Marx

1
Marx

• Philosophy 151
• Winter, 2004
• G. J. Mattey

2
Hegels Critics

• Philosophers who criticized Hegel remained wedded
  to his method
• They ignored the basic question of how they stood
  with respect to Hegels dialectic
• Their analyses were carried out in the Hegelian
  manner
• Feuerbach destroyed the inner principle of the
  old dialectic and philosophy
• The critics ignored even this

3
Feuerbachs Achievements

• Hegelian philosophy is nothing more than a
  conceptual development of religion
• Like religion, philosophy is to be condemned
  because it is a way in which humans are alienated
  from their nature
• The fundamental principle of philosophy is the
  relationship of human to human
• Philosophy becomes materialist and scientific
• Opposing the logical principle of the negation
  of the negation

4
The Dialectic Exposed

• The negation of the negation is supposed to be
  the re-establishment of a starting-point that has
  met opposition
• The opposition, or alienation of the
  starting-point is nonetheless preserved
• If the opposition really is preserved, then there
  is simply an inconsistency

5
The Dialectic in Action

• Hegel begins with the infinite, the indeterminate
• From this arises the finite, the determinate
• But if the infinite gives rise to the finite,
  then it is determined or limited by its relation
  to the finite, which is the negation of its
  infinity
• So, this negation must be negated the infinite
  must be re-established, somehow retaining its
  negation as a moment

6
The Real Agenda

• The conceptual dialectic is only an expression of
  the relation between theology and philosophy
• Theology concerns the infinite (God) who creates
  the finite (the world) which is the object of
  philosophy
• The opposition between God and the world is
  overcome by re-establishing God as the
  fundamental being who is compatible with the
  existence of a finite world

7
Idealized History

• The dialectic properly only expresses conceptual
  relations
• The actual unfolding of history is irrelevant
  except insofar as it coheres with the conceptual
  development of the dialectic
• The dialectic begins with purely conceptual
  thought and ends with the self-knowledge of a
  super-human mind
• The only concept it develops is philosophical
  mind as a self-thinking super-mind (spirit)

8
Alienation

• Hegel correctly understood that wealth, religion,
  the power of the state, and other phenomena are
  alienated from human nature
• For Marx, these are inhuman objectifications
  that result from human activity
• They need to be overcome
• They are only the path to genuine humanity

9
Hegels Insight

• Humanity develops itself as a species
• The work of human beings produces alienated
  objective forms
• Something is lost from humanity in the production
  of the objective forms
• What has been lost can be regained by overcoming
  them
• The ultimate realization of humanity as a species
  is the result of the exercise of species-powers
  over time

10
Hegels Error

• But human nature is taken by Hegel solely as
  thought, so it is only the thought of wealth,
  etc., that is taken as alienated
• When their opposition is overcome, then, it is
  only the thoughts which are absorbed
• What is concealed in this purely conceptual
  dialectic is the real alienation existing in the
  world of empirically real human beings
• But it is all there beneath the surface

11
Labor

• Hegels standpoint is that of modern economics
• He views labor as the essence of the human being
• Through labor, humans externalize themselves in
  the objects they transform
• Hegel recognized only mental labor, which
  produces mental objects

12
Self-Consciousness

• Hegel assumes that the human being is identical
  to self-consciousness
• It is alienated from itself insofar as there is
  an object of consciousness
• This alienation is overcome by negating the
  objectivity of the object
• Consciousness finds only itself
• The human being is thus a non-objective,
  spiritual being

13
Naturalism

• Natural human beings find themselves confronted
  by real natural objects
• Such objects are truly external to the human
• In appropriating those objects through activity
  on them, humans establish their objective
  capacities
• The arena of the activities of actual humans is
  nature, and the objects they transform are
  natural objects

14
Objectivity

• Humans as natural beings have capacities and
  powers that exist as drives
• On the other hand, humans are limited and hence
  suffer in the face of objects
• The objects of drives are independent
• But they are essential as objects of human
  drives, and herein lies objectivity
• Hunger requires nature containing food in order
  to be satisfied

