Part of a series on Marxism
Theoretical works
The Communist Manifesto Das Kapital Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Image File history File links Karl_Marx. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ...
Sociology and anthropology
Alienation · Bourgeoisie Class consciousness Commodity fetishism Communism Cultural hegemony Exploitation · Human nature Ideology · Proletariat Reification · Socialism Relations of production Marxs theory of alienation (Entfremdung in German), as expressed in the writings of young Karl Marx, refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to antagonism between things that are properly in harmony. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is a state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, in which social relationships center around the values placed on commodities. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... Cultural hegemony is a concept coined by Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci. ... The rate of exploitation is a concept in Marxian political economy. ... Marxs theory of human nature occupies an important place in his critique of capitalism, his conception of communism, and his materialist conception of history. Marx, however, does not refer to human nature as such, but to Gattungswesen, which is generally translated as species-being or species-essence. What Marx... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Reification (German: Verdinglichung, literally: thing-ification) is the consideration of an abstraction or an object as if it had human (pathetic fallacy) or living (reification fallacy) existence and abilities; at the same time it implies the thingification of social relations. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community[1] for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ...
Economics
Marxian economics Labour power · Law of value Means of production Mode of production Productive forces Surplus labour · Surplus value Transformation problem Wage labour Note: Marxian is not restricted to Marxian economics, as it includes those inspired by Marxs works who do not identify with Marxism as a political ideology. ... According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ... The law of value is a concept in Karl Marxs critique of political economy. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... For the specific theoretical justifications behind the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans, see Theory of Productive Forces. ... Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... Surplus value, according to Marxism, is unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker by the capitalist, and serves as the basis for capitalist accumulation. ... In Karl Marxs economics the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule to transform the values of commodities (based on labour according to his labour theory of value) into the competitive prices of the marketplace. ... Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour under a contract (employment), and the employer buys it, often in a labour market. ...
History
Anarchism and Marxism Capitalist mode of production Class struggle Dictatorship of the proletariat Primitive accumulation of capital Proletarian revolution Proletarian internationalism World Revolution While anarchism and Marxism are two different political philosophies, there is some similarity between the methodology and ideology of groups of anarchists and Marxists, and the history of the two have often been intertwined. ... The capitalist mode of production is a concept in Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. ... The South African Police Crush Another Demonstration by the Shack dwellers Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, 28 September, 2007 Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Primitive accumulation of capital is a concept introduced by Karl Marx in part 8 of the first volume of Das Kapital (in German: ursprüngliche Akkumulation, literally original accumulation or primeval accumulation). Its purpose is to help explain how the capitalist mode of production can come into being. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... International Socialism redirects here. ... World revolution is a Marxist concept of a violent overthrow of capitalism that would take place in all countries, although not necessarily simultaneously. ...
Philosophy
Marxist philosophy Historical materialism Dialectical materialism Analytical Marxism Marxist autonomism Marxist feminism Marxist humanism Structural Marxism Western Marxism Libertarian Marxism Young Marx Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are terms which cover work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical... According to many followers of the theories of Karl Marx (or Marxists), dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism. ... Analytical Marxism refers to a style of thinking about Marxism that was prominent amongst English-speaking philosophers and social scientists during the 1980s. ... For other meanings of autonomism, see autonomism (disambiguation) page Raised fist, stenciled protest symbol of Autonome at the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Vienna, Austria Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. ... Marxist feminism is a sub-type of feminist theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism as a way to liberate women. ... The term Marxist humanism has as its foundation Marxs conception of the alienation of the labourer as he advances it in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844--an alienation that is born of a capitalist system in which the worker no longer functions as (what Marx terms) a... Structural Marxism was an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. ... Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North America), in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union. ... Libertarian Marxism is a school of Marxism that takes a less authoritarian view of Marxist theory than conventional currents such as Stalinism, Trotskyism, and other forms of Marxism-Leninism, as well as a generally less reformist view than do Social Democrats. ... ‘Young Marx’ is one half of the concept in Marxology that Karl Marx’s intellectual development can be broken into two board categories, the other being ‘Mature Marx’. There is disagreement though as to when Marx thought began to mature, Lenin claimed Marxs first mature work as “The Poverty...
Prominent figures
Karl Marx · Friedrich Engels Karl Kautsky · Georgi Plekhanov Rosa Luxemburg · A. Pannekoek Vladimir Lenin · Leon Trotsky Georg Lukács · Guy Debord Antonio Gramsci · Karl Korsch Che Guevara · Frankfurt School J-P Sartre · Louis Althusser Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a German social scientist and philosopher, who developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Karl Kautsky (October 18, 1854 - October 17, 1938) was a leading theoretician of social democracy. ... G. V. Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Георгий Валентинович Плеханов) (December 11, 1856 – May 30, 1918; Old Style: November 29, 1856 – May 17, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 – January 15, 1919, in Polish Róża Luksemburg) was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Anton Pannekoek Antonie (Anton) Pannekoek (January 2, 1873, Vaassen – April 28, 1960, Wageningen) was a Dutch astronomer and Marxist theorist. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Leon Trotsky (Russian:  , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Georg Lukács (April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic in the tradition of Western Marxism. ... Guy Ernest Debord (December 28, 1931, in Paris – November 30, 1994, in Champot) was a writer, film maker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). ... Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ) (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. ... Karl Korsch (August 15, 1886 - October 21, 1961) was a German Marxist theorist. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medical doctor , political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seʁ) (October 16, 1918 – October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ...
Criticisms
Criticisms of Marxism
All categorised articles
Communism Portal
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Various aspects of Marxist theory have been criticized. These criticisms concern both the theory itself, and its later interpretations and implementations. Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community[1] for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Criticisms of socialism range from disagreements over the efficiency of socialist economic and political models, to condemnation of states described by themselves or others as socialist. ... ... This article is about one-party states ruled by Communist Parties. ...

