Analysis of the Marxist Philosophy

A Term Paper
Presented to
Prof. Ma. Cecilia B. Tangian
Department of History
CASS, MSU IIT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

History 70 (Philosophy of History)
Second Semester, SY 2014-2015

By
Mary Claire A. Real

March 16, 2015

ABSTRACT

Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly
influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists.
Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew out of various
sources, and the official philosophy in the Soviet Union, which enforced a rigid reading of
Marx called dialectical materialism. Marxist philosophy is not a strictly defined sub-field of
philosophy, because the diverse influence of Marxist theory has extended into fields as varied
as aesthetics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, theoretical psychology and philosophy of
science, as well as its obvious influence on political philosophy and the philosophy of history.
The key characteristics of Marxism in philosophy are its materialism. According to Marx, the
economy formed the foundation upon which all other elements of society are based. Karl
Marx's economic works are based heavily on the Classical economics of his day. That being
the case, Marxism is a worldview and method that focuses on class relations and societal
conflict that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, and a dialectical view
of social transformation. Marxist methodology uses economic and sociopolitical inquiry and
applies that to the critique and analysis of the development of capitalism and the role of class
struggle in systemic economic change. Moreover, Marxism builds on a materialist
understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the necessary economic
activities required to satisfy the material needs of human society. and its commitment to
political practice as the end goal of all thought.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 2

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .......................................................................................................... 3

Objectives of the Study.......................................................................................................... 4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 5
Research Methodology.......................................................................................................... 6

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ........................................................................................................... 7

III. WHO IS KARL MARX? ............................................................................................................................ 12
IV. WHAT IS MARXISM? ............................................................................................................................. 15
V. WHAT ARE THE TWO SOCIAL CLASSES AND THE FORMS OF CLASS STRUGGLE? .................................. 20
VI. HOW IMPORTANT IS MARXIST THEORY TO THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE? ................................................ 28
VII. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF MARXIST PHILOSOPHY TO THE WORLDS POLITICAL ECONOMY?.............. 34
VIII. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY/CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 40

REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................42

INTRODUCTION

Karl Marx was the most influential modern thinker. He was certainly the greatest
social scientist of the last two centuries. Marx most be numbered among the founders of the
modern study of history, sociology, and economics. But he is most often remembered as the
prophet of proletarian revolution. Furthermore, Marxism is a philosophy of history yet also an
economic doctrine. Marxism is also a theory of revolution and the basic explanation for how
societies go through the process of change. Marxists believe that they and they alone have the
analytical tools to understand the process of historical change, as well the key to predicting
the future. As Marx put it, Communism is the riddle of history solved. Marxists also
believe that they and they alone have an empirical, scientific approach to human history and
society. Marx argued that the state exists primarily as an instrument of coercion Or to put it
another way, no fundamental change can occur in the political sphere without a social and
economic revolution. For Marx, political life is an illusion, and political life is only veil for
the real struggle. To Marx, the fundamental division in every society is that between the
exploiters and the exploited, between the owners of the means of production those who have
to sell their labor to the owners to earn a living.

Statement of the Problem

1. Who is Karl Marx?

2. What is Marxism?
3. What are the two social classes and the forms of class struggle?
4. How important is the Marxist Theory to the Social Structure?
5. What is the impact of Marxist philosophy to the worlds political economy?

Objectives of the Study

1. To know who is Karl Marx.

2. To learn what is Marxism.
3. To acquire knowledge about the social classes and the different kinds of
class struggle.
4. To have an idea on the importance of the Marxist theory and its contribution
to the Social Structure.
5. To comprehend and realize the impact of Marxism to the worlds political
economy.

Significance of the Study

This study will administer a cleared and simpler analysis and explanation of Marxism.
This study will also show the essence of the Marxist philosophy and this will be a significant
endeavor in understanding the philosophy. This study will also be beneficial to students in
History, Political Science and Economics. Moreover, this analysis will provide ideas and
vivid explanations base on my capability and understanding to a certain student or within this
institution in accordance to the said subject.

Research Methodology

A descriptive research methodology was used for this study. A collection of data was
administered from several sources. The researcher also used comparisons for some ideas,
research for more books, clippings, journals and digital books to gather more knowledge
about the topic. Lastly, the researcher did several analysis to reach vividly the objective of this
term paper.

II. Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the related literature and studies after the thorough and in-depth
search done by the researcher. This will also present the analysis and conceptual framework
of Marx to fully understand the research to be done.

Related Literature
Karl Marx was not of working class stock, but the son of a well-off lawyer in the
Rhineland city of Trier. His life story can be told in broad strokes, since for our
purposes, Marx was a man of thought not action. He began his career as a university student
aiming at a law degree and later aiming at a professorship in philosophy. If the situation in
Germany had been different, if the Prussian government would have allowed it, he most
probably would have been a professor. Instead, he became an intellectual outsider and critic,
a professor of revolution. He became a teacher of revolutionaries rather than a revolutionary
himself.
Graduating with a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Berlin in 1836, Karl Marx
began to write for a liberal weekly newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung, and his articles began to
gain him widespread attention. The Prussian censors closed down the journal in March, 1843
and Karl Marx found himself unemployed. For the rest of his life, Marx made a living as a
free-lance writer. For many years he was the European correspondent for Horace Greeley's
newspaper, the New York Tribune. All in all, Marx wrote about 500 articles for the Tribune.
He deprecated his newspaper writing: The continual newspaper muck annoys me. It takes a
lot of time, disperses my efforts and in the final analysis is nothing.

