...According to Eatwell and Wright (Eatwell, Wright. 1999, pg. 104) Marxism is the theory of communism the practice- or else that both are perplexing mixtures of theory and practice. The history of Marxism is essentially the history of putting theories into practice to solve practical problems. which in turn promotes the continuous development of human society. Its impact far exceeds its theoretical scope and significance and an important reason lies in the fact that Marxism originates from practice, guides the practice and is developed in the practice. Karl Marx is considered by many to have been the greatest thinker and philosopher of all time. His idea on life, society and social structure revolutionized the ways in which people think and still holds much relevance in today’s society. Although there were many downfalls within his thinking he still set out the basis of Communism within Russia. Marx drew distinctions between the bases of his own contemporaries and his own scientific theory of which he believed were firmly rooted within society. He believed that social change was needed in order to achieve a better society for everyone and in order to achieve social change there must be class conflict. Marx’s major concern for social change was economic change and his most famous work dealt with the issues of class conflict and the opposition between the capitalists/bourgeoisie and the working class. During that time it was the bourgeoisie who were responsible for the controlling...
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...studies: -- Durkheim - Totem Poles -- Parsons - Core Values -- Malinowski - Life Crisis and Unpredictable Events* -- Civil Religions* - Link back by saying that due to religion being responsible for keeping norms and values running, society is unable to change. Therefore, functionalism inhibits change. AO2: Functionalism is sometimes considered too positive and ignores negative aspects of society such as oppression and conflict. Paragraph 3 - Marxism - Like Functionalism, Marxism states religion inhibits change. Write a little bit about Marxism and how it states that there is conflict between the middle and working classes. - Identify and explain some studies: -- Halvey -- Leech -- Hook -- Caste System* -- Camel Quote - "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven".* -- Divine Right of Kings* AO2: Neo-Marxism - Otto Maduro and Liberation Theology. Could also mention Abercrombie, Hill and Turner along with Engles too. Paragraph 4 - Feminism - Like Marxism, Feminism also inhibits change. Write a brief paragraph explaining how feminists believe religion passes on partriarchal ideologies and therefore oppresses women. - Identify and explain some studies: -- Daly* --- Religious Images* --- Religious Teachings* --- Religious Hierarchy*...
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...Karl Marx’s Good Intentions In Marx’s eyes, Capitalism has always been and will continue being an obstruction to the concept of human freedom and choice. His political views which are considered to be modern,deal with the on going class struggles within Capitalism. Marx suggests that Capitalism leads to the centralization of monopolies and the distribution of more power to the capitalist or wealthy. The success of Capitalism is directly connected to capital and wage labor. Capitalism’s goal is to increase profits and is a form of life that doesn’t do justice to human abilities frankly all it is is a division from basic powers to humans and the exploitations of human workers. Workers are forced to sell their labor power to capitalists and they exploit labor to gain capital. To achieve one’s wants and needs one must labor with other people and with nature. Laborers do not realize that they are the ones who are in complete control of the products that they produce.They very much have the power to create and recreate the world in which they live in. In a Capitalist society everyone is located in a class, either the class of the capitalist or the working class. More important than any skill, the class position is the essential factor that determines one’s life as a human being. To be capitalist is to own many properties,and for the working class to have no property and to live by the rules of the capitalist. The laborer is absolutely dependent upon the wage labor and has no...
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... Learning targets: • Marxism is concerned for the poor and powerless. • It claims that society is in conflict between the rich who control everything and the poor who must work for the rich and gain little in reward for their work. • The rich are able to maintain their position of power through control of the law, the police and other forms of authority. • The rich also control the manufacture of ideas about society through controlling the media and education so poor people are taught to believe that capitalism is a good thing. Key questions (AO1) What is the Marxist view of society? (AO1) What causes inequality according to Marxists? (AO2) What are the strengths of the Marxist view? (AO2) What are the weaknesses of the Marxist view of inequality? Summary of Key Points Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) was an economist, philosopher and journalist who was motivated by concern for workers who were experiencing terrible poverty while all around was great wealth and power. He was a revolutionary who believed in working for a classless society. Marxism was not a powerful force in sociology until the 1960s and 1970s when it formed the basis of a challenge to functionalism. It offered a better account of the divisions of society at that time than functional sociology did. Marxism also triggered many of the ideas that were adopted by feminists later in the 1970s. Marxism is often referred to as a conflict...
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...In American society, Marxism is painted as the great other, the opposite side of the coin. The United States prides itself on being a society build on the ingenuity and progress of modern man and for generations the country has seen communism, and in turn Marxism, as its sworn enemy. In actuality Marxism and Capitalism were both born out the the same need, the same ideals. Though they require the participant to go about things in different ways, both are a call to duty working to create a better society. One came out of the movement away from the traditional Feudal System that had been prevalent for hundreds of years. The other came from the divides that Capitalism created between the working classes and the leaders of industry. Both ideals...
