| 5300 | Philosophers have interpreted the world, but the point is to change it |
| Full Idea: The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach [1846], §XI) | |
| A reaction: The 'point' of what? Personally I am more with Aristotle - that the aim is to create a society in which we can all aspire to contemplate like gods. As an interim statement of aim, though, one must respect Marx. But was he a philosopher? |
| 24314 | Once religion is unmasked, the task of philosophy is to unmask other types of self-estrangement |
| Full Idea: The immediate task of philosophy, which is at the service of history, once the holy form of self-estrangement has been unmasked, is to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy form. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 3: 176), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx | |
| A reaction: I take it that this means that the first task is to deconstruct religious beliefs, and the second is to deconstruct cognitive bias. I find the image of unbiased philosophers smugly unmasking all the pathetic masked people very unattractive. |
| 5297 | Whether human thinking can be 'true' must be decided in practice, not theory |
| Full Idea: The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question; man must prove the truth of his thinking in practice. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach [1846], §II) | |
| A reaction: This would appear to be an assertion of the pragmatic view of truth well before Peirce. The obvious objections arise, such as whether falsehood (Plato's 'noble lie') might not have equal practical success, and whether truth might be disastrous. |
| 22598 | The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual |
| Full Idea: Instead of focusing on the individual, Marxism suggested that the authentic self was at the social level in the form of class. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach [1846]) by Ian Dunt - How to be a Liberal 6 | |
| A reaction: [not sure of the best source in Marx] This idea is expressed here by a defender of liberal individualism. Dunt persuasively attacks any concept of the self as part of some group, rather than as being an individual. |
| 5298 | The human essence is not found in individuals but in social relations |
| Full Idea: The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual; in its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach [1846], §VI) | |
| A reaction: This is a key Marxist doctrine, and the central difference from Aristotle. Personally I am more with Aristotle, but the truth obviously lies somewhere in between. Man must be a 'social being', or there wouldn't be any social relations. |
| 23874 | Armies and businesses create moralities in which their activity can do no wrong |
| Full Idea: Marx saw that social groups manufacture moralities for their own use, so their activity is placed outside the reach of evil. Thus the first articles of soldiers and businessmen is to deny that it is possible to do evil while waging war or doing business. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Simone Weil - Fragments: London 1943 p.146 | |
| A reaction: This is especially true of the modern reverence for 'market forces'. It is a key debate in the ethics of warfare - compare Walzer and McMahon. A striking thought, obviously containing a lot of truth. |
| 22001 | The real will of the cooperative will replace the 'will of the people' |
| Full Idea: Under collective property, the so called will of the people disappears in order to make way for the real will of the cooperative. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Grundrisse [1876], p.563), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 10 | |
| A reaction: [from an 1874 note on Bakunin's 'Statism and Anarchy'] So how do you settle on the 'real' will of a cooperative? The travesty is when a ruling elite decide that, without consultation. An institution is needed. This is still a social contract. |
| 21991 | The middle class gain freedom through property, but workers can only free all of humanity |
| Full Idea: Where the middle class can win freedom for themselves on the basis of rights to property - thus excluding others from their freedom - the working class have nothing but their title as human beings. They only liberate themselves by liberating humanity. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Contrib to Critique of Hegel's Phil of Right [1844]) by Peter Singer - Marx 4 | |
| A reaction: Individual workers might gain freedom via education, marriage, or entrepreneurship, or by opting for total simplicity of life, but in general Marx seems to be right about this. But we must ask what sort of 'freedom' is needed. |
| 21990 | Theory is as much a part of a revolution as material force is |
| Full Idea: Material force must be overthrown by material force. But theory also becomes a material force once it has gripped the masses. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Contrib to Critique of Hegel's Phil of Right [1844], Intro p.69), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 4 | |
| A reaction: A huge problem, I think, is that every theory (even conservatism) has to be simplified in a democracy if it is to grip the imagination of the majority. My current hatred is labels in political philosophy. They give us a cartoon view of the world. |