He was exiled from Germany for radical activities in 1849, a few months later he was
asked to leave France. After a brief time in Brussels, he settled in London in 1851. For the
rest of his life, Marx and his growing family lived in London, often in extreme poverty and
isolation. There was considerable revolutionary unrest throughout Europe in 1848, but the era
of revolution was over. Marx never accepted this. For the rest of his life he looked for signs of
the inevitable overthrow of capitalism. For the rest of his life, he worked in isolation writing
drafts of his book Das Kapital. Although he lived in London for almost forty years, he never
felt at home there or even learned the English language. He would go to the reading room of
the British museum every day and read and make notes for his researches into economic
matters.

In his early London years, the family was very poor. His wife had to pawn her jewelry
to pay the rent. Sometimes Marx could not even leave his lodgings because his suit was at the
pawnbrokers. His wife, Jenny von Westphalen, a charming aristocratic woman who lived
with Karl through thick and thin, suffered through grinding poverty because her husband was
not much of a provider. Marx wrote to Engels about his wifes floods of tears the whole
night long which tire my patience and make me angry. I feel pity for my wife. (Mazlish,
1987) Karl Marx wrote to his friend Friedrich Engels in 1852:
My house is a hospital and the crisis is so disrupting that it requires all my attention.
My wife is ill, Jennychen is ill and Lenchen has a kind of nervous fever. I couldnt and cant
call the doctor, because I have no money for the medicine. For ten days I have managed to
feed the family on bread and potatoes, but it is doubtful whether I can get hold of any today.
How can I deal with all this devilish filth? (Rius, 2003) Later on, as Marx published more and

11

as his family friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels set up a pension, the Marxs were better
off. Although he certainly loved his wife, Marx was not the sort of man to put his family
ahead of his writing. He later remarked that he had but one regret, if he had the choice to
make again, he would not have married. As one biographer of Marx, David McClellan
wrote, the price of Marxs vocation was high: of his seven children (one died at birth) only
two survived him, and both of these committed suicide. (Mazlish, 1987) His family certainly
did not qualify as a model marriage: Marx was an avid collector of French Postcards and he
fathered at least one illegitimate child.
Few doubted Marx's intellectual gifts, but many found him to be a most difficult
personality. Marx was a fierce hater and he was a man given to sarcastic verbal attacks on all
who disagreed with him. Carl Schurz, a German American politician and personal friend of
President Abraham Lincoln commented:
Everyone who contradicted him he treated with abject contempt Every argument that
he did not like he answered either with biting scorn at the unfathomable ignorance that had
prompted it, or with opprobrious aspersions upon the motives of him who had advanced it. I
have never seen a man whose bearing was so provoking and intolerable. Everyone who
contradicted him he treated with abject contempt. (Mazlish, 1987)
Marx directed his anger even more towards his fellow revolutionaries. Mikhail
Bakunin, his Russian rival and the founder of anarchist, said: He called me a sentimental
idealist and he was right. I called him vain, treacherous, and morose And I too was right.

Theoretical Framework

The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions and the economic
activities required to satisfy society's material needs. It is understood that the form of
economic organization, or mode of production, gives rise to, or at least directly influences,
most other social phenomena including social relations, political and legal systems, morality
and ideology. The economic system and these social relations form a base and superstructure.
As forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social
organization become inefficient and stifle further progress. As Karl Marx observed: "At a
certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with
the existing relations of production or this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms with
the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms
of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an
era of social revolution. 1
These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form
of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between
the minority (the bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the
population (the proletariat) who produce goods and services. Taking the idea that social
change occurs because of the struggle between different classes within society who are under
contradiction against each other, leads the Marxist analysis to the conclusion that capitalism
exploits and oppresses the proletariat, which leads to a proletarian revolution.

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Introduction 1859

13

Capitalism (according to Marxist theory) can no longer sustain the living standards of
the population due to its need to compensate for falling rates of profit by driving down wages,
cutting social benefits and pursuing military aggression. The socialist system would succeed
capitalism as humanity's mode of production through workers' revolution. According to
Marxism, especially arising from Crisis theory, Socialism is a historical necessity (but not an
inevitability)2
In a socialist society private property in the means of production would be superseded
by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of
private profits, but on the criteria of satisfying human needs that is, production would be
carried out directly for use. As Engels observed: "Then the capitalist mode of appropriation in
which the product enslaves first the producer, and then appropriator, is replaced by the mode
of appropriation of the product that is based upon the nature of the modern means of
production; upon the one hand, direct social appropriation, as means to the maintenance and
extension of production on the other, direct individual appropriation, as means of subsistence
and of enjoyment.3

Free will, non-predestination and non-determinism are emphasized in Marx's famous quote "Men make their
own history ..." The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx 1852.
3
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chapter three 1882