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...Marxism Today Student’s Name University Affiliation Marxism Today Identify an emerging country and discuss why Marxism might be an option for the country and discuss how Tocqueville may view the country if he were to visit it today. Karl Marx is considered as the father of communism (Wright, Levine & Sober, 1992). He is an individual who has made a lot of contributions in policies of the economy as well as various writing that he has made. This has especially influenced many of the leaders in the emerging countries especially in the way that they run their economies. The main idea that was raised by Karl Marx is that of communism that is highly applied in countries such as china and Korea and has been a major contribution to the prosperity if these economies. He advocated for the unity of the workers. Emerging countries on the other hand are defined as that is on the road attaining industrialization. The theory of Karl Marx can be highly applicable to these economies to help them in the process of industrialization. The country we are going to focus on in this assignment is India. India is considered as in of the emerging economies in the world that for a very long time had practiced capitalism on a very large scale and it is recently losing the sense for the capitalism system. India has been struggling with its economy in terms of bringing about economic growth and also in the terms of providing quality standards of living for their people and this has been caused...
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...U1A2 Assignment Contributors to the field of Marxist U1A2 Assignment Contributors to the field of Marxist Karl Marx (Marxism) - For Marx, production is essential for the advancement of society. Associated with the creation of goods there will be, eventually, a few individuals that will control the majority of the resources and their means of production. Louis Althusser – He was a French Marxist philosopher who had a strong following as a serious and intellectual interpreter of Marxism. (I thought it was interesting to put in a critique of Marxism therefore to see the critique of his theories.) Theorist | Theory Summary | Critique of Theory | Louis Althusser - | He was a French Marxist Philosopher his work is in the structuralism tradition. Althusserian Marxism is anti-economist and anti-humanist. His work is a move away from preoccupation with economic determination. Also Althusser also rejected the idea of a Marxist humanism. He wasn’t so much a contributor as he saw attacking the theoretical foundations of Marxism. | His workings didn’t focus on the individual worker it more examines the overall structure of society. Marxism looked at how the human productive power will be exploited in order to maximize profits for the rich. He presumed that humans are actually shaped by societal structures instead of the rich dominating the poor. | Friedrich Engels - | He was a German-English social scientist and a co-founder of the Marxist alongside Karl Marx. They believed...
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...like slavery and feudalism. Hence, he constructed his own model, the Marxist model of class conflict to explain negative circumstances that existed in his time. The main features of Marxism include class conflict, surplus value extraction, false consciousness, revolution and by extension communism. The features of the Marxist model are all applicable to Caribbean society, however due to significant changes in society, they are not relevant to the extent that Karl Marx witnessed. The communist manifesto of 1848 declared that the history of all existing society hitherto is the history of class conflict i.e. oppressor and oppressed. According to Marx, this was reflected by the Bourgeosie as the oppressor and the Proletariat as the oppressed, this statement can be applied to society during the period of Colonization which implanted a Plantation Society which exploited the Indigenous people, West Africans, Indians, Chinese and Madeirans. The methods of class exploitation were visible through the Encomienda, Enslavement and Indentureship. In a Post-Colonial society, class conflict still exists however, it is not to the extent that Marx argued occurred in his time. There are class conflict issues that arise in the Caribbean due to lack of protection for labour and worker rights but many critics of Marxism disagree with Marx. They argue that the Marxist model cannot be applied to Caribbean society as now there has been an expansion in the social pyramid, which...
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...Alex Glaser The Republican Party: Marxism Revisited During the interwar period Hendrik de Man said “the future is something which we have to create (Berman 117)” distancing himself from his Orthodox Marxist roots. This belief that people must take action to effect the changes they wish to see in the world is natural, yet Orthodox Marxist resisted this temptation for nearly half a century. In the early 20th century it became clear to many that Karl Marx’s ominous prediction of the downfall of capitalism was not going to occur, as capitalism is a dynamic market instrument that adapts to changing circumstances; the unified “proletariat” was not immerging, a middle class was growing, as were national identities. Europe's changing environment opened the door for new political parties to emerge, however many were afraid to abandon Orthodox Marxism. A cult like following emerged, where Marx became a god-like figure who’s predictions were followed religiously as if the world was predetermined. Malon, Brousse and others who began to split from strict Orthodox Marxism were ridiculed by the POF as “Possibilists” because they believed that the Republic offered alternative possibilities for the future; possibilities that did not involve the natural and inevitable rise of a unified proletariat to create a socialist revolution without the use of political action. In retrospect it seems absurd that people would believe there is a single natural state of the world that will inevitably...
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...Arguments Against Marxism Melissa Criminology Abstract The German philosopher Karl Marx provided the world with a new and different way to think about the social and economic systems. This new social philosophy was called communism and Marx’s theory on communism is referred to as Marxism. Karl Marx’s concepts of Marxism are detailed in his book “Communist Manifesto” which was published in 1848. His book discussed the issue of social structure and the problems of a capitalist society. From the time Karl Marx first presented his ideas on communism, there have been many objections from philosophers and political scientists who have argued that the idea of communism in the modern western world would not work and is not a valid social structure. Arguments Against Marxism Marxism is a sociological and economic worldview that Karl Marx and Fredric Engles developed. One aspect of Marxism is a belief that throughout human history there has always been a defined level of social class. As a consequence of this, there has always been a struggle between the different levels of social class and the exploitation of lower class people. According to Marx, the class structure has existed throughout recent human society and is continuing to prevail throughout history (Walsh 2012). A second aspect of Marxism is the belief that a capitalist system does not work in present day society. In a capitalist society, only a small percentage of the population holds means and the ownership of...
