1. Essay on The Pros and Cons of Marxism
The ideology of Marxism, established by German philosopher Karl Marx, is a collectively known
set of assumptions of a political ideology, which focuses especially on analysis of materialist
interpretation of historical development, or on class struggle within the society. The primarily
approach of Marxism, nonetheless, was the critique of capitalism. The strength of his inquiry lies
in belief of inevitable shift from capitalism and he aims to advocate the new form of ideology and
economy, the socialism. The title of this essay is provocative as in todayВґs world, there exist many
proponents who claim, the core of Marx conception of ideology is still relevant in the 21st
globalised world. However, Marxism is relevant to the extent to which...show more content...
Manifesto deals with "Bourgeois and Proletarians", where he is asserting that bourgeois is
constantly trying to maximize its profit by exploiting proletarians and their manual labour. Marx
and Engels claim "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle". At
this point it is almost certain, why IR influenced Marx as much as he came up with idea of
socialism and yet, of communism. Secondarily, the (FR) in France from 1789 to 1799 was another
radical and political event in the worldwide history. Marx and Engels based their analysis of the
FR, as a series of class struggle. Both concluded, that in society of material inequality it is
impossible to reach an actual freedom, considering the slogans of IR "Liberty, Equality and
Fraternality", if the society is divided into exploiters and exploited, meaning Bourgeoisie and
Proletariat. This observation was vital to MarxВґs concept.
The next section draws attention on the central feature of Marxist approach, the historical
materialism. The "Materialist Conception of history" was to the Critique of Political Economy; the
fundamental argument here, is that economics is the motor for the history as a whole; in other
words, Marxists argue that the procedure of historical changes is in analyse,
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2. Karl Marx and Marxism Essay
Karl Marx and Marxism
Karl Marx set the wheels of modern Communism and Socialism in motion with his writings in the
late nineteenth century. In collaboration with his friend, Heinrich Engels, he produced the The
Communist Manifesto, written in
1848. Many failed countries' political and socio–economic structures have been based on Marx's
theories, for example the USSR, East Germany etc. Many people believe that Marxism is not
applicable to today's society, as Karl Marx put forward his ideas not anticipating the type of society
we have today. The welfare state system has effectively nullified Marx's arguments, and made them
irrelevant. Karl Marx, born on May 5, 1818, died on March 14, 1883, was a German economist,
philosopher and...show more content...
Because of this, the worker is alienated from the product of their labours, having no control over
what is made, or what becomes of it.
Karl Marx was very concerned with the class system in Prussia. He was an avid campaigner against
a system where one group of people flourish at the expense of another class, in this case the working.
He believed that all things should be equal, and that sharing should abound, with no–one person
owning everything, all belonging to the state. Marx believed that once most workers recognized
their interests and became 'class conscious', the overthrow of capitalism would proceed as quickly
and democratically as the nature of the capitalist opposition allowed. The socialist society that would
emerge out of the revolution would develop the full productive potential inherited from capitalism
through democratic planning on behalf of social needs. The final goal, towards which socialist
society would constantly build, is the human one of abolishing alienation. Marx called the attainment
of this goal Communism.
Marxism in its various forms has affected the world greatly throughout time. Both world wars have
involved communist countries to a great extent.
Communism has gone wrong in many countries, with the state turning into an authoritarian one,
with a few people at the top abusing their power for their own personal gain, at the expense of the
other members of the public.
In conclusion, I believe that Marx's
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3. How convincing was the Marxist critique of the capitalist state?
This next unit of theory is entitled "Ideology and Discourse." The theorists we're
examining––Althusser, Bakhtin, and Foucault––are discussing how ideology works, and how
ideologies construct subjects. All of these theorists are coming from a Marxist perspective, using
ideas and terms developed in Marxist theory, though only Althusser actually claims to be a Marxist.
So to start off, I want to talk a bit about some basic ideas of Marxist theory.
Marxism is a set of theories, or a system of thought and analysis, developed by Karl Marx in the
nineteenth century in response to the Western industrial revolution and the rise of industrial
capitalism as the predominant...show more content...
Marx's view of the idea of "dialectic" comes from Hegel, who thought that no ideas,
social formations, or practices were ever eternal or fixed, but were always in motion or flux
(something like Derrida's "play"). Hegel said that this motion or flux or change happens
in a certain pattern, which he called a "dialectic." Hegel says, change occurs as the result
of a struggle between two opposed forces, which then get resolved into a third entity. Hegel's model
of change looks like this: you start with a proposition or a position, which he calls a
"thesis;" the thesis then stands in opposition to another position, which he calls the
"antithesis" (and thus far it does work like our old friend the binary opposition). But
then the struggle between thesis and antithesis is resolved into a third position, or set of ideas or
practices, which Hegel calls the "synthesis." Then, of course, the synthesis eventually
becomes a thesis, with an antithesis, and the whole process starts over. But that, says Hegel, is how
change happens––by the continual struggle between thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
In addition to being a kind of philosophy, Marxism is also a way to understand history. In this
sense, Marxism belongs to a kind of historicism called HISTORICAL MATERIALISM, which
shows that history, or social change, occurs
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