Marx's class theory

Marx's class theory is based on the argument that ever since human society emerged from its primitive state it has been divided into classes that clash in the pursuit of their own particular interests. These class interests are determined by each individual's relationship to the means of production. To Marx, the driving force in the history of society is the way men relate to each other as they seek to exact their subsistence from nature.

In their struggle to dominate nature, people have to become organized so that they can, through cooperation, obtain the best results through their joint efforts and also so that they can share the fruits of their labors. Initially, their work is not very productive and provides just enough for the community to subsist. There is a state of equality in poverty, which Marx called "primitive communism".

Marx maintained that the first historical act was the "production of material life itself," meaning that man's attempt to fulfill his needs through the creation of goods and services, i.e., products, was the first significant act in the history of social interaction. He argues that the search for enough on which to subsist was man's primary goal and this goal remains central to modern man's society.

However, Marx further argues that man's struggle against nature does not cease when he gratifies these needs. Rather, the satisfaction of primary needs merely opens the door to secondary needs. In the effort to satisfy

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the community of his fellows. However, Marx also argues that the more the laborer works in a capitalist system, the more powerful becomes the world of objects the laborer creates. Thus, the less powerful the laborer becomes. He is, in fact, expending his labor to diminish his own power. The worker's alienation is not limited to an alienation from his product. The worker also becomes alienated from himself and his inner life as a result of creating a product over which he has no control. As Marx argues, "If the product of labor is alienation, production itself must be active alienation. . . . The alienation of the object of labor merely summarizes the alienation in the work activity itself." Being alienated from the objects of his labor and from the process of production, man is also alienated from himself--he cannot fully develop the many sides of his personality. Work then becomes external to the worker rather than a part of his nature. Consequently, the worker cannot fulfill himself in his work but denies himself. Finally, alienated man is also alienated from the human community because all workers become alienated from each other. Exploitation Marx argues that the initial stage of primitive communism is follow

Category: Philosophy - M