...Throughout Estranged Labour, Karl Marx depicts the divisions of a capitalist economy, splitting it into two distinct groups; the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the proletariat, the workers who do not. He defines the means of production within society as everything needed for the creation of economic value. In an industrial society, this includes factory machinery and infrastructure, natural resources, and facilities. From this advantaged position, the bourgeoisie dictates the goals and incentives the prole finds in his workplace. These workplace incentives are structured in order to extract the maximum amount of surplus value from the worker, and this surplus value builds ownership’s assets. On the flip side, this arrangement...
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...“Explore the ideas of Karl Marx, discussing his theories and views toward capitalism. Discuss how these matters compare to modern day economic conditions, and consider the ethical and sustainability matters that are raised for today's managers.” Karl Marx; an economist, sociologist, revolutionary and historian, whose theories continue to influence economic thought for managers today. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5,1818 – March 14, 1883) put forth many theories with regards to economics, politics and society that established the base on which Marxism was formed. His critique of the philosophies of other theorists and critical analysis of capitalism has influenced economic perception, and contributed largely toward the current understanding of capital and labour and the relationship that exists. In Karl Marx’s criticism of capitalism, he discussed many social matters such as ‘alienation’, the dominance by the ‘bourgeoisie’ over the ‘proletariat’; issues with regard to labour, such as the de-skilling and dehumanisation of workers as technological advances came about and capitalists strived to maximise ‘surplus value’ through the ‘exploitation’ of human labour. Although times have changed and this type of work environment is not as common, it is still an ever present situation in places such as China and India where cheap labour is employed to maximise the return for those in ‘control’. Advancements in technology continue, to the extent where the duties of workers can be performed...
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...Critique and Revolution: The Faces of Karl Marx “The nobility of man shines upon us from their work hardened bodies.” (Manuscripts, 100)[1]. And according to Karl Marx, that is the bottom line. In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and Manifesto of the Communist Party[2], two of his most profound works, Marx outlines both his harsh critique of capitalism and his prophetic theory of impending communist revolution. Although these texts are extremely complex—Manuscripts is described often as the hardest sixty pages of modern philosophy—their main points can be summed up concisely. For Marx, a worker’s labor, and therefore product, is an extension of himself, and any practice that separates the two, most obviously capitalism’s private property, essentially tears the man apart. A system such as this is beyond repair, and the only feasible solution is a forceful and complete communist revolution ending in the destruction of private property and the reunion of mankind with his labor. The complex philosophizing behind these two doctrines will be revealed shortly, but now the question arises, are they consistent? More specifically, do the circumstances that exist under capitalism, as described in his critique, put the world in a realistic position to undergo his desired revolution? Taking his opinions of the world under capitalism as fact, the answer is yes: the desperation of alienation will drive the growing majority of men to unite and revolt. That said, a thorough examination...
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...with a second conscious this struggle has to be to the death because in risking its life the self is demonstrating it rational status, “that it has power over the realm of mere biological life and its animal desires” (Beiser:2005,p187) however in doing this the self-conscious has to realise that by eliminating its other they will in effect be eliminating them self also, because without them both there would be no one to be recognised by. Therefore the only solution is for one to dominate over the other by reducing it to a ‘thing like’ status. Hegel explains this process using the Lord and the Bondsman, the bondsman becomes an object to the lord whose purpose is to serve all his wants and needs, his purpose therefore is to be a labourer his ‘labour is his being’ (Marcuse:1969,p.116). At the same time the lord, by reducing the bondsman to a thing rather than treating him as his equal the lord is effectively denying himself the recognition his own self-conscious requires. The...
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...various creative strategies. And there are five survival strategies are explored: making out, fiddling, joking, sabotaging and escaping. Alienation Let’s start with alienation—it is freely used in the media and arises in everybody conversation. Here we have restricted the discussion to outlining two different perspectives on alienation. The first views alienation as an objective state, and builds on concepts originally defined by Karl Marx, while the second introduces elements of subjectivity into the analysis of alienation, and terms from a study by Robert Blauner. Alienation as an objective state Marx argues that alienation is an intrinsic part of the capitalist labour process, and the therefore is an unavoidable objective state in which all workers find themselves. It manifests itself because in selling their labour power, employees are relinquishing the right to control their own labour, thus discretion over how and when work should be undertaken becomes the prerogative of employers. As a result of this relationship, according to Marx, employees experience four types of...