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...on the global political agenda compare to other events such as natural disasters or mass killings are rarely seen as security concerns. It might be of importance to the people that these events are happening to, but not to the people not being affected. There are four main paradigms of International Relations that affect issues in security. Those paradigms are Realism, Pluralism, Marxism, and Social Constructivism. Realism is the idea that states should be self-centered, competitive, and should look after themselves and not trust any other states. The state should do anything within its reach to expand its power in wherever possible being in military or economic sectors in order to secure themselves and be at the top. Realists tend to favor governments that separate the high and low politics and best serve the national interest. Low politics such as health issues, welfare, and other issues of that sort should be dealt at a domestic level and is separate from high politics, such as war. The idea globalization in the 60’s and 70’s took International Relations to a different perspective because not only did they have to deal with military power issues but now they had...
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...Arslan Unit 7 M1. Use two sociological perspectives to explain different concepts of health. In this assignment I am going to explain the different concepts of health and what effects individuals health by using two sociological perspectives. The two sociological perspectives that I am going to explain are Marxism and feminism. Marxism was known as a conflict model, as it is a structuralise model. It was first developed by Karl Marx (1818-83). Karl Marx also thought that individual behaviour was shaped by society but he believed that it was the economic system that defined society and peoples place within it. Marx held the view that in the industrial society of his time there were two social classes: * The bourgeoisie or capitalists-the small powerful group who owned the factories and other places of employment. * The proletariat which is a much larger, poorer group of workers- the people of hands that the bourgeoisie employed. Marx’s view was that these two social class groups would always be in conflict, the owners of the factories, land and offices would want a high profit and the employees would want higher wages that would eat into the profits. So this is why Marxism is often called the conflict model. Marx thought that this conflict would lead to revolution. There was an unequal relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and conflict was inherent in the economic system. Marx believed there were two social classes; the capitalists and the proletariat....
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...COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE FUNCTIONALIST AND MARXIST VIEWS ON EDUCATION (20 marks) The role of education is to educate individuals within society and to prepare them for working life, also to integrate individuals and teach them the norms, values and roles within society. Functionalism and Marxism are the two main perspectives which will be studied; Marxism is a structural conflict sociological theory whereas functionalism is a structural consensus sociological theory. Functionalism sees society as a whole. It is often referred to as the consensus theory as it does not address the issue of conflict in society. It looks at all the major aspects in society for example the family, the economy, the educational and political system and how they all function together as a whole to form a complete system. Functionalism can be compared to the human body, also known as the organic analogy. For the human body to function properly each part needs to operate together for example the heart and lungs, this is very similar to the institutions in society. All the key institutions in society need to be well integrated for society to survive and operate efficiently. Emile Durkheim, French sociologist, was the original founding father of this theory. He saw education as being a positive thing in society as it helps the maintenance of the social system and helps to transmit norms and values which help promote social solidarity, to keep society running smoothly. Durkheim believed that education...
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...Question: 1 Abstract This paper examines the polemical issues in the application of literary theories to the field of literature and literary criticism. Out of the several modern approaches to literary criticism as employed by the critics, four literary theories are strategically chosen for analysis in this paper; Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism/Deconstruction and Marxism. This work is objectively carried out by consulting articles, journals and books written on the literary theories. The opportunity of information technology via the internet is also utilized. It is established in the course of writing this paper that literary theories are indispensable tools for literature to achieve its goal of sensitizing its audience towards literary awareness. The application of literary theories to literature, that enhance better and detail insight into text or literary works, would continue to be relevant and make literature more enjoyable and meaningful to its readers and users. Further research and enquiry into the relationship between the two (literature and literary theory) is open and should further be exploited. Keywords: literary theory, literary criticism, Marxism, Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism Introduction Literary criticism is the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely...
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...individual. Marxism- A sociological approach that draws on the ideas of Karl Marx and applies them to modern society. Marx's theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as Marxism, argue that all society progresses through the dialectic of class struggle. He was heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and upper classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Under socialism, he argued that society would be governed by the working class in what he called the "dictatorship of the proletariat." He believed that socialism would eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called pure communism. Feminist Approach- a sociological approach which examines the ways gender operates in society against the interests of women. Feminism is the term that describes the feminist movement in society. It is also used to describe an approach within sociology. Liberal feminism aims for individuals to use their own abilities and the democratic process to help women and men become more equal in the eyes of the law, in society and in the workplace. By organizing women into larger groups that can speak at a higher level, lobbying legislators and raising awareness of issues, liberal feminists...
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