Karl Marx Questions and Answers
Karl Marx
What does Marx mean by "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence but their social existence...
This quote appears in Marx's 1859 work A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. What Marx means by this statement, which is central to his philosophical construct, is that economics,...
Karl Marx
What do you make of Karl Marx's contributions to sociology? What perceptions of Karl Marx can you be exposed to in...
Your answer to this will depend in part on your own ideas, but I am happy to provide some thoughts to help get you started! Although his ideas are still widely debated around the world, there is no...
Karl Marx
What is the meaning of Marx's statement—"Philosophers have so far interpreted the world. The point, however, is to...
Marx's point is that philosophy has not been used to practical ends. Though philosophers produce abstract ideas about the world, people do not adapt these abstractions into making practical changes...
Karl Marx
If Marx were alive today, what would he think about the prosperity enjoyed by the working class in industrial...
If Karl Marx were alive today, he would still say that the working class is exploited in industrial societies today. Marx would start by looking at truly industrial economies like the one in China....
Karl Marx
How did Karl Marx view social stratification?
Social stratification is a form of inequality that occurs due to the inherent differences between human beings and can be determined by race, gender, age, and economic capacity among other...
Karl Marx
How did Karl Marx's ideas impact the lives of people during the Industrial Revolution?
Marx's ideas mainly impacted on people after the Industrial Revolution, when industrial capitalism had reached an advanced stage. Nevertheless, the Industrial Revolution was crucial for the...
Karl Marx
What do Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels mean by the term "class struggle"?
For Marx and Engels the notion of class struggle is the key to understanding history. At all stages of history, they argue, there have been power struggles of one sort or another between social...
Karl Marx
According to Karl Marx, how are human beings alienated from their human potential and what can be done to change...
Karl Marx describes alienation as an objective reality and a sense of disconnect from aspects of the self. This disconnect is brought about by the conditions of labor present in a capitalist...
Karl Marx
What are the main tenets or features of Marxism?
Marxism is a way of examining and critiquing the socio-economic conditions and class status. It promotes a transition to a more egalitarian arrangement based primarily on the following observations...
Karl Marx
"Marxist theory of social development is relevant for Africa’s sustainable development." Comment on this statement.
To understand whether Marxist theory of social development is relevant to Africa's sustainable development, one first has to know what this theory is. Essentially, Marxian theory views social...
Karl Marx
Why were the working classes dissatisfied with the prevailing economic system?
Marx analyzed the class relations in a capitalist economy and how workers are inherently exploited under a capitalist system. According to Marx, workers labor for a set wage and the boss, who does...
Karl Marx
Marx said 'philosophers have interpreted the world, the point however is to change it.' What implications does this...
Marx believed that history determines consciousness. In other words, the things we think and do are determined by our social and economic institutions. This includes all of culture. Therefore, all...
Karl Marx
What are the main points of Karl Marx's theory of class conflict?
In simplest form in Marxist theory, the following is held to be true: There are two basic classes in society: the owners of the means of production, called the capitalists or the bourgeoisie, and...
Karl Marx
What is Karl Marx's view on a utopian society?
In the most interesting of ways, Marx would reject the calls for a utopic society. He would dismiss them because they lacked his full throated embrace of the dialectical process that he borrowed...
Karl Marx
Is literature an important part of the Marxist superstructure?
According to Marxist theory there are two components of capitalist society: base and superstructure. The base compromises the economic forces as well as the relations of production, that is to say...
Karl Marx
Marx writes in his 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte that "Men make their own history,but they do not make it as they...
Marx's quote about the relationship that people have towards their past reflects some very keen insight. In order to fully envision this understanding, expanding on the quote might be helpful: In...
Karl Marx
What is Karl Marx's view of the future? This question relates the Communist Manifesto.
After the Revolution, and after the Worker's Paradise of each according to his ability, each according to his need been established, eventually the instruments of government, or ruling class, would...
Karl Marx
How does Karl Marx's "Alienated Labor" frame capitalism and alienation as inescapable?
Karl Marx regards alienation as an inescapable part of capitalism, an economic system which forces labor upon workers. In turn, workers may feel disconnected from labor that seems pointless and...
Karl Marx
What is the meaning of Marx's following statement regarding philosophy? "The philosophers have only interpreted the...
In this statement, Karl Marx puts forth the essential ideals of his philosophy: it is not enough to simply study and analyze the world as it is; instead, one must make deliberate attempts to change...
Karl Marx
How do I go about explaining Marx's argument about the development of consciousness?
In "The Premises of the Materialist Method" from Marx's The German Ideology, he writes that "the first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals." He...
Karl Marx
What is Karl Marx's alternative to capitalism?
Marx posited that the industrial revolution fundamentally changed the relationship between worker and output, or the end result of their work, thus alienating them from their work, their community,...
Karl Marx
Distinguish between base and superstructure with special reference to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
In Marxist thought, the base of a society consists of its means of production, material assets, and the classes of people who produce and consume things (described by Marxists as the "relations of...
Karl Marx
What is a good thesis statement for this question? How is the concept of alienation, as defined by Marx in his...
To formulate a thesis in response to this question, we must first understand what Marx meant by "alienation." For Marx, alienation was a multi-faceted phenomenon that occurred as a result of the...
Karl Marx
How can Marxism inform our understanding of society, history, and the arts?
Marxism argues that how societies understand history, society, and the arts is determined by the ruling class. In our society, the ruling class is the small capitalist group that owns the means of...
Karl Marx
Did Karl Marx really create Communism?
The question is somewhat complicated as it depends on what you mean by "create" and your definition of communism. Foucault, in his frequently cited essay, "What is an Author?", talks about...
Karl Marx
What are the differences between Rawls’ arguments and Marx and Engels’ arguments against inequality?
