For Karl Marx human nature is a reflection of the society that they are a part of. It’s a product of the influencing relationships between a human’s consciousness (their psychology), the material world, and society. These three things produce our nature within society, but we also have a basic species nature. Our basic nature, or our species nature, is more important to Marx than our individual nature. Marx’s belief of our nature leads him to believe that communism is the most beneficial society for us to exist in.
If humans were living in a state of nature, according to Marx, are naturally drawn to one another because our collective nature is more important than our individual nature. In living in nature and trying to survive we are required to make something out of our surroundings. In essence humans produce a material world out of nature and here is where we differ from the animals. “But an animal only produces what it immediately needs for itself or its young. It produces one-sidedly, whilst man produces universally.” (266) Humans have a propensity to create more things than we need simply because we like to make things. We value ourselves as producers because it sets us apart and it demonstrates that we are free thinking. Also what we produce gives us a concept of ourselves, meaning that we can see ourselves in what we make. “Thus it is quite obvious from the start that there exists a materialistic connection of men with one another, which is determined by their needs and their mode of production and which is as old as men themselves.” (273) For as long as humans have been around we have been producing things. That production leads to connection because it shows that all of humanity has something in common. That we are all un...
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...ary in a communist world. All that matters to communism is the collective, not the individual.
This causes me to think that Marx’s view of human nature isn’t correct, or at the very least isn’t complete. I believe that while humanity may be drawn to communities, we also value individuality. Marx puts too much emphasis on community in saying that human nature is a collective thing and not an individual one. Individuality and creative thinking is how societies progress and how new discoveries are made. If every single person simply works for the common good then nothing of that sort is going to happen. Communism and thinking that our base nature is collective limits people in what they can accomplish. I believe that it would create resentment in how restrictive it is.
Works Cited
Loptson, Peter. Readings on Human Nature. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1998. Print.
... middle of paper ... ... According to Marx, a person is actually the action or practical activity that he does to transform nature into an object. Division of labor and private ownership of today’s modern world workers are alienated from their essential source of identity. This kind of alienation causes us to lose purpose of life for human species.
Karl Marx 's writing of ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in 1848 has been documented by a vast number of academics as one of the most influential pieces of political texts written in the modern era. Its ideologically driven ideas formed the solid foundation of the Communist movement throughout the 20th century, offering a greater alternative for those who were rapidly becoming disillusioned and frustrated with the growing wealth and social divisions created by capitalism. A feeling not just felt in by a couple of individuals in one society, but a feeling that was spreading throughout various societies worldwide. As Toma highlights in his work, Marx felt that ‘capitalism would produce a crisis-ridden, polarized society destined to be taken over by
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie was of the upper class, shopkeepers, property owners, upper class. The proletariat was the working class, earned minimum wage, labor is their only material value, lower class. Class rankings were apart of the European history as well as the future. Communist wanted to do away with rankings by the country being classless, yet owning nothing, earning just enough to live. This would make each person a paid wage labourer, no matter the title they carried. Marx theory was to live in a classless system and each person have a strong work ethic, as well as
Society is flawed. There are critical imbalances in it that cause much of humanity to suffer. In, the most interesting work from this past half-semester, The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx is reacting to this fact by describing his vision of a perfectly balanced society, a communist society. Simply put, a communist society is one where all property is held in common. No one person has more than the other, but rather everyone shares in the fruits of their labors. Marx is writing of this society because, he believes it to be the best form of society possible. He states that communism creates the correct balance between the needs of the individual and the needs of society. And furthermore thinks that sometimes violence is necessary to reach the state of communism. This paper will reflect upon these two topics: the relationship of the individual and society, and the issue of violence, as each is portrayed in the manifesto.
Karl Marx is living in a world he is not happy with, and seems to think that he has the perfect solution. I am a strong believer in his ideas. We are living in a time period with a huge class struggle. The Bourgroise exploits and the proletariat are being exploited. Marx did not like the way this society was and searched for a solution. Marx looked for “universal laws of human behavior that would explain and predict the future course of events" (36). He saw an unavoidable growth and change in society, coming not from the difference in opinions, but in the huge difference of opposing classes. He speaks of his ideal society and how he is going to bring about this utopia in his book The Communist Manifesto. I am going to share with you more on his ideas of this “world-wide revolution” (36) that would put an end to social classes and allow people to live with equal sharing which would result in a harmonious and much peaceful world.