| 22971 | In moving from capitalism to communism a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is needed |
| Full Idea: Between the capitalist and communist society lies the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Critique of the Gotha Program [1875], IV) | |
| A reaction: This hugely influential idea was catastrophic for the twentieth century, because the leaders of the proletarian dictatorship adored and abused the power, and wouldn't give it up for some feeble next stage. |
| 24309 | An ideology is largely false, is biased and unevidenced, and supports the ruling class |
| Full Idea: Marx assumes, in general, that at least some of an ideology is false, that an ideology is the product of theorists who make biased claims undetermined by evidence, and that an ideology only supports the interests of the ruling class. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 5.0 | |
| A reaction: [summarised] I tend to understand an ideology as simply the theory which guides any social movement, and that it is possible for an ideology to be very good. If a Marxist ideology is gradually improved, when does it stop being an ideology? |
| 24311 | Ideologists think their theories drive social forces, when they are actually mere symptoms |
| Full Idea: In general ideologists inevitably put the thing upside-down, and regard their ideology both as the creative force and as the aim of all social relations, whereas it is only an expression and symptom of these relations.154 | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 5: 419-20), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 5.1 | |
| A reaction: Marx can't seem to decide whether ideologists are actively duplicitous, or merely misguided. I presume the latter, since Marxists tend to assume that no one (apart from Marxists?) is aware of their own biases. |
| 24310 | Young Hegelians think the conflict only concerns concepts and ideas |
| Full Idea: [The Young Hegelians] consider conceptions, thoughts, ideas as the real chains of men, and take it as evident that they have to fight only against these illusions of consciousness. …They are opposing nothing but phrases to these phrases. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 5: 30), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 5.1 | |
| A reaction: [compressed] This leads Marx to dialectical materialism, and to revolutionary thinking. |
| 18662 | Liberal freedom is the right to be separate, and ignores the union of man with man |
| Full Idea: The liberal right of man to freedom is not based on the union of man with man, but on the separation of man from man; it is the right to this separation. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]), quoted by Will Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) 7.2.a | |
| A reaction: [quoted from an anthology] It is interesting that liberal freedom is the right NOT to be involved in politics, and even not to vote in elections. Home counties England (high hedges etc) is the embodiment of the freedom not to be involved in society. |
| 23372 | Liberals want the right to be separate, rather than for people to be united |
| Full Idea: The [liberal] right of man to freedom is not based on the union of man with man, but on the separation of man from man. It is the right to this separation. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], p.53), quoted by Will Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy (2nd edn) 7 | |
| A reaction: [in collection ed.McLelland p.53] That nicely encapsulates the debate. Modern liberal thinkers regret the loss of community, but people in authoritarian communities yearn for separation. You can have too much 'union'! |
| 20576 | Early Marx anticipates communitarian objections to liberalism |
| Full Idea: The early writings of Marx anticipate the communitarian critique of liberalism. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Johanna Oksala - Political Philosophy: all that matters Ch.8 | |
| A reaction: [Oksala says modern writers seem to prefer this to the hardcore later Marx, which is presumably too 'scientific'. He says 'Capital Vol 1' is Marx's most important work] |
| 21989 | Man is dominated by money, which is the essence of his alienation |
| Full Idea: Money is the alienated essence of man's labour and life, and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it. | |
| From: Karl Marx (On the Jewish Question [1844], p.60), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 3 | |
| A reaction: Presumably this is inherit in the very nature of money, rather than in the wickedness of capitalists who control it. But money is not inherently alienting for the rich, or for the comfortable bourgeoisie (is it?). |
| 24303 | Alienation is from the product, the work, the human achievement, and from fellow humans |
| Full Idea: Marx sees four types of alienation: from the product of labour, from the activity of work itself, from a worker's species-being [Gattungswesen, the distinctive human power], and from other humans. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Paris Manuscripts [1844]) by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 1.4 | |
| A reaction: [summary by PG] A helpful breakdown of the concept. It invites the question of whether the four are united, or whether some could occur without others. A happy team doing alienated labour; a dreary life doing something worthwhile. |
