Karl Marx: Key Concepts and Theories
Karl Marx: A Summary of Key Ideas
1. Political Economy and Historical Materialism
Marx argued that the anatomy of civil society is found in political economy. Through the lens of historical materialism, he explained that the economic infrastructure is the key to understanding a given society and the changes it experiences throughout history. A society’s economic infrastructure (the functioning of its economy) shapes its superstructure, which includes legal, political, and ideological elements (laws, governance, beliefs, values, and traditions).
2. Philosophy’s Role: Interpreting and Changing the World
Marx believed that philosophy should not merely interpret the world in various ways, but actively seek to change it. His philosophical starting point incorporated the liberating ideals and progress associated with the European Enlightenment.
3. Alienation: A State of Being
For Marx, “alienation” describes a situation of being separated from one’s true self, a state of being outside oneself. He used this concept to describe the general condition of humanity in his time. Individuals become “alienated” when they lose control over their own thoughts and decisions, submitting to an external power. This creates a phenomenon where a person, feeling anxious, invents a remedy to which they give independent existence, submitting to it in an attempt to escape their situation.
4. Dialectical Reality
Marx saw reality as dialectical, functioning as a processual whole based on the struggle of opposites. For example, death is necessary for life; new generations emerge through an immediate break with the past.
5. Relations of Production and Social Consciousness
During their lives, humans enter into relationships of production, independent of their will, which correspond to a certain level of development of their material productive forces. The totality of these relations constitutes the economic structure of society. The mode of production of material life conditions social life. It is not consciousness that determines being, but, conversely, social being that determines consciousness.
6. Capitalism, Contradiction, and Revolution
Marx argued that in capitalist society, the “productive forces” (labor) are in contradiction with the “relations of production” (employment status) and “property relations” (the highly concentrated ownership of production). This contradiction leads to social revolution. He saw the industrial revolution and the rise of the bourgeoisie as resulting from “causation.” Capitalism, characterized by the privatization of the means of production, reaches a point where it becomes untenable due to the relentless pursuit of maximum profit. The owner, to maximize profit, pays workers less than the value they produce (surplus value), leading to economic alienation. Competition in the market forces prices down, and owners often resort to lowering wages, creating an unsustainable situation. Marx believed that revolution is the only remedy, as the ruling class will not willingly relinquish its privileged position.
7. Ownership, Social Classes, and Communism
For Marx, the various forms of ownership are the key to the division of social classes. Therefore, the abolition of private property would lead to the elimination of social classes. A communist community, based on the collectivization of the means of production, would result in the disappearance of class distinctions.