Marxism, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein: Key Concepts
Marxism: Key Concepts
Goodwill
Goodwill, in a capitalist system, represents the value created by an employee’s work that exceeds the value of their wages. It is essentially the surplus product in the capitalist mode of production and forms the basis of capitalist accumulation.
Productive Forces
Within Marxist theory, productive forces are not necessarily tied to a specific type of relationship between individuals in production or even a particular social structure. Friedrich Engels argued that the limited development of productive forces in primitive societies resulted in the absence of private ownership of the means of production and the absence of antagonistic classes. This type of society, characterized by limited production, is sometimes referred to as “primitive communism.” However, productive forces evolve independently. This evolution can be either hindered or enhanced by the system of production relations and the political and ideological superstructure.
Class Struggle
According to Karl Marx and Engels, history has always been characterized by a class struggle between oppressors and oppressed, enduring across centuries and cultures. This conflict arises from the ownership of produced goods, which are distributed unevenly. Oppression emerges to protect the acquired.
Structure and Superstructure
The Marxist conception of history sees class struggle as the driving force, not the unfolding of a spirit. The foundation of reality is material, specifically the mode of production of goods. Within this mode, the relationships between individuals and their respective social classes are paramount. This determines the structure and superstructure, with the latter derived from the former. In this materialist dialectic, the infrastructure comprises the productive forces and production relations. The superstructure is the legal-political and ideological framework, which can present a distorted view of reality.
Nietzsche vs. Socrates: Reason and Happiness
Nietzsche criticizes the Socratic equation of Reason = Virtue = Happiness. He argues that equating virtue with reason is a way of polarizing human reality, as reason is merely a function of the body. Nietzsche emphasizes corporeal reality, while Socrates prioritizes the reality of reason. He finds the equation bizarre because virtue is more extensive than reason; it is a force driving in one direction, faster and more consistently than reason, towards reality. Only those who seek to avoid pain, the weak, solely desire happiness.
Wittgenstein: The Inexpressible and the Mystical
“What is inexpressible, certainly exists. It is shown; it is the mystical.” This fragment belongs to Ludwig Wittgenstein, who distinguishes between what can be said and what can only be shown. Propositions, according to Wittgenstein, can only depict facts, mirroring reality. On the other hand, what is shown, what he terms “mystical” – concepts like beauty, good, and evil – is ineffable (enef), as it is not an object of the world in the same way that “white” is. We cannot speak of beauty, good, and evil in the same way we speak of objects because what can be said clearly can be said, and what cannot be said is shown. The ineffable is not part of the world. There is no enigma; the question cannot be formulated. For instance, you can say, “Here is a rhinoceros!” as it describes a fact. However, it is incorrect to say, “Here there is a rhinoceros!” because you cannot speak about what “is” in that sense, as “what is” is not a fact.