Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Marx’s writing on politics and the economy made people look into a different perspective on society. In the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Marx talks about alienation, objectification, and the universality of the worker. His philosophy is important to study not as much for his ethics but his view on capitalism that changed the views of many people making them think differently about the capitalism. His philosophies are quite controversial and the interpretation of them has created conflict in society that affected human life all over the world. In the manuscripts Marx talks about the alienation of the working class under capitalism, he talks about labor and how labor is the objectification of the product the worker creates, then he talks about the universality of man.

The idea of Marxism came about as a rejection to capitalism. Marx is associated with the idea of establishing a classless society. Under the capitalist society there was a class struggle between the working and owning class. The owning class exploited the working class by making them dependent on the owning class for survival. The working class was dependent on the ownin... ... middle of paper ... ...uation M-C-M is associated with the owning/ruling class because they make money through the transfer of money.

Due to this disparity among classes, workers experience alienation from the world, as all the products of their labor directly benefit the wealthy capitalists. According to Marx, workers are alienated from the product of their work, the labor process, their human identity and, ultimately, the human race, under this system. Marx’s early ideas about the estrangement of labor reveal his contempt for the capitalist system. By working merely to survive, man is alienated from the object he produces, the process of production, himself and his fellow man. The first form of alienation that Marx distinguishes is the estrangement of workers from the product of their labor.

Marx’s Alienation of Labour There is deep substance and many common themes that arose throughout Marx’s career as a philosopher and political thinker. A common expressed notion throughout his and Fredrick Engels work consists of contempt for the industrial capitalist society that was growing around him during the industrial revolution. Capitalism according to Marx is a “social system with inherent exploitation and injustice”. (Pappenheim, p. 81) It is a social system, which intrinsically hinders all of its participants and specifically debilitates the working class. Though some within the capitalist system may benefit with greater monetary gain and general acquisition of wealth, the structure of the system is bound to alienate all its participants.

According to Marx, materialism is a key factor of the class struggle and inequality. b) A: According to Marx, economic exploitation is treating workers unfairly by not paying workers for their actual labor. He also said that workers are exploited in capitalism because they create value of a good; however, workers are not the ones who get the profit that is paid when that value is bought. According to Marx, such systems in which production people are allowed to own the labor power of other people the relation of class is known as slavery. On the other hand, when the rights and... ... middle of paper ... ... other hand, Marx saw bourgeois democracy as a progressive force against the old feudal system.

For instance, developing from preindustrial societies such as hunters and gatherers into modern industrial societies based on capitalism. A capitalist economy is defined as an economic system based on private ownership of capital. I believe that capitalism as a way of thinking that is fundamentally individualistic; that the individual is the center of capitalist endeavors and should be free to pursue their own interests. Thus individuals that are pursuing their own interests will guarantee the interests of society as a whole, which is the complete opposite to the hunter and gathering societies. Capitalism is problematic due to its bourgeoisie and proletariat association that produces a class system.

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx challenges the capitalist society and gives his solution to it. Marx takes a standing on capitalism with his book, The Communist Manifesto and displays his view of the problems of the society and how to fix them. Marx gives his critiques of capitalism and in a plethora of ways. Some of these critiques are the exploitation of the working man due to the greed of the ruling class and the working class becomes like slaves to their bourgeoisie masters. Marx also gives solutions to the problem, he makes the statement that capitalism needs to be worked and run as a whole not worked by the many and run by the few.

conflict When Marx referred to conflict he generally meant the struggle between the classes. While he recognized the existance of other conflicts he noted that the difference was that while they could be resolved within a capitalist system, class conflict could only be resolved with the fall of capitalism. Conflict theory states that inequality exists because those in control of a disprportionate ammount of resources, the bourgeoisie, defend their their privelage. Marx veiwed the structure of society in relation to the major classes and the conflict beteween them as the catalyst for change within society. An example of this conflict can be seen in the fact that the proletariats ... ... middle of paper ... ...the individuals in the bureaucracy have one specialised field which they focus on which allows for efficiency.

Derived from his idea of surplus value was that of alienation. Marx gave an economic interpretation to alienation. People were alienated from their own labor; their work was appropriated by someone else and the work itself was compulsory, not creative; the cause was capitalism, and the cure was socialism. Marx believed that modern labor is an evolution of something that began centuries ago and encompassing everything from slave states to European feudalism right on up to today’s version of commercial capitalism; which, completed or perfected the capitalist technique of worker alienation. Marx is correct in saying that capitalism exploits the working class, and that working under capitalism is in fact “alienating”.

People work based on goals capitalist to pay them. In capitalism, labor is no longer a goal in itself but as an expression of the ability, potential of humanity and effort to earn money. The individual who experienced alienation in capitalist society is basic focus of Mark analysis in the structure of capitalism that became the source of alienation. Marx used the concept of alienation to the influence of capitalist production on people and on society. The most important thing is the two-class system in which capitalists use and treat workers (and thereby, their working time) and their production (tools and raw materials) as final products and workers are forced to spend their time to work to the capitalist in order they can