everyday actions.

To understand society, is it enough to just know what the relations of production are?

No. Although this is the 'real foundation' of society, and must always be kept in mind, a proper understanding of society will also consider the ways in which ideological and political factors interact with the economy.

The utopian socialists were class collaborators. Was Blanqui?

No. He identified as proletarian and had mass working class support.

Does human labour only transform nature?

No. It also transforms humans themselves. Since production/ labour is a social activity, it also shapes social relations.

Is Marxism technologically deterministic?

No. It is not just that changes in the forces of production will change the relations of production. It is also that changes in the relations of production can change the forces of production.

Does Marx agree with Feuerbach's notion of human nature/ "species being"? What consequences did this have for his understanding of society?

No. Marx argued that there is no such thing as "human nature" in the abstract. Rather, as society changes, so too do the beliefs, desires and abilities of people. The way people are cannot be separated from the sort of society in which people live. This means in order to understand society and people behave, we must first analyse the historically changing "ensemble of social relations".

Does the power of abstraction alone allow us to explain everything?

No. Often times abstractions may actually contradict our observations. For example, we may know the acceleration of a mass on the Earth must be 9.8 m/s^2. But the observation of a balloon and a stone accelerating at different rates towards the ground, seems to contradicts this abstraction. Thus, abstractions are only the starting point of any scientific analysis

David Ricardo's theory of value and profits places the class struggle at the centre of capitalist society. Was Ricardo able to come up with this theory because he was progressive?

No. Ricardo was a successful banker and MP. His writings are best understood as an attempt to examine and understand the practical problems facing British capitalism at that time, which involved bitter class struggles. Ultimately, his political economy championed the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie against those of the politically dominant landed aristocracy.

Did Marx discover the labour theory of value?

No. That was Ricardo.

Marxism is materialist. This suggests that workers' consciousness is shaped by capitalism. But workers' consciousness under capitalism fosters reformism, acceptance of alienation, etc. How could it accept such ideas as socialism? Wouldn't that require socialists to explain socialism to workers? But then isn't that idealism? - that workers will change only when a group of enlightened socialists propagate the theory of Marxism?

No. This argument ignores the role played by struggle in transforming both people and society. Workers are not simply passively shaped by society. Capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the working class. This contradiction gives rise to class struggle. The effect of this struggle is to transform the working class: 1) battles with the employer force workers to organise collectively and 2) sharpens the sense that their interests are different to those of the capitalists. 3) victories they win give them confidence to engage in a political movement to take power from the bourgeoisie.

Capitalism no longer exists because individual capitalists who own and control the means of production no longer exist. Modern corporations are run by top managers who themselves are employees of the business, and most likely own only a few shares. How would you respond to this argument?

Nothing could be further from the truth. These 'top managers' may not have personal legal ownership over every asset in the company, but they still have the power to control their employees and production. That is what matters. It is the effective possession of the means of production by a minority which defines class society. Not the legal forms in which these relations of power are dressed up.

Explain the process which Hegel called 'the transformation of quantity into quality'

Objects can experience a succession of small changes, each of which leaves the basic character of a thing unaltered, until eventually, beyond a certain point, the object has been totally transformed.

Give an example of the power of abstraction in the natural sciences

Physics takes the mass of a body, setting aside things like its colour, chemical composition, etc. Based on the concept of mass, scientists can formulate laws such as the law of gravitation and the principle of inertia

Why are the years 1789-1848 known as the years of 'dual revolution'?

Politically, there was the French Revolution in 1789 and economically, there was the industrial revolution.

Explain how production is 'social'

Production is a social process, in which people need to cooperate to produce things they need.

Describe Proudhon's 'dialectical' method

Proudhon argued that everything could be divided into a good side and a bad side, and that history progressed by eliminating the bad side.

Explain Hegel's dialectical treatment of both thought and society

Society: 1. God/ 'the Absolute Spirit' / 'the simple unity' gives rise to His negation 2. Nature 3. God and Nature are unified through the development of human consciousness and understanding Thought: 1. The Human Mind is "alienated": it is lost and isolated, and believes itself to be separate from nature 2. This is overcome by growing human consciousness 3. Consciousness recognises itself and nature to be a part of a wider unity: "the Absolute Sprit" or God.

