Marxism

849 Words2 Pages

Karl Marx was best known for his revolutionary ideals of communism and not necessarily as a philosopher (D. McLellan 1973). Marx took a major interest in politics and economics, which formed most of his famous work, for example the communist manifesto. Marx’s theory of history is mostly centred on the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power( D. McLellan 1973). The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx’s prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism (S. Lukes 1987). Therefore today I will be arguing that capitalism does promote the exploitation of workers.

Karl Marx famously thought that capitalist economy promotes the systematic exploitation of workers. For Marx, this idea was based on a labour theory of value, which most scholars reject today. The labour theory of value states that the average number of labour hours required to produce that commodity can objectively measure the value of a commodity (D. McLellan 1973). Nevertheless many philosophers today still agree with Marx’s basic claim, that capitalism is inherently exploitative, they simply define exploitation in broader and less contentious terms, instead of thinking about exploitation as involving the forced extraction of surplus value from labour, nowadays philosophers adjust Marx’s view on exploitation to be the process of taking unfair advantage of others vulnerability (S. Lukes 1987). When defined in this way many contemporary philosophers believe that capitalism is rife with exploitation, with economically powerful capitalist taking unfair advantage of workers vulnerability in order to maximise their profits. What should we make ...

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...orkers, instead, they believe, innovative or entrepreneurial capitalists earn profits by forgoing short-term gains, taking risks to achieve long term gains in the future (D. Prychitko 2008).

In conclusion, the essence of Marx’s theories upon capitalism is still somewhat relevant in today’s society, and there is no doubt that capitalist do try and exploit their workers, but that has become so common in today’s society it is not necessarily described as exploitation but working hard. There is a very fine line between exploitation and working hard, only the person who is feeling exploited will be the judge of that.

Works Cited

1. Lukes, Stephen. 1987. Marxism and Morality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2. McLellan, David. 1973. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan.

3. Prychitko, David, L. 2008. Marxism. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

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