| 23862 | By saying the material dialectic of history aspires to the best, Marx agreed with capitalism |
| Full Idea: When Marx inverted Hegel's dialectic of history, by substituting matter for mind as the motive, he attributed to matter the essence of mind, an unceasing aspiration towards the best - which was in keeping with the general current of capitalist thought. | |
| From: comment on Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Simone Weil - Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression p.43 | |
| A reaction: [compressed] A rather nice debating point! Marx seems to share the universal nineteenth century belief in unremitting progress. Without that, it is impossible to believe that a revolution will necessarily improve anything. |
| 23875 | Marx says force is everything, and that the weak will become strong, while remaining the weak |
| Full Idea: Marx posits on the one hand that force alone governs social relations to the exclusion of anything else, and on the other hand that one day the weak, while remaining weak, will nevertheless be stronger. He believed in miracles. | |
| From: comment on Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Simone Weil - Fragments: London 1943 p.149 | |
| A reaction: This is close to the obvious contradiction if the working classes despise the middle classes (the dreaded 'bourgeoisie') while their only aspiration is to be like them. It is hard to custom design a new class to which they could both aspire. |
| 18653 | Marx rejected equal rights because they never actually treat people as equals |
| Full Idea: Marx rejected the idea of equal rights, not because he was not a friend to the idea of treating people as equals, but precisely because he thought rights failed to live up to that ideal. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Will Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) 5.1 | |
| A reaction: Presumably because the power to award 'rights' goes to the highest bidder. If equality is to be enshrined in law, it is a bit difficult to see how else to manage it. |
| 24305 | The dictatorship of the proletariat is just a transition stage to a classless society |
| Full Idea: The dictatorship of the proletariat only constitutes no more than a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 39:62-5 letter), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 3.0 | |
| A reaction: The authors note that the Roman 'dictatura' was an office granted powers for up to six months. The concept seems to have been abused in the Soviet Union, where the power was both sustained and ruthless. |
| 24308 | The working class will gradual exclude social classes and their antagonisms |
| Full Idea: The working class, in the course of its development, will substitute for the old civil society, an association which will exclude classes and their antagonism. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 6:212), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 3.4A | |
| A reaction: A hopeless dream. The exclusion of the formation of classes will need to be enforced, which will necessitate a group with superior power (the Communist Party, for example). A group with superior power was precisely what Marx hoped to avoid. |
| 24307 | The proletariat will become the ruling class, wresting all capital, and centralising production |
| Full Idea: The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e. of the proletariat organised as the ruling class. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 6:504), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 3.4A | |
| A reaction: It strikes me that Marx failed to grasp the importance of education in the modern world. To run the modern world the proletariat need education, but it is obvious that highly educated people tend to become bourgeois. |
| 21999 | False consciousness results from concealment by the superstructure |
| Full Idea: False consciousness involves failing to see things as they really are. It comes about because a society's superstructure can conceal the real basis of the society. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Peter Singer - Marx 9 | |
| A reaction: That seems a poor label, probably revealing a Hegelian background. It seems a matter of knowledge rather than consciousness. Can a whole mind be in a state of error? |
| 20577 | Even decently paid workers still have their produce bought with money stolen from them |
| Full Idea: Even if the workers are paid a fair wage, the whole thing still remains the age-old activity of the conqueror, who buys commodities from the conquered with the money has has stolen from them, | |
| From: Karl Marx (Capital Vol. 1 [1867], p.728), quoted by Johanna Oksala - Political Philosophy: all that matters Ch.8 | |
| A reaction: [Penguin edition cited] The word 'stolen' is obviously dubious here. 'Exploitation' is a much more accurate word. One might talk of 'blackmail' or 'extortion' rather than theft. |
| 21995 | Must production determine superstructure, or could it be the other way round? |
| Full Idea: Once the 'interaction' between the superstructure and the productive forces is admitted, is it still possible to maintain that production determines the superstructure, rather than the other way round? | |
| From: comment on Karl Marx (Capital Vol. 1 [1867]) by Peter Singer - Marx 7 | |