15
Thinghood

• If humanity is equated with self-consciousness,
  human activity is directed toward purely mental
  objects
• Rather than dealing with real things,
  self-consciousness is confronted with abstract
  thinghood
• Thinghood is a creation of self-consciousness and
  is dependent upon it
• Independence of things is only apparent

16
Non-Entity

• If a being does not have its nature outside
  itself, it is not natural
• Nor is such a being objective, since it is not an
  object for another being
• A non-objective being is a non-entity
• It would necessarily exist alone
• It is merely an imagined abstraction

17
Species-Being

• To be human is more than to be a mere component
  of nature
• Humans are beings for themselves and hence
  species-beings
• The objects they transform are not immediately
  natural objects
• As a natural being, the human being has an origin
• Its origin is history, which it can understand

18
False Positivism

• In Hegels dialectic, the externalization of the
  self is transcended but preserved
• The claim to preservation is a mere pretense
• For example, philosophy is said to transcend yet
  to preserve religion
• But the end-product is not actual religion, but
  only philosophy of religion
• The positive status of religion is thus a lie

19
Transcendence

• Hegel correctly recognized the basic nature of
  transcendence
• It is a movement whereby what has become
  externalized is re-absorbed
• For example, God is alienated humanity and is
  transcended by atheism
• This atheism is not a simple unbelief, but
  instead is a theoretical humanism
• Similarly, communism is humanism transcending
  private property

20
Nature

• The emptiness of the Hegelian dialectic can be
  seen from its treatment of nature
• The end-product of logic is a self-knowing
  conceptual unity
• But it knows itself to be nothing and decides
  to allow concrete nature to flow from it in
  intuition
• This arbitrary development has given the
  Hegelians such terrible headaches

21
Still an Abstraction

• The nature which is spun out from the Absolute
  Idea remains an abstraction
• Taken as the product of abstract thinking, it is
  nothing for real human beings
• Insofar as nature is external to thought, it is
  not true, but defective

22
Criticizing Hegel

• The German critics of Hegel have been dependent
  on his philosophy
• Their basic procedure has been to isolate one
  part of the system to use for criticizing the
  other parts
• In so doing, they desecrate Hegels categories
  by replacing them with names that seem
  non-Hegelian (e.g., species)

23
Religion

• The German critics brought all aspects of culture
  under the umbrella of religion
• They then criticized them for their religious
  character
• They disagree with the Old Hegelians only in
  that the Old Hegelians accept the legitimacy of
  the dominance of religion
• Young Hegelians think that concepts are the
  chains that enslave humanity, while the Old
  Hegelians think of them as unifying it

24
Changing Consciousness

• The solution to the problem of false conceptions
  is to change consciousness
• This is just to re-interpret reality
• In the end, the revolutionary pronouncements of
  the Young Hegelians are nothing more than phrases
  opposing other phrases
• They do not combat real problems in the real world

25
Reality Check

• The German philosophers have failed to connect
  their philosophy to the material conditions of
  the reality of German life
• The correct starting-point is the real activities
  of real human beings in real material conditions
• These conditions include
• The initial conditions
• The conditions produced by human activity

26
Initial Conditions

• The physical organization of living individual
  humans and their relation to nature are the first
  items of investigation
• These are studied through the special sciences
• What essentially distinguishes humans from other
  animals is the ability to produce the means of
  their own subsistence
• With this begins human development

27
Modes of Life

• The manner in which people produce their means of
  subsistence determines their mode of life
• What people are is what they produce and how they
  produce it
• Such production requires population increase and
  forms of social intercourse
• The extent of development is mirrored in the
  degree of the division of labor

28
Ownership

• At the highest level, the division is between
  town and country, commerce and industry
• Within each division are specialized forms of
  further division among the individuals involved
• Each specialized form of division is a form of
  ownership of
• The material of labor
• The instruments of labor
• The products of labor

