KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS Flashcards
What are Marx and Engels key works?
‘The Communist Manifesto’ (1848) and ‘Das Kapital’ (1867)
What did Marx and Engels say that capitalism contaminated human nature into doing?
Selfishness, ruthlessness and greed
What did Marx and Engels believe capitalism instilled in mankind?
A ‘false consciousness’
What were the two conflicting classes Marx and Engels highlighted in their works?
The Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie
What did Marx and Engels believe were the main differences between these conflicting classes?
Harsh inequalities of wealth and power and the exploration of the proletariat
Why did Marx and Engels believe that other throwing of capitalist societies was ‘historically inevitable’?
Because of the exploitation of the proletariat in capitalist societies
What liberal view about capitalism did Marx and Engels reject?
That capitalism promotes prosperity and individual liberty
What is the idea of ‘Surplus Value’ that Marx and Engels suggested?
The difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to the owner of that product to manufacture
What did Marx and Engels say ‘Surplus Value’ implanted into capitalism?
‘The seeds of its own destruction’ by nurturing resentful class consciousness among workers
What liberal notion about the state did Marx and Engels challenge?
That the state was politically neutral
Which class did Marx and Engels believe the state served and what the liberal state was?
whichever class controlled the economy the state would serve and consequently the liberal state was ‘merely a committee’ for the ruling capitalist class and therefore could never provide an evolutionary road to socialism
What socialist other than Marx and Engels also criticised ‘parliamentary socialism’ championed by organisations like the Labour Party?
Ralph Miliband
What is ‘a dictatorship of proletariat’
The phase after the revolution against capitalism and before communism where socialist ideas can be cemented and people educated against capitalism which had been cemented in culture
What in the view of Marx and Engels is communism?
a stateless comity involving common ownership and the principle of ‘from each according to his ability to each to his needs’
What type of socialists were marx and engels
Marxist socialists - Fundamental socialists
Marx and Engels view of human nature
Human nature originally fraternal and altruistic, has been contaminated by capitalism instilling the “false consciousness” of bourgeois values. Revolutionary socialism will help this
Marx and Engels view of the state
The existing liberal-bourgeois state is a toll of the dominant capitalist class; must be destroyed by revolution and replaced by new socialist state: dictatorship of the proletariat
Marx and Engels view of society
Capitalist society is sickeningly, yet fatally, defined by class interests and class conflict. A communist society will be the perfect “end of history”
Marx and Engels view of the economy
Capitalism is corrupt, inefficient and ultimately self-destructive. It should - and will - be replaced by an economy based on collective ownership
is marx a fag
yes
