Basic Theory of Human History of Karl Marx - Essay Example

? Table of Contents Introduction 3 Marx’s Basic Theory of Human History – Social Change 3 Species Being 5 ALIENATION 6 Commodity fetish 7 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 9 Introduction The origin of the sociological theories owes a great deal to Karl Marx; he exerted a philosophical impact on various basic theories of sociology. It is indispensable to refer to the basic concepts, methods and substantive theories presented by in order to comprehend classical as well contemporary issues in sociology. Many sociologists including Weber and Durkheim developed their work in this field by critical discussion and debate on basic theories and ideas presented by Karl Marx (Cohen 10). There is colossal collection of Marx writing covering philosophy, sociology, economics, history and politics. However, this essay deals with the selection of fundamental theories of Sociology such as social history, social change and their core elements. Marxists believe that plan of social life finds its basis in “conflict of interests” between different classes present in the society. The basic conflict prevails between two general classes including ‘the Bourgeoisie’ and ‘the Proletariat’. The bourgeoisie are those who enjoy the control over the resources of production in the market based on capitalism while the proletariats are those who have no control over means of production and they only sell their labor power in capitalistic market (Jones 57 - 60). Following lines describe the key features of theory of human history presented by Karl Marx. Marx’s Basic Theory of Human History – Social Change Marx based his theory of human history on the basis of the division of ownership of resources required for the production of goods and services. He divided human history into five distinct phases with different structure of ownership of resources of production. These five periods of epochs are described below. The first phase is referred as primitive communism. The people had common ownership of the entire resources during this epoch of human history. The structure of ownership of resource changed and next phase started which is termed as the ancient epoch, often termed as slave society. An aristocratic elite class came into being and had full control over the means of production; this society was based on the slavery. The slave masters were the owners of all the resources and they controlled the process of production. In the next phase, structure of ownership moved from aristocratic to feudalistic. During this epoch, land was considered the vital means of production. Again, the land was owned and controlled by aristocratic class which was small in numbers and the rest of the people belonged to the peasant class. The peasant class enjoyed no or little political rights during this phase of human history. The fourth epoch proposed by Marx is the capitalistic society; it is more correct description of the present day structure of society. This phase is characterized by technological developments for the process of production. It is characterized by industries and factory form of productions which allow the bourgeois class to attain their private interests by exploiting wage – laborers. According to Marx, the wage laborers are in majority but they own very little or no capital and have no control over production of goods. The key relationship of production during this epoch is of employer and employee. Employees are not owned by the employers in this social system and employees enjoy relatively higher political freedom as well as equalities than the peasants in feudalistic society (Marx and Engels 40). Communist society is the last epoch which has similar structure to the first one. In this society, resources are held by the people in common and are utilized for the benefit of each member of society. It is also referred as the authoritarianism of proletariat. It is the ideal social system where class conflict will come to an end, the human history also ends and society cannot take any other form (Marx and Engels 199 - 202). It clearly illustrates that according to Marx, economic factors are responsible for bringing about the social change. All the aspects of the society including cultural, social, political and religious are determined by the way goods and services are produced. The five epochs show that Marx traced the social development from agricultural to feudalistic to capitalistic to socialistic. He considers socialism as the ultimate destination of social change. Various contradictions in the feudalism led towards capitalism and contradictions in the capitalism will lead towards the socialism. But this stage will be reached after a long struggle between the two major classes mentioned above. Their interests are not only dissimilar but contrasting to each other. In other words, there will be a clash between the bourgeois and proletariat due to their diverse and conflicting interests. There are certain ills in the capitalistic society and these ills will be abolished by a revolution, the end product of this revolution is a society that is ideally social. It will be a mono – class society and there will be no conflict interests among the members of this class. We can say that social society will be characterized by egalitarianism and desertion of state. The concept of classes in the society is something more than an evocative category, Marx has utilized this concept to demonstrate the way societies change. Other important concept in this theory is the class conflict; it represents the process which brings about change due to the opposition between the social classes when they try to attain their respective interests in the society. The core elements of the theory of social change by Karl Marx include alienation, species being and commodity fetish, these concepts are briefly explained below. Species Being Species being is quite knotty concept to comprehend; it is instinctive to the human beings that they create their own