III. Who is Karl Marx?

Karl Marx was one of the nine children born to Heinrich and Henrietta Marx. He was
born in the City of Trier, Germany on the 5th of May 1898. Marx comes from a family of
Jewish but then converted to Christianity due to his fathers career as a lawyer.
This concession was likely professional in reply to an 1815 law banning Jews from
high society, his father was baptized as a Lutheran rather than a Catholic because he equated
Protestantism with intellectual freedom.
Karl Marx was educated at home until he was 12 and attended a Jesuit high school in
Trier for five years from 1830 to 1835. In October 1835, Marx commenced his education at
the University of Bonn. Marx enthusiastically took part in student life because of the
universitys lively and rebellious culture but then, his father insisted that he enroll in a more
serious institution, the University of Berlin.
In the University of Berlin, he studied law and philosophy and was presented the
philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. Marx was not fascinated at first with Hegel, but he eventually
became involved with the Young Hegelians. In 1836, he was becoming more politically
passionate and he was secretly engaged to a sought-after woman from a respected family in
Trier who was four years older than him, Jenny von Westphalen. This, including his
increasing radicalism made his father furious.
Marx did not alight and received his doctorate from the University of Jena in 1841, but
his profound politics stopped him from acquiring a teaching position. In lieu, he started to
work as a journalist and in 1842, he turn out to be the editor of Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal
newspaper in Cologne.

15

One year and three months later, he finally married Jenny von Westphalen and moved
to Paris. In 1843, the political heart of Europe is Paris, there along with Arnold Ruge, he
founded a political journal called Deutsch Franzosische Jahrbucher (German-French
Annals). In August 1844, he met a contributor named Friedrich Engels, the two began writing
a criticism of the philosophy of Bruno Bauer, a Young Hegelian, and the result was published
in 1845 as the Holy Family.
Later that year, Marx transferred to Belgium after being expelled in France while
writing for another radical newspaper. In Brussels, he worked on his materialist conception of
history and refined the manuscript which was later published as The German Ideology. At the
start of 1846, Marx founded a Communist Correspondence Committee. Socialist in England
was inspired by his ideas and so held a confabulation and formed the Communist League.
During a Central Committee meeting in London in 1847, the assembly asked Marx
and Engels to write a declaration of the Leagues position, the Manifesto of the Communist
Party. This was published in 1848, and shortly after in 1849, Marx was expelled from
Belgium.
From Belgium, Marx moved to London. In London, he founded the German Workers
Educational Society and a new headquarters for the Communist League. Also he still
continued his work as a journalist. Marx became increasingly focused on Capitalism and
economic theory, that being the case, he published the first volume of Das Kapital in 1867.
Marx spent the rest of his life writing and revising manuscripts for additional volumes, which
he did not complete unfortunately. However, the remaining two volumes were put together
and was published posthumously by Engels.

Marx passed away on March 14, 1883 in London due to Pleurisy. He is buried at
Highgate Cemetery in London. While his original grave is a nondescript stone, the
Communist Party of Great Britain hoisted a large tombstone along with a bust of Marx in
1954. The stone is engraved with the last line of the Communist Manifesto Workers of all
lands unite as well as a quote from the Theses on Feurbach.

17

IV. What is Marxism?

Marxism is a philosophy of history. It is also an economic doctrine. Marxism is also a

theory of revolution and the basic explanation for how societies go through the process of
change. Marxist believe that they and they alone have the analytical tools to understand the
process of historical change, as well as the key to predicting the future.

Marxism can be defined in two separate ways:

1.

Critical Theory: a philosophical tool for analyzing and explaining socialhistorical-political events, relationships, and ideologies.4

2. Prescriptive Method: An economic system meant to create human equality

and justice through economic equality and the elimination of personal
property. This element of Marxism is utopian; it believes it can permanently
eliminate certain types of human suffering by creating social equality.5

Marxism is a perspective that involves a number of differing sub-perspectives.

The main Marxist ideas are the following:

Marxism emphasize the idea that social life is based upon conflicts of
interest. The most fundamental and important of these conflicts is that
between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat.

4
5

Review of Marxism and The Communist Manifesto, Tom Drake, page 2

Review of Marxism and The Communist Manifesto, Tom Drake, page 3

The concept of social class is more than a descriptive category; social class is
used to explain how and why societies change. Class conflict represents a
process whereby change comes about through the opposition of social classes
as they pursue what they see to be their collective interest in society.

Marxism is a political theory whose main concern is to expose the political and
economic contradictions inherent in Capitalism. And to point the way towards
the establishment of a future Communist society.

Radically there are considered to be two great classes in Capitalist society.

(The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat)
1. Bourgeoisie those who own and control the means of production
in society.
2. Proletariat those who simply sell their labor power in the market
place of Capitalism.

However, at any given moment, a number of class fractions will exist, the Bourgeoisie
may be subdivided into;
1. Haute (High) owners of large companies
2. Petit (Small) owners of small business
3. Professions people who help control the day-to-day running of
industries (while not the owner).

19

Marx characterized human history in terms of the way in which ownership of

the means of production was the most important single variable involved in the
characterization of each distinct period in history.
Five Major Epochs:
a) Primitive Communism characteristic of early human
history where people held everything in common.

b) The Ancient Epoch (slave society) societies based

upon slavery where the means of production was owned
and controlled by an aristocratic elite.

c) Feudal Society where land is the most important

means of production, and owned or controlled by an
aristocratic class.

d) Capitalist society where technological development

has allowed a bourgeoisie class to exploit factory forms
of production for their private gain. The main relations
of production in this epoch are between employers and
employees.
e) Communist Society the means of production are held
in common for the benefit of everyone in the society.
In this society, class conflict is finally resolved and so

this represents the end of history since no further

form of society can ever develop.

