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MARX ON HUMAN HISTORY.
Term Paper ID:24004

Essay Subject:
Examines socialist's views on human nature, consciousness, alienation, socioeconomic inequality, labor.... More...

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Paper Abstract:
Examines socialist's views on human nature, consciousness, alienation, socioeconomic inequality, labor.

Paper Introduction:
Marx had a conception of human history based on dialectical materialism, which includes the sense that the determining factors in the development, relations, and institutions of mankind are not mystical or ideological but economic. Human actions are rooted in men's labor activities. Human beings have to secure a livelihood, and to accomplish this they organize their productive forces to operate throughout the economic spectrum. Everything else in life rests on this economic foundation. The society that results is made up of social classes, with one class dominant at a given time based on the control of the means of production. Human nature is expressed in the way individuals relate to class and the way they are controlled by that relationship. The workers sell their labor and are

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Norton, 1978.----------------------- 1 The society that results is made up of social classes, with one classdominant at a given time based on the control of the means of production.Human nature is expressed in the way individuals relate to class and theway they are controlled by that relationship. For Marx, everything inlife rests on these economic foundations. The bourgeoisie must make use of the instruments ofproduction to heighten this alienation and so to assure that it survives.Marx goes further than this and indicates that he believes that bourgeoissociety is a malignancy that is destroying many of the importantinstitutions of society, such as the family, religion, the economy, and thestate itself. Marx ascribed the general social inequalities of society to classdifferences based on material inequalities separating the working classfrom the mode of production and from the product of their work in a form ofsocial alienation. The situation can only bechanged when consciousness is reformed. The increase in the quantity of objects is accompanied by an extension of the realm of the alien powers to which man is subjected, and every new product represents a new potency of mutual swindling and mutual plundering (Tucker 93). Such work isimposed rather than voluntary. For Marx, the revolution that is inevitable requires the developmentof a new consciousness. However, it is alsoevident that Marx sees the capitalist system as one in which everyone takesadvantage of everyone else in order to gain monetary advantage, regardlessof class. Theproletariat participates in its own enslavement because its consciousnessis part of its relationship to the mode of production, just as members ofthe other social classes participate in their own enslavement to the ideaof capitalism and to the mode of production. Marx derived the conceptof alienation from Hegel, who used the term differently to refer to atimeless condition of man's mind. Theworkers sell their labor and are alienated from the product of their laborbecause of it. Marx's attitude toward human historyis based on dialectical materialism, a perspective including the idea thatthe determining factors in the development of the institutions of mankindare not mystical or ideological but economic. Marx believed thatthese stages were inevitable and that the only way for the proletariat togain a better position in life was through the violent overthrow ofbourgeois society. Work CitedTucker, Robert C. Marx found there to be alienation in adifferent form in the individual's loss of control, of personal wholeness,an alienation that is basically economic. The class struggle is the defining fact ofsocietal life and leads in time to the violent overthrow of the capitalistclass by the working class, producing the dictatorship of the proletariatefor a certain period until a completely classless society is produced. Consciousness is shaped by the mode of production in a society asindividual human consciousness, the consciousness of a particularindividual, is also the ideal totality--the individual exists in the realworld as the awareness and enjoyment of social existence (Tucker 86). Human beings have to secure alivelihood, and to accomplish this they organize their productive forces ina way that is based on the level of development of society and thus thetype of economic system that has been produced. Thiscomes about when the material forces of society come into conflict with theexisting relations of production, bringing about an epoch of socialrevolution (Tucker 4-5). The bourgeoisie thus came into being through arevolution in the instruments of production and the relations ofproduction, and this also meant a revolution in terms of the wholerelations of society. The bourgeoisie has the power to compel others to accept itssocial patterns and so to become bourgeoisie themselves. Human nature is expressed in the way individualsrelate to class and the way they are controlled by that relationship. Marx also makes clear how to determine thecost of the production of labor power: "It is the cost required formaintaining the worker as a worker and of developing him into a worker"(Tucker 2 6). New York: W.W. They donot own the means of production, while the capitalist who does sells theproduct of the labor of the workers. It is not timeless but is theresult of economic forces in capitalism and derives from private property.The work is external to the worker and is not part of his nature, so ratherthan fulfilling himself in the work he denies himself. (ed.). The workers sell their laborand are alienated from the product of their labor because of it. Marx discusses the human requirements in production and finds a closerelationship between production and human consciousness: We have seen the significance, given socialism, the wealth of human needs has, and what significance, therefore, both a new mode of production and a new object of production have: a new manifestation of the forces of human nature and enrichment of human nature (Tucker 93).In bourgeois society, with its institution of private property, thesignificance of the forces of human nature and the enrichment of humannature are reversed as each person speculates on creating a new need inanother person in order to place that person in a state of dependence andso to lead him to economic ruin: Each tries to establish over the other an alien power, so as to thereby find satisfaction of his own selfish need. Everything else in life rests on this economicfoundation. For Marx, bourgeois society developed as part of a system of classconflict involving the domination of the bourgeois class over theproletarian class, and this was an evolutionary development from theearlier stage of feudalism. Thedevelopment of the bourgeoisie is predictable given the force of history,and for Marx the development of the bourgeoisie, as the coming dictatorshipof the proletariat, was inevitable. This exploitation of one class byanother produces class hostilities which are constant and which are basedon material inequalities. Human motivations are rootedin the labor activities of human beings. Thisexploitation of one class by another produces class hostilities which areconstant and which are based on material inequalities. The Marx-Engels Reader. Society is made up of socialclasses, with one class dominant at a given time based on the control ofthe means of production. Human beings have to secure a livelihood, and to accomplishthis they organize their productive forces to operate throughout theeconomic spectrum. They do not own the means of production, while thecapitalist who does sells the product of the labor of the workers. He says that consciousness is something the worldmust acquire whether it likes it or not: The reform of consciousness consists only in enabling the world to clarify its consciousness, in waking it from its dream about itself, in explaining to it the meaning of its own actions (Tucker 15).Human consciousness is tied to the means of production first in thatconsciousness is a product of social relations and second in that the meansof production changes social relations and places fetters on them. Marx had a conception of human history based on dialecticalmaterialism, which includes the sense that the determining factors in thedevelopment, relations, and institutions of mankind are not mystical orideological but economic. Marx's sense of human nature is seen in his concept of the force ofhistory, in his theory of revolution and of the class struggle leading torevolution, and especially in his concept of alienation based on economicrelationships. The bourgeoisie will want to protect itself and protectits power base, and so it must constantly revolutionize the instruments ofproduction and the relations of production in order to shift the center ofrelations between itself and the proletariat, to keep the proletariat offbalance, and to strengthen its economic position. Marx described the nature of bourgeois society as astage in social evolution, and it was considered by him to precede thecoming era of the dictatorship of the proletariat. For Karl Marx, the force that determines social relations is economicand is identified by the relationship of the human being to labor. The class struggleis the defining fact of societal life and will lead in time to the violentoverthrow of the capitalist class by the working class, producing thedictatorship of the proletariat for a certain period until a completelyclassless society is produced. Human nature isbeing thwarted in this system, reshaped into an objectified thing, and onlythe abolition of private property will create a situation where true humannature, fulfilling itself in itself, can come to the fore. The human being is defined in terms of work, production,and his or her relationship to what is produced. It is not the satisfaction of a specificneed but is rather the means for satisfying other needs. Human actions are rooted in men's laboractivities. The bourgeoisiethus feeds on itself as well by destroying smaller businesses and creatinglarger ones, incorporating as it revolutionizes the instruments ofproduction and society as a whole.

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