Thanks to Robert a Crawford of the Pine Crest School

Thanks to Robert A Crawford of The Pine Crest School Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

Communist Manifesto 1848 Das Kapital 1867

DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM or HISTORICAL MATERIALISM:

1. DIALECTICS (Hegel) and points Marx shared with Hegal -thesis, antithesis, synthesis a. Reality is not a state of affairs but an ongoing historical process b. Because of this, the key to understanding reality is to understand the nature of historical change c. Historical change is not random but obey a discoverable law d. The discernable law of change is the dialectic with its repeated triadic movement of thesis… e. What keeps the law perpetually in operation is alienation which ensures that each successive state of affairs is eventually brought to an end by its own internal contradictions f. The process is not under the control of human beings but is driven forward by its own internal laws and human beings are swept along g. The process will continue until a situation is reached in which all internal contradictions have been resolved, an end to alienation and no more forced at work promoting change h. When this conflict-free situation is reached, human beings will no longer be swept along by forces out side their control, but will be able to take destiny into their own hands and be the agents of their own change i. That this will for the first time make human free and self- fulfillment possible for human beings j. That the form of society within which this freedom will be exercised will not be a society of individual interests (liberals) but individuals are absorbed into a whole that is much bigger and more fulfilling than their own separate lives. 2. B. MATERIALISM (Feuerbach) anything that happens is not spiritual in nature but physical or material -economic base -social superstructure 3. C. HISTORICAL INEVITABILITY -stages of history: tribalism slavery (Plato) feudalism (Hobbes) capitalism (Smith) communism -dynamic change: class struggle and revolution 4. In a primitive economy, we can all produce what we need. Above this, we specialize but then depend on others for our basic needs. a. People are then defined by what they do b. Their lives are determined by what they do c. They group by their interests, creating classes d. So when there are conflicts, it is class conflict e. However, as the means of production change, the classes and conflicts change 5. Examples a. When transportation was done mostly by ship and boat, cities were located on coasts and rivers. With introduction of coal and iron/steel, cities and urban centers develop near those raw resources. b. Religion, ideas, education, art: all superstructure of society are shaped by the substructure (economy) and in turn support it. Industrial class uses wealth and its accumulation to awe the other classes. 6. Changes and improvements in production would put more people out of work, more impoverished, while capital owning class would gain more wealth: a. Capitalists (bourgeoisie) b. Workers (proletariat) c. Workers eventually revolt and seize the means of production d. Dictatorship of the Proletariat is the end of history, no more class interests, all is owned in common for the common good 7. Marx saw himself as very scientific and that he had learned and mastered the laws of society and history just as Newton could explain and predict gravity. 8. Marxism seems inevitable and drives the courses of 20c revolutions just as Locke played a role in French and American revolutions.