Today, we'll dive into the basics of Marxist thought. The intellectual legacy of Karl Marx stands as one of the most formidable and influential critiques of modern society.
Written in the mid-19th century, amidst the smoky factories and sprawling slums of the Industrial Revolution, his ideas, particularly as crystallized
in the 1848 pamphlet "The Communist Manifesto," Marx sought to diagnose the ills of the emerging capitalist order and prescribe a revolutionary cure.
To understand Marx is to understand a profound counter-narrative to the principles of capitalism, a system he saw not as the end of history, but as a transient and inherently contradictory phase in human development.
According to Marx, the way humans organize their production and exchange of goods fundamentally shapes their society, culture, politics, and even their beliefs.
This economic foundation consists of the "MEANS OF PRODUCTION", which are factories, land, raw materials, and technology
and the "RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION", which are the social relationships people enter into as they produce and exchange goods.
Upon this base rises a superstructure, the institutions, laws, religion, art, and ideology that justify and maintain the existing economic system.
For Marx, the superstructure is not independent. It ultimately serves to legitimize the power of the class that controls the means of production.
These are two key concepts of Marx's politico-economic philosophy. This brings us to the crucial point: this means of production is not owned collectively.
Instead, it is concentrated in the hands of a small group... the capitalist class. To see how this works, let's imagine you are the owner of a huge bakery.
Of course, you can not run it on your own. You need people to help you to produce the bread.
And the people who help you need income and bread to survive. You own the bakery. You own the bread that is produced, and you determine the price of the bread.
And thus the capitalist machine starts rolling. Marx argued that the baker pays the worker a wage that covers their subsistence, enough to eat, sleep, and return to work the next day.
However, the worker’s labor creates more value than what they are paid for. This excess is surplus value, which the baker appropriates as profit.
This dynamic, Marx believed, is the engine of capitalist accumulation and the source of its inherent instability. This can, Marx believed, only cause a class struggle.
In every era, society is divided between an oppressing and an oppressed class, freeman and slave, lord and serf, and in Marx's own time, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
The nature of this struggle is determined by the economic base.
And this economic base is who owns the means of production and appropriates the surplus value of the production of the workers.
In the next lecture, we'll elaborate some more on this dynamics and discuss the relation between this economic base and what Marx called the superstructure.
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
of Economic Thought (2012)
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
The Discussion
[14:14] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[14:15] herman Bergson: Was Marx right or wrong in his analysis of the economic relations?
[14:15] Max Chatnoir: Thank you, Herman. Where do the people who are neither workers in the system or owners fit in? Consumers.
[14:16] Max Chatnoir: Are they either owners or workers in another conglomerate?
[14:16] herman Bergson: Not only the consumers, but there are many professions that are not related to mass production....
[14:17] herman Bergson: teachers, doctors ,
[14:17] herman Bergson: lawyers
[14:17] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed
[14:18] herman Bergson: The view of Marx looks too narrow for me... just the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
[14:19] herman Bergson: He doesn't include the whole picture of a society, it looks like
[14:19] Max Chatnoir: Writers, artists, entertainers?
[14:19] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): farmers
[14:19] herman Bergson: Right....
[14:20] herman Bergson: We'll talk about that more when we elaborate on the concept "superstructure."
[14:20] Max Chatnoir: Is agriculture part of the mass production picture?
[14:20] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): i think not in those days
[14:20] herman Bergson: Yes, I'd say
[14:21] herman Bergson: The farmer owns the land and its products...he can easily exploit workers
[14:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i say it is, esp after all beer i have had before now. That is mass production for sure
[14:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): is
[14:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): for beer i nneed grain = agriculture
[14:22] herman Bergson: Don't forget the relations of production
[14:22] herman Bergson: The owner has another relation to production than the worker, for instance
[14:22] Max Chatnoir: Things like beer are actually part of two production units: the farm and the preparation and bottling.
[14:23] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that is true
[14:23] herman Bergson: The worker is always the one who runs the risk of being exploited
[14:24] herman Bergson: As a university student, I liked the theories of Marx
[14:25] herman Bergson: but at the moment, I begin to see more of their limitations
[14:25] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): is Marx popular these days?
[14:26] herman Bergson: It needs some more study and research....especially regarding art and music, culture in general
[14:26] herman Bergson: Good question Beertje......
[14:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aah
[14:27] herman Bergson: I don't know the exact answer, but just look around. Even China tolerates to some extend real capitalist relations of production
[14:28] Max Chatnoir: who owns the means of production in China?