29
Types of Ownership

• The initial phase of ownership is tribalan
  extension of the family
• Next is communal ownership
• As private property develops, communal ownership
  decays
• Antagonism between town and country develop
• As does antagonism between commerce and industry
  between town
• On these are based antagonisms of nations

30
Conquest

• The picture of the development of forms of
  society seems threatened by the phenomenon of
  conquest
• It is held that violence is the driving force of
  history
• But conquest occurs only when internal economic
  developments make a nation ripe for takeover

31
Feudalism

• A number of factors made the feudal or estate
  system emerge after the fall of the Roman empire
• Its basis is a hierarchical structure of the
  ownership of land
• The producing class is the serfs, as opposed to
  the slaves of more ancient times
• This hierarchy is reflected in the towns in the
  relation between master and apprentice

32
Production

• The descriptions given of the pre-industrial
  phases of economic development are realistic
• There is a de-mystified, empirical description of
  the real activities of real people in real
  material conditions
• The key point of analysis is the connection of
  the social and political structure with
  production

33
Mental Production

• Mental production is to be analyzed in just the
  same way
• Basic mental activity (thinking) is a result of
  peoples material behavior
• The same holds for more advanced forms, such as
  politics, law, morality, religion, and
  metaphysics
• Consciousness can never be anything else than
  conscious existence . . . of men in their actual
  life-process

34
Inversion

• The analyses of Hegel and his German critics
  invert this picture
• They begin with thoughts of humans in isolation
  from reality and try to determine from this what
  human reality must be
• The developed forms of thought such as religion
  and metaphysics are given a false independence

35
Real Positive Science

• The method Marx and Engels are advocating is that
  of real positive science
• Its premises are real people in their material
  conditions
• It gives meaning to history, which is no longer a
  collection of dead facts (empiricism) or a
  fantastic invention (idealism)
• Philosophy loses its privileged position

36
The Failure of Economics

• Economics reveals the division of people into the
  owners of private property and the propertyless
  workers
• Its categories of greed and competition do not
  explain this division
• But there is an necessary development underlying
  it
• It is based on the nature of private property

37
An Alien Object

• The greater the wealth the worker produces, the
  poorer he becomes
• In producing a commodity, he becomes a commodity
  himself
• The reason is that the object produced by the
  worker is alien to the worker and an
  externalization of his work
• This is an application to labor of Feuerbachs
  thesis about religion

38
The Worker and Nature

• Nature provides two means of life to the worker
• An object upon which to work
• The means by which the worker is able to live
• Appropriating nature through work diminishes
  these means to life
• Less material for labor is available
• The worker as a person declines in proportion to
  the value of the object produced

39
Production

• The explanation of the alienation of the worker
  is found in the relation between the worker and
  his product
• This is ignored in economics, which focuses
  instead on the secondary relation of the product
  to its beneficiaries
• To understand the primary relation of worker to
  object, we must understand the process of
  production

40
Forced Labor

• Labor is external to human nature
• The worker does not engage in it voluntarily in
  the home, so it is forced upon him
• It is only a means to satisfy an end, not the
  satisfaction of a need
• It belongs to another
• The only feeling of freedom is found in animal
  functions (e.g. eating) and perhaps in ones
  house and clothing

41
Species-Being

• Human beings are species-beings in two respects
• We make our own species our object in our
  theoretical and practical activities
• In relation to the species we are universal and
  consequently feel free
• The whole of nature becomes the inorganic body of
  the human being
• It is means to our life
• It is the instrument of our life-activity

42
Life-Activity

• Non-human animals are no different from their
  life-activities, which are determined by their
  species alone
• Humans make life-activity into an object of will
  and consciousness
• This free, spontaneous life-activity is the
  essence of the human species
• In alienated labor, life-activity becomes
  degraded to a mere means of existence

43
Human Relations

• Because workers are alienated from their
  species-being, they are alienated as well from
  other human beings
• This also alienates them from themselves
• They are also alienated from the labor and the
  products of the labor of others
• The standard of human relations becomes that
  which defines the relation between the worker and
  the alienated object

