Marx Criticisms

Question 1

Karl Popper

Answer 1

Theory of History pseudoscientific as it is unfalsifiable, ad hoc hypotheses

Question 2

Sartre

Answer 2

Proletariat not homogenous

Question 3

Francis Fukuyama

Answer 3

Empirically flawed, less developed countries tend to be more likely to have communist revolutions

Question 4

Kolakowski

Answer 4

Dialectical materialism more or less a “secular religion” successful only on the basis of its more “fantastical” elements

Question 5

Russell

Answer 5

“Marx professed himself an atheist but retained a cosmic optimism which only theism could justify”

Question 6

Berlin

Answer 6

Marx overly dependent on positive freedom, supposes there is only one right answer to the question “how should men live”, perfectionism leads to authoritarianism (from ‘Democracy, Communism and the Individual’)

Question 7

Bakunin

Answer 7

Dictatorship of Proletariat will lead to “new and not at all numerous aristocracy”, “liberty without socialism is privilege and injustice, socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality”, Marx undervalues freedom and is too authoritarian

Question 8

Marcuse

Answer 8

Criticises class consciousness, says it is too reductive and that “subjectivity of individuals is ignored”

Question 9

Husami, Shandro, Roemer, Cohen

Answer 9

Marx has more to say on justice than is often recognised, labour theory of value gives good measure of injustice as exploitation i.e. extracted surplus value

Question 10

Benjamin

Answer 10

“The puppet called historical materialism is always supposed to win” - mechanistic idea of history misguided

Question 11

Comninel

Answer 11

Marx’s earlier work centred on German idealism and French revolutionary politics, before “ever setting foot in a capitalist society”, only when came to England stuff like ACTTCOPE started becoming the more scientific focus of work

Question 12

Weber

Answer 12

Superstructure holds “the spirit of capitalism” and this can dominate the base

Question 13

Hearn

Answer 13

Marx’s attitude to the family promisingly progressive but too focused on productive not reproductive work

Question 14

Elster

Answer 14

Strips back dialectical materialism, functionalism and determinism, to more fruitful basis of alienation, exploitation and class struggle

Question 15

Althusser

Answer 15

Disavows earlier work and created school of thought dedicated to strongly defending scientific nature of Marxism, TGI an ‘epistemological break’

Question 16

Cohen

Answer 16

In analytical sense, key difference from liberalism is that equalising resources not enough, socialising production is only way to end exploitation