The main difference between the explanations of inequality offered by John Rawls and Marx and Engels is that the latter viewed it as the consequence of the rise of the bourgeoisie at the expense of...
Karl Marx
In Marx's own words, what is simple reproduction?
For Marx, simple reproduction is an economic condition that calls for the repetition of capitalist patterns of recognition. It is a condition that Marx believes defines the essence of why...
Karl Marx
"An internal conflict occurs inside the middle class." How can this be seen as interesting from a Marxist point of...
I think that the interest in this kind of conflict for the Marxist would be at what point the "middle class" decides to demand their own share of the means of production. This conflict will bring...
Karl Marx
Explain what Marx meant by the idea that religion is the opium of the masses.
The first thing to keep in mind, when discussing this quote, is that Marxist philosophy is ultimately grounded in an atheistic vision of the universe. For Marx, religion is ultimately a human...
Karl Marx
How do Marx and Engels's ideas on class inequality compare with those of Bauman?
Marx and Engels view history primarily as the story of class struggle. The bourgeois class owns the means of production and employs the proletarian class to do the work. The interests of these two...
Karl Marx
materialism How does marx distinguish his materialism from idealism or contemplative materialism of feuerbach and...
In his "Theses on Feuerbach," Marx argued that Ludwig Feuerbach had not sufficiently grasped the implications of materialism, in particular the role of human action. Feuerbach, one of Marx's fellow...
Karl Marx
According to Karl Marx, what would be an ideal system of social justice?
Social justice can be defined as giving all people in society a fair share of equality, dignity, opportunity, education, and material resources. Marx was a materialist, meaning he was chiefly...
Karl Marx
How would you describe the materialistic system of Karl Marx?
Materialism in the sense in which it is used to describe the works of Karl Marx means that his philosophical writings assume purely material and naturalistic causes for phenomena, grounded in the...
Karl Marx
Why was Karl Marx a very influential thinker ?
Karl Marx was a very influential thinker because he had a very provocative idea at a time that was ripe for that idea to take hold. Marx wrote his most important works in the late 1840s, the 1850s,...
Karl Marx
For Karl Marx, what would economic equality consist of?
For Marx, economic equality would not simply consist of what we have in a capitalist system which is (ideally) the equality of economic opportunity. Instead, there would be equality of economic...
Karl Marx
What compelled did Marx and Engels think that industrial capitalism was bound to collapse?
For Marx and Engels, their belief in the inevitable destruction of capitalism is their vision of it as a "runaway train." Their critique of industrialized capitalism is rooted in the idea that...
Karl Marx
If Marx were alive today, what might he think about increasing globalization?
The original question had to be edited. I would suggest that Marx would suggest that the presence of globalization would enhance much of his theoretical underpinnings. Marx made the argument that...
Karl Marx
How did Karl Marx become famous?
Karl Marx became famous when a work he wrote with his friend Friedrich Engels called the "The Communist Manifesto" was published in 1848. The pamphlet, commissioned in 1847 by the newly created...
Karl Marx
How was Karl Marx influenced by important changes occurring in society such as the industrial revolution and the...
While not opposing industrialization, as to do so would have been folly, Karl Marx did view the Industrial Revolution as furthering the alienation of the working classes from the society for which...
Karl Marx
How can we define the modern implications of 'Marxist Theory?' please help.
This is a broad question. In a general sense, Marxist theory refers to the ideas of Karl Marx and socialism in a variety of domains. The driving force behind Marxist theory is to be able to to...
Karl Marx
According to Marxists, how does the family benefit the ruling class?
Marxists argue that the family benefits the ruling class firstly by reinforcing the structure of Capitalist, patriarchal society. The family has a hierarchy, with the father at the top, and this...
Karl Marx
Why is Marx's philosophy referred to as historical materialism?
Marx's philosophy is called historical materialism because it studied how the material situation of a society affected human development throughout history. Marx looked at the ways in which...
Karl Marx
In what type of society did Karl Marx expect to see social stratification based on greed?
Marx expected to see social stratification based on greed in capitalist society. One of the principles of Marx and Engel's work was that economics determine how a society is structured. In other...
Karl Marx
What is Marx's theory of history? Use this theory to explain the decline of all the feudal era. What are the...
Marx's theory of history can be best described as one based on dialectical materialism. This notion of history is one where historical progression is defined by "material existence and by the...
Karl Marx
What is wrong with Marx’s theory?
Marx posited an iron-clad theory of history in which the workers would inevitably rise up against the ownership class in society (what we might call the one percent), overthrow it through a...
Karl Marx
What, according to Marx, is the relationship between economic systems and culture? How might this relationship relate...
According to Marx, culture, and therefore the arts, springs out of the economic system. In other words, the primary way a particular society earns its living will be celebrated in its arts. For...
Karl Marx
What did Marx predict that the inequalities of capitalism would lead to?
Marx argues that communism is not just desirable, but inevitable. We may not know precisely when it will arrive, but we can be absolutely certain that it will do eventually, and that when it does...
Karl Marx
According to Karl Marx, what would political freedoms consist of?
Karl Marx speaks about freedom is several of his texts, stating that freedom is only truly possible through community. The German Ideology, written in collaboration with Friedrich Engels in 1846,...
Karl Marx
Please discuss two major examples of evidence on which Karl Marx based his social and economic theories.
The ideas of Karl Marx include both descriptive ones (based on evidence) and prescriptive ones (solutions for the problems he describes). While description is grounded in historical and...
Karl Marx
How is history connected with the definition of materialism?
The concept of materialism is important to the definition of Marx's vision of history because it helps to provide the basic elements of who has wealth and who lacks it. For Marx, history has been...
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