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    5.2 Marxism

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    Sergio Moreno Guzmán
    Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory based on the works of Karl Marx that views class struggle as the driving force of history. Marx argued that under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by appropriating the surplus value of their labor. This leads to increasing inequality and will ultimately cause the proletariat to rise up in revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a communist society without social classes or private property, where wealth is distributed equally. Marx saw history as progressing through stages from primitive communism to capitalism and inevitably towards communism, where society is self-managed without government or inequality.

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    5.2 Marxism

    Uploaded by

    Sergio Moreno Guzmán
    10 views17 pages
    Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory based on the works of Karl Marx that views class struggle as the driving force of history. Marx argued that under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by appropriating the surplus value of their labor. This leads to increasing inequality and will ultimately cause the proletariat to rise up in revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a communist society without social classes or private property, where wealth is distributed equally. Marx saw history as progressing through stages from primitive communism to capitalism and inevitably towards communism, where society is self-managed without government or inequality.

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    Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory based on the works of Karl Marx that views class struggle as the driving force of history. Marx argued that under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by appropriating the surplus value of their labor. This leads to increasing inequality and will ultimately cause the proletariat to rise up in revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a communist society without social classes or private property, where wealth is distributed equally. Marx saw history as progressing through stages from primitive communism to capitalism and inevitably towards communism, where society is self-managed without government or inequality.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    10 views17 pages

    5.2 Marxism

    Uploaded by

    Sergio Moreno Guzmán
    Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory based on the works of Karl Marx that views class struggle as the driving force of history. Marx argued that under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by appropriating the surplus value of their labor. This leads to increasing inequality and will ultimately cause the proletariat to rise up in revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a communist society without social classes or private property, where wealth is distributed equally. Marx saw history as progressing through stages from primitive communism to capitalism and inevitably towards communism, where society is self-managed without government or inequality.

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    Marxism

    Imaginaries about Marx


    Definition:
    Political, economic and social theory
    based on the thought of the
    philosopher and economist Karl
    Marx.
    The central idea is the class
    struggle is the motor force of
    Human history: human societies
    advance through the dispute of social
    classes for control of the means of
    production.
    Praxis: philosophy as a tool to change the world

    “Philosophers have only


    interpreted the world in
    various ways the point is
    to change it” (Marx,
    Theses on Feuerbach,
    1845).
    Who was Karl Marx?
    Prussian (German) philosopher, economist
    and journalist. He was the founder of
    "historical materialism", and promoter of
    the political project of communism.
    He is one of the most influential and
    controversial figures in history. In 1999, he
    was elected by people from all over the
    world in a BBC vote as "the Millennium's
    greatest thinker".
    Communist Manifesto
    "The history of every society up to the present
    day has been nothing but the history of class
    struggle. Freemen and slaves, patricians and
    plebeians, nobles and serfs, in a word:
    oppressors and oppressed. In a constant
    struggle, they maintained an uninterrupted war
    (...) which always ends, either by a revolutionary
    transformation of society, or by the destruction of
    both antagonistic classes." (Marx, 1848)
    4 different and successive production modes
    1st) Primitive
    communism: first
    tribal human
    societies without
    classes (pre-
    agricultural, without
    private property).
    2nd) Slave societies: In the early civilizations of the Ancient Ages
    patricians own the land, and slaves are forced to work.
    3rd) Feudalism: In the kingdoms of the Middle Ages the feudal lords own the
    land, and the serfs must work there and deliver most of their production to the
    feudal lord.
    4th) Capitalism: In modern states, the bourgeoisie owns the factories, and the
    proletariat is forced to work for a low subsistence salary.
    Class struggle as motor force of History.
    Economic models expand
    and economic differences
    become greater: the rich
    get richer and the poor get
    poorer, making the life of
    the oppressed more
    unbearable. Such
    exploitation motivates
    revolutions.
    So, according to Marx, what is “Communism”?

    Just as the bourgeoisie raised up against


    the feudal absolutist aristocracy to take
    over the means of production; Marx
    argued that at the end of capitalism the
    working class will make a revolution to
    take over the means of production and
    create a society without private
    property, where wealth is distributed
    equally.
    Dictatorship of the Proletariat
    For Marx, the exploitation of some
    men over others was produced by
    private property. Therefore, the
    dictatorship of the proletariat
    should be the transitional phase
    where workers take control of the
    state to eliminate private property,
    and thus build a classless society.
    Supreme goal: communism

    Utopy: self-managed society,


    without government. Without
    social classes, without inequality
    and, in theory, without
    exploitation of one another
    (utopia that has never been
    realized).
    Teleological perspective of history
    History has a beginning and an end, and societies are inevitably heading towards
    communism.
    What other ideas/ideologies predict an end of time that is inevitable?
    Impact of his theories
    Marxism has inspired many
    revolutions. The two best known have
    been: The Russian Revolution
    (1917) led by Lenin; and the Chinese
    Revolution (1949) led by Mao Tse-
    Tung. However, these revolutions
    used interpretations of Marx. In fact,
    Marx imagined that the revolution
    would be generated in the most
    developed and industrialized
    countries (UK or Germany), but
    Russia and China were poor
    countries predominantly agricultural.
    Is just a theory, so take it easy and enjoy the memes.

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