On the Free Will Theorem of Karl Marx

Since his publication of many if his manuscripts in the 1800’s, there has been speculation and dialogue surrounding whether Karl Marx is a determinist or a free will theorist. Though both discourses make prominently valid points and observations, the works of Karl Marx stand alone as free will theories.

Many scholars and other observers who claim and state that Marxism is deterministic often refer greatly to Marx’s words on the economy and its surrounding realm. “Determinist Marxism takes the economy to be the element within society that is responsible for the way society is organized, and that the distribution of ownership over the economy influences how change occurs over time in a given society. This above all is what defines a model of Marxism as being determinist: the idea that all social change and the structure of any society is caused or determined by the distribution of the economy.” (Taylor)

Under this course of dialogue, Marx’s work is seen as speculations and possible reasons for certain patterns seen over history, but it concretes the idea of these patterns in such a way that they are finite and do not lend themselves to change or modification.

Conversely, an oppositely minded discourse claims and concludes that Marx is a free will theorist, thus not relying on the apparent façade of permanence of historical patterns that determinists consume as ever-present and permanent.

Such observers and scholars believe that much of the reasons that others believe Marx is a determinist is because the passages or pieces of evidence they find in Marx’s are taken out of context, and they take on a different meaning, deviating from the original purpose and idea that Marx was conveying.

An example of this can be found in Ma...

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...an agency and free will and thought, which are not taken account for in determinist schools of thought. However, Marx does acknowledge the fact that there are patterns and tendency that may surface, but he also acknowledges and demonstrates that these are not always guaranteed to keep happening. If that was so, then the history of the world would be decided very early on, at its creation, and never change, which is clearly not the case.

Works Cited

Gasper, Phil. "Is Marxism Deterministic?" International Socialist Review 58 (2008). International Socialist Review. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. .

Taylor, Christopher L. "The Balancing Act: Economic Determinism and Humanism in Marxism." Thesis. University of Waterloo, 2007. Print.

Marx, Karl, and David McLellan. Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.