44
Ownership

• The process and product of the workers labor
  does not belong to him
• It is owned by a being other than the worker
• The owner is neither the gods or nature
• The alien owner can only be another human being
  who benefits from the alienated labor
• The worker is in bondage to another alien,
  hostile powerful man independent of him

45
Private Property

• Private property is the product of alienated
  externalized labor
• It is the result of the production of an
  alienated object by a worker in bondage to the
  lord of labor
• This result reverses that of economics, which
  begins with private property and seeks to explain
  externalized labor
• Private property is only a way in which labor
  externalizes itself

46
Wages

• Wages are identical to private property in that
  the externalized product pays for the labor
  itself
• Enforced increase in wages would result only in a
  higher slave-salary
• Even equal wages for all would require society as
  such to be the owner of the product of the
  workers labor
• Wages, private property, and alienated labor
  stand or fall together

47
Emancipation

• The abolition of private property would result in
  the emancipation of workers
• Such emancipation would end all human servitude,
  which is based on alienated labor
• All relations of servitude are only
  modifications and consequences of the workers
  relation to production

48
Communism

• The opposition between labor (propertyless) and
  capital (property) is a contradiction that is
  to be overcome
• The root of the opposition is private property
• Communism is the abolition of private property
• Communism is thus what can overcome the
  labor/capital contradiction

49
Crude Communism

• The most basic way in which private property can
  be overcome is by making all the wealth public
• The aim of such crude communism is to bring
  everyone to the same level
• This extends the condition of the laborer to
  everyone, obliterating culture
• It is based on envy and greed
• Crude communism is a sham in that private
  property sets itself up as positive community

50
An Analogy

• The possession of wives as property is an
  analogue of material private property
• The relation of man and women is the most basic
  social relation of all
• The private possession of women could be overcome
  by the holding of all wives in common (as in
  Platos Republic)
• But this would degrade the humanity of everyone

51
Developed Communism

• The most-developed form of communism does away
  with all the alienation inherent in private
  property
• Humanity is thereby restored, and human beings
  become true to their nature
• This communism is thus humanism as completed
  naturalism and naturalism as completed
  humanism
• It resolves all inter-human antagonism

52
The Ultimate Resolution

• Communism resolves the most fundamental
  oppositions
• Existence and essence
• Objectification and self-affirmation
• Freedom and necessity
• Individual and species
• It is the riddle of history solved and knows
  itself as this solution

53
Communism and History

• Developed communism is the outcome of the entire
  movement of history
• So is the consciousness of the development of
  communism
• Crude communism, on the other hand, looks to
  history for confirmation
• It appeals to specific instances in which private
  property has been opposed
• In so doing, it betrays its emptiness

54
Varieties of Alienation

• Material private property is the immediate
  sensuous form but not the only one
• Others include
• Religion
• Family
• State
• Overcoming of private property leads to the
  abolition of them all

55
Social Activity

• Once private property is overcome, genuine social
  interactions will occur
• The object of human activity becomes ones
  existence for other human beings
• In this non-alienated society, human beings
  produce humanity, which in turn, as something
  social, produces human beings
• Nature is a link to the human being only through
  other human beings

56
Communal Satisfaction

• The social activities brought on by communism are
  not restricted to actual association with other
  humans
• One is socially active in the pursuit of science
  because one acts as a human being
• One reason is that language is a social product
• Another is ones activities are self-consciously
  social undertaken for society

57
Generic Consciousness

• The activity of ones general consciousness is
  ones theoretical existence as a social being
• It is an abstraction from real social life
• Society must not be established as an abstraction
• There is no real difference between generic and
  individual consciousness or life the former is
  the totality of the latter

58
Appropriation

• Through communism, human essence is appropriated,
  but not possessed
• Private property has led us to think that our
  only relation to the world is having the means of
  living
• Appropriation occurs in all the ways humans
  relate to the world, including the senses
• With appropriation, each sense senses the world
  as comprised of social objects, and social organs
  in fact develop

