Lecture 9 - Karl Marx (with some Hegel thrown in for kicks)

Karl Marx had a bushy beard, there I said it, it's out the way and I don't have to think about it again. In related news, he was also a philosopher but not in the way we normally think of philosophers. He once said that "philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point however is to change it" and it is this that lies at the heart of his works.

Marx was born to a Jewish family which, depending on your opinion, has either no significance or great significance but let's go with great significance because it's a much more fun idea. Some people have commented saying that Marx saw himself as some sort of Old Testament prophet and even the wild beard and hair were significant; it seems he saw himself as someone coming to tell the 'good news' of the communist message as if it was something Biblical, which in some ways it was. Biblical in the sense of its size and impact but more on that later. The young Marx studied Law initially and was an exceptionally gifted student with a lucrative career ahead of him. Suddenly he decided he was more interested in philosophy which angered his parents but what angered them more was his next decision to become a Journalist. Lawyer to philosopher to journalist and it was his skills as a journalist that made his most well known work The Communist Manifesto so readable and persuasive.

He was one of the Young Hegellians, influenced greatly by Hegel's ideas on dialectics and this was to form a large part of his manifesto. He made a move into radical journalism and revolution meeting Friedrich Engels in Paris in 1844, the start of a friendship which encompassed co-authored works and the publishing of Marx's other writings posthumously. Marx's journalism at this time was rather inflammatory and it got him kicked out of countries for the radical beliefs he promoted. He was giving philosophical backing to the revolutions bubbling under the surface in Europe at the time. In 1848 he was pushed out to London where he lived until his death in 1883. His tombstone has one of his most famous quotes, the one at the heart of his communist manifesto, "workers of all lands unite." In the lecture we were reminded of a campaign slogan by Bill Clinton which said "It's the economy stupid" and Marx approached his theories in a similar way. He believed that you can explain everything about society by analysing the economic forces that shape it. For Aristotle, man is the political animal; for Plato, man is the political animal; for Kant, the moral animal; for Hegel, the historical animal; for Marx, man is the productive animal. Mankind creates the environment it inhabits - 'not a figure in the landscape, but the shaper of the landscape'. We dominate because we can make tools and co-operate.

In his works, Marx achieved (according to Engels) a combination of Hegellian philosophy in his history and dialectics, British empiricism with economists like Smith and French revolutionary politics especially socialist. He worked using a Darwinian scientific method, researching every aspect of society in order to understand it; he worked his through the reading in the British Museum. Hegel had a large influence on Marx and his historical process in terms of the spirit through history and its seeking of self understanding. History will end when the spirit achieves full self knowledge and becomes the absolute spirit. This process works through the dialectic:

• Thesis (Proposition)
• Antithesis (Counter proposition - contradiction)
• Synthesis (Combination or refuting of one proposition)

Hegel called the spirit Geist and believed history is being guided by the Geist towards an eventual end. Marx took the idea of the dialectic as he liked that two ideas could form one new idea but as far as Geist went, he thought that was all mystic rubbish.

Marx saw the class struggle throughout history, the master and slave, the lord and serf and now the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. His dialectic is based on Hegel's but reflects a more economised view, basing it on money in the real world, a so called "dialectic materialism". In this he argues that the proletariat have nothing to lose, "they have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." Other groups like the bourgeoisie have property to lose so cannot possibly be as selfless.

One of Marx’s most important theories in The Communist Manifesto is that of alienation. It comes from his theory of human nature in which - like Plato - Marx proposes that we have a tripartite self. We as human beings have three aspects or needs; the natural self which needs subsistence; the alienated self where natural needs are perverted, sex perverted by male dominated society, productivity and activity not met; finally the species self which understands we are all part of one another and will emerge in the Communist State. Capitalism, Marx states, alienates us from ourselves and each other, as we value things over each other, the cash nexus becomes the criterium of all value. As a generalised statement this works in theory but I think many people would value friends and family more than money and things, the laptop I'm writing this blog on isn't as important to me as my parents for example. Marx was writing in a time of child labour and possibly this cruelty in the name of financial gain tarnished his world view; as he once said, "Bourgeoisie has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment." Marx claims that the communist society will be characterized by equality and true justice and the evolution of a truly free individual. In a truly Hegellian manner, he looks at communism in this way:

• Thesis: The Bourgeoisie
• Antithesis: The Proletariat
• Synthesis: Socialism

Capitalism is sowing the seeds of its own destruction... apparently. Marx even provided a nice little sound bite for this idea, "capitalism produces all things in profusion but most of all it produces its own grave diggers." Capitalism encourages intense competition and so its eventual fall is inevitable as is the rise of the proletariat.

Communism will be some sort of Garden of Eden where no countries exist, no possessions and no religion. There will be no difference between mental and physical labour, no division. All activities will have equal worth. But how? What incentive would a Doctor have to do 7 years of training if in the end his salary will be the same as that of a bin man, whose job is hugely important and extremely necessary, but cannot possibly be seen as equal; good luck with that Marx. To explain this in an easy to digest way, Marx said "To each - according to ability. To each - according to need."

Procrastinators of the world unite!!! Tomorrow...

Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.


P.S. Sorry for the late and slightly disjointed blog, was attempting to write it whilst also doing a bunch of other assessments.