Marxist tend to divide Capitalist society into two related spheres of

influence.
A. Economic Base (infrastructure)
B. Political and Ideological Superstructure
Those who own and control the means of production are powerful in such
society because they are able to use wealth to enhance and expand their power.
However, this economically powerful class has to translate this power into
political power and ideological power.

Marxist use the concept of hegemony-leadership with the consent of the led to
express this relationship. There are two ways in which a ruling class can
consolidate its hegemony over other classes:
*Force/Repressive State Apparatuses (ex. Police and Army)
*Ideology/Ideological State Apparatuses (mass media, social workers,
teachers, and a form of soft policy).

Marxist theory emphasizes the total critique of Capitalist society.

Individuals are not the focal point of Marxist theories, individuals are only
significant when they act together as a class.

21

Alienation is used to refer to the way in which Capitalist society degrades both
the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Proletariat are alienated from the
society because although they are responsible for producing goods cooperatively, the fruits of their labor are appropriated by the Bourgeoisie for
their private use. The Bourgeoisie are alienated from their fellow human
beings because of their exploitation and oppression of the rest of the society.

V. What are the two Social Classes and the forms of Class Struggle?

1. Bourgeoisie: This term in the Marxist vocabulary, simply means Capitalist, or

management of those who control the means of production.
2. Proletariat: The industrial working class wage labor. But Marxist look very
carefully at who belongs here no artisans, no peasants, and no farm laborers. The
Proletariat is the factory workers those who have nothing but their hands.6
In Capitalism, two social classes confront each other. The Proletariat and the
Bourgeoisie. The contradiction between these classes is the immediate reflection of the
significant contradiction of Capitalism, the contradiction between capital and labor.
1. Bourgeoisie one of the basic classes of the capitalist society. In the Communist
Manifesto, Friedrich Engels describes the Bourgeoisie as:
By bourgeoisie is to understood the class of modern capitalist who own the
means of social production and exploit wage labor. 7
The primary economic trait of the Bourgeoisie is the ownership of means and
production and the attainment of wage-labor. Economic supremacy leads to political
supremacy and at the same time enables the Bourgeoisie as the governing class to force
society to accept its own ideology as the dominant one.
The economic position of the Bourgeoisie and the resultant economic and political
consequences lead to a number of contradictions, which affect both the whole system of

6
7

Karl Marx and Marxism, page 5

Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

23

capitalist production relations and the relations within the Bourgeoisie as a class. In contrast
to all the preceding exploiting classes, the Bourgeoisie is forced to revolutionize constantly its
production forces, to develop production and technology and step up exploitation. This
continues to increase the economic contradiction between the capitalist and the mass of the
exploited and at the same time creates the conditions for the organization of the exploited
masses, leading them to become aware of their common interest and the need for
revolutionary action. The competition and struggle leading to a concentration of production
and capital is then reflected also in the deepening contradictions within the bourgeoisie itself,
above all, in the permanent tendency of the large bourgeoisie and the monopolies to swallow
up the small capitalist.
The process of constant socialization of production increasingly clashes with the
contradictory process. This deepening contradiction becomes one of the objective reasons for
the overthrow of the capitalist production relations and the victory of socialist revolution, in
which the working class plays the conclusive role.
2. Working Class By the proletariat is understood the class of modern wage
earning workers, who, not having their own means of production are forced, to be
able to live, to sell their labor force.8
-

The proletariat in the Marxist-Leninist sense includes all

categories of wage earners who are deprived of production
means and thus are force to sell their labor, are exploited by

Ibid p.25

capitalist entrepreneurs, and who are creating surplus value

increase the value of capital.9
The working class does not own any means of production and is therefore
forced to sell their labor force that is the objective economic condition of its decisive
hostility towards exploitation and towards the social order which engenders it. The
working class is not burdened with the psychology of private ownership, and therefore
is the most revolutionary force within the capitalist society.
The working class is the creator of the basic values produced by capitalist
society, it creates the surplus value which results in the increased value of capital
which is then appropriated by the capitalists who are thus enabled to continue their
exploitation.
The working class is the most progressive social class but it can assert its
progressive qualities systematically only in conditions in which the private ownership
of production means, as well as exploitation, has been abolished, that is, after
obstacles to a continuous and even development of technology, production and
productivity have been removed in favor of the immediate producers.
The participation in work involving the most advanced technology and method
of production, means also that the working class works in large teams. That, creates
objective conditions for the development of the further characteristics which
determine the historic mission of the working class. The factory, educates the workers
to accept discipline, self-discipline and organization. In this the working class differs

