For many political theorists and thinkers, the ideas of labor and property are central to the evolution of governments or states, and henceforth, very important aspects of human life. For some writers, the development of property is a direct result of labor, and government is set up to ensure the property rights of those who own property. Some view property and labor fundamentally or naturally connected aspects of human life, while others see it as merely a social convention. Each thinker also has different opinions about how property is acquired, as well as what the limits to property acquisition are. While one writer may provide the most fair account of property, another may provide a more feasible account of property acquisition and its limits. This essay will attempt to compare and contrast the beliefs of John Locke and Karl Marx on the ideas of labor and property with their connections to the aspects of the human condition, as well as determine who holds the most feasible or fair account of property.
To begin, Locke believes that property is not a "thing", rather, it is a relationship between an individual and an item. Property is a natural condition in John Locke’s state of nature, meaning it was present since the beginning. "Thus labor, in the beginning, gave a right of property, wherever anyone was pleased to employ it upon what was common, which remained a long while the far greater part, and is yet more than mankind makes use of." (Locke, 27). In order for property rights to exist, they must be recognized by other individuals through the act of mixing physical labor with nature. The most fundamental and natural forms of the property of man are "The labor of his body, and the work of his hands…" (Locke, 19.) These fundamental properties, according to Locke, cannot be stripped from any man "…nor could without injury take from him." (Locke, 21). By mixing nature with this fundamental form of property, or labor, man can appropriate property to himself. "His labor hath taken it out of the hands of nature, where it was common, and belonged equally to all her children, and hath hereby appropriated it to himself" (Locke, 20). Here, Locke explains that by mixing one’s physical labor with, for example, an apple from a tree, one removes the apple from the common cache ...
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...er, which are understood as goods or property.
To Marx, property is not a natural or fundamental aspect of human existence. In a capitalist economy, property comes about through certain social relations between the capitalist and laborer. It is a social convention to Marx, and is not natural at all, in fact one of Marx’s main movements into communism abolishes all property rights. One reason Marx would like to move from our current governments into communism is because of the alienation of labor. Alienation of labor alienates the physical laborer from the object he creates. The capitalist owns the product that the laborer produces through the division of labor, and no individual worker will ever own what he creates in this system. Marx does not really delve on the evolution of property rights or property relations, he is more concerned with economic factors of production and markets.
In Marx’s base superstructure model of a political economy, the forces of production (labor, technology) form the base of the political system. After the forces of production, come the relations of production, which are class inequality, property rights and the division of labor.
Charles Darwin, the Father of Evolution, was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution, transforming the thinking of the entire world about the living things around us (Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)). After working on his theory for nearly 20 years, he published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. As soon as the book was released, the controversy began with each sides gaining followers until the climax on July 10, 1925. The idea that animals could “evolve” and change into new species, including humans, was one that challenged not only how people thought about the natural world, but challenged the story of the creation from the Bible itself. Even though Darwin himself never said that humans “evolved” from apes, everyone took it as a logical extension of his new theory. It went against the idea of argument for design that had unified theology and science for decades (Moran 5). This new threat to Christianity and the social culture of the time was one that would transform state laws on their educational curriculum.
In western capitalist societies, communism is portrayed as a system that practices wealth distribution where everyone makes the same amount of money and own the same exact things with no competition. In reality Marx’s idea of communism gives people the chance to develop their skills and advance their potential to the fullest extent, that is actually denied under the capitalist class system. Marx agrees with rousseau that political and civil rights are important and gives the people more power but he takes it further and argues that in order for people to be truly free they must have control on their labor and their production by democratizing the economic and labor system.
Karl Marx and John Locke both formulated philosophical theories that worked to convince people of their rights to freedom and power; however, they had conflicting viewpoints on the idea of private property. Locke felt that property belonged to whoever put their labor into it, and one could accumulate as much property as he or she wants (692). Marx, however, considered the private property of the select few who possessed it to be the product of the exploitation of the working class (1118). Personally, I believe that Locke’s conception of private property is more convincing than Marx’s point of view.