Explain what Marx means when he refers to the power of 'abstraction'

The 'power of abstraction' refers to how concepts which 1. capture the most basic and general features of the reality we are trying to understand, and 2. have all secondary and irrelevant matters removed are essential to understanding the 'essence' of something (i.e. it's true nature) as opposed to just it's outward appearance.

Compare the starting point for Hegel's dialectic with Marx's dialectic

The starting point of Hegel's dialectic was that the process of thinking is the creator of the real world, and the real world is only the external appearance of the idea. For Marx the reverse was true: the process of thinking was the reflection of the real world in the human mind, translated into forms of thought. In other words, Marx took a materialist approach.

Explain what the superstructure is

The superstructure refers to the legal and political forms which emerge from the real foundation of society (i.e. its economic structure). This superstructure corresponds to certain forms of social consciousness.

What was the Critique of the Goetha Program?

The two biggest working class parties in Germany merged in 1875 to form the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). It's leaders were Bebel and Liebknecht and it's program was outlined at the first congress of the party in Gotha. Marx and Engels wrote the critique argued that the program made too many concessions to Lassalle.

Like other animals, man is a part of nature, and must survive and reproduce. According to Marx, what sets humans apart from other animals?

What sets human beings apart is how they are conscious and self-conscious creatures. They can reflect on what they are doing and identify different way to achieve the same objective.

What was Marx's critique of Proudhon?

Without the "bad side" - violence, exploitation and struggle - there would be no historical movement and development.

Who was David Ricardo?

David Ricardo was a classical British political economist. One of the most influential.

How do ideologies have to be analysed?

Ideologies must be analysed in terms of their role in the class struggle, i.e. do they sustain or undermine the existing relations of production?

What was Marx's criticism of Feuerbach?

Feuerbach argued that nature was materialistic, but he did not argue that history was materialistic. Marx's criticism was that Feuerbach did not go far enough: history, as well as nature, must be understood materialistically

How did Feuerbach refute Hegel?

Feuerbach put materialism on the throne again. He showed that nature exists independently of philosophy and that humans have grown up in, and are a product of, nature.

Compare Hegel's dialectic with Marx's dialectic

For Hegel, the dialectic was the autobiography of the Absolute Spirit. For Marx, the dialectic became a theory of historical development.

Describe pre-Marxist French communism

French communism emerged after working class movements in the 1830s and 40s and was critical of utopian socialists who thought capital could still have a role in a future utopia. French communism argued for a classless society. It's greatest proponent was Blanqui, a communist from the extreme left-wing of the radical republicans from the French revolution. He felt communism could only be achieved through an armed overthrow of the existing state and the establishment of a revolutionary dictatorship. He coined the term 'dictatorship of the proletariat', by which he meant a dictatorship over the proletariat. He argued a secret society of professional revolutionaries was needed to organise the insurrection. Capitalism, in other words, would be overthrown by an enlightened minority.

What criticism did Feuerbach make of Hegel?

He argued that he had turned something that is the property of human beings - the faculty of thought - into the ruling principle of existence. Instead of seeing human beings as part of the material world, and thought merely as the way they reflect that material world, Hegel had turned both man and nature into mere reflections of the all-powerful Absolute Idea.

What was Marx's approach to understanding society?

He argued that production is the most fundamental human activity, and therefore that when analysing society, one must give most attention to the way in which production is organised.

What was Marx's critique of Ricardo's method in the labour theory of value?

He did not use it to explain society.

What does Hegel mean when he argues that when something negates itself, it turns into its opposite?

He means that it turns into something different and distinct from what it originally was.

Compare how Hegel + Feuerbach understood alienation to how Marx understood alienation

Hegel and Feuerbach both understood alienation as a purely intellectual phenomenon. Marx considered alienation to be a material and social phenomenon.

How did Hegel understand history?

Hegel argued that "History is the mind [of God] clothing itself with the form of events"

What was the starting point for Enlightenment thinkers like Hobbes for studying society?

Human nature was taken as the starting point. This was perceived to be unchanging and self-interested.

What was one inheritance from the Enlightenment the utopian socialists and Blanqui revolutionary communists had in common?

Idealism: they both saw historical change as the result of a battle of ideas. Workers were to be enlightened by this battle: passive witnesses of their own liberation.

Describe Marx's domestic life during his adulthood.

