Karl Marx

Karl Marx and Marxism (1818-1883) 

Dialectical Materialism: History and societal changes are driven by material conditions and class struggles, using a dialectical method adapted from Hegel.

  • Dialectical materialism is when the material economic base is the driving force of history. 

  • Hegel  = Idealism  

    • As a body I have material needs (food and clothing) 

    • Noumena/phenomena = mind/body

  • For Marx - Material base produces change 

Influence of Hegel and Feuerbach: Hegel’s dialectics shaped Marx’s method, while Feuerbach’s focus on materialism informed Marx’s break from idealism.

What Does Marx Borrow from Hegel? (hegel is an Idealist)

  • A dialectical reading of history grounded in an interrelationship between noumenology and phenomenology.

    • Dialectics are point and counterpoint 

      • X and -x 

    • Noumenology = Geist (what you confer about someone is geist) 

      • English synonyms for Geist include: spirit, mind, Absolute reason, idea, intellect

    • Phenomenology= the economic base of society, materialism, human life as matter

      • Similar to the mind body dichotomy

        • Think about this in a airport situation 

          • Middle eastern person dressed in their clothing 

            • We can see that they might be arab and religious 

            • You confer a set of ideas and belief system 

              • You see their phenomena; you do not really know until you see their intellect. 


  • Marx: “Hobbes is the father of us all.””Life is before all else eating and drinking, a home, clothing…”

    • Human life is being in the world as a phenomena; first comes the material base; the body 

    • Then comes Noumeno, the actual person 


  • Dialectics produces a systematic reading of history unlike that promoted by positivism.

  • Aufhebung: thesis (whatever we have in front of us, we are in late capitalism and sophisticated technology), antithesis (contradiction that it embodies) , synthesis (come out in the other end) 

    • Theory (why is the automobile worth making), antithesis (we want it to go fast, but oil is so expensive ), synthesis (the creation of cars throughout the decades such as hybrid cars) 

  • Hegelian dialectics privileges Geist.

  • In addition to Hegel’s reliance on dialectics, Marx took from Hegel the concept of Aufhebung: something remains, something is discarded, something new evolves.

    • Human intellect is the driving force of history 

    • There is a conservative school of thought that says when Hagel says there is a form of history 

    • There is a correspondence with our ideas and the empirical world 

      • The individual can see themselves in the current form of state 

        • The way that i conceive things is an alignment of a logical world 

  • What does Marx take from Ludwig Feuerbach? 

  • He borrows Feuerbach’s materialist reading of history. 

  • Marx inverts Hegel’s categories to allow economics to be the driving force of history. 

    • Where does the philosopher come from, their background and what do they preach - it connects back to class relations

  • Ergo, caput mortem! - dead head (the idea is  not the driver, materialism is the driver of history) 

  • Allowing phenomenology to be the driving force of history causes Marx to see the world in terms of class relations, and specifically in terms of class antagonism. 

    • The history of the world is the history of class struggle 

    • The era that he is living through 

      • They believed it to be a privileged era due to high capitalism. 

        • It was a seminal turning point in western history.

        • It cemented the fact that the history of the world is class struggle. 

          • Before it was able to be veiled

      • There is a picture of kids chained to the workplace; who view capitalism as a good thing 

        • Even though these kids were exploited 

  • Bourgeoisie (the owners)  and proletarian (people who sell their labor) 

Class Consciousness: The awareness by a social class of its position and interests in opposition to other classes, essential for revolutionary change.

  • With changed consciousness and the abandonment of false consciousness, the working class might unite as a class and overthrow the bourgeoisie, insisting that the means of production be made public.

    • People suffer from false consciousness 

      • Life is good, there are cheap shoes on temu, our boss is nice, we have pizza every friday. 

    • People need to cease control 

      • You need to get rid of your chains and make it happen 

    • Means of production will first be controlled by the government.

Alienated Labor: Under capitalism, workers become estranged from the product of their labor, the act of production, their own humanity, and their peers.

What is special about capitalism? 

  • Surplus labor, which is predicated on the private ownership of the means of production.

    • Its as if i had to work  

  • Private ownership allows for the private appropriation of the surplus

    • The means of production are privately owned 

    • There is no one over the shoulder to tell you how much to pay 

      • This allows the private individual to extract surplus labor. 


For Marx, the private appropriation of surplus labor delivers “alienated labor.”

  • When talking about revolution; he considers violence - not in a Aristotle sense

  • In order for people to revolt they have to come together 


  • They also need to realize that they are being exploited

What Makes Labor “Alienated”?

  • Alienation from the product

    • Worker does not get excited about the product. (because it is not his/hers) 

    • Don't really care about the end product. 

    • Me with contractors warehouse (i don't care about hardware)

  • Confusion between the means to life and life itself

    • Means to life (paycheck) and life itself (when you get to do things that you want) 

  • Alienation from other people

    • Spending time for your friends and family becomes less likely since you are always working 

  • Alienation from the “species being” 

    • Alienation to humanity - working 12-14 hours a day is not what humans should be doing 

    • Recognizing that they are getting the short end of the stick and no matter what raise - they know that they will never achieve what they want to. 

    • Alienated labor is unfulfilling 

    • These are the four categories of alienation that people suffer from capitalism 

      • Why not act on it? 

        • False consciousness 

          • People believe that their bosses are nice and that they will eventually get that raise/promotion 

          • People do not want to think of themselves belonging to a lower class 

        • Fear 

        • Labor demands 

          • You get better hours and a little bit of a better raise

            • However, Marx still believes that this just quiets workers down- but they still are exploited 

        • Being a “hard worker”

          • Some people brag about being a hard worker 

          • People tie themselves to their job (it becomes their identity) 

Vanguard of the Proletariat: A leading revolutionary class-conscious group tasked with guiding the proletariat to overthrow the bourgeoisie.

  • What is special about high capitalism (time frame Marx is living under) is that it produces class consciousness - people know that they are being exploited 

    • It is NOT brutal naked exploitation. 

Inevitability of Revolution: Marx believed that class conflicts inherent in capitalism would inevitably lead to a proletarian revolution.