59
Human Senses

• Humans find themselves in objects only when the
  objects become social
• On the side of the humans, sensitivity to social
  objects must be developed
• The human senses are brought to their full
  perfection only when their objects signify more
  than fulfillment of immediate needs
• This applies as well to the so-called spiritual
  and moral senses

60
The End-Result

• A society that is fully constituted will
  produce the rich, deep, and entirely sensitive
  man as its enduring actuality
• All oppositions are overcome in this social
  situation
• Subjectivism and objectivism
• Spiritualism and materialism
• Activity and passivity
• Their resolution is the result of practical
  activity

61
The History of Industry

• The history of industry shows objectively the
  essential powers of humans
• But it does so only by treating objects as
  sensuous, alien, and useful
• Such a history is inadequate because it abstracts
  from the relation of worker to production
• The whole realm is supposed to be captured by a
  concept of need

62
Natural Science

• The success of the natural sciences has been in
  their technological application
• The sciences are divorced from philosophy
• The basis of science is sense-perception, not
  pure concepts
• This applies as well to the study of human beings
• Even economic concepts such as wealth and poverty
  take on a human meaning

63
Creation

• It is difficult to expel the concept of creation
  from general consciousness
• The notion of self-creation seems to be
  contradicted by practical facts
• Regress arguments embody abstractions and are of
  no value to someone who is rooted in what
  actually exists
• Human beings have been creating themselves
  throughout history

64
The Negation of the Negation

• Atheism tries to arrive at humanity through the
  negation of God
• Socialism begins with sensuous perception of
  humans and nature as essential beings
• Communism, the overcoming of private property, is
  the negation of the negation of human life
• As such, it is not the end, but only a necessary
  stage in the establishment of the final form of
  human society

65
Manifesto of the Communist Party

• Throughout Europe, communism has been labeled as
  a dangerous specter
• This establishes that communism is acknowledged
  as a power
• It also calls for a response on the part of
  communists
• The present manifesto will debunk this nursery
  tale of the specter of Communism

66
Class Warfare

• The history of all societies of which we have
  written records is one of class-struggle
• The oppressor and oppressed classes assumed many
  forms in ancient and medieval times
• Modern society has created a single fundamental
  division between
• The bourgeoisie (owning class)
• The proletariat (working class)

67
The Rise of the Bourgeoisie

• In the Middle Ages, serfs who established the
  towns became propertied burghers
• The discovery of new world created new economic
  structures that gave rise to the bourgeoisie
• Manufacturing gave way to industrial
  mass-production
• The bourgeoisie became ever-wealthier and pushed
  aside the old powerful classes

68
Political Power

• Corresponding to the increase in economic power
  of the bourgeoisie was increasing political power
• At first, it was in the service of the central
  government against the feudal lords
• With the rise of modern industry, the bourgeoisie
  seized power in the modern representative state
• The function executive power in this state is to
  manage their common affairs

69
Destruction

• The bourgeoisie has been a devastating
  revolutionary force
• It has replaced the old divisions of natural
  superiority with new ones based entirely on
  naked self-interest
• All the old institutions have been placed on a
  cash basis
• The old freedoms have been replaced by free
  trade, which is exploitation

70
Constant Revolutionizing

• The accomplishments of the bourgeoisie far
  out-strip all prior accomplishments
• By its very nature, the bourgeoisie must
  constantly revolutionize the relations of
  production and so of all of society
• This results in everlasting uncertainty
  agitation
• National industries are all being destroyed by
  what we now call globalization

71
Globalization

• Old wants are displaced by new wants that can
  only be satisfied in a global economy
• National seclusion and self-sufficiency have been
  replaced by universal inter-dependence of nations
• Intellectual production has been globalized as
  well
• A world literature has arisen to replace national
  literatures

72
No Place to Hide

• It is impossible for nations to resist the global
  onslaught of the bourgeoisie
• Unless a nation adopts the bourgeois mode of
  production, it will become extinct
• It civilizes nations in the sense that it makes
  them bourgeois themselves
• It creates a world after its own image