Commodity fetishism has blinded people into believing that value is a relationship between objects, when in reality, it is a relationship between people. This in turn, prevents people from thinking about the social labor condition workers have to endure; they only care and value about how much objects costs. They think that the source of the value comes from the cost, but it truly comes from labor (FC). Through this objectification stems alienation and estrangement. Marx starts with the assumption that humans have an intrinsic quality. As human beings, individuals like to be create and manipulate his or her environment. Creating is a part of people; therefore, people their being into their creations. However, Marx postulates that capitalism and specialized division of labor separates that working class from their creations in four ways- through alienation from the product, the labor process, one’s species-being, and humanity itself. The working class suffers through this hostility to make create more wealth for owners of factories. They get trapped in a cycle to make products for profit, but as automation advances, machines begins to take over people’s jobs; therefore, there less employment opportunities available, which in turn allows factory owners to decrease wages and exploit and devalue the working class (EL). In the The Poverty
Marx believed that society was beginning to break away from nature as a source of economical support. In the past, humans had relied heavily on agriculture to support themselves but with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, new technology began to replace old farming techniques and created new factory jobs in cities. Marx had rather extreme views on the extent to which nature in his time had become humanized as a result of human labor.[1] He commented that, “ Even the objects of the simplest “ sensuous certainty” are only given him through social development, industry and commercial intercourse.”[2] "Throughout their labor, humans shape their own material environment, thereby transforming the very nature of human existence in the process.”[3]
When looking at community, individualism and inequality, we examine the works of Karl Marx and Alexis De Tocqueville’s history and the distinction between the two opinions of what each means and what it means and how it affects societies in the past and modern society. In the past, Marx acquired an intriguing stand on individualism, finding that it was far more important than equality. He argues individualism allows workers to achieve consensus and break down the dictatorial leader. De Tocqueville, on the other hand, mentions that capitalism thrives on individualism.
Karl Marx was a nineteenth century, German philosopher, economist, a revolutionary socialist whose philosophy known as Marxism became the foundation of communism. ”Despite Karl Marx stating social classes are the
Marx’s belief in the inevitability of the proletariat revolution stems from his understanding of society and conception of the social structure. He posits th...
In his Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx created a radical theory revolving not around the man made institution of government itself, but around the ever present guiding vice of man that is materialism and the economic classes that stemmed from it. By unfolding the relat...
Though the rewards are pleasing to the ear, the path to obtaining the benefits of communism is a violent one. This strict governing idea was derived from Communist Manifesto, a book written by two German economists, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, who declare that many problems in society are caused by the unequal distribution of wealth. These two believe that “Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations.” To achieve the goal of happiness and prosperity for all, the lines that distinguish the differences between the rich and poor must be erased. Obviously, the rich will never voluntarily give up their goods or status; therefore the figureheads must force equality among the citizens. Communism places their citizens, whether they be the wealthy or the laborers, into working classes that specify their contribution to the government. With such balanced placement of the people, individuality is impossible for any single person to achieve.
Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).
Marx thought of a society that would create equality and bring power to the people. He didn 't expect society to be totally equal but a society with distributed justice. According to Marx, a good society is when there is no exploitation. To get rid of exploitation, we have to get rid of surplus values and make everyone equal. But Marx also knows that no good society can exist as long as exploitation is allowed. That is why some societies will want a Marx type of living and some will not. A society that has used and embodied the Marxist tradition is Russia. They have used Marx ideas and lived by the communist manifesto. This way of life worked for many years and to the people of Russia, it made a good society. But to people outside of Russia, people who lived in a democratic state or country, they looked at it as a failed society. A type of society that should not be allowed to exist in the world of democracy. But like Marx said, some societies will be able to live in a Marxist environment and some won’t. Marx also states, “ In a communist society, the working class will be more important than the capital class”(M 10-25-2016). By having everyone equal, this allows for class conflict to be no more and exploitation not exist. Marx knows there can be no good society but a Marxist society will do its best to form a ideal
He saw communism as a way for all people to be truly free and equal. There would be no more class discrimination and everyone would have resourced based on what is needed. He exclaimed that communism would give individuals the freedoms that the bourgeoisie denied them. While this is what Karl Marx predicted and believed would be successful, the reality over time has taken a much different path proving that Marx’s ideas cannot be accurately applied