MARXISM

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 Historical Development
 Begin in the Mid of 19th century as a pragmatic view
of history the offered the working classes of society
an opportunity to chance the world.

 Offered humanity of a social, political, economic and

cultural understanding of the nature of reality,
society and the individual

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 KARL HEINRICH MARX
 Born on May 5, 1818 in Tier, Rhine province
Prussia in Germany
 A German Political Philosopher
 An Author
 Social and Economic Theorist
 Root of Marxist Theory
 A Revolutionary
 His writings became the basis of Marxism
 Died on March 1883

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 The German Ideology(1845)

◎ Marx declares that “consciousness does not

determine life: life determines consciousness.
◎ Human define themselves
◎ He said that our ideas and concepts about ourselves
fashioned everyday discourse in the language of real
life.

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 MARXIST THEORY

 Marxist theory works on the single object of

eliminating the social class order.

 Believed that the means of production (i.e., the basis of

power in society) should be placed in the hands those
who actually operated them.
Marxist class conflict and Marxian
economics are the fundamentals of
Marxism, explaining power, imbalances,
class struggles and social transformation.

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MARXIST BELIEVES

◎ Dialectics
◎ Contradiction
◎ Labor Theory of Value
◎ Analysis of Human Nature

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 Dialetical Materialism
◎ Marx believed that society had progress from one economic
system to another.
◎ A society progresses from a feudal system to a more market –
based economy, the actual process from producing,
distributing and consuming of foods becomes more complex.
◎ People’s function within the economic system become
differentiated.
◎ Contradiction – context of society
◎ Labor Theory of Value – raw material + machine+ someone to
work = Finished Product
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FOUR MAIN AREAS OF STUDY

◎ Economic Power
◎ Materialism vs. spirituality
◎ Class Conflict
◎ Art, Literature and Ideologies
 MARXISM
• is a social, political and economic theory
originated from Karl Marx, focusing on the
struggles between capitalists and the working
class.
• was writing during the Industrial Revolution: a
period of huge social change
 Two Economic means of production

“
within a society

1. Base – Refers to the production forces, or

the material and resources that generate
the goods of what society needs.
2. Superstructure – All social and legal
institutions, political and educational
religions, law, arts and mass media.
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 Stages of Historical Period according
to Karl Marx

1. Hunter and Gathering

2. Ancient Society
3. Feudalism
4. Capitalism (Production for Profit
5. Socialism (Social Ownership)
6. Communism (Community owns and controls
means of production

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 The Communist Manifesto(1848)
- Marx and Engels further develop the Marxism

◎ Develop a Theory of Historical Materialism based on Philosophy of Hegel

◎ History is the history of class struggle
◎ Different classes are dominant at different times.
◎ They declare that the capitalists, or the bourgeoisie had successfully
enslaved the working class or the proletariat through economic policies
and production of goods.
◎ Marx and Engels statement of socialist ideology is an argument in favor
eliminating capitalism and replace it as an economic system and political
ratification. Everybody works for common good and rather than their
own individual profit.
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CAPITALIST SOCIETY CONSIST
OF TWO TYPES:

BOURGEOISIE PROLETARIAT

Private or Business The Skilled or Laborer

Owner

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 BURGEOIS AND PROLETARIANS
• Growth of Modern Industry has created huge gaps
between the Bourgeoisie and Proletariats
• Economic Growth of B class has been accompanied
by growth in its Political power.
• Skilled workers have become mere or simple
wages earners
• Machine/Modern production has stripped workers
of their humanity
• The Theory of surplus value
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 DAS CAPITA (1867)
◎ History became the basis for 20th century, Marxism, socialism and
communism
◎ History, an understanding of people and their actions and beliefs
is determined by economic condition.
◎ Marx maintain that an intricate web of social relationships
emerges when any group of people engage in the production of
goods.

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PYRAMID OF CAPITALIST
SYSTEM

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 Adam Smith
Born: Kirkcaldy, United Kingdom
Died: July 17, 1790 Panmure House, Edinburgh United Kingdom

• Scottish economist and philosopher and a pioneer of political economy.

• He is the father of Economics.
• He was among the first philosophers of his time to declare that “wealth
is created through productive labor and that self interest motivates
people to put their resources to the best use”. He argued that profits
flowed from capital investment and that capital gets directed to where
the most profit can be made.
• The Wealth of Nations”1776
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 David Ricardo
Born: April 18, 1772, London United Kingdom
Died: September 11, 1823 Gatcombe Park

Classical Economist best known for his Theory on Wages and Profit,
The Labor Theory of Value, the Theory of Comparative Advantage
and the Theory of Rent.

His argument was that there are gains from trade if each nations
specialized completely in the production of good in which it has a
“comparative” cost advantage in producing and then trades with other
nations for the other goods.

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 Georg Lukacs
• A Philosopher and Aesthetician

• History and Class Consciousness

• Believed that a detailed analysis of symbols, images and other

literary devices (formalism) would expose and class conflict
expose the relationship between the base and the superstructure

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 Louis Althusser

“
• Production Theory
• The superstructure can influence the base
• He believes that the prevailing ideology forms the attitude of people in society
through a process called interpolation
• Ideas are a product/reproduction of the means of production.
• Ideological State Apparatus
- Religious, Education, family legal, etc.
- Normalizing the system because we act(within)
- The church has been replaced by the schools
- Schools determined as working class
• Individual versus subject – we are all the subject
interpolation and participation of individual in practices of ideological
apparatus

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 Antonio Gramsci

structure.

• The bourgeoisie
“
• There is a complex relationship between the base and the super

established and maintain

hegemony(supremacy)

• As sustainer of economic base, the dominant class enjoy the

prestige of the masses and controls the ideology that shapes the
individual consciousness

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Immanuel Kant – the moral law is a truth of reason, and hence

“
that all rational creatures are bound by the same moral law. Kant’s
most famous work “The Critique of Pure Reason”
“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the
understanding, and end with reason. There is nothing higher than
reason”.

Max Stirner – believed that there was no objective social reality

independent of the individual; social classes, the state, masses and
humanity are abstractions and therefore need not to be considered
seriously. He wrote a finite, empirical ego which he saw as the
motive force of every human action

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 “
Alexander Herzen - Father or Russian Socialism(Agrarianism)
His aims was to influence both the government and the public toward
emancipation of the peasants, with generous allotment of land and the
liberalization of Russian Society

Jean Jacques Rousseau - A Genevan Philosopher, writer and composer.

His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of
Enlightenment throughout Europe as well as aspects of the French
Revolution and the development of modern political, economic and
educational thought. His “Discourse on Inequality and the Social
Contract are cornerstone in modern political and social thought.

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◎ Lewis H. Morgan –
◎ His Theory that human social life advanced from an

“
initial stages of promiscuity through various forms of
family life that culminated in monogamy. Famous book
“Communism in Living”

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 OTHER INFLUENCER OF KARL MARX
◎ Friedrich Engles ◎ Charles Dickens

“
◎ Charles Darwin ◎ Epicurus
◎ Aristotle ◎ William Shakespeare
◎ John Locke ◎ Baruch Spinoza
◎ Robert Owen ◎ Thomas Paine
◎ Pierre – Joseph Proudhon ◎ Geoffrey Chaucer
◎ Louis Blanc ◎ Denis Diderot
◎ Voltaire ◎ Michel de Montaigne
◎ Heinrich Heine ◎ Francois Guizot

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Thank you and Good
Day “
IMEE CHARISSE RIVERA – MALINAY
Reporter

Week 3 - Identify who influenced the Marxist Theory

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