Criticisms of Marxism have come from the political left as well as the political right. Democratic socialists and social democrats reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through class conflict and a violent proletarian revolution. Many Anarchists reject the need for a transitory state phase. Some thinkers have rejected the fundamentals of Marxist theory, such as historical materialism and the labor theory of value, and gone on to criticize capitalism - and advocate socialism - using other arguments. Democratic socialism advocates socialism as a basis for the economy and democracy as a governing principle. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Class conflict is both the friction that accompanies social relationships between members or groups of different social classes and the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Anarchists can refer to several things, among which: The movie Anarchists Supporters of the principles of anarchism The Anarchists (Les Anarchistes), a famous song from Léo Ferré A List of anarchists This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical... The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory in classical economics concerning the value of an exchangeable good or service. ...

Some contemporary supporters of Marxism argue that many aspects of Marxist thought are viable, but that the corpus also fails to deal effectively with certain aspects of economic, political or social theory. They may therefore combine some Marxist concepts with the ideas of other theorists such as Max Weber: the Frankfurt school is one example. For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ...

General criticisms

Eric Hoffer in his book The True Believer sees Marxism^[1] as one of the chief examples of a mass movement which offers The True Believer a glorious, yet imaginary, future to compensate for the frustrations of his present. Such movements need people to be willing to sacrifice all for that future, including themselves and others. To achieve this aim such movements need to devalue the past and present. This is not only a criticism of communist tenets specifically; Hoffer's other chief examples are Fascists, Nationalists, and the founding stages of religions. Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1898 – May 21, 1983) Eric Hoffer was a social and political philosopher who is best known for his book The True Believer (1951). ... The True Believer covers The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements ISBN 0060505915 was Eric Hoffers first and most successful book, published in 1951. ... The True Believer covers The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements ISBN 0060505915 was Eric Hoffers first and most successful book, published in 1951. ... Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ...

Arthur Koestler describes Marxism as a closed system, like Catholicism or orthodox Freudianism. Such systems have three peculiarities: they claim to represent a universal truth which explains everything and can cure every ill; they can automatically process and reinterpret all potentially damaging data by methods of casuistry which are emotionally appealing and beyond common logic; and they can invalidate criticisms by deducing what the subjective motivation of the critic must be, and by presenting this motivation as a counterargument. An example of the third feature might be the disregarding of such concepts as the free market or self determination as instances of false consciousness engendered by bourgeois ideology. Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905, Budapest – March 3, 1983, London) was a Hungarian polymath who became a naturalized British subject. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      As a... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Casuistry is a broad term that refers to a variety of forms of case-based reasoning. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... For the existentialist treatment of the same concept, see bad faith False consciousness is the Marxist thesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society mislead the proletariat — and other classes — about the real relations of forces between those classes and of the actual states of affairs with respect to...

