Scribd
Upload
8 views2 pages

Karl Marx

Uploaded by

jahnavi.dubey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
8 views2 pages

Karl Marx

Uploaded by

jahnavi.dubey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

KARL MARX 1818-1883

Karl Marx initially studied law and later turned to the study of philosophy. In 1841, at the age of 23,
he received the doctorate degree. After completing his studies, he began writing for a radical left-
wing paper in Cologne and became its editor in 1842. After the closure of the paper, Marx travelled to
Paris, where he met Friedrich Engels. Their friendship was immediate and eternal. Both of them
wrote a number of classic works together. The major works of Karl Marx include The Communist
Manifesto, Contributions to a Critique of Political Economy, and The Class Struggle in France.

Theory of Class Conflict

According to Marx, a social class is any aggregate of persons who perform the same function in
the organization of production. It is determined by not occupation or income, but by the position an
individual occupies and the function he performs in the process of production.
According to Marxian viewpoint, from the beginning of human existence in community, society
has been divided into classes because of its absolute dependence on the division of labour. According
to Marx, social class was bigger than the individual and the individual was dominated by it.

The main aspects of Marx’s theory of class conflict have been described below:

1. The development of the proletariat:


The capitalist economic system transformed the masses of people into two groups - one is
bourgeoisie - the capitalists and the other – proletariat – the workers. Through the development
of class-consciousness, the economic conditions of capitalism united the workers and constituted
them into a class for itself i.e. proletariat.
2. The importance of property:
According to Marx, the most important characteristic of any society is its structure of
property, and the crucial determinant of an individual's behaviour is his relation to property.
Property divides the people in different classes.
3. Economic determinism:
For Marx, economic conditions determine the other aspects of society i.e political, social,
legal, or cultural e.g. agricultural mode of living determines the political system, social ranking,
the system of law or the recreational pattern.
4. Polarization of classes:
According to Marx, "The whole society breaks up more and more into two great hostile
camps - two great directly antagonistic classes - bourgeoise and proletariat". The capitalists own
the means of production and the working classes own nothing but their labour. Marx referred to
other classes as small capitalists, the petit bourgeoisie, and the lumpen proletariat.
5. The theory of surplus value:
Capitalists accumulate profit through the exploitation of workers. The value of any commodity
is determined by the amount of labour it takes to produce it. The term surplus value refers to the
"quantity of value" produced by the worker beyond the necessary labour time. Since employers
own the instruments of production, they can force workers to do extra hours of work and increase
their profit by increasing exploitation.
6. Pauperization:
Poverty of the proletariat grows with increasing exploitation of labour. One capitalist makes
many others poor. According to Marx, in every mode of production, there is exploitation of man
by man, and the people who do labour can only acquire the barest necessities for life. Society is
divided into rich and poor. Thus, to Marx, poverty is the result of exploitation, not of scarcity.
7. Alienation:
Karl Marx insists that the mode of capitalism produces alienation among the workers. He says
that workers are forced to work under inhuman conditions, without any power or relation to other
parts of the manufacturing process. Workers nor have any freedom to determine their own pace,
nor share in profit. Thus major incentive to work is lost. This creates powerlessness,
meaninglessness and sense of isolation from one’s own work. Thus, the very object that the worker
produces becomes an instrument of alien purpose.
8. Class solidarity and antagonism:
With the growth of development of industry, the proletariat increases in number, it becomes
concentrated in greater masses and its strength grows. With the growth of class awareness, the
classes tend to become internally homogeneous and the class struggle becomes more intensified
and violent. They become more aggressive and hostile to the other class.
9. Revolution:
At the height of the class war, a violent revolution breaks out which destroys the structure of
capitalist society. The revolution is most likely to occur at the peak of an economic crisis.
"Proletariats will then rule" as Marx has believed.
10. The dictatorship of the proletariat:
After the bloody revolution, capitalistic society ends with the increase of proletariats who
will achieve ownership of the means of production. They will rule the economic system of society
11. Inauguration of the communist society:
Abolition of private property will eliminate class system and thereby the causes of social
conflict. All the members will unitedly hold the property and distribute the profits equally among
themselves.

Alienation
Alienation is a central concept in many of Marx’s early writings. According to Marx, the material
conditions of life generate alienation. Institutions such as economic, political or religious bring about
conditions of alienation. Marx’s focus was an economic alienation as found in the capitalist system, as
it affected every aspect of a man’s life. While alienation is a common in capitalist society and
dominates every institutional sphere such as religion, economy, and polity, its predominance in the
workplace is of prime importance to Marx.
The alienated or estranged labour involves four aspects:
1. Worker’s alienation from the object he produces
2. from the process of production
3. from the community of his fellowmen
4. from himself – his species-being, i.e. the essence of a human being
The worker puts his life into the object but the very object becomes an instrument of alien
purpose. The worker becomes a slave of his object. In short, a worker spends his life and produces
everything, not for himself but for the powers that control him. Marx has identified two hostile powers
that render labour and its product alien. One is the ‘other man’ –the capitalist who commands
production. The other is the economic system, the market situation, which governs the behaviour of
capital and the process of production. The former is a human power and the latter is an inhuman
power.

You might also like