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- Posted: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 17:46:45 +0000
Marxism is a philosophy, it is not merely a theory of economics or sociology or history- all fields in which its impact has been great Marx and Engel’s believed they had discovered nothing less than the laws of motion and of development of the universe, laws of animate and inanimate nature. The key to their philosophy is the concept of dialectical materialism. The materialistic aspect of this concept holds essentially that the world of are senses has an objective reality and is the sole reality. This is supplemented by the notion that all real phenomena in the universe change according to the tripartite dialectical pattern of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. From this materialist view flows the Marxist rejection of all forms of religion. The dialectical pattern is perhaps best exemplified by Marx’s view of the class struggle in capitalist society as the mechanism through which a thesis and antithesis (capitalists and workers) interact to form a synthesis in form of eventual socialism. Historical materialism, Marxist economic theory, and the like are essentially the applications of dialectical materialism to different areas of human experience and activity. And it is was this philosophical claim to the discovery of the laws of history that caused Marx and Engel’s to label their economic doctrine “scientific socialism” as against the allegedly “utopian socialism” of rival radical thinkers of the nineteenth century
To Marx and Engel’s, capitalism was fundamentally an act of robbery. The capitalist paid his worker- whose labour Marx and Engel’s saw as the sole source of exchange-value, just enough to stay alive and raise his child. But the capitalist took from the worker a much greater amount of product, thus compensating himself for what he had paid the worker and growing richer by the amount the worker had produced over the value of what he had received in return. The difference between what the worker produced and what he paid, Marx and Engel’s termed surplus value. In their eyes the capitalists lust for more and more surplus value was insatiable, constituting a drive for ceaseless accumulation of capital, which permits no real stability. From this simple mechanism of “robbery” and increasing capital accumulation, Marx and Engel’s drew far-reaching conclusions. They saw in the sweep of history capitalists growing richer and fewer, while the misery of the working class increased. This increasing polarization of society into small clique of capitalists and a great mass of miserable exploited workers would continue, Marx and Engel’s thought, until the limits of endurance had been reached and the terrible system of exploitation would be destroyed by its victims. (Inevitable revolution) although this has happened in many nations before and failed, it stands to reason by this theory that it will continue to happen and capitalism will inevitably destroy itself.
To Marx and Engel’s, capitalism was fundamentally an act of robbery. The capitalist paid his worker- whose labour Marx and Engel’s saw as the sole source of exchange-value, just enough to stay alive and raise his child. But the capitalist took from the worker a much greater amount of product, thus compensating himself for what he had paid the worker and growing richer by the amount the worker had produced over the value of what he had received in return. The difference between what the worker produced and what he paid, Marx and Engel’s termed surplus value. In their eyes the capitalists lust for more and more surplus value was insatiable, constituting a drive for ceaseless accumulation of capital, which permits no real stability. From this simple mechanism of “robbery” and increasing capital accumulation, Marx and Engel’s drew far-reaching conclusions. They saw in the sweep of history capitalists growing richer and fewer, while the misery of the working class increased. This increasing polarization of society into small clique of capitalists and a great mass of miserable exploited workers would continue, Marx and Engel’s thought, until the limits of endurance had been reached and the terrible system of exploitation would be destroyed by its victims. (Inevitable revolution) although this has happened in many nations before and failed, it stands to reason by this theory that it will continue to happen and capitalism will inevitably destroy itself.
