class synopsis back from 3/23

In today’s class we began our discussion on Karl Marx. He is a materialist, and against the idealistic philosophy. He ultimately sees the world as a material process, as opposed to a “being” or “becoming” sort of existence; similarly, he sees history as a continual process of production and labor between individuals.

Marx sees the self as a natural, corporeal, sensual, objective being. Like his conception of the world, and its historical account, he views the human not as having an essence, but rather it creates itself through production and creation. We have no teleology or principle to history. The self is conditioned by its relation with external objects, namely, the products of his or her labor.

Humans are essentially producers. Therefore, we master nature in order to meet our needs, which are primarily material. We produce commodities to be consumed; first the basic, and then commodities of the imagination. In order to do this more efficiently, we create divisions of labor. Marx spoke against the capitalistic society of his time, and how the divisions of labor were no longer natural as they should be, but imposed on persons for the sake of exchange rather than self-production. The capitalist society promoted that the “free laborer” sells labor to capitalists for “equal” exchange value to meet basic needs—but then leaves profit for the capitalist. In his eyes, the social view of “freedom” had instead become “freedom from the means of production,” and freedom to sell one’s own labor power, leaving a wide divide between the capitalist and the laborers—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The modern state only managed the affairs of the bourgeoisie, who dominated production and alienated the proletariat from owning the process of production and the product itself, while allowing the proletariat subject to this “false freedom,” thinking that they are capitalists. Amidst his perspective of the modern state, his idea of socialism emerged.