Karl Marx

1818-1883 · German · Critique of Political Economy, Historical Materialism, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of History, Theory of Ideology

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

Expelled from Germany, then Belgium, then France, Karl Marx spent the last thirty-four years of his life in London — much of it in poverty, sustained by Engels's factory income and a manuscript he could not finish. He had come to political economy through Hegel and then set Hegel back on his feet: grounding the movement of history not in spirit but in the material conditions of production.

Topics Karl Marx addresses

historical materialism
base and superstructure
mode of production
relations of production
forces of production
class struggle
the labor theory of value
surplus-value
alienation
commodity fetishism
species-being
the bourgeoisie and proletariat
exploitation
use-value and exchange-value
socially necessary labor-time
absolute and relative surplus-value
primitive accumulation
the falling rate of profit
the organic composition of capital
the reserve army of labor
the contradictions of capitalism
crisis theory
ideology and false consciousness
the dictatorship of the proletariat

Questions to put to Karl Marx

Historical Materialism and the Base-Superstructure Model

What do you mean by the materialist conception of history?
How do the forces of production and relations of production relate to each other?
Does the economic base really determine everything in the superstructure, or is the relationship more complex?
What's the difference between a mode of production and a social formation?
How do you explain periods when ideas seem to drive historical change rather than economic conditions?

The Critique of Political Economy

What's the difference between use-value and exchange-value?
How does the labor theory of value actually work?
What is socially necessary labor-time and why does it matter?
Why do you think labor is the source of value rather than supply and demand?
What do you mean by commodity fetishism?
How is your critique of political economy different from just proposing a better economic theory?

Surplus-Value, Exploitation, and Capital Accumulation

What is surplus-value and how is it produced?
How can paying workers a fair wage still count as exploitation?
What's the difference between absolute and relative surplus-value?
Why does the rate of profit tend to fall over time?
What is the reserve army of labor and what role does it play in capitalism?
How do capitalist crises emerge from the system's own logic?

Alienation and Species-Being

What do you mean by alienation in the 1844 Manuscripts?
What is species-being and why does it matter?
How does alienation under capitalism differ from other forms of unfree labor?
Is there really continuity between your early work on alienation and the later analysis in Capital?
How does commodity fetishism relate to the alienation you described in 1844?

Class Struggle and Revolution

What makes the proletariat the universal class whose emancipation frees everyone?
How do people make their own history if the economic base determines consciousness?
What is the dictatorship of the proletariat and why is it necessary?
How was the Paris Commune the political form for working-class emancipation?
Does the revolution require smashing the existing state or can it be achieved through reform?
What would the transition from capitalism to communism actually look like?

Ideology, Religion, and Consciousness

What do you mean when you call religion the opium of the people?
How does ideology function to maintain class domination?
Can people under capitalism ever see through ideology to understand their real conditions?
What's the relationship between material conditions and the ideas people hold?
Why do you reject appeals to justice and rights as the basis for criticizing capitalism?

Converse with Karl Marx on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Karl Marx's own writing, cited to the page.