Marx and his family lived in poverty. They struggled to make ends meet, their health was terrible, they lived in squalor and faced various domestic and health issues. Engels took up a post again at his father's factory - a job he hated because it directly involved the exploitation of the proletariat - largely to support Marx financially.

Did Marx discover classes or class struggle? What was it that Marx proved?

Marx argued that he did not discover classes or class struggle. But what he did that was new was to prove: 1) that the existence of classes is bound up with particular phases of the development of production 2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat 3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society

Explain why Marx argued that the forces of production were the decisive element in the labour process

Marx argued this because what human labour can achieve is first and foremost dependent on the forces of production - not how that production is organised. Eg you couldn't produce a car under feudalism, even if you reorganised society into classes of bosses and workers. You would need all the machines and technology to actually make that car.

According to Marx, what is the key characteristic of Man / the essence of Man?

Marx argues that "labour is the essence of man" and the basis of society. "It is just in his work upon the objective world... that man proves himself to be a species being... Through this production, nature appears as his work and his reality.

Describe the founding of the Social Democratic Workers' Party in Germany

The social democratic workers' party was founded by Wilheim Liebknecht and August Bebel in 1869.

Describe the First International

The International Working Men's Association, or the First International, was a union of independent working class organizations from different countries. It was composed of anarchists, trade unionists, Marxists, social democrats, etc.

Who were the Young Hegelians and what influence did they have on Marx?

The Young Hegelians were radical liberals who supported true democracy and universal suffrage. Marx's interest in the philosophy of law shifted to an interest in philosophy general after his involvement with them.

What does Marx mean by "concrete"?

The actually existing world, as we observe it.

What is materialism?

The belief that thought reflects the world. (Thought does not create the world, like Hegel argued).

What was the effect of the dual revolution?

The dual revolution had a contradictory effect. On the one hand, it claimed support for universal rights and freedom to eliminate inequality between lord and peasant. On the other hand, inequality persisted and grew stronger between workers and capitalists. It was out of this contradiction that the modern socialist movement developed.

How were Enlightenment ideas progressive?

The idea that society's should be judged by the degree to which they satisfy human desires was highly subversive of the feudal order, which argued that everyone had a preordained position that they must accept.

What is technological determinism?

The idea that technology and its development drive economic and social change

What did Marx mean by the method of "rising from the abstract to the concrete"?

The process of explaining appearances by starting from abstractions, and working "through a number of intermediary stages".

Is the only determining element in history the production and reproduction of real life?

The production and reproduction of real life is the ultimate determining factor in history (according to a materialist conception of history). However it is not the only factor. Elements of the superstructure - political forms, laws, religion, etc. - also influence how historical struggles develop.

How did the Communist Manifesto come about?

The second congress of the Communist League, in 1847, instructed Marx and Engels to draw up a manifesto stating its principles. The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848.

In what context did Marx say "All I know is that I am no Marxist"?

There were various theories describing themselves as Marxism which weren't. Many of these Marxisms were promoted by leaders of the SPD (such as Eduard Bernstein, the father of 'revisionism') and differed little from liberal democracy.

What does Hegel mean by contradiction?

Things can be contradictory, because they contain their own negation within themselves. For example, an acorn is contradictory, because it contains within itself the potential to negate itself; it has the potential to grow into an oak tree. It is only this contradiction which allows it to grow.

True or false: human labour transforms nature

True

True or False: Ricardo believed in the long term tendency for the rate of profit to fall

True. Although unlike Marx, he looked outside society for an explanation. Following Malthus, he argued that it decreased because of population growth.

Explain the concept of alienation

Under capitalist society, the worker is compelled to sell his labour power to the capitalist. As a result he controls neither the products of his labour, nor his labour itself. What should be his "life activity", the essence of his humanity, becomes a mere means to an end. He therefore becomes alienated from his own human nature. This in turn alienates him from nature itself (for it is through labour that he transforms nature) and from other human beings.

Describe utopian socialism

Utopian socialism was not revolutionary. It describes socialism as being brought about by design, through the ideas of utopian socialists and the investment of the bourgeoisie. One progressive element contained within it was that it stressed the liberating aspects of socialism, i.e. freedom from oppression. It saw change as coming about during "critical" epochs, where everyone had different beliefs, and society fell apart. Education, and the gradual spread of socialist ideas, were to transform the world to socialism.