Problems of Peace and Socialist No.5/1961, p.84

25

from the other groups in capitalism which work for the greater part alone or in small
teams. Collective work educates the working class also to become aware of common
interest with other workers, and the need for unity in action against the exploiting
classes. Experiences gained in battles fought against the capitalist teach the workers
that their strength lies, above all, in unity, in subordinating their personal interest to
the interest of the whole class. In this way, class consciousness grows out of the
objective conditions, as a result of the economic status of the working class, and out of
the awareness of their common interest.
The objectively given conditions of the economic and social status of the
working class mold its class mentality and lead it to class awareness. However, they
create conditions which make the working class willing to accept progressive
ideology, to become the systematic exponent of Marxism-Leninism. The pressure of
class hostility and the intolerable position of the proletariat in the capitalist society
give rise to various forms of resistance to the employers, the state authorities and in
extreme cases to the whole regime. In this struggle the workers may reach the early
stages of class militancy, but they are not capable of arriving at the socialist conviction
that there is an irreconcilable conflict between their interest and the capitalist order, at
the conviction that capitalism must be abolished, that a revolution and a socialist
dictatorship is necessary.
The status of the working class is such that spontaneously it inclines towards
socialism. But socialist awareness could arise only when this spontaneous feeling and
movement was put on a scientific foundation, when it united with scientific socialist
theory. The Marxian proletarian parties are the embodiment of this unity of socialist

theory and working class movement. The leadership of the masses consists in the
purposeful guidance of the working class and the working masses by the party in the
sense of the objectively given historical laws - towards socialism.
Forms of Class Struggle
The existence of classes is connected only with a certain historical phases of
development of production and that Class Struggle leads necessarily to the dictatorship of the
proletariat and that the dictatorship itself is only a transitional stage leading to the abolition of
classes.
Classes and class struggle are, above all, the product of economic development. Karl
Marx proved that the apportioning of wealth in the sphere of distribution is the product of the
distribution of ownership in production.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels elaborated the theory of classes and of class struggle
using historical and economic material.
A comprehensive definition of class, in the spirit of Marx was given by V .1. Lenin:
"Classes are large groups of people which differ from each other by the position they
hold in a given historical system of social production, by their relation to means of production
(for the greater part safeguarded and laid down by law), their role in the social organization of
labor and thus by their methods of acquiring and the size of their share of social wealth at
their disposal. Classes are such groups of people of which one can appropriate the work of the
other, because it holds a different place in a given system of social economy".10

10

V.I Lenin, The Great Initiative, Prague, 1946, p.5

27

This definition describes not only the essential feature of Marxist teaching concerning
class membership (relation to means production), but it takes into account also a number of
further economic factors which make possible a more detailed analysis of classes. But in its
analysis of the class structure, Marxism does not limit itself to economic factors alone. It
investigates also the subjective and ideological aspects which play a part in the formation of
social consciousness. The scientific character of the Marxist theory of classes is the result of
the fact that it is capable of discovering the most significant characteristic which underlies the
most complex variety of social relations, all the objective and subjective factors which cause
the division of society into classes strata and groups.
"The history of all the societies up till now is a history of class struggle", wrote Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto. They had in mind the history of
mankind since the emergence of class society, i.e. from the time that society became divided
into the exploited and the exploiters.
Marx did not invent class struggle in order to find scientific support for his political
conviction. Marx did not even discover it, class struggle was recognized and described long
before him. Marx's merit lies in the fact that he proved conclusively that the division of
society into classes is nothing "natural", "divine" or "eternal", but that it is the result of the
economic situation people find themselves in.
Class struggle is therefore an objective historical law which has its objective
foundation in the contradiction of production relations and remains in effect as long as these
objective differences are in existence. For this reason class struggle is not only a question of
subjective wishes, not merely a problem of an ethical character. Therefore it cannot be

abolished by some kind of humanitarian measures, neither can there be a true or alleviation
of class struggle as long as there exist the objective contradiction which engenders it.
Class struggle has been in existence throughout the period of history characterized by
a division of society into classes. For a long time, had the character of a spontaneous struggle
in which the suppressed classes aimed at the immediate improvement of their economic
conditions.
Economic struggle is also one of the first forms of the class struggle of the proletariat.
The working class fought to begin with by means of strikes and mass campaigns for the
improvement of their economic situation, the raising of wages, shortening of working hours
etc. But economic struggle even though it is the earliest form of class struggle and is the
immediate consequence of social contradictions and of the interest of the proletariat, by itself
cannot lead to the economic liberation of the working class. The economic supremacy of the
capitalists is conditioned by and continually renewed through their political power. For this
reason political struggle for the overthrow of the political power of the Bourgeoisie and the
introduction of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the highest form of class struggle. Here no
longer stands a fraction of a class against the fraction of another class, but the confrontation is
between the classes as such. It is the Marxist party which leads the working class to become
aware of the possibilities of the class struggle and the subordination of the economic struggle
to political actions. The party provides the political organization and gives the working class
its own ideology. I.e. the recognition of social laws, the realization of its own interest and the
recognition of the goals and the means to be employed to reach these objectives. The
economic, ideological and political struggle form a unity and culminate in a socialist
revolution and the introduction of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which overthrows the

29

political and thereby also the economic supremacy of the bourgeoisie and thus creates
conditions for the setting up of a classless, socialist society.

VI. How important is the Marxist Theory to the Social Structure?

The concept of a social structure has often played a large role in social theorizing. The
general idea is that society consist of an ensemble of durable, regulative structures within the
context of which individuals live and act. Sometimes structures are interpreted functionally:
the ensemble of structures constitute a system, and discrete structures satisfy important social
functions.
For Marx, the analysis of social class, class structures and changes in those structures
are key to understanding capitalism and other social systems or modes of production. In the
Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels comment that the history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggle.
Marx thought that classes cannot be defined by beginning observation and analysis
from individuals, and building a definition of a social class as an aggregate of individuals with
particular characteristics. For example, to say that the upper class is all families with incomes
of $500,000 or more is not an adequate manner of understanding social class. The latter is a
stratification approach that begins by examining the characteristics of individuals, and from
this amassing a view of social class structure as a whole. This stratification approach often
combines income, education, and social prestige or status into an index of socioeconomic
status, creating a gradation from upper class to lower class. The stratification approach is
essentially a classification, and for Marx classes have meaning only as they are real groups in
the social structure. Groups mean interaction among members, common consciousness, and
similar types of behavior that are connected in some way with group behavior.