Human nature completely determined by the environment

Certain, pre-Althusserian interpretations of Marxism have held that human nature is completely determined by the socio-economic base. Historian Richard Pipes describes how this interpretation led to a belief in a coming new man without vices, in essence a new superior species: albeit one caused by socio-economic changes, not genetics. Trotsky thought that this new man would be able to control all unconscious processes, including those controlling bodily functions like digestion, and have the intellect of Aristotle^{[citation needed]}. In order to reach this stage, Pipes argues, it was seen as necessary and right to completely destroy the existing institutions that had formed the current wretched humans; this would in turn make it possible to dispense with the state. Pipes argues that such thinking inevitably leads to a devaluation of the importance placed on the lives and rights of current human beings.^[2] For Pipes, self-interest could not be destroyed by communism and the new ruling caste, the nomenklatura, quickly replaced the old aristocracy; periodic attempts to destroy it, such as the Cultural Revolution during Mao's regime, failed.^[3] Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seʁ) (October 16, 1918 – October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Richard Pipes, Warsaw (Poland), October 20, 2004 Richard Edgar Pipes (b. ... 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (&#1051... For the industrial process, see anaerobic digestion. ... This article is about the philosopher. ... Self-interest can refer to any of the following concepts: Egoism Selfishness Ethical egoism Psychological egoism Individualism Objectivist ethics Hedonism Epicureanism Enlightened self-interest This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... The nomenklatura were a small, élite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of the Soviet Union: in government, industry, agriculture, education, etc. ... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution [1] in the Peoples Republic of China was a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China that manifested into wide-scale social, political, and economic chaos, which grew to include large sections of Chinese society and eventually brought the entire country to...

Althusserian Marxism asserts, however, that reductive interpretations of the Marxist thesis that "the mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life processes in general"^[4], such as that held by Trotsky and criticised by Pipes, are misreadings. Engels seems to say as much himself: Louis Althusser (October 19, 1918 _ October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ...

According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. More than this neither Marx nor I ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase^[5]

Althusserian Marxism has in turn been subjected to an epistemological critique by the British sociologists Barry Hindess and Paul Q. Hirst, who view it as privileged discourse over others and using these "privileged discourses" as a base on which to build further arguments. For Hindess and Hirst, such privileging is unjustified.^[6] This article or section should include material from Episteme Epistemology (from the Greek words episteme=science and logos=word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ... Paul Hirst (1947-2003) was a British sociologist. ...

Human rights

Bryan Caplan has criticized what he sees as Marx's attack on human rights and liberty "under the guise of expanding it", quoting statements by Marx such as the following: Bryan Caplan (b. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... For other uses, see Liberty (disambiguation). ...

"None of the supposed rights of man, therefore, go beyond the egoistic man, man as he is, as a member of civil society; that is, an individual separated from the community, withdrawn into himself, wholly preoccupied with his private interest and acting in accordance with his private caprice" (On the Jewish Question)

"Liberty is, therefore, the right to do everything which does not harm others... It is a question of the liberty of man regarded as an isolated monad, withdrawn into himself." (On the Jewish Question)

"The right of property, is, therefore, the right to enjoy one's fortunes and dispose of it as he will; without regard for other men and independently of society... It leads every man to see in other men, not the realization, but rather the limitation of his own liberty." (On the Jewish Question)

"[B]ourgeois 'freedom of conscience' is nothing but the toleration of all possible kinds of religious freedom of conscience, and that for its part [socialism] endeavors rather to liberate the conscience from the witchery of religion." (Critique of the Gotha Program)

"political emancipation itself is not human emancipation." (On the Jewish Question)

"This talk about free selling and buying, and all the other "brave words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted selling and buying, with the fettered traders of the Middle Ages, but have no meaning when opposed to the Communistic abolition of buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, and of the bourgeoisie itself." (Manifesto of the Communist Party)

Instead, communism will be "the positive transcendence of private property, or human self-estrangement, and therefore the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man... the complete return of man to himself as a social being..." (Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844). Caplan argues that Marx's concept of freedom is just a defense of tyranny and oppression. ^[7]

The dictatorship of the proletariat

Marxist theory includes a transitory state phase known as the dictatorship of the proletariat. Later, the state will "wither away" and the dictatorship of the proletariat will be replaced by the communist society. Marx and Engels gave only a few hints regarding how these societies should be organized. Different schools of Marxism have quoted different statements as support for their vision. Many current Marxists^{[attribution needed]} state that Marx and Engels supported a form of direct democracy. The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy,[1] comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. ...

