Chapter 4

Question 1

Who is Karl Marx?

Answer 1

• 1818-1883
• Political Philosopher
• The father of Communism
• Aimed to first, understand the social basis of workers grievances and second, provide a theory of capitalism that would provide guidance to these workers movements.
• Pointed out that the relationship between the bourgeoisie and proletariat is based on economic exploitation.

Question 2

Who is Frederick Engels?

Answer 2

• Marx collaborator

- co-author with Marx for “The Communist Manifesto”

Question 3

Who is Georg W.F Hegel?

Answer 3

• 1770-1831
• Viewed history as the continuous unfolding of ideas
• Considered evolution to be dialectical
• Struggle between thesis and antithesis a new proposition would emerge.
• Ex:// french revolution is the negation of the monarchy of Louis XVI resulting in the synthesis of Napoleon’s Empire.
• Major influence on Karl Marx development
• Drove the spiritual attainment of humans toward greater and greater degrees of freedom

Question 4

Describe Modes of Production

Answer 4

• consists of 2 components

- Social relations and forces of production

Question 5

Describe relations of production

Answer 5

• Refers to the social dynamics of a mode of production
• For example, in foraging societies the division of labor is simply between sexes and ages. All members of society have equal access to the forces of production, labor is self directed, and distribution of production is shared in a generally egalitarian way.
• Patterns of property ownership, and organization of work.

Question 6

Describe Alienation

Answer 6

• Marx argues that at the point that some humans must work at the direction of others, do not have control over the means of production, and have only their labor to exchange for that which sustains them, that they are “alienated” from their labor. They are, at that point, “wage slaves” from whom the owners of the means of production profit at the expense of the “surplus value” that labor creates.
• No longer identify with the product that you make, it is too industrialized
• Work for both expressive and cash means. No expressive means “kills your soul”

Question 7

Describe the Proletariat

Answer 7

• The working class

- Lumen proletariat= unemployed and unemployable individuals

Question 8

Describe the Bourgeoisie

Answer 8

• The owning class

- petit bourgeoisie=small producers, independent craftsmen

Question 9

Describe False Consciousness

Answer 9

• Marx argued that workers had a false consciousness that had been supplied to them to make them a docile source of profit and more easily exploited by the owners of the means of production.
• Super structure–religion, cosmology etc made them feel like it was okay and right.
• This false consciousness was impeading the revolution

Question 10

Describe Forces of production

Answer 10

-Technology, resources, and knowledge of how to use them

Question 11

Describe Fordism

Answer 11

• Linking increases in wages to increased labor productivity.
• Allowed workers to buy back a portion of the goods they consumed.

Question 12

Describe Capitalism

Answer 12

• An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
• Capitalism would give rise to proletarian class consciousness and organization culminating in a revolutionary seizure of the state and transition to socialism, in which the state is ruled on behalf of workers class interests.
• Under capitalism the state generally rules on behalf of the interests of the bourgeoisie
• Under socialism the state continues to exist but is at least in theory, to be controlled by the working class.

Question 13

Who is Antonia Gramsci

Answer 13

• 1891-1937
• Argued for the ideology that the primary means by which dominant classes maintained their control over capitalist society, and that in only extreme instance did capitalists have to resort to the brute force of the state.
• Coined the term Hegemonic Ideologies
• Communist

Question 14

Describe Hegemonic Ideologies

Answer 14

• Represent an existing social order as natural or desirable, thereby preventing people from challenging the political, economic, and social conditions of their lives.
• Universal suffrage

Question 15

Struggle Model

Answer 15

-Human beings are struggling for resources

Question 16

Describe Surplus Value

Answer 16

-surplus value is a central concept in Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. … According to Marx’s theory, surplus value is equal to the new value created by workers in excess of their own labor-cost, which is appropriated by the capitalist as profit when products are sold.

Question 17

Describe Exploitation

Answer 17

Marx argued that the ultimate source of profit, the driving force behind capitalist production, is the unpaid labor of workers. So for Marx, exploitation forms the foundation of the capitalist system.

Question 18

Describe Communism

Answer 18

-a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

Question 19

Describe dialectical materialism

Answer 19

Dialectical materialism (sometimes abbreviated diamat) is a philosophy of science and nature, based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and developed largely in Russia and the Soviet Union.

Question 20

The dialectical view of history (Marx)

Answer 20

The basic premise is that economic activities can only be fully understood in the context of the society that creates them. The concept of “value” is a social construct, and as such is defined by the culture using the concept. Yet we can gain some insights into modern patterns of exchange, value, and wealth by examining previous societies. An anthropological approach to economic processes allows us to critically examine the cultural biases inherent in the principles of modern economics.

Question 21

Foraging

Answer 21

-Mode of production= Generalized Reciprocity

Question 22

Horticulture and Pastoralism

Answer 22

-Mode of production=Balanced Reciprocity

Question 23

Agriculture

Answer 23

Market Relations and Stratification feudal systems of production

Question 24

Industrialism (mode of production)

Answer 24

-Market relations, mode of production in fewer hands.

Question 25

Define Industrialism

Answer 25

Industrialism combined with capitalism was the mode of production that Marx found shot through with contradictions that would be resolved by universal communism. In this state (both senses of the word) workers would own the means of production and therefore no longer suffer from alienation from their labor.

Question 26

The Opiate of the People

Answer 26

This explains his oft quoted characterization of religion (specifically the Christianity of Germany) as an “opiate of the people.” Workers were encouraged to accept their lot in life with equanimity because their harsh earthly experience would reap eternal reward. To rail against one’s position was to question the will of God.

Question 27

Internalized Controls

Answer 27

Structures and Superstructures that imposed internalized controls on labor were of enormous benefit to the industrialists because they did not have to impose external controls, which are costly and not as efficient. The bourgeoisie struggle against trade unionists is an example of “mental” conflict erupting into the physical world.

Question 28

Who is Feuerbach?

Answer 28

• One of the major German materialists who proclaimed and defended atheism and influenced the founders of Marxism. Feuerbach, however, remains idealist in his concept of social phenomena. Neglecting the material basis of society, he distinguished the successive stages of human development according to the different forms of religious consciousness
• Marx felt that he did not grasp the importance of practical revolutionary action, or the dialectical interaction between man and nature and the transformation of humanity in the process of production.