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Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill And Friedrich Nietzsche

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This essay will analysis what Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche believe about the individual under social and political conditions and what has influenced this development. By doing so, I will seek to address whether each person believed that the conditions of the individual development are ideal or if there needs to be change.
Within capitalist economy, the means of production are privately owned, for example a businessman owns the factory and as a result, members of the capitalist economy find themselves divided into two distinct classes. There are those who own the means of production, also known as the capitalist class or bourgeoisie, and the workers who do not, known as the proletariat. For Marx, whether capitalism is …show more content…

As the capitalist has control over the condition, commodities etc. the work can become repetitive and dangerous, which again is better suited to machines. The labour power of the worker has then also become a commodity to which the proletarians sell to capitalists which he must do in order to live. For example, the twelve hours he may work allows him to have a life when his work ceases, those twelve hours hold no other value to the worker other than in earnings. Therefore labour power has become a commodity that can be passed between owner to owner making the proletarian the commodity in himself. Furthermore, Marx believes that excellently doing what makes us distinctively human is the true source of fulfilment. The idea is that true fulfilment for human beings is from creative and meaningful work yet this not something accomplished by a capitalist society.
By contrast, John Stuart Mill argued that individuality is one the essentials of human well-being as we cannot achieve happiness without it and the problem of individual’s conformity is that the majority often impose their rules of conduct onto others. Mill refers to this as the “tyranny of the majority”, when individuals are subjected to the tyranny of popular opinion. Moreover, Mill believes that this tyranny is more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, so the question is where to find the balance between individual independence and …show more content…

Despite this, society does bind us to looking out for individual’s rights. Although these are not something discovered by the laws of nature as others have thought before him, they are simply determined by human convention through tacit understanding. Therefore, if an individual’s conduct were to affect another’s rights then society would have jurisdiction but if one’s actions do not, then they should be left to freedom, both legally and socially. With this in mind, Mill believed that leaving people to themselves will make them happier than forcing obedience of society’s morals, but does government have any legitimate role in helping individuals? Mill thought that government interference should be limited in order to reduce the unnecessary power that it would be given, giving assurance to individual rights and

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