I believe that Religion was a vital part of every Egyptian’s life. Egyptians understood that their Gods had already finalized each task, and their job was to embrace it and give thanks. The Egyptians believed that in the beginning, there was Nun. Nun was believed to be swirling chaotic waters. Next, a hill emerged from the waters. This hill is known as Ben Ben. Atum, who was believed to be the first God, stood on the hill, and created the God of air and the goddess of moisture. Their names were Shu and Tefnut .
Charles Darwin was a man of science. He had a true passion for all things involving both plants and animals. Darwin made many contributions to the field of science, but his main contribution that he is most well-known for involves his theories of evolution, or more specifically, how species tend to change over long periods of time through a process called natural selection. Natural selection is defined by Darwin as the “preservation of favorable variations and the rejections of injurious variations“ (Jacobus 900). Even though many of his theories have now been embraced by the scientific community as natural laws in motion, much controversy remains over whether or not his ideas should be perceived as true scientific law. Despite the discoveries of overwhelming amounts of evidence, many people still believe that evolution is exactly what Darwin called it—a theory, and nothing more.
237) and the proletariat “the working class under capitalism who must sell their labor power in exchange for a wage because they lack ownership of the means of production” (Witt, 2016, p. 237) Marx was on the side of the proletariat. Marx believed again because of life chances that the proletariat were not born with the resources to own production so they were forced to sell their labor. Because of the gap that Marx saw growing between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat Marx created an elite model that he hoped would call for a revolution that would end in socialism “an economic system under which the means of production and distribution are collectively owned” (Witt, 2016, p. 203). Under socialism Marx saw a world where everything that was produced was an extension of the person who made it, but instead all he saw between the labors was alienation due to capitalism. Under capitalism Marx believed the individual to be separated from the product, work, and themselves. With this idea of alienation under capitalism Marx believed that people were not living or working to their true
John Locke’s views on property and liberty, as outlined in his Second Treatise of Government (1690), have had varying interpretations and treatments by subsequent generations of authors. At one extreme, Locke has been claimed as one of the early originators of Western liberalism, who had sought to lay the foundations for civil government, based on universal consent and the natural rights of individuals. [1] Others have charged that what Locke had really done, whether intentionally or unintentionally, was to provide a justification for the entrenched inequality and privileges of the bourgeoisie, in the emerging capitalist society of seventeenth century England. The crux of these arguments either way have centered on Chapter 5 in the Second Treatise, entitled ‘Of Property’.
It was an ancient Chinese practice to heat and crack bones, and then read them as prophecies. These prophecies ranged from things like, “If the king joins with Zhi [Guo] (an important Shang general) to attack the Shaofang, he will receive [assistance].” (Document 3) to simple matters like, “Lady Hao’s (a consort of Wu Ding) childbearing will be good.” These bones gave insight into the future for the Chinese people. They were able to believe that they understanded more about the universe than before, giving them a new sense of security in their faith. In a different way, the Egyptians found security in their stance with the gods they believed in. They, instead, sacrificed animals and gave offerings to their gods. “Such Egyptians as possess a temple of the Theban Jove, or live in the Thebaic canton, offer no sheep in sacrifice, but only goats; for the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods, excepting Isis and Osiris, the latter of whom they say is the Grecian Bacchus.” (Document 7) This shows that the Egyptians made sacrifices to various gods, in order to please said gods. They believed that if the gods became angered, they would take their rage out on the people of Egypt. Even pharaohs were not above giving to the gods of their religion. Document 5 shows an Egyptian pharaoh giving an offering to the god of death. This shows the fear that the
In conclusion, Ancient Egypt has a very complex religion and beliefs that would be considered bizarre in many parts of the world. They believed in many gods, some took part in the creation of the universe. Others brought the flood every year, offered protection and took care of people after they died. The ancient Egyptians thought that it was important to recognize and worship the gods because they represented the peace and harmony across the land.