73
Urbanization

• A further effect of the advance of the
  bourgeoisie is the subjugation of the countryside
  by the cities
• The city populations in turn have grown to be
  much greater than those in the country
• Agricultural nations are similarly subjugated by
  industrial nations
• The East is dependent on the West
• (We now would say the South on the North)

74
Political Centralization

• As the economic structures of society become more
  centralized, so do the political
• Formerly independent provinces have become
  subject to the nation, with one
• Government
• Code of laws
• National class interest
• Border
• Customs duties

75
Crisis

• It has not been a smooth ride for the bourgeoisie
• Over-production has continually engendered
  destructive crises
• The conditions of bourgeois society are too
  narrow to comprise the wealth created by them
• The crises are met by
• Destroying productive forces (downsizing?)
• Opening overseas markets

76
The Proletariat

• The bourgeoisie has created the material
  conditions for its own destruction
• It has also created the proletariat, who are the
  instruments of that destruction
• The laborers are developed along with industry
• They are commodities whose remuneration decreases
  with the repulsiveness of the work they do

77
All Classes are Vulnerable

• As modern industry develops, it becomes more
  feasible to use women and children
• The lower strata of the bourgeoisie, landlords,
  shop-keepers, etc. sink to the level of the
  proletariat because they cannot compete with big
  industry
• They do not have enough capital
• Their specialized skills are made worthless by
  new means of production

78
Fighting Back

• The first stage of resistance is disorganized and
  directed against the local exploiter
• Machinery and imported goods are destroyed
• With the development of industry, the mass of and
  power of workers grows
• Their desperation increases as they are made
  obsolete by advances in what we now call
  productivity
• But conditions of industrialized society
  facilitate the organization of the masses

79
The Instability of the Bourgeoisie

• The bourgeoisie is constantly in conflict with
  itself, especially foreign industrialists
• It must enlist the proletariat in its defense
• They become educated and thus stronger
• Those portions of the bourgeoisie that are sucked
  downward provide enlightenment
• Finally, members of bourgeoisie at the highest
  levels go over to the side of the proletariat

80
True Revolutionaries

• Only the proletariat are true revolutionaries
• The lower middle classes who fight the
  bourgeoisie are reactionary trying to restore
  the old economic order
• The lowest levels of society (Lumpenproletariat)
  may help out, but they are more likely to find
  themselves of service to the bourgeoisie

81
Nothing to Lose

• The old social structures of the proletariat have
  been obliterated by the bourgeoisie
• The proletariat have nothing to lose
• Their only hope is to destroy the system that
  took away everything they might have had
• Their mission is to destroy all previous
  securities for, and insurances of, individual
  property

82
The Course of the Struggle

• Modern conditions are incompatible with society
  because the condition of the proletariat has no
  means of improvement
• The modern proletarian movement is the first in
  which a majority is revolting against a minority
• The struggle is at first national, though in
  substance it is international

83
Inevitable Victory

• The struggle of the proletariat must succeed
  because of a fatal flaw in capitalism
• In order to be successful, the capitalist system
  must keep workers in competition with one another
• But another requirement for success is that the
  workers be highly organized
• The bourgeoisie, then, produces above all its
  own grave-diggers

84
Aftermath

• A global victory by the Communist Party would
  re-organize society in many ways
• Property would become public
• Land ownership would be abolished
• Income taxes would be heavily progressive
• Inheritance rights would be abolished
• Emigrants and rebels would lose their property
• The monetary system and means of communication
  would be centralized in the hands of the state

85
More Aftermath

• Factories would be publicly owned
• Agricultural production would be made scientific,
  and the boundary between town and country broken
  down
• Everyone would be required to work, and
  industrial armies would be established
• Education would be free to all
• Child factory labor in its present form would
  be abolished

86
Revolutionary Movements

• The Communists support other revolutionary
  movements insofar as they are directed against
  the bourgeoisie
• In so doing, they strive to bring the essential
  division between the owners and the propertyless
  to the fore
• They do not hide their aim of overthrowing
  private property altogether
• The revolution promises to take place first in
  Germany because it is most advanced