Name:.

Muhammad Hassan
Roll no :. 2401
Assignment:. Marx interpretation of history

“ Economy is the centre of all human activities

“
Have you ever spend a moment of your life in thinking that what make humans different from
animals. May be you have never bothered your mind to think about such odd questions but the great
minds in human history spend their whole lives trying to answer such questions. Various
philosophers had answered this question in different ways but it was Karl marks who introduced a
new trend in answering this question. In his book German ideology, he dramatically wrote that we
the humans are superior to animals not because we can express our religions but because we have
learned best ways to produce our own food. This division of labour in human history was a milestone
achievement for humans to evolve their consciousness. Such evolution of consciousness is a
parameter by which we can feel different as well as superior to animals. Wait for a moment. you may
be wondering that why I am telling you particularly such kind of Karl marks writings. This writing of
Karl marks seems important to me not because he was successful in differentiating us from animals
but because he was introducing something new in history: ECONOMY IS THE CENTRE OF ALL
ACTIVITIES IN HISTORY.

How to understand Karl Marx:.

We can understand Karl marks not only by readings his primary textbooks. It will be a wastage of
time. Directly reading his primary texts is like forcing a child to write a word without knowing any
English alphabet. It is impossible to grasp the ideas of Karl marxs without reading his critique on
idealistic philosophers. The only way to understand Karl marks is to understand the philosophy of his
rivals such as Hegels and Feurbach. His critique on these philosophers will assist us to understand his
actual views. After that we will move towards his actual texts .

Marx critique on hegels:.

Karl Marx was born in 1818 and died at 1883. He had wrote various masterpieces such as The
German Ideology, Poverty Of Philosophy and The communist manifesto. These books depicts us a
clear picture in which the ideas of Karl Marxs are evolving with the passage of time. At first, he joined
the young Hegelian: this group was deeply impressed by Hegel's ideas of the spirits. But after
sometime, he became a strong opponent of Hegel’s philosophy. He opposed Hegel’s view of history
on following ideas.

1:. Hegel's view of spirit

2:. Hegel’s ideas of state

3:. Hegel’s approach as idealistic history

Marx’s critique on spirit:.

It is safe to say that Hegel was a philosopher influenced by Kant. His idea of spirit was that there is a
spirit which can be defined as the peak of human consciousness acquired through rationality. This
spirit of human race is evolving unless some individuals will come and destroy the previous
achievements of humans just for seeking their greedy and personal gains.

Karl Marx criticised this concept of spirit. According to him, Hegels was mistaken that the human
consciousness is created by a specific class which Marx called as bourgeoisie. The monopoly of this
class on the society becomes possible due to the accumulation of wealth in few individuals. To
maintain its monopoly, this class have also to control the mind-set of people. This means that human
consciousness can never progress on the basis of rationality. This human consciousness is nothing
more than to safeguard the monopoly of elite class. Marx was a genius as he also solved this problem
by stating that the humans should control their own economy. You can never change yours destiny
until you have not control your mode of production. Therefore, for marx , there is no space for spirit
in human history. It is the economy which is the basic problem that should be rectified.

Mark’s critique on Hegel’s state:.

Hegel had witnessed French revolution. It was the start of modernization in Europe. Modern nation
states were introduced. At the start of French revolution, various philosophers had welcomed the
revolution because of its enlightenment ideas. Hegel was among one of them. He also believed that
the origin of modern nation states is a great achievement of humans as spirit will be flourish under
the shades of modern state. He was wrong. Marxs strongly criticised him by quoting that “modern
state concept is phony. It is a flawed. Citizens have no social participation indeed they have only
political participation. Their political participation is limited. Marxs critiqued hegels modern state
concept because hegel considered state as a liberator of freedom. Marx was well aware about the
foundation s of modern state. He believed that the pillars of modern state was standing on the
capitalist form of government.

Mark’s critique on Hegel’s idealistic approach of

history:.
Marxs made his 3rd and last critique on Hegel. It was his philosophical views on history. Hegel’s had
proposed an idealistic approach towards history. According to him, the purpose of history is nothing
more than to achieve the success of spirit. These all are ideas which are absurd. Nobody has ever
saw a spirit. Karl marx negated this idealistic approach towards history and introduced his
materialistic history . According to marx, Economy is the main factor which shaped our history. All
other aspects of society like culture, traditions, religion and faiths are the shades of history. The
change in economy can eradicate the previous structure of society and will form a new society.

Marxs historical views:.

There are three books of Marxs which are hus primary texts. These work include The German
Ideology, Poverty Of Philosophy, The communist Manifesto. There are different discourses of history
used in various time periods such as religious trend during middle ages, humanistic history during
enlightenment, human as an actor of nature by Kant, history is the progress of spirit by Hegel’s. This
sequence shows history in the process of becoming. Marks was the one who rejected all these
previous ideas and introduced his own understanding of history.

Economy, the major factor in running our

1:.

history:.
Nowadays, history is considered to be a subject of cause and effect of events happening in the past.
But according to Karl marxs, the causes behind the curtail of history are based on economy. His
periodization of history signifies that how stone age was transformed in to agricultural revolution and
then followed by industrialisation and then succeeded by communism. The major factor behind this
movement of history is economy. This change in economy have altered the social relations of
humans as well ideologies of humans are formed accordingly.

Relation between private property and

2:.

prolterate:.
After reading the previous knowledge of history, Karl marx introduced his own understanding of
history. The writing of Marx elucidate that in history, there are two classes existed in every period.
On of these class got power and accumulated wealth while the class remained oppressed. The
accumulation of wealth will allow private property and hence class discrimination. But history has
witnessed that eventually the oppresses class will one day overturn the reign of existing class. As
Hegel was from Germany, there was not existence of anyone class . So Hegel came to believe that a
working class is establishing in Germany due to industrialisation. He called this class as a prolterate
class and it will be classless class. Lenin used the slogan “dictatorship of prolterate” in Russia was
impressed by Marxs. These prolterate will then seized the private property and communism will be
the end of history.

Theory of Alienation:.
3:.

Marxs theory of alienation is very important. The product of labour is present in the object. When
labour is allowed to enjoyed his labour participation, then this realisation is known as objectification.
But what if he is being ignored during the process of mode of production, then it will be called as
theory of alienation. Labour will ruined his mind. He will lost his interest in his work anymore. He
feels alienated with the society also. As quoting Marxs, “ man feel free in animal function such as
eating, sleeping etc. But he feel like an animal in human function means during his labour.”

4:. His sketch of history:.

Marxs historical sketch is very interesting. His historical sketch is explained in chronological order.
1:. In ancient times, there was tribal property where chieftain was based on patriarchy. That was an
ancient commune system where sharing was valued. But with respect to time, the system of state
property was introduced. From there, the commune system was replaced by property holders.

2:. As the mode of production changes in agriculture revolution, the roman feudal system was
introduced. There was a great distinction found among society on the grounds of property. There
was division of labour which resulted in the accumulation of wealth.

3:. Feudalism was then replaced by pre-capitalism which means industrialisation. This period remarks
a great change in economy. Peasants were replaced by workers in industries, landlords were replaced
by bureaucrats in administration.

4:. The final stage in history is communism which will be considered as the end of history. He was
confident of communism victory over capitalism because he believe that the accumulation of wealth
will lead to a small number of elite class. This small number will then be defeated the large no of
proleteriate