Page 219 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Sukanya Das, Lovely Professional University
Kirandeep Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 12: Karl Marx: Class Struggle and Social Change and Theory of Surplus Value

Unit 12: Karl Marx: Class Struggle and Notes
Social Change and Theory of Surplus Value

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
12.1 Class Struggle and Social Change
12.2 Analysis of Capitalism
12.3 Assessment of Marx’s Predictions
12.4 Analysis of the State
12.5 Dictatorship of the Proletariat
12.6 Revisionism, Russian Revolution and Dictatorship of the Proletariat
12.7 Inadequacies in the Marxist Theory of the State
12.8 Women and the Gender Question
12.9 The Asiatic Mode of Production
12.10 Views on India
12.11 Theory of Surplus Value
12.12 Summary
12.13 Key-Words
12.14 Review Questions
12.15 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit Students will be able to
• Discuss Marx’s class struggle ans social.
• Understand Assessment of Marx predictions.
• Explain theory of surplus value.
Introduction

Which remained unpublished until the 1930s. In the Manuscripts, Marx outlined a humanist
conception of communism, influenced by the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach and based on a
contrast between the alienated nature of labour under capitalism and a communist society in
which human beings freely developed their nature in cooperative production. It was also in Paris
that Marx developed his lifelong partnership with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895).
Karl Marx was born and educated in Prussia, where he fell under the influence of Ludwig Feuerbach
and other radical Hegelians. Although he shared Hegel’s belief in dialectical structure and historical
inevitability. Marx held that the foundations of reality lay in the material base of economics rather
than in the abstract thought of idealistic philosophy. He earned a doctorate at Jena in 1841 writing
on the materialism and atheism of Greek atomists, then moved to Koln, where he founded and
edited a radical newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung. Although he also attempted to earn a living as a
journalist in Paris Brussels, Marx’s participation in unpopular political movements made it difficult
to support his growing family. He finally settled in London in 1849, where he lived in poverty

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