Karl Marx: Social Consciousness and Social Structure

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Karl Marx Social Consciousness and Social
Structure
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Karl Marx Social Consciousness and Social
Structure

• Goals
• Short presentation of the life and work of Karl
  Marx and Friedrich Engels
• The intellectual background of Marxs social
  theory
• The concepts of capital, commodity and value
• How the capitalist social order works (according
  to Marx)

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels
Karl Marx 1818-1883
Friedrich Engels 1820-1895
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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Karl Marx
• Born in a converted Jewish family in the town of
  Trier (Rhineland)
• Studies philosophy in Berlin
• Lectures at the University of Bonn
• Emigrates to Paris after criticizing Prussian
  government (1843)
• Meets Engels in 1845

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Karl Marx
• Forced to emigrate again to Brussels (1845), then
  London (1849)
• Joined by Engels in England
• Sets up the Communist League (group of German
  exiles, middle class intellectuals and artisans)
• Sets up the International Working Mens
  Association (1872)

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Karl Marx
• 1847 The Communist Manifesto (with Engels)
• Spells out principles of communism
• Publishes the Capital in 1868 (vol. I)
• Continues work on Vols. II and III (unfinished)
  for the next 20 years
• Vols. II and III published by Engels after his
  death

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Karl Marx
• Other important publications
• The German Ideology (1845)
• The Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Friedrich Engels
• Born into a wealthy textile dynasty in Wuppertal
  (Westfalia)
• Moves to Manchester to oversee family business
• Becomes appalled by working conditions
• Writes The Condition of the Working Class in
  England (1845, in German)

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1. The Life and Work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels

• Friedrich Engels
• Meets Marx in Paris
• Supports Marx financially throughout the rest of
  his life
• Joins Marx in London in 1870
• Continues to manage the family business and to
  contribute to German journals from London
• Edits Marxs works after the latter dies

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2. The Intellectual Background

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels philosophy of
  consciousness
• David Ricardo labour quantity theory of value
• French socialisms (Etienne Cabet, Louis Blanc)
  social critique of capitalism

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Hegels philosophy of consciousness

• Critic of the nascent market economy/ society
  which
• Stresses individualization
• Dissolves traditional social bonds
• Offers a broad choice of courses of action (i.e.,
  uncertainty)
• Opposes collective consciousness (objective
  spirit) to individualization processes
• Coll. consciousness holds individual actors
  together
• Is expressed in state institutions
• State institutions are guided by intellectuals

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770-1831
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David Ricardos labour theory of value

• General economics problem
• Which are the factors that account for a thing
  having exchange value?
• Beginning of the 19th century
• various answers (Adam Smith, Malthus)
• Ricardos answer
• Value can be measured by the quantity of labour
  embedded in a commodity
• This quantity enables us to compare and exchange
  commodities

David Ricardo 1772-1823
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French socialisms critique of capitalism

• Inspired by Robert Owen
• Set up utopian projects/communities in North
  America
• Idea of state-organized labour
• Idea of common property as opposed to private
  property
• Idea of just distribution of goods

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3. Capital, value and commodity
Marx
Hegel
Coll. consciousness
Coll. consciousness
Opposition/ autonomy
Economic life/ market relations
Economic life/ market relations
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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Marx
• Economic relationships determine forms of
  collective consciousness
• Economic relationships determine social order
• Economic relationships include material
  components (technology)
• Economic relationships are social relationships
• Economic relationships can be conceptualized as a
  coherent whole (mode of production)

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Marx
• How can we think of economic relationships?
  Common denominator?
• Answer
• Common denominator is labour.
• Everything can be conceived as human labour.
• Labour is therefore social in character.

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Four aspects of labour
• Live labour
• is deployed now
• Congealed labour
• has been deployed in the past
• is embedded in objects
• Concrete labour
• found in specific skills
• Abstract labour
• measured in time units

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Marx
• Problem labour is attached to human beings and
  objects, but circulates at the same time?
• How is this possible?

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Marxs answer
• Abstract aspect of labour increases
• Labour time becomes universal measure of value
• Labour is separated from the producer/owner of
  the labour force
• Labour is brought into a circuit of exchange
• This circuit of exchange becomes universal

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Universal circuit of exchange
• at the core of capitalism
• everything is a commodity (i.e.,)
• exchangeable and
• abstract
• requires a universal medium of exchange, i.e.,
  money

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Commodities have
• Use value (concrete, tied to concrete labour)
• Exchange value (abstract, tied to abstract
  labour)
• Use value is the bearer of the exchange value

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Universal circuit of exchange
• Social relationships appear only as
• relationships between commodities
• The true nature of labour is
• forgotten and
• masked by (abstract) commodities
• Commodities appear as fetishes and hieroglyphs

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Universal circuit of exchange capitalist
  exchange
• Capital is
• value in process/circuit of exchange
• abstract
• can change concrete shape
• can be money
• can be commodities
• can be bought labour

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Forms of the universal circuit of exchange
• C-M-C (commodity-money-commodity)
• General formula of capital
• M-C-M (money-commodity-more money)
• MM?M
• ?Msurplus value
• M-C-M is
• a purpose in itself
• limitless

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Capitalism continuous expansion of value
• never-ending process
• Aim of the capitalist produce exchange value and
  surplus value
• Q Where does this surplus value (?M) come from?
• A from the dual character of labour

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• Labour as a commodity has
• Use value
• Exchange value
• Labour is
• time
• a vital force of the labourer

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3. Capital, value and commodity

• The capitalist
• Buys the entire time (t), but
• Pays only for the reproduction of the vital force
  (t, tlt t)
• And appropriates the rest
• This rest is surplus value

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4. How the capitalist social order works

• Capitalist (i.e., commodities) exchange is
• a purpose in itself
• at the core of the social order
• expanding endlessly
• Consequences
• Commodification
• Growing significance of consumption
• Globalization

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4. How the capitalist social order works

• Capitalist exchange requires
• continuous technological innovation
• abstraction and standardization
• Consequences
• growing role of science and technology
• growing importance of technology-intensive
  commodities

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Summary

• Marx
• turns Hegels relationship between social
  structure (material life) and social
  consciousness upside down
• makes labour the crucial explanatory factor of
  social life (Ricardos influence)
• defines capitalism as the endless reproduction of
  a self-sufficient circuit of exchange

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Summary

• Marx
• sees social order as determined by this circuit
  of exchange
• conceives capitalist exchange as being plagued by
  internal contradictions, struggles and tensions
  (to be discussed/tutorial)
• capitalism is an inherently unstable system (to
  be discussed/tutorial)
• conceives capitalist exchange as inherently
  unethical (to be discussed/tutorial)