Engels: Well and good, gentlemen, do you want to know what this dictatorship looks like? Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Marx: The Commune was formed of the municipal councillors, chosen by universal suffrage in the various wards of the town, responsible and revocable at short terms. The majority of its members were naturally workers, or acknowledged representatives of the working class. The Commune was to be a working, not a parliamentary body, executive and legislative at the same time.^[8]

Vladimir Lenin, however, insisted that Marx and Engels would have supported the authoritarian state he created in order to break down the resistance of those considered "bourgeoisie". All of the often criticized Communist states (see Criticisms of communist regimes) followed Lenin's interpretation and claimed to be Marxist. Le Père Duchesne looking at the statue of Napoleon I on top of the Vendome column: Eh ben ! bougre de canaille, on va donc te foutre en bas comme ta crapule de neveu !… (Well now! buggering rascal, we will knock you the fuck off just like your crook of... Lenin redirects here. ... The term authoritarian is used to describe an organization or a state which enforces strong and sometimes oppressive measures against the population, generally without attempts at gaining the consent of the population. ... This article is about one-party states ruled by Communist Parties. ... Criticisms of communist regimes have often centered around accusations of human rights violations that occurred in under Communist rule, particularly under the regimes of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in the Peoples Republic of China. ...

Marx: ...When the workers replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by their revolutionary dictatorship ... to break down the resistance of the bourgeoisie ... the workers invest the state with a revolutionary and transitional form ...

Engels: ...And the victorious party” (in a revolution) “must maintain its rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries. Would the Paris Commune have lasted more than a day if it had not used the authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie? Cannot we, on the contrary, blame it for having made too little use of that authority?...

Engels: As, therefore, the state is only a transitional institution which is used in the struggle, in the revolution, to hold down one’s adversaries by force, it is sheer nonsense to talk of a ‘free people’s state’; so long as the proletariat still needs the state, it does not need it in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state as such ceases to exist .... ^[9]

Historical materialism

Historical materialism is normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism. It looks for the causes of developments and changes in human history in economic, technological, and more broadly, material factors, as well as the clashes of material interests among tribes, social classes and nations. However, ideas play a secondary role. Law, politics, the arts, literature, morality, religion – are understood by Marx to make up a superstructure, which essentially rests on the economic base of the society. Max Weber criticized this in his work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, arguing that the Protestant work ethic contributed to the development of Capitalism.[2] Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical... // Sociological concept In social sciences, superstructure is the set of socio-psychological feedback loops that maintain a coherent and meaningful structure in a given society, or part thereof. ... For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a book written by Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist in 1904 and 1905 that began as a series of essays. ...

Another criticism of historical materialism is due to Max Stirner, who argued that the philosophy of Hegel (one of the most significant influences on historical materialism) leads to nihilism. Marx himself wrote a lengthy, heated response to Stirner in The German Ideology, although it was not published until well after Marx's death. Johann Kaspar Schmidt (October 25, 1806 – June 26, 1856), better known as Max Stirner (the nom de plume he adopted from a schoolyard nickname he had acquired as a child because of his high brow Stirn), was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary grandfathers of nihilism... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: ) (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher and, with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the representatives of German idealism. ... This article is about the philosophical position. ... The German Ideology (1845) was a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1845. ...

Marxian labor theory of value

Fundamental to Marxist theory is Marx's version of the labor theory of value. The theory, including Marx's version, is rejected for various reasons by the vast majority of economists today in favor of marginalism.^[10] The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory in classical economics concerning the value of an exchangeable good or service. ... Marginalism is the use of marginal concepts within economics. ...

The concept of class and historical analysis

Some argue that class is not the most fundamental inequality in history and call attention to patriarchy or race. However, Marxists argue that these inequalities are linked to class and therefore will largely cease to exist after the formation of a classless society. Look up patriarchy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ...