31

Categories such as upper class, middle class and lower class, where those in each
category may be similar only in the view of the researcher are not fully Marxian in nature.
Classes are groups, and Marx discusses the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, not
individual capitalists and individual workers. As individuals, these people may be considered
members of a class, but class only acquires real meaning when it the class as a whole and the
social relationships defining them that are considered.
In terms of individuals as members of classes, they are members of a class as they act as
members of that class. For example, Marx notes that burghers or members of the bourgeoisie
in early capitalist Europe:
the class in its turn achieves an independent existence over against the individuals, so
that the latter find their conditions of existence predestined, and hence have their position in
life and their personal development assigned to them by their class, become subsumed under
it.
To the extent that individuals are considered in the social system, they are defined by their
class. For Marxists, class structures exist as objective facts, and a researcher could examine
class and membership of a class, but would have to understand the nature of the whole social
and economic structure in order to do so. To the extent that these members act in society, they
act as representatives of their class, although Marx would leave some room for individual
freedom of action.
Classes are formed by the forces that define the mode of production, and classes are an
aspect of the relations of production. That is, classes do not result from distribution of
products (income differences, lender and borrower), social evaluation (status honor), or

political or military power, but emerge right from relationship to the process of production.
Classes are an essential aspect of production, the division of labor and the labor process.
Classes are constituted by the relationship of groupings of individuals to the
ownership of private property in the means of production. This yields a model of class
relations which is basically dichotomous [since some own and others do not, some work and
others live off the fruits of those who labor]: all class societies are built around a primary line
of division between two antagonistic classes, one dominant and the other subordinate.
In describing various societies, Marx lists a number of classes and (antagonistic) social
relationship such as "freeman and slave, lord and serf, oppressor and oppressed" that
characterize different historical stages or modes of production. While Marx also mentions
various ranks and orders of society, such as vassals and knights, the forms of struggle between
classes are primarily viewed as occurring around control and use of property, the means of
production, and production as a whole, and the manner in which these are used. The basic
struggle concerns who performs the labor, and who obtains the benefits from this labor.
An elite is not necessarily a class for Marx. Examples of elites are military elites,
priests or religious leaders, and political elites these may very powerful and oppressive, and
may exercise formal rule at a certain time or place. An elite could form a class, but a political
or military elite is not necessarily a class an elite may be based on recruitment (rather than
ownership) and may not have much ultimate say in determining the direction of society. Or
the elite may be based on religious, military, political or other structures. This would
especially be the case in pre-capitalist or non-capitalist societies. For Marx, and especially in
capitalism, domination came from control of the economy or material factors, although it was
not confined to this. Thus, the dominant class was the class which was able to own, or at least

33

control, the means of production or property which formed the basis for wealth. This class
also had the capability of appropriating much of the social surplus created by workers or
producers. An elite may have such power, but might only be able to administer or manage,
with real control of the means of production in the hands of owners.
At several points, Marx notes how the class defines itself, or is a class only as it acts in
opposition to other classes. Referring to the emergence of the burghers or bourgeoisie as a
class in early capitalist Europe, Marx notes how the separate individuals form a class only in
so far as they have to carry on a common battle against another class; otherwise they are on
hostile terms with each other as competitors.
Both competition and unity can thus characterize a class; there can be very cut-throat
competition among capitalists, but when the property relations and existence of the bourgeois
class is threatened, the bourgeoisie acts together to protect itself. This becomes apparent when
rights of private property or the ability of capital to operate freely comes under attack. The
reaction of the bourgeoisie may involve common political action and ideological unity, and it
is when these come together that the bourgeoisie as a class exists in its fullest form. In
commenting on France, Marx notes that the French peasantry may be dispersed and lacking in
unity, but
In so far as millions of families live under economic conditions of existence that
separate their mode of life, their interests and their culture from those of the other classes, and
put them in hostile opposition to the latter, they form a class.

It is when the peasantry as a group is in opposition to other classes that the peasantry form a
class. These quotes do not provide an example of the same with respect to the proletariat, but
in his other writings Marx noted that the proletariat is a true class when organized in
opposition to the bourgeoisie, and creating a new society.
Class, for Marx, is defined as a (social) relationship rather than a position or rank in
society. In Marx's analysis, the capitalist class could not exist without the proletariat, or viceversa. The relationship between classes is a contradictory or antagonistic relationship, one that
has struggle, conflict, and contradictory interests associated with it. The structure and basis of
a social class may be defined in objective terms, as groups with a common position with
respect to property or the means of production. However, Marx may not be primarily
interested in this definition of class. Rather, these classes have meaning in society and are
historical actors only to the extent that they do act in their own interests, and in opposition to
other classes. Unlike much other sociology, Marx's classes are defined by class conflict.
For Marx, what distinguishes one type of society from another is its mode of
production, and each mode of production engenders a distinctive class system in which, one
class controls and directs the process of production while another class is, or other classes are,
the direct producers and providers of services to the dominant class. The relations between the
classes are antagonistic because they are in conflict over the appropriation of what is
produced, and in certain periods, when the mode of production itself is changing as a result of
developments in technology and in the utilization of labor, such conflicts became extreme and
a new class challenges the dominance of the existing rulers of society. The dominant class,
according to Marx, controls not only a material production but also the production of ideas; it

