Karl Marx's Theory Of Socialism

1000 Words4 Pages
Socialism is based on an organisation of political economy that believes that the process of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned and controlled by the unabridged community. In the mid 19th century, German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, established their own theory of socialism. This theory refers to the analysis of capitalistic class relationships between property owners, the worker and production, by using a materialist explanation of historical development and a dialectical interpretation of social transformation. In his work, Estranged Labour, as well as explaining how the concept of alienation affects a certain individual, there is also a predominant emphasis on the labourer’s predicament within the capitalist…show more content…
Capitalism’s foundation is based on the principle of private property, and therefore, work as a root of location and identity is greatly undermined. People deprived of property, namely proletariats, are obliged to relinquish their industrious labour as well as their embodiment as humans, to the factory owners and the affluent capitalists. This does not only lead to the workers being intrinsically dissatisfied and frustrated, but also turns them against the capitalists. Inevitably, Marx thus saw it as a model doomed to failure. He criticises the industrial capitalist society, declaring that not only are the working class “slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state” (Marx) but they are also “daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself”. It is evident here that Marx condemns industrial capitalism, going even further by comparing the proletarians as being “organised like soldiers” in a crowded factory, their extensive work resulting in a loss of individual character. In Estranged Labour, Marx states that “labour is external to the worker… it does not belong to his intrinsic nature; that is in work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely… but mortifies his body and ruins his mind” (Estranged, 81). It is evident that Marx believes the alienation of the worker will lead to his labour becoming “an object… something alien to him… a power on its own confronting him” (Estranged,
Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between Karl Marx And John Stuart Mill

    1576 Words  | 7 Pages

    In this essay I will discuss the theories and accounts of freedom from the two perspectives of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mills and assess their propositions for the future societies to achieve the freedom of mind, rights, and decisions. The main source I will be referring to is by Paul Smart, “Mill and Marx: Individual liberty and the roads to freedom” (1991). John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx are undoubtedly two of the greatest thinkers throughout history and the philosophers are notably distinct and

    Read More

  • Difference Between Marxism And Communism

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers to form the basis of communism’ (Oxford Dictionary). These theories were first set out in the Communist Manifesto and later in Das Kapital and formed a ‘scientific’ interpretation of history based on the ideas of class struggles and how economic development and social change would lead to an eventual state of Communism (Corrin & Fiehn, 2002). The ‘class struggle’ as described in Marxist theory is a fundamental

    Read More

  • Marxism In Brave New World

    1773 Words  | 8 Pages

    Individualism has always been feared by society. Karl Marx created a phenomenal theory known as the Marxism Theory. The Marxism Theory consists of many different aspects that lead to the main idea of a stable society. In the text Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisions a full functioning society that has been conditioned and genetically engineered. Huxley envisions a utopian society where everyone there appears to be truly happy. In this society everyone is given a social status at birth. Just like

    Read More

  • Karl Marx's Influence On Early Cultural Studies

    1540 Words  | 7 Pages

    The works of Karl Marx had an important influence on early Cultural Studies. So for example Raymond Williams argued in one of his earliest books, Culture & Society: 1780-1950, that he is ‘interested in Marxist theory because socialism and communism are now important’ (Williams 1958: 284). Williams argued for and worked on a ‘Marxist theory of culture’ that recognises ‘diversity and complexi- ty’, takes |account of continuity within change|, allows ‘for chance and certain limited autonomies’, but

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between Joseph Stalin And Hitler

    1680 Words  | 7 Pages

    just themselves. The people control both the production and the distribution of goods. After Karl Marx's death in 1883 parts of the Marxism ideology altered and sometimes changed. This was done in order to suit the needs of those using the ideology and to also accommodate communism, which was practiced by Vladimir Lenin in the early 1900s. This hybrid was called Marxism-Leninism, communism, or socialism (Marxism, 2002, pg. 211-

    Read More

More about Karl Marx's Theory Of Socialism

Open Document