[14:28] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont) whispers: does he fit in a democracy
[14:28] herman Bergson: Name me one country that really is governed by marxist principles.... Cuba?
[14:28] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Russia
[14:29] Max Chatnoir: They have oligarchs..... Not sure how they fit in.
[14:30] herman Bergson: In China are private persons that own means of production, Max, but they are on a short leash.
[14:30] Max Chatnoir: And how do the workers participate?
[14:31] herman Bergson: As long as they comply with the central government, they are rather safe.
[14:32] herman Bergson: Now and then I see movie clips of China's big cities....and looking at the people I get the idea that they are as consumers as we are
[14:32] herman Bergson: China has become very prosperous the past 40 years
[14:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): There is a lot of poverty too there
[14:33] herman Bergson: Yes, but is what we don't get to see
[14:33] Max Chatnoir: What about the economic gap between workers and owners? Is it less than here?
[14:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes they hide all that
[14:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): the government
[14:34] herman Bergson: How the Chinese organize their society, I really don't know.
[14:35] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Has Marx influence there?
[14:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): only thing i know is that everyone is uner constant surveillance and given behaviour points for how they see you behave in general
[14:35] herman Bergson: They call themselves communists, so there has to be some Marxist ideology there
[14:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): a 1984 state
[14:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): mmass surveillance
[14:36] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Big Brother is watching you
[14:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): inee
[14:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): dd
[14:36] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): cameras on every street
[14:36] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): street
[14:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): quite terrifying, the message is, you have no value ann you belong to the state an we cann o whatever we want with you
[14:37] herman Bergson: That may be true, or that is what they want us to believe....you never know
[14:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and
[14:37] herman Bergson: I wonder if people feel it that way, really, Bejiita
[14:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i ddont know the details
[14:38] herman Bergson: Despite poverty, the living standard has improved a lot
[14:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well so have heard as well indeed
[14:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[14:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well
[14:40] herman Bergson: But a pure Marxist state? I can't mention one....
[14:41] herman Bergson: One reason is that after Marx, all kinds of changes were added to his ideas.... Leninism, for instance
[14:41] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): North Korea?..Albanie?
[14:42] herman Bergson: Those are dictatorships indeed, to what extent they are really Marxist...? There is a rich elite and a lot of corruption...not really Marx's ideas
[14:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true, does not sound like that
[14:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): does not feel like Marx
[14:43] herman Bergson: The same in Russia and an extensive mafia too
[14:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[14:43] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Are his ideas still alive?
[14:44] herman Bergson: I don't know... to some extent yes, for his analysis of capitalist economics has its merits.
[14:45] Max Chatnoir: Is Marx just focused on mass production?
[14:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): they feel a bit synonymous for sure
[14:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): Marx and Industrial Production
[14:46] herman Bergson: That is at the basis of his thinking... oppressed against oppressors.....
[14:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but also I have never stuied Marx in detail
[14:46] Max Chatnoir: There are lots of smaller-scale enterprises, like small bookstores or coffee shops.
[14:46] herman Bergson: And he lived in a greatly industrialized country
[14:47] Max Chatnoir: How does it all fit together?
[14:47] herman Bergson: Yes, Max, that is what we miss so far in Marx's narrative.
[14:48] herman Bergson: Soon we'll pay attention to the Communist Manifesto from 1848.....
[14:48] herman Bergson: And compare its ideas with our reality
[14:49] herman Bergson: We can in all honesty say that his theory didn't make it and capitalism still the dominant system is.....
[14:50] herman Bergson: So, we have to find indications of WHY it didn't work out that well, as was hoped
[14:50] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[14:51] herman Bergson: One point is indeed that the focus of his theory is the masses of workers (in factories or on the land0
[14:51] herman Bergson: A narrow focus?
[14:51] herman Bergson: I have to dig somewhat deeper for answers
[14:52] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Maybe he was too concentrated on factory workers
[14:52] herman Bergson: Something like that........
[14:52] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[14:53] herman Bergson: Well, we'll continue our analysis next Thursday....
[14:53] herman Bergson: So, thank you all again....
[14:53] Max Chatnoir: Same time?
[14:54] herman Bergson: Still the same time Max, till the last weekend of March.
[14:54] Max Chatnoir: Thanks.
[14:54] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[14:54] herman Bergson: Class dismissed....
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