POLSC 31 (LT1) - Marx

• 1. Critique of political emancipation as embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: liberty, property, equality, security

  • Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen: Men are reduced to mere means to preserve “rights of man” which are just “rights of the elites” or those who have authority and property that alienates people from political life. The real and authentic man is lost to alienation.
• 1. Critique of political emancipation as embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: liberty, property, equality, security

  • Liberty: power that belongs to man to be able to do anything that does not harm the rights of others. 

  1. Liberty of the people being abused for the sake of capital and labor 
• 1. Critique of political emancipation as embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: liberty, property, equality, security

  • Property: Right to enjoy and dispose of one’s resources as one wills, without regard for other men and independently of society. 

  1. Abused and used to alienate people to different classes such as capitalists and laborers – conflict and class struggle 
• 1. Critique of political emancipation as embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: liberty, property, equality, security

  • Equality: equal access to liberty. 

  1. Men are not equal in liberty due to alienation, they become self-dependent to capitalists who have the means of production. 
• 1. Critique of political emancipation as embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: liberty, property, equality, security

  • Security: guarantee of its egoism  

  1. Enables people to rise above their egoism and in turn, alienate people.
• • What is the “optical illusion” being demystified by Marx (p. 270)?

  1. Prioritization of political goals over fundamental human rights.
• • Marx’s explanation of this contradiction. (Relate to historical materialism.)

  1. “Politics is subordinate to business because of the market and civil society. 
  2. Leads us to capitalism, and alienation which will not make us attain true freedom. 
  3. “The freer the market, the freer the people”
  4. Capitalist is alienated in theory, the laborer is alienated in practice.
• 4 levels of alienation:

  1. Objective
  2. Subjective
  3. Alienation from species being
  4. Alienation of human beings from fellow human beings
• • Objective alienation: Alienated from the products of their labor. 

  1. The capitalist and the laborer are both alienated but the capitalist is only alienated in theory, while the laborer is alienated in practice. 
  2. Capitalist only feels alienated because he is not in command of the laws of supply and demand 
• • Subjective alienation: Alienated from the process of labor itself 

  1. The worker does not feel human anymore. 
  2. Division of labor makes social production more efficient.
  3. There are social benefits to the division of labor, but if you bring it down to the level of the capitalist organizing the division of labor, the laborers are merely tools for the capitalist
  4. Labor should be a means for us to feel more human
• • Alienation from species-being: Alienated from our humanity 

  1. Combination of the first and second. 
  2. Manifested in the class struggle 
  3. Two fold
  4. Alienation from one's own humanity
  5. Follows from the subjective alienation
  6. Individuals are themselves when they are not working
  7. Alienation from others
• • Alienation of human beings from fellow human beings

  1. Class consciousness 
  2. Separation of the worker from the capitalist 
  3. Capitalist: enables you to command labor
• 1. Historical materialism

  • Productive forces

  1. Driving forces of what creates the dynamics of history. 
  2. Tools, machines, raw materials, labor power. 
  3. By the organization of the work process, there was better and closer cooperation between the workers. 
  4. With the rise of productive forces, ownership became more expensive. 
  5. Fewer but richer capitalists. 
  6. Increased cohesiveness among workers.
• 1. Historical Materialism

  • Relations of production

  1. Economic power relations. 
  2. The power, or lack thereof, that the people possess over the means of production and labor power. 
• 1. Historical materialism

  • Superstructure

  1. Legal and political institutions, religious and ideological convictions in society. 
  2. Determined by the economic foundation (in which society’s legal and political institutions protected the interests of the ruling class) 
  3. Politics was part of the superstructure to secure the preservation of the current production conditions. 
  4. Politics also had a progressive role as a means of revolution, but did not create the conditions for change. Political action is necessary when those conditions exist to effect a transition.