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...of alienation and assess whether it is still relevant in the contemporary workplace. In a capitalism society of those days, workers worked solely for the profit and rarely any focus will be spared on if the products were of the social need. On top of that, while the social classing was still heavily emphasized, most of the employees were not given sufficient protection and the fundamental benefits as a committed worker. This brought to the rising of Karl Marx with the term ‘Alienation’ in the year of 1844, which reflected that things naturally belong together had been separated or to put another antagonism between things that were properly in harmony. Making this statement, Karl Marx attributed the cause of alienation to the systematic result of capitalism. From the term alienation, Karl Marx had classified it into four types of alienations, namely alienation from the product, alienation from productions, alienation from others and last but not least, alienation from self. Referring back to Karl Marx, alienation from products gives the meaning that the workers have no rights to decide what they are going to produce, instead they are only focusing on the profits while the social needs are entirely ignored. Alienation from productions refers to the condition whereby the workers are not allowed to develop freely physically and mentally, they are forced to cling to the rigid rules and regulations. For the alienation from others, it incurs the competition between...
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...framework to understanding disharmony and problems of folk in daily life. Also it is impossible to study with all people in society. Because of that you should understand that what disturbs person? You could not understand whether being harmony or happiness between people with continuity of production or maintaining work of daily life. Therefore, sociologists anatomize into social action and relationship between all people. But primarily you should know the human nature and its structures and its needing. Each analyzes would be lacking without involving human factors whereupon also Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim first of all examined people, their structures, their desires and their connections with the nature. Then they tried to understand society with this way and put in the picture at the back of events. Not only relationship people and nature but also relationship between people is important for Marx and Durkheim who interested in people’s station in society and they searched answer for some questions such as who is doing what? Who is upper than others? What affects the people? They concerns with these questions and within the scope of their study propounded two important notions which are alienation and anomie rise in the painful terms. They state something broken in society. In this paper, these notions will be explained as what these notions tell us and notions will be explained...
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...industry. It will look in different perspectives; marxism, Blauner, Nicholls and Beynon, Gallie and Zuboff respectively. Karl Marx argues that alienation is an objective state and it is an intrinsic part of capitalist society. Thus, it is an unavoidable (Noon et al, 2013:227). Alienation occurs because "work in industrial capitalist society is the dehumanized opposite of satisfying experience which develops the human capacity for creativity" (Edgell, 2006:29). According to Marx, there are four types of alienation under industrial capitalism. Firstly, product alienation, employees are alienated from product of their labour which is owned by the capitalist and lose control over their product (Noon et al, 2013:227). Secondly, alienation from productive activity. In this type of alienation workers being lost control upon their ability of labouring activity to ensure their being and determine their self-existence (Morrison, 2006:123). A third type of alienation is alienation from human species, from the product and activity alienation incur alienated from their nature species (Edgell,2006:29). Lastly, social alienation, because workers alienated from their normal life. Therefore, people become alienated from each other (Noon et al, 2013:227). Marx states that the solutions of alienated labour is communist and eliminate the specialist division of labour. However, Marx's view has been criticised by Milovan Djilas (1957). He claims that albeit the...
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...ANALYTICAL ESSAY 1: How Adam Smith Has Shaped Our Economy For The Better Jose Arguello University of Redlands July 25, 2013 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss how Adam Smith’s economic theories have shaped our economy for the better. This paper will define Adam Smith’s major economic theories and relate them to today’s economy. This paper will conclude with recommendations on how some of these theories can be improved. Discussion When people think of Adam Smith they think of Adam Smith “the economist.” In fact, many don’t realize that Adam Smith was a philosopher at heart. From that critical thinking space as a philosopher, Adam Smith developed his economic theories. Adam Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy. “Here, Smith developed his passion for liberty, reason, and free speech. In 1740 Smith was awarded the Snell exhibition and left to attend Balliol College, Oxford.” (Buchanan, 2006) These are important facts about Adam Smith because it gives us an insight to his philosophy and eventually into his economic theories. Furthermore, before Adam Smith wrote his well-known work, The Wealth of Nations, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. It is important to note that in writing The Theory of Moral Sentiment, Adam Smith’s goal “was to explain the source of mankind's ability to form moral judgments, in spite of man's natural inclinations towards self-interest. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy...
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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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...Sociological Theories A sociological theory is a set of ideas that provides an explanation for human society. Theories are selective in terms of their priorities and perspectives and the data they define as significant. As a result they provide a particular and partial view of reality. Sociological theories can be grouped together according to a variety of criteria. The most important of these is the distinction between Structural and Social action theories. Structural or macro perspectives analyses the way society as a whole fits together. Structural theory sees society as a system of relationships that creates the structure of the society in which we live. It is this structure that determines our lives and characters. Structured sets of social relationships are the 'reality' that lie below the appearance of 'the free individual' of western individualism. Structuralism focuses on the particular set of 'structural laws' that apply in any one society. Despite their differences, both functionalism and Marxism use a model of how society as a whole works. Many functionalists base their model of society around the assumption of basic needs and go to explain how different parts of society help to meet those needs. Marxists, on the other hand, see society as resting upon an economic base or infrastructure, with a superstructure above it. They see society as divided into social classes which have the potential to be in conflict with each other. However, the main differences...
