The most powerful element in society is wealth, it has the power to corrupt the human mind and body. Andrew Carnegie the president of a $480 billion steel company believed it is “the duty of the man of wealth” to control all the money that comes to him, and “becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren… Doing for them better they would or could do for themselves” (Doc C). Clearly the immense amount of wealth he possessed has corrupted his mind to make such hostile judgment upon the poor. The mere dream of a laborer is to become successful in their jobs in order to earn the sufficient amount of money to buy a decent home, and raise a healthy family.
In the analysis “Rousseau’s Critique of Economic Inequality” the author argues for five specific points. While the author generally agrees with Rousseau, he does push back in a couple of areas or take the argument further. He also compares Rousseau’s argument to that of other philosophers who I have not yet studied. Instead, I looked introspectively at my own state of nature and evaluated where I derive my self-worth. Rousseau’s argument that empathy is missing from a reasoned society is evident all around us, yet our educational institutions, workforce and government reward the ambitious.
Andre Abi Haidar PSPA 210 INTRODUCTION It is always difficult to write about and discuss Karl Marx, or more importantly the applications of Marx’s theories, due to the fact that he inspired and gave rise to many movements and revolutionaries, not all of which follow his theories to the point. Although Marx tends to be equated with Communism, it might not seem righteous to blame him for whatever shortcomings occurred when his theories were put to the test; Marx passed away well before the revolution in Russia, and he played no role in the emergence of the totalitarian regime at the time. When discussing Marx, however, Vladimir Lenin is one of the biggest highlights when it comes to studying the outcomes of Marx’s theories.
However, according to Karl Marx, this mentality of allowing others to treat us the way they think we deserve is merely a social construct which we adhere to without anyone exactly telling us to. The moment we obey to the commands of others is the moment we subject ourselves to inequality. “Inequality works to the extent that one “believes” it, that one goes on using one’s arms, eyes, and brains according to the distribution of the positions” (Ranciere, 137). This logic of society is based too much on the idea of a certain status quo. Inequality is a distortion of politics.
In the discussion of social inequality, one cannot leave out the sociological theories and models proposed by Karl Marx and Adam Smith. Generally, social inequality refers to the presence of unequal treatment, opportunities and rewards tied to people of various social standings within the hierarchy of a community group or society. Some common types of social inequality include wealth and income disparity as well as social class stratification. For Marx and Smith, both had explored the various types of social inequality in society.
And yet Marx was not alone, he was in a long tradition, of Spinoza , of Plato , even of Socrates, the socially engaged questioner, and this trope has endured, and found many new incarnations, an existential niche that has been ably filled by many, a faith and a path, a rationality that filled with content what would otherwise after been pattern less and empty. Without Marx the oppressed would never have seen a ladder through which to rise or articulate their half felt convictions, the Chinese and Vietnamese peasantry, the Russian workers, the African activists, would have faced a far less rational and intelligible
Karl Marx’s theory of justice is rooted in the idea of economic equality for all members of society. There are several aspects that would need to be in place in order for a society to be considered economically equal and just. Marx believed that each individual of society should work according to their ability and benefit according to their needs. He believed that all wealth should be collected by the government and then redistributed evenly to all citizens in a society. Essentially, wealth redistribution consists of seizing the wealth of the greedy rich and giving it to the poor, using the government as a medium of redistribution.
Assuming that the Big Red button is indeed pressed, it would mean that the Gini-coefficient (using wealth as an index) across the entire globe would fall to zero resulting in an anomaly or a theoretical impossibility at most. Massive wealth inequality is one of the more prevalent issues in the world today and in the past. Economist Karl Marx wrote, “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole.” Concurring with the above statement, the idea of pressing the Big Red Button is consistent with Karl Marx’s idea of a classless society, a society in which wealth will be distributed equally to all the people of the society.
Marx believed that the class struggle forced social change. Marx’s theory is based on a class system
The key concepts that I will discuss in this assignment are the theories and ideas of Karl Marx on Alienation, Exploitation, Materialism and Class struggle. The objective of this assignment is to examine the literature written about Karl Marx in order to clearly present his main ideas and theories in relation to work and capital. In the second part of my assignment I will discuss what relevance these theories and ideas have in today’s world. Karl Heinrich Marx the philosopher and revolutionary socialist was born on the 5th of May 1818 and died on the 14th of March 1883. He was born in the city of Trier in Germany and studied law in Bonn University.
Writings of Karl Marx had formed the theoretical basis for communism and the continual debate against capitalism. Marx understood capitalism to be a system in which the means of production are privately owned and profit is generated by the sale of the proletariat’s labour. He considered it to be an unfair exploitation of hard work with alienated social interactions and purpose. I agree with Marx that capitalism is indeed unfair and alienating, because it concentrates wealth within a small group of people by exploiting the surplus value of workers’ labour, and creates an alienated workforce. Hence, this essay will first discuss the relevance of Marx’s perception of capitalism as an alienating and unfair system for the contemporary world, before examining the potential of governments to influence the extent of alienation and unfairness that occurs.
Holland Arrowsmith explains Marxism as a term which refers to “a hugely diverse set of social, economic, philosophical, historical and cultural theories”. Several theories such as social, economical, political and critical theories have been derived from Marxism philosophy. Marxism advocates equality amongst the class structure of society. Marxism is divided into two fundamental classes. According to Marx there are only two classes which exist: Bourgeoisie, which means powerful or dominant class and Proletariat, which means the peasant or working classes.
Karl Marx had an idea of a classless happy society without poverty, greed or any private ownership. This idea of a utopian system was labelled Communism. He theorized that in such system all would be equal and all would give as much as they would and take as much as they would require. But that was all theoretical. There is not and never was a real Communist country in the world.
INTRODUCTION Karl Marx (1818–1883) is well-known not as a philosopher but as a radical communist, whose works motivated the base of various communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is firm to think of many who have had as much power in the formation of the modern world. He was skilled as a philosopher, Marx turned away from philosophy in his mid-twenties, in the direction of economics and politics. on the other hand, his overtly thoughtful early work, afterwards his writings have many points of contact with the current philosophical debates, particularly in the philosophy of olden times and the communal sciences, and in ethical and political philosophy MARX’S LIFE AND WORK Karl Marx was born in Trier, in the German
Class conflict, Marx believed, was what encouraged the evolution of society. To quote Marx himself, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one
