Theories of Karl Marx Marx, Karl. WageLabour and Capital and Value,

New York: International Publishers, 1976.

For Karl Marx, the study of philosophy and economics were both inexorably linked. In the study of his works, particularly those of an economic bent, it is necessary to understand a basic outline of the philosophy and ideas which came to be known as Marxism.

Initially, one must remember that Marx was clearly a product of his time, and his economic and philosophical ideas are focused toward the perceived evils of industrialization and capitalism. Marx's philosophy is derived from many sources, most notably the influence of Georg Friedrich Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach.

There are as many definitions of Marxism as there are practicing Marxists, however there are at least four concomitant elements which form the backbone of his philosophy. The first is the manner of approach to history and philosophy, namely dialectics. In a dialectical approach, one is aware of the arguments and contradictions within ideas themselves, and in the tangible form those ideas take within civilization. A second trend running throughout Marxism is a materialist approach to history. To Marx, this meant that the central role of historical development was the productive aspects of civilization. Within this view, the basis for historical change is the conflict between the "haves" and the "have nots"  otherwise known as class struggle. The next common element is a general view of cap

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workers grows [and] the means of employment and subsistence for the working class decrease . . ."(p.48). Value, Price and Profit was written as an address given to sessions at the First International in 1865. The pamphlet was written in response to questions from English workers surrounding the manner in which capitalists were paying better wages, ostensibly in order to improve the lot of the working class. The second part of the essay deals with excerpts from the theories from Marx's monumental Das Kapital, focused and simplified here in deference to his audience. Marx begins his remarks by acknowledging that the worker was becoming more enlightened and more assertive in demanding higher wages. Marx further responds by reminding his audience of his earlier assertion (in WageLabour and Capital) that the amount of capital and the amount of national production is variable over time. He is quite distrustful of the motivations behind the small gains offered by the capitalists and believes that "the amount of wages is a constant quantity, but that, although it cannot and must not rise, it can and must fall, whenever capital pleases to lower it" (p.11). In this sense, Marx's point is that although it may appear that real wages
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Approximate Word count = 2860
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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