The Impact of Marxism on Western Civilization - Assignment Example

The Impact of Marxism on Western Civilization Karl Marx (1818-1883), a revolutionary German philosopher, was one of the most important thinkers critical of the western civilization founded on the principles of capitalism. For good or for ill, Karl Marx is remembered as one the few individuals who have ever had their way in shaping the course of history. Highly original in his thoughts, Marx wielded a wealth of intellectual prowess with no nonsense criticisms of ideals hitherto held with esteem during his time. To say the least, it is impossible to do justice in a one off assignment to the contradictory thoughts of Karl Marx. A man of many hats, Marx turned away from his original training [philosophy] for more insights from other disciplines in order to contextually place the social ills perpetrated by the haves to the detriment of the have-nots. His humanistic approach in philosophy, political economy, history, sociology and political theory formed the foundation of communism; a political ideology that was later adopted by many of the Asian continent regimes in the twentieth century. The competition between capitalism and communism that defined much of 20th century was a consequential effect of Marx’s conception of historical materialism (Shimp 36); a system that formed the basis of capitalism from inception as a way of creating and multiplying wealth. A system of social and economic analysis, Marxism came into existence during The Enlightenment era; a period in time characterized by widespread slavery, pervasive disenfranchisement of the right of women to vote, extreme discrimination of the poor, particularly in Europe, and imperialism that saw jostling for resources by the European powers extended to Africa and the far east. To be sure, the world was under the control of a handful of extremely wealthy lords, yet scientific modes of production were at the early stages of development; man [the poor] was basically the source of wealth amassed and concentrated in the few hands of the aristocrats (Kellner 156). Essentially, Marxism developed out of philosophical materialism; a view that events in the universe follow the laws of nature and that the notion of superhuman upheld by fore-agents of capitalism is headed for a crumble and the subsequent takeover by communism someday (Kellner 158). Marx's theoretical analysis centered upon the idea that social systems rise and fall as a result of the obstructive impediments to the development of collective, human productive power. In his analysis, the convergence of history and economics would be the causal effect to the ultimate breakdown of capitalism, arguing that historical processes evolved towards the realization of the inevitable pre-determined moral ideals. Noteworthy, Karl Marx was the pioneer thinker to boldly and comprehensively bring to the fore the understanding that the working class were the engine to a prosperous society, and thus are crucially fundamental in determining its course. In his theory of dialectical materialism, a theory share by Engels, Marx believed that everything in the universe revolves around materialism, and that the defined boundaries of encroachment are just but man-made concepts that are nonexistent in the Absolute state of nature (Shimp 37). Marx argues that there can be no freedom for the great mass of the working class as long as economic control [the vast resources] remains in the hands of the few political favorites; an unpalatable argument to the liberals who support the right to hold economic power and the subsequent freedom of its usage as the owner(s) may deem fit. According to Marx’s theory of historical materialism, capitalism was/is a social evil constantly under transformative economic forces towards a system that guarantees equality of mankind. Friedrich Engels, Marx’s longtime friend and coauthor, notes that Marx’s theory of Historical Materialism was a “law of development of human history” like any other discovery such as the Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution (Engels and Marx (a) 69). Driven by the assumptive principles of the dialectical process, Marx was fully convinced that man and the Absolute belong together and that the movement of the former towards the later, though gradual, was inevitable (Wolff 29). The dialectical process is, therefore, a process on course relieving man of ignorance towards a status of more self-awareness via perceptive reality and truer forms of life (Freedman 12). Accordingly, every fresh perception of reality inches man closer to the Absolute. Even though the two [Marx and Engels] created rapport in a lot of destiny thoughts, Marx rejected Engels’ idealism hinged on ideas or the mind. He [Marx] maintained that “it is not the human consciousness that defines their being, but rather their socialization that determines their consciousness” (Marx and Engels (a) 160). To Marx, the certainty of existence of matter was no longer doubtful as opposed to ideas that are largely abstract. Intuitively, the Absolute state of nature, according to Marx, is not found in the ideas of the mind but freedom from the realistic/perceptive/observable material captivity; man is earthly [born to die on earth], and that the idea of afterlife is just but a created Absolute and not the Absolute (Kedourie 153-4). He distanced himself from the notion that man’s condition is a product of circumstances, noting that such views relegates to the periphery the common evidence that it is man who changes circumstances by creating social classes [the ruling and the lower](Engels and Marx (b) 572-3). Karl Marx interpretation of the social underpinnings of his time and the promise of revolutionary transformations attracted widespread attention from those interested in crafting a sustainable world where people, both the bourgeoisie and the proletarians [the ruling and the lower classes], could live and interact harmoniously. Backed by Engels, Marx‘s declaration of the importance of classes in explaining historical materialism found its way in the opening sentence of a political manuscript considered one of the world’s most influential documents, The Communist Manifesto: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx and Engels (c) 7). The revolutionary wave that spread throughout Europe beginning in France to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and to the far lands of Latin America was inspired by nothing but The Communist manifesto (Merriman 715). Marx theory of historical materialism, in particular, won him passionate adherence and fervent disapproval in equal measure from a wide array of scholars; contributions rightly termed as “scientific continent of social and historical thought” by Marxist Louis Althusser (Baltas 52). No wonder, therefore, that a number of the modern scholars such as Alex Callinicos still find The Communist Manifesto relevant terming it “a manifesto of the 21st century” (Callinicos 8). Work cited Baltas, Aristides. “On the Stakes of Marxism’s Future: Philosophy, Science, and Politics Again.” European Planning Studies 7.1 (1999): 51-63. Print. Callinicos, Alex. "The Manifesto and the Crisis Today". The Communist Manifesto (Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich). London: Bookmarks, 2010. Print. Freedman, Roberts. The Marxist System: Economic, Political, and Social Perspectives. New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1990. Print. Kedourie, Elie. Hegel and Marx: Introductory Lectures. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1995. Print. Kellner, Douglas. Western Marxism” in Modern Social Theory: An Introduction. Ed. Austin Harrington. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 154-174. Print. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels (a). The Portable Karl Marx. Ed. Eugene Kamenka. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. Print. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels (b). The German Ideology. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998. Print. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels (c). The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2005. Print. Merriman, John M. A History of Modern Europe. Volume 2: From the French Revolution to the Present. New York: Norton, 1996. Print. Shimp, Kaleb. The Validity of Karl Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism. Department of Economics, University of Northern Iowa, 2009. Web. 17 March 2013. Wolff, Jonathan. Why Read Marx Today? New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. Read More