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...enhancing the effectiveness of a certain working dimension. This topic is a substantial interest to researchers and managers, as well as society and various studies where carried on in order to analyze this phenomenon and find a cause and a solution. In 1936 Hans Selye, an Austrian endocrinologist, was one of the earliest scientists that tried to define stress, characterizing it as a non specific outcome of demands made upon the organism as in physical as well as psychological situations. It could affect anyone at any level with no restrictions concerning the working sector and the size of the organisation. The strain caused by the stress has a very serious repercussion on the economical dimension: in fact, according to the International Labour Society, the job related stress cost more than $120 billion per year. It is also the second most reported health problem related to work, influencing 22% of workers within the EU (in 2005) and according to the most recent studies the percentage is even higher today and likely to increase. This aspect is particularly dangerous for companies because nearly one in four workers is affected by stress and analysis suggests that between 50% and 60% of all lost working days are due to stress costing roughly about £4billion annually and in the European Union nearly 5% of gross national product is used in attempt to minimize work related mental health problems. The causes that lead to this issue...
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...Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Karl Marx Estranged Labour ||XXII| We have proceeded from the premises of political economy. We have accepted its language and its laws. We presupposed private property, the separation of labor, capital and land, and of wages, profit of capital and rent of land – likewise division of labor, competition, the concept of exchange value, etc. On the basis of political economy itself, in its own words, we have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production; that the necessary result of competition is the accumulation of capital in a few hands, and thus the restoration of monopoly in a more terrible form; and that finally the distinction between capitalist and land rentier, like that between the tiller of the soil and the factory worker, disappears and that the whole of society must fall apart into the two classes – property owners and propertyless workers. Political economy starts with the fact of private property; it does not explain it to us. It expresses in general, abstract formulas the material process through which private property actually passes, and these formulas it then takes for laws. It does not comprehend these laws – i.e., it does not demonstrate how they arise from the very nature of private property. Political economy throws no light on the cause...
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...Commodity Fetishism vs. Capital Fetishism Marxist Interpretations vis-à-vis Marx’s analyses in Capital Dimitri Dimoulis and John Milios Abstract In Marx’s analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production and more precisely in his theory of value, the key to decipher the capitalist political and ideological practices and structures is to be found. In this context, many Marxists believed that the analysis of “commodity fetishism” in Section 1 of Volume 1 of Capital renders the basis for understanding ideological domination and political coercion under the capitalist rule. The authors argue, that “commodity fetishism” is only a preliminary notion, which allows Marx to arrive, in subsequent Sections of Capital, at the concept of the “fetishism of capital”. 1. Introduction From the days of his youth Marx was familiar with the statements of ethnographers on the subject of fetishism and used the term in his own writings.1 Equally important was in this context the influence of Hegel.2 In this paper we are not going to deal with the different meanings that the notion of fetishism acquires at different points of Marx’s work, an issue which is related to the various concepts of fetishism in political economy, political philosophy and the social sciences.3 We will focus on the analysis of commodity fetishism, in an effort to contribute to the comprehension of the different dimensions of this concept, especially in Marx’s Capital. For this purpose, we will pursue the following course:...
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...Plot Overview The first chapter of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter introduces us to John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, two good friends who live together in a town in the Deep South and who are both deaf-mutes. Antonapoulos works in his cousin's fruit store, and Singer works as a silver engraver in a jewelry shop. They spend ten years living together in this way. One day Antonapoulos gets sick, and even after he recovers he is a changed man. He begins stealing and urinating on buildings, and exhibiting other erratic behavior. Finally, Antonapoulos's cousin sends him to a mental asylum, although Singer would rather have Antonapoulos stay with him. After Antonapoulos leaves, Singer moves into a local boarding house in town run by a family named the Kellys. The narrator then introduces us to Biff Brannon, the proprietor of the New York Café, the establishment in town where Singer now eats all his meals. Biff is lounging on the counter watching a new patron named Jake Blount, as the constantly drunk Jake is intriguing. Blount goes over and sits with Singer and begins talking to him as though the two are good friends. Then Singer leaves. Once Jake realizes in his drunken stupor that Singer has left, he goes into an alley and begins beating his head and fists against a brick wall until he is bruised and bloody. The police bring Jake back to the café, and Singer volunteers to let the drunk stay the night with him. The narrative shifts to the perspective of Mick Kelly, the young teenage...
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