The Marxist stages of history, class analysis, and theory of social evolution have been criticized. The historian Robert Conquest argues that detailed analyses of many historical periods fails to find support for "class" or social evolution as used by Marxists. Marx himself admitted that his theory could not explain the internal development of the "Asiatic" social system, where most of the world's population lived for thousands of years.^[11] Many observe that capitalism has changed much since Marx's time, and that class differences and relationships are much more complex — citing as one example the fact that much corporate stock in the United States is owned by workers through pension funds. However, income and especially accumulated wealth still remain concentrated in a small fraction of the population. Social evolution is a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that is concerned with social behaviours, i. ... Dr. George Robert Ackworth Conquest (born July 15, 1917), British historian, became one of the best-known writers on the Soviet Union with the publication, in 1968, of his account of Stalins purges of the 1930s, The Great Terror. ...

Marx's predictions

Marx made numerous predictions. He thought that the workers would become poorer and poorer as the capitalists exploited them more and more; that differences between the members within each class would become smaller and smaller and the classes would thus become more homogeneous; that the skilled workers would be replaced by unskilled workers doing assembly line work; that relations between the working class and the capitalists would get worse and worse; that the capitalists would become fewer and fewer due to an increasing number of monopolies; and that the proletarian revolution would occur first in the most industrialized nations. From The Communist Manifesto (1848): "The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because that country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution... ...the bourgeois revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately following proletarian revolution.^[12] This article is about economic monopoly. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Some of these are debatable, while others have been clearly proven wrong. This has been cited by critics as evidence that historical materialism is a flawed theory.^[13] Communists reply with several arguments: One is that the predicted events will happen in the future. Another is that there were a number of major events and trends over the past century and a half which Marx could not have predicted: imperialism, World War I, the rise of social democracy and Keynesian economics in the West (that introduced the concept of redistribution of wealth, thereby narrowing the gap between rich and poor), World War II and finally the Cold War. In response, critics maintain that if so many unpredictable events have happened in the past, then an equal number could happen in the future, and therefore Marxist theory is not a reliable method of making predictions. Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Keynesian economics, or Keynesianism, is an economic theory based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, as put forward in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. ... Income redistribution or redistribution of wealth is a political policy promoted by members of the political left, especially socialists, and opposed by members of the political right. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Ernest Mandel, in his introduction to Capital vol.1 for Penguin, claims that many of Marx's predictions have come true; the gap between rich and poor has grown, class conflict has not ceased, and trade unions have not vanished though typically they are diminished. Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter etc. ...

Lenin noted that the predicted increasing class polarization and communist revolution had failed to occur in the developed world. He then attempted to explain this by stating that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, and that developed countries had created a labor aristocracy content with capitalism by exploiting the developing world. Theodor Adorno gives another explanation, arguing that pop culture is able to pacify and manipulate the population, thereby preventing revolution no matter how bad economic conditions become. Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... Labor aristocracy (or aristocracy of labor) has two meanings: as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings, and as a specific type of trade unionism. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ...

After the Western nations voluntarily gave up their colonies, supporters of communism have attempted to explain this with still another stage, sometimes called Neocolonialism, arguing that the Third World is exploited also without formal empires. ^[14] Critics of this point out that living standards are rapidly increasing in many parts of the third world. Neocolonialism is the term describing international economic arrangements wherein former colonial powers maintained control of colonies and dependencies after World War II. Neocolonialism can obfuscate the understanding of current colonialism, given that some colonial governments continue administrating foreign territories and their populations in violation of United Nations resolutions[1] and... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ...

Pseudoscience

Karl Popper, a former Marxist, has argued that historical materialism is a pseudoscience because it is not falsifiable. Popper believed that Marxism had been initially scientific, in that Marx had postulated a theory which was genuinely predictive. However, when these predictions were not in fact borne out, the theory was saved from falsification by the addition of ad hoc hypotheses which made it compatible with the facts. By this means a theory which was initially genuinely scientific degenerated into pseudo-scientific dogma. ^[15] Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS, FBA, (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian and British[1] philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. ... A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ... This page discusses how a theory or assertion is falsifiable (disprovable opp: verifiable), rather than the non-philosophical use of falsification, meaning counterfeiting. ... Ad hoc is a Latin phrase which means for this [purpose]. It generally signifies a solution that has been tailored to a specific purpose, such as a tailor-made suit, a handcrafted network protocol, and specific-purpose equation and things like that. ... For other senses of this word, see dogma (disambiguation). ...