In the Communist Manifesto it is very clear that Marx is concerned with the organization of society. He sees that the majority individuals in society, the proletariat, live in sub-standard living conditions while the minority of society, the bourgeoisie, have all that life has to offer. However, his most acute observation was that the bourgeoisie control the means of production that separate the two classes (Marx #11 p. 250). Marx notes that this is not just a recent development rather a historical process between the two classes and the individuals that compose it. “It [the bourgeois] has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, and new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie ...
Critics may charge that by abolishing private property, the communist is instead eliminating the “groundwork of all personal freedom, activity, and independence.”(235) Standing in defense of communism, Marx states that wage labor does not really create property for the laborer. In fact, it only creates capital, which Marx defines as being a kind of property that works to exploit the worker rather than benefit him or her. (235) The worker works just to increase the wage of his boss, while his wage remains stagnant. Marx states that this capital in the modern bourgeoisie society is based on class antagonism, which makes it become a social power. Communists do not want to abolish property as right, but rather want to abolish the class character associated with property. Keeping capital private will continue to give the bourgeoisie the ability to have more power over the workers of the world. (236) By making capital public, it eliminates the class antagonism that is attached to that
(Giddens and Sutton, 2013) explain how Marx believed that throughout time human societies developed through the structure of the economy and through class conflict. In ancient times there was no system of land ownership and Marx described this a very early form of communism, These earlier systems all proved to have their limitations and each one was subsequently outgrown and a new system evolved, the next economic system to arrive is the one that Marx’s primary focus was which is Capitalism. Marx described Capitalism as two class’s property owners known by Marx as Bourgeoisie (Capitalists) and the Working class which Marx referred to as the Proletariat. For capitalism to exist there must be some form of assets that can be used to create the growth of future
Marx wrote to Engels, “In my opinion, the biggest things that are happening in the world today are on the one hand the movement of slaves in America started by the death of John Brown, and on the other the movement of serfs in Russia… I have seen… that there has been a fresh rising of slaves in Missouri, naturally suppressed. But the signal has now been given. If things get serious.. what will then become of Manchester?” This is Marx’s idea of why a proletarian revolution is going to start. Marx constructed his view on communism based off of the human and technological potentials that were already established in his time, so that the socialist would then become a new society. The new, successful working class would then initiate the plans that help deal with all of the problems that the past society created and the revolution would release a social dynamic. He wanted to get rid of any of the patterns and tends that the capitalist societies had. His theory was characterized by the absence of money, social classes, and political or economic ideology. For example, in China communism is used as a redistribution of wealth where the rich people take all the money and redistribute it to the poor. In Marx’s eyes communism was the only way for people to be treated fairly and for there to be an end to the division of social
According to Marx class is determined by property associations not by revenue or status. It is determined by allocation and utilization, which represent the production and power relations of class. Marx’s differentiate one class from another rooted on two criteria: possession of the means of production and control of the labor power of others. The major class groups are the capitalist also known as bourgeoisie and the workers or proletariat. The capitalist own the means of production and purchase the labor power of others. Proletariat is the laboring lower class. They are the ones who sell their own labor power. Class conflict to possess power over the means of production is the powerful force behind social growth.
The main topic for this Extended Essay is to analyze the effectiveness of company’s market strategy. A marketing strategy can be defined as a process that helps a business to optimize the opportunities in order to complete business objectives, which mainly gain profits. It includes all basic and long-term field activities of marketing that deal with the analyzing of initial strategy, evaluation of the strategy, and making of a new strategy if the initial strategy is found to be ineffective or even might cause loss. (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2009) To make sure the effectiveness of marketing strategy, its crucial to establish the right marketing mix which cover all the element needed in marketing a product. (Clark, et al. 2009)