SOC3000 Marx Test

Human nature (Marx)

Humans are creative and social beings who consciously produce and shape the world through labor.

Humans vs animals (Marx)

Humans plan and create through conscious labor while animals act instinctively to meet immediate needs.

Labour (Marx)

• Works with material aspects of nature to satisfy needs

• transforms us and world around us

Animals and labour

• Not capable of true labor

• Stuff they do to satisfy needs is “immediate”

Alienation

• condition under capitalism

• workers become separated from their work and human potential

Alienation from product

Workers do not own/control what they produce.

Alienation from process

Workers have no control over how their work is done.

Alienation from others

Competition replaces cooperation between workers.

Alienation from self

Workers lose connection to their creativity and human nature.

Means of production

Tools factories land and technology used to produce goods.

Mode of production

(The way or the system)

The ORGANIZATION of production including ownership and labor relationships.

Value (Marx)

The amount of socially necessary labor time required to produce a commodity.

Use value

The usefulness of a commodity.

Exchange value

The market value of a commodity in trade.

Surplus value

The value workers produce beyond what they are paid.

Source of surplus value

Unpaid labor performed by workers.

Profit

Money gained by capitalists through surplus value.

Exploitation

When workers are paid less than the value they produce.

Class

A group defined by its relationship to the means of production.

Proletariat

The working class who sell their labor for wages.

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class who own the means of production.

Class struggle

Ongoing conflict between classes with opposing economic interests.

Primitive accumulation

the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production.

Ideology

Beliefs that justify and maintain inequality under capitalism.

Dialectic

reconciling seemingly contradictory truths. (thesis —> antithesis —> synthesis)

Dialectic example

Conflict between workers and capitalists leads to social change.

Marx view of history

History is driven by material conditions and class struggle.

Historical change (Marx)

Change occurs when contradictions within systems lead to conflict.

Tribal or primitive communism

Early societies with shared resources and no class divisions.

Feudalism

A system based on land ownership and peasant labor.

Industrial capitalism

A system based on factories wage labor and private ownership.

Post-industrialism

An economy focused on services information and technology.

Marx relevance today

Marx helps explain inequality alienation and modern labor systems.

People See Fast Cars Speeding acronym? (PSFCS)

1. Primitive

2. Slavery

3. Feudalism

4. Capitalism

5. Socialism

(and eventually communism)