Karl Marx's Philosophy: Class Struggle, Alienation, and Capitalism

Historical Context

Karl Marx emerged during the Industrial Revolution and the social struggles of the 19th century. He adopted the Hegelian view of history as a process of reality, affirmation, denial, and self-improvement. Marx asserted that the true subject of history is not the spirit but the flesh-and-blood human being who produces their own life and social existence through labor in relation to nature. Marx envisioned a classless society where individuals are truly free, masters of their own work and being. To achieve this, Marx analyzed capitalism, where private ownership dominates, and proposed a workers' revolution to establish an egalitarian society. He envisioned a community forming a classless society, moving beyond the class structures of the Old Regime, where the aristocracy was replaced by the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution. This led to the ongoing class struggle, which, according to Marx, would culminate in communism, establishing a society without classes or private property.

Marx's Philosophy

Marx's philosophy is fundamentally practical, focusing on the human condition. Key themes include:

• Revolutionary political struggle
• Scientific explanation of modern society
• Human freedom and its limitations
• Labor movement
• Critique of philosophy and philosophers
• Analysis of industrial capitalism

The Social Being of Man

Human beings must produce their livelihoods, but this labor does not automatically lead to freedom. Marx highlighted the paradox that human progress, achieved through social work, often lacks freedom. The organization of human labor has been imposed upon individuals, alienating them. This occurs in various modes of production, including slavery, feudalism, and capitalism, resulting in alienated human beings who are not free.

Alienation

Alienation describes the suffering and coercion inherent in human labor. In capitalism, exploitation is masked by the illusion of "freedom" to trade or sell labor. The division of labor is a sign of this alienation, as the separation of mental and physical activities dehumanizes individuals, turning them into obedient machines. In capitalism, everything, including people, is commodified and assigned a price. Capitalist exploitation involves the sale of the workforce and its use by the capitalist, forcing workers to produce more value than they are paid for. This surplus value is crucial to capitalist domination. The unequal exchange between the total wealth produced and the wages paid is hidden under the guise of free and equal exchange in bourgeois society. The resulting profits accumulate in the hands of the entrepreneur. Marx called this hidden profit margin, concealed from participants through the contract between equals, commodity fetishism.

Ideology, False Consciousness, and Commodity Fetishism

Ideology has two main meanings in Marx's work. First, it refers to the false consciousness of reality, often associated with the idealistic desire for freedom and justice without changing societal structures. Humans exist within classes, not in a philosophical fantasy. Second, ideology relates to commodity fetishism, which masks and counterfeits the analysis of bourgeois capitalist economic forms. Unequal exchange and the theft of working time are hidden under the theoretical freedom and equality of economic relations between worker and capitalist. The reality of social work is obscured by the exchange of goods, concealing wage exploitation and making the money received seem equivalent to the value of the workforce.