35

thus establishes a particular cultural style and influence as a result of changes in the mode of
production generate political doctrines and movements in opposition to the ruling class.11
The theory of class is at the center of Marxs social theory, for it is the social classes
formed within a particular mode of production that tend to establish a particular form of state,
animate political conflicts, and bring about major changes in the structure of society.12

11

Social class. (2015). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550940/social-class
12
Social class. (2015). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550940/social-class

VII. What is the impact of Marxist philosophy to the worlds political economy?

Denigrate by some, misunderstood by others and celebrated as one of the world's great
thinkers by many more, Marx continues to be a divisive and much discussed individual.
Both a scholar and a political activist, Marx addressed a wide range of political as well
as social issues, and is known for, among other things, his analysis of history. The
interpretations of his theories, particularly those on political economy, have in the course of
history generated decades of debate, inspired revolutions and cast him as both devil and deity
in political and academic circles.
As defined, Marxism is a political economic system based on the central belief that
wealth and private property is detrimental and at times dangerous for individuals. Marxists
strive to control the factors of production in a socialist system in order to gain enough
infrastructure to support a communist utopia, where private property and a government do not
exist. Marxism is divided into two polar camps of thought; one which does not believe in the
possibility of a Communist Utopia (as Marx never did) and another which believes that a
classless society can be created not only in relation to the means of production but in interclass relations as well. This divide is labeled as a schism between Marxists and Communists.
Karl Marx believed that the world consisted of a set pattern of history. He believed
that history had a few important eras highlighting the different relationships between different
sets of people. Inequality has been common to all these relationships. He believed that the
world needed to complete a particular stage of history before moving on to the next stage.

37

Therefore, feudalism was necessary for capitalism, and capitalism is necessary for the
proposed next stage. Marx believed that inequality would become so widespread due to
capitalism that the world would have to undergo a chaotic revolution due to his belief that the
capitalist system could not support itself. He believed that there was a fixed amount of wealth
in the world and that the capitalist system made capitalists accumulate private property to no
end. He argued that the division of labor which is an important component of capitalism
divides people into workers of different jobs; this categorization naturally led to inequality.
After capitalism set up the necessary infrastructure, the world would move to socialism where
the state would control individuals, destroying the division of labor to end inequality. After
the world had stabilized, it would move to communism, where people no longer had a need to
accumulate private property since everyone would in a sense become Renaissance men and
women who would be bound by no one occupation. Anyone could work as they saw fit and
provide for the rest of society. This is Marx's idea of the communist utopia.
The idea of the individual and how the individual should be treated has changed
throughout history. In the middle ages, the individual was servant to both lord as well as God.
Individuals labored on the land in order to produce resources for the lords, who would then
forward it to the kings, who were supposedly leaders chosen by God. The Catholic Church ran
in a rather hierarchical system with Jesus as the head and individuals making up the body.
Marxists believe that the ultimate goal is to free the individual from the state. All throughout
history, people have been split into different classes due to inequality. These inequalities
cause conflicts between individuals of different classes. He argued that under capitalism, this
is no exception because the division of labor divides people into different jobs, continuing this
inequality. The accumulation of private property and state intervention exacerbates this

problem even further. He believed that the state needs to strictly control individuals until the
society comes out of the capitalist system, and then it can move towards the communist utopia
where individuals rule themselves without a state that caters to the interests of the wealthy
specifically, but rather a vehicle that caters to the interests of the majority under strict
Democratic control. Contrary to popular assumption Marx does not promote the dissolution of
governing entities but rather to change them into entities of protection rather than
exploitation. With this achieved that which was previously recognized as the State apparatus
has been replaced with what is commonly referred to as a Workers State. Hence, it would be a
misnomer for the new apparatus to be called a "State".
The state is the institution that regulates the distribution of wealth and private
property. Therefore, the role of the state was an important topic for those who were interested
in how this distribution was to be handled. Also, throughout the history of the world, there
had always been the question of how to protect and mediate the actions of individuals. It
makes no sense for individuals to come together in a society unless there is some sort of
coherence between the wants, needs, and abilities of those individuals. The state is the power
that regulates these things.
The classical view of the state is the idea of an institution with sovereign power over
its citizens. In other words, a state has power (which is the monopoly over force and violence)
to make sure its citizens act within the bounds of the law. An institution is sovereign if it
answers to no higher power. Marx believed that the different structures of the state systems
throughout history have allowed for inequality and class conflict. Therefore, he believed that
the state would not be necessary after capitalism had been overthrown. He believed that the
current state supports the capitalist system which perpetuates the exploitation of workers by