Marxists respond that some social sciences are not falsifiable, since it is often difficult or outright impossible to test them via experiments (in the way hard science can be tested).^{[citation needed]} This is especially true when many people and a long time are involved. Popper agreed on this, but instead used it as an argument against central planning and all ideologies that claim to know the future.^[16] Some Marxists argue that not even all theories of hard science are falsifiable, at least at any given moment, citing philosophers of science such as Lakatos and Feyerabend. Others have attempted to find ways in which historical materialism might hypothetically be falsified.^{[citation needed]} The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex- periri, of (or from) trying) is a set of observations performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Pure science. ... For planning in AI, see automated planning and scheduling. ... Imre Lakatos (November 9, 1922 – February 2, 1974) was a philosopher of mathematics and science. ... Paul Karl Feyerabend (January 13, 1924 - February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, who later lived in England, the United States, New Zealand, Switzerland and Italy. ...

Utopian socialism

Marx and Engels were well aware of the failures of the early communities of what they called "utopian socialism", such as Robert Owen's New Harmony, Indiana, Charles Fourier's North American Phalanx, and many other similar attempts. Instead, socialism would be created by the inevitable historical forces described by "scientific socialism" (Marxist theory). Critics^{[attribution needed]} have argued that the creators of these societies were the real scientists. For instance, Joshua Muravchik stated: "What is science but the practice of experimentation, of hypothesis and test? Owen and Fourier and their followers were the real ‘scientific socialists.’ They hit upon the idea of socialism, and they tested it by attempting to form socialist communities. In all, there were scores of these tests in America and England—and all of them failed, utterly and disastrously." Muravchik further argues that, in contrast, Marx made an untestable prophecy, and that Marx's view that socialism would be created by impersonal historical forces may lead one to conclude that it is unnecessary to strive for socialism, because it will happen anyway.^[17] Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern Socialist thought. ... For other uses, see Robert Owen (disambiguation). ... New Harmony is a town located in Posey County, Indiana, 15 miles (24 km) north of Mount Vernon, Indiana, the county seat, on the Wabash River. ... This article is about the French utopian socialist philosopher. ... The North American Phalanx building in August, 1972 The North American Phalanx (NAP) was a secular Utopian community located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. ... Scientific Socialism is the term used by Friedrich Engels to describe the socio-political-economic theory pioneered by Karl Marx. ...

The End of History

Francis Fukuyama argues in his book The End of History and the Last Man that liberal democracy has repeatedly proven to be a fundamentally better system (ethically, politically, economically) than any of the alternatives. The growing spread of liberal democracy around the world will lead to it becoming the final form of human government. He also argues that for a variety of reasons Marxism, another End of History philosophy, is likely to be incompatible with modern liberal democracy. He sees no sign of a major revolutionary movement developing in liberal democracies, only in other societies. Therefore, in the future, democracies are overwhelmingly likely to contain markets of some sort, and most are likely to be capitalist or social democratic. Francis Fukuyama Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (born October 27, 1952, Chicago, Illinois) is an American philosopher, political economist and author. ... The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay The End of History?, published in the international affairs journal The National Interest. ... Liberal democracy is a form of government. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

See also

• Anarchism and Marxism
• Criticisms of communism

While anarchism and Marxism are two different political philosophies, there is some similarity between the methodology and ideology of groups of anarchists and Marxists, and the history of the two have often been intertwined. ... This article is on criticisms of communism, a branch of socialism. ...

Notes

is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Marx and totalitarianism
• The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Marxism
• Main Currents of Marxism. Volume I: The Founders, Volume II: The Golden Age, Volume III: The Breakdown critique by Leszek Kołakowski
• The Open Society and Its Enemies. Volume II: The High Tide of Prophecy (Hegel, Marx and the Aftermath) critique by Karl Popper
• Science and Pseudoscience (transcript) critique by Imre Lakatos
• Lecture XXXV "A Philosophy of Life" includes a critique by Sigmund Freud
• Exporting Marx Instead of Smith to Africa, by Christian Sandström
• Liberalism, Marxism and The State, by Ralph Raico
• A Farewell to Marx: An Outline and Appraisal of His Theories, by David Conway
• Marx Lite, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
• Marxist Dreams and Soviet Realities, by Ralph Raico
• Marxism, by David L. Prychitko
• Museum of Communism
• Marxism As Pseudo-science, by Ernest Van Den Haag
• History of Economic Thought - Volume II: Classical Economics, by Murray Rothbard
• Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Freedom, Exploitation and Justice, by David Gordon
• Economic critique to Marx in Ludwig von Mises' Human Action
• Philosophical critique to Marx in Ludwig von Mises' Theory and History