world. There exists a symbiotic relationship between the environment and other organisms except the human being. According to Marx, world is not as natural for the human beings as it is for non human organisms. Human beings desperately want to create a world in which he wants to live. In order to attain this purpose, species beings have to alter the natural setting. Species being describes the ability of the humans to bring about creative changes in the environment and fabricate necessities of life. Self consciousness is the distinguishing feature of human beings as a species; it comes to human beings when they observe the world around them. The laborers are the producers of the goods and there is an intimate association between the product and producers. This association arises due to the self consciousness of the species being (Jessop and Wheatley 498). ALIENATION This term was first introduced by Karl Marx when he described the effect of labor process on the laborers in the capitalist society. According to Marx, alienation can be described as the situation where man is secluded from the product of his labor. The laborers have to give up their aspiration for self expression and they have no control over their fate during the process of labor at work place. The laborer develops a feeling that he is performing a role which has separated him from the life he is capable of living (Meszaros 99). Industrialization has given rise to this phenomenon; its genesis became evident with the establishment of large industries which retain organizational hierarchy, specialization in the jobs, novel modes of supervision and the shift in the focus life which has moved rapidly towards the organization from society and home. The specialization led towards the division of labor in the factories; technically, alienation can be termed as labor process. In simple words, it is described as the process which is utilized to transform labor power into products or the process in which employees produce goods which are salable in the marketplace. The capital (employer) is responsible for organizing the labor in such a way that profit can be earned (Slattery 14 – 21). Marx repeatedly maintained that alienation is the central part of the labor process and cannot be avoided in any circumstances. He argued that workers surrender their right to have any control over the product of their labor when they sell their labor to the capital (employer). This intense subordination makes the process of labor a dehumanizing and undignified experience for the workers and they alienate themselves from the product of their labor. Marx described three types of alienation experienced by the workers including the alienation from product, from their true species being and from others in the society. Sometimes, alienation may also refer to the process by which capitalist society mortify classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The alienation of employers is the result of the exploitation and domination of the rest of the people on their part (Meszaros 140). Commodity fetish A complicated notion of Marx’s social theory of change is the commodity fetish; it refers to the non – recognition of the product on the part of laborers. They take part in the creation of product but they fail to recognize their labor as well as themselves in the product in the marketplace. They not only consider the product outside themselves but they may also feel affinity for it. Laborers try to possess the product without noticing that it naturally belongs to them; it has the ability to satisfy their needs. This can be better explained by the following example (Cohen 115 - 122). Suppose a male scientist invents a female robot, once it is created; he fails to remember that it was his own creation and feels affection for her. He is urged to find the affection of the female robot by spending money. The same is the case with the laborers producing thousands of products but looking to achieve their benefits by purchasing them in the market place thinking that they will satisfy their needs. It is difficult to communicate and understand because we are living in the late phase of capitalist society and the entire world as well our way of living exemplifies this notion. In short we have become commodity fetish, a situation where the awareness of self – worth has been linked with a vicious cycle of money and commodities. Conclusion The basic theory and issues discussed above clearly identify that Marx considered the economical factors as the key factors responsible for bringing social change and ignores all the non material factors such as culture, religion etc. This theory can be used to evaluate the existing form of capitalism in most countries of the world. Contemporary issues of class differences and inequalities in the society faced due to the present capitalistic structure can be explained on the basis of Marxian theory of social change. The issues of class difference and increased terrorism due to these inequalities can also be discussed with the help of Marx theory of social change and its core elements because it predicts the classlessness after the clash between the two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Works Cited Cohen, G. Allan. Karl Marx's theory of history: a defence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Corlett, J. Anjelo. “Alienation in Capitalist Society”. Journal of Business Ethics, 7.9 (1988): 699- 702. Jessop, Bob and Wheatley, Russel. Karl Marx’s social and political thought. London: Routledge , 1999. Jones, Pip. Introducing Social theory. Hoboken: Wiley – Blackwell, 2003. Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich. Karl Marx on Society and social change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973. Meszaros, Istvan. Marx’s theory of alienation. Delhi: Aakar books, 2006. Nobel, Trevor. Social theory and social change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. Slattery, Martin. Key ideas in Sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd, 2003. Read More