Marxism And Capitalism Essays - Thought, Political Philosophy

Marxism And Capitalism Modern Marx's theoretical work is the understanding of the nature of human beings and how they have constructed their historical world. Marx is considered a modernist because his views and theories fit the meaning of Modernity, which are human freedom and the right to free choice. To Marx, Capitalism is a barrier to the notion of human freedom and choice. Five aspects of his political theory which are modern is how he views human nature, effects of Capitalism on human natures with emphasis on significance of labor, class struggles within Capitalism, the demise of Capitalism and the need for the transition to Communism. Marx belief of human nature is that it changes over time; it is historical and dynamic. In understanding human nature, it is important to understand what part labor plays in human nature. "To be Human is to labor," (88) therefore Marx believes that Humans work in the world with other Humans in exchange with nature to get what they desire. Thus since human nature is dynamic so are humans' wants and desires. In order to achieve one's wants and desires one must labor with others around them and with nature. Since labor is the activity of a group, the ever-changing world created through the labor of those groups also creates the humans themselves and directly affects them. Through labor, humanity creates and is responsible for the world that they live in. Marx suggests that Capitalism leads to the centralization and concentration of living spaces of where people lives, means of production, monopolies and the distribution of more power to the bourgeoisie. The success of Capitalism is directly connected to capital and wage labor. Capitalism's goal is to increase profits called accumulation; profits then reinvested else where to make more capital. " . . . like the buying and selling of an object in the capitalist market, but in this case the exchange is money for the ability of labor, what Marx calls labor power." (xxv) Capitalism flourishes by extracting surplus value, or profit, from the commodities produced by the working class. Without capitals and profits there are obviously no wages and a place to do any type of labor power; and without wage labor capital can not increase itself. Both are dependent on each other for the flourishing of Capitalism. Capitalism is a form of life that does not do justice to human abilities and capacities; it is a division from basic powers to humans and the exploitations of human workers. Workers are forced to sell their labor power to capitalists and capitalists have no choice but are forced to exploit labor to gain capital; therefore the laborers are commodities themselves in the capitalist market. As the result of Capitalism, labor has been under admonition and oppression. Instead of picturing the world as it is, Capitalism pictures the world in a distorted view. A view that leads to the alienation of the true is meaning of human nature. The view that places the products of laborers more important than the laborers themselves; thus the laborers are objectified. Laborers then do not realize that they are the ones who are in control of product that they produce. "Alienated labor hence turns the species-existence of man, and also nature as his mental species capacity, into an existence alien to him, into the means of his individual existence." (64) The distorted view leads to the miscognition of self of the working class who are cut off from their essential powers. They fail to realize that the world is of their own making and that they have the ability to create and recreate the world in which that they live in. Marx's theory of privileging of economic matters places an emphasis on class struggles that are related to the forces of production as well as the relations of productions. Economics is the production of the exchange of goods and services through labor arrangements. In every society there is a way to distribute goods and services called a mode of production. The mode of production is the combination of the forces of productions; like raw materials, technology or labor forces; and the relations of productions or the relationship among human beings related to forces of production. One's relations of productions in a Capitalist society determine one's location in the mode of production, that is, their class. In a Capitalist society everyone is located in a class, either the class of the bourgeoisie (capitalist) or the proletariat (working class). More important then any talent or skill, the class position is