39

their employers. He believed that a revolution by the proletariat was required in order to set
up a new socialist government which would organize the necessary social and technical
infrastructure built by capitalism to advance to the communist utopia. Therefore, even though
he argued against the capitalist system, he believed that the capitalist state is a necessary
institution before the creation of the socialist state and eventually the communist utopia can
begin.
The idea of private property is regarded differently by the various political economists.
Marxists see private ownership of the Means of Production as unnecessary once inequality
has been destroyed. The accumulation of private property and capital is what drives
capitalism. Since capitalists need to compete in order to keep making profits, they must
choose to accumulate capital in order to live as capitalists (otherwise, they will end up as
workers themselves). It is the desire for private property itself that drives the capitalist system,
and therefore must be abolished in the communist utopia. Marx did not necessarily advocate
the state to actively intervene in order to remove the private property, but he believed that
individuals would naturally see private property as unnecessary once the division of labor
(and therefore inequality) has been eliminated.
Government became the instrument of economic transformation that was to bring
about the conditions necessary to support communism without going through the creative and
dynamic capitalist phase. 13
The second inheritance of Marxist thought was more democratic, taking off from a
notion of Engels that a revolutionary transition could take place by parliamentary means,

13

Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop
Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.135

through revisionism. Eduard Bernstein, who was born in Berlin in 1850, the son of a
locomotive engineer, became a friend of Engels. He believed that capitalism was not about to
collapse, that polarization between workers and capitalist was not occurring and that
parliamentary institutions would provide a means to improve the conditions of the working
class and bring them to power. 14
Redressing the economic grievances by political action was viewed as the devils
work, providing opportunities to troublemakers, misfits, adventurers, radicals of all sorts.
Liberal democracy, which may have represented the triumph of capitalism over aristocratic
rule, elevated the bourgeoisie, the commercial and entrepreneurial middle class, to power. But
this was precisely the group that had economic power over the unrepresented workers and the
poor in general. Thus it became the obvious that political and economic power did not check
and balance each other, and that liberal democracy was the instrument which supported by
law the exploitation of the workers. Marx believed that it would not help to reform the
government under such circumstances. To seek to correct the inequalities produced in the
economic marketplace through compensatory political action would have provided a BandAid solution where an operation was necessary. What was required was not reform but
revolutionand with it a social democracy which realized equality. For Marx, this premise
constituted general historical law of motion in social affairs.15
Marx thus becomes for the modern era what Socrates was to the antique: the symbol
of peoples power over their destiny.

14

Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winthrop
Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.135
15
The Marxist Method,Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 p.127

41

For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute,
in one way or another to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which
it has brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he
was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions
of its emancipation.16
This is not a bad evaluation. Marx used a powerful deductive system for a prescriptive
end. He sought to apply knowable truths as scientific laws, in order to define both potentiality
and actuality. He believed that once the problem of material scarcity was solved, it would
become possible to solve the philosophical problems posed by Plato and Rousseau, exorcise
the ghost of Hobbes, and expose the liberal solution. Conventional politics would become
unnecessary and disappear because public and private purpose would be the same. There
would be neither rulers nor ruled. Marx, in short, proposed to abolish a political model that
had prevailed from the time of Plato.17

16

Friedrich Engels, Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx, in Marx and Engels, op. cit., pp. 167-68
Marxist ideology, Introduction to Political Analysis, by David E. Apter, Yale University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, Inc. 1977 pp.129-30
17

VIII. Findings of the Study/Conclusion/Recommendation

Marxism is a philosophy, a world-view, a system of social and economic analysis,

and, it became political doctrine. In understanding Marxism it is also important to understand
the time in which Marxist ideology developed, which was during the culmination of The
Enlightenment, the middle and late 1800s, when America still had slaves, women did not have
the right to vote anywhere, women had very few rights at all in most places, the poor were
extremely bad off in Europe, imperialism and colonialism were the order of the day, the world
truly was dominated by a handful of extremely wealthy men, and science was being more
widely embraced by average citizens throughout Western Civilization than ever before.
Marxism is based on philosophical materialism. Philosophical materialism is the view
that all things in the universe are natural and follow the laws of nature, i.e. that there is no
such thing as the supernatural.
Marx, and his associate Engels, developed a philosophy known as dialectical
materialism. Dialectical Materialism is the merger of the ideas of dialectics and materialism
and basically states that all things in the universe are material, that evolution is constantly
taking place at all levels of existence and in all systems, that defined boundaries are manmade
concepts which do not actually exist in nature, and that the universe is an interconnected
unified entity in which all elements are connected to, and dependent upon, each other. The
philosophy holds that science is the only means by which truth can be determined.

43

Metaphysical materialism states that the mind, or thought, is purely the product of the
material composition of the brain. In other words, the physical and chemical makeup of the
brain governs thought, nothing else.
Marx also developed the philosophy of historical materialism, which is essentially the
application of dialectical materialism to the study of history and sociology. Historical
materialism was seen as a scientific approach to understanding history and applying that
understanding to present situations.
According to Marx, the economy formed the foundation upon which all other elements
of society are based. Karl Marx's economic works are based heavily on the Classical
economics of his day.
That being the case, Marxism is a worldview and method that focuses on class
relations and societal conflict that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development,
and a dialectical view of social transformation. Marxist methodology uses economic and
sociopolitical inquiry and applies that to the critique and analysis of the development of
capitalism and the role of class struggle in systemic economic change. Moreover, Marxism
builds on a materialist understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the
necessary economic activities required to satisfy the material needs of human society.

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