| A reaction: It is much harder to defend historical determinism if Singer is right about this. Modern capitalism won't admit of the sort of simple distinctions that mark was looking for. |
| 21996 | Freedom only comes when labour is no longer necessary |
| Full Idea: The realm of freedom actually begins only where labour which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Capital Vol. 3 [1873], p.496), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 8 | |
| A reaction: This is a bit discouraging fo idealistic dreamers. Modern political thought needs an ecological dimension to this problem. If society always needs a fair degree of labour, there must be a way to maximise freedom in that context. |
| 22970 | Freedom is making the state subordinate to its society |
| Full Idea: Freedom consists in converting the state from an organ superimposed on society into one completely subordinate to it. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Critique of the Gotha Program [1875], IV) | |
| A reaction: The intermediate stage is dictatorship of the proletariat (presumably exercised by the communist leadership). No twentieth century marxist state ever got near the freedom which Marx was seeking. A liberal society might achieve it! |
| 22969 | People who only have their labour power are the slaves of those permitting them to work |
| Full Idea: The man who possesses no other property than his labour power must, in all conditions of society and culture, be the slave of other men who have made themselves the owners of the material conditions of labour. He can only work with their permission. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Critique of the Gotha Program [1875], I) | |
| A reaction: In a world of vast multinationals, the person giving the permission to work is nearly always dependent on some higher level permission. In any sort of society people can only work with the consensus of other people. |
| 22000 | From each according to his ability, to each according to his need |
| Full Idea: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Critique of the Gotha Program [1875]), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 9 | |
| A reaction: Singer says this was not original to Marx, and he placed little emphasis on it. The obvious capitalist response is to ask how you will motivate someone who has huge abilities but few needs. It implies huge inequalities of altruism. |
| 21994 | The handmill gives feudalism, the steam mill capitalism |
| Full Idea: The handmill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam mill society with the industrial capitalist. | |
| From: Karl Marx (The Poverty of Philosophy [1847], p.202), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 7 | |
| A reaction: If technology dictates social structure, then feudalism is still with us, in low-tech industries. What if the steam mill had been invented in 1300? |
| 20958 | Capitalism changes the world, by socialising the idea of a commodity |
| Full Idea: In Marx's view the essential factor in capitalism is that the encroachment of the commodity form into society fundamentally changes the world. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 6 'Historical' | |
| A reaction: The main point is that people and their labour become commodities. Haven't animals always been treated as commodities? Clearly slave were commodities, long before capitalism. Capitalism universalises it? |
| 23876 | The essence of capitalism is the subordination of people to things |
| Full Idea: Marx discovered a formula impossible to surpass when he said that the essence of capitalism lies in the subordination of subject to object, of man to thing. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Simone Weil - Fragments: London 1943 p,155 | |
| A reaction: I find this rather too vague to be a penetrating observation. I would suggest the obliteration of cooperation and community, in favour of competition. Winners and losers. |
| 20960 | Marx thought capitalism was partly liberating, and could make labour and ownership more humane |
| Full Idea: Marx did not disapprove per se of capitalism. New divisions of labour and forms of ownership could transform individuals in modern societies, creating a more humane world with the means capitalism had liberated from feudalism. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 11 'Metaphysics' | |
| A reaction: I'm guessing this might be early Marx, which has less to say about the 'scientific' inevitably of deep change, and the necessity for revolution. Nowadays we tinker with humane changes at the poorer end, while the rich run rampant. |
| 24306 | The bourgeoisie now control society, through modern industry and markets |
| Full Idea: The bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of modern industry and the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative state, exclusive political sway. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Collected works (w Engels) - 50 vols [1860], Vol 6: 486), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 3.2 | |
| A reaction: This idea has endured and led to hatred of the middle classes, and even their extermination. And yet surely if the proletariat gain power and wealth, they become bourgeois? This is all outmoded by the modern super-rich. |
| 22972 | Bourgeois 'freedom of conscience' just tolerates all sorts of religious intolerance |
| Full Idea: Bourgeois 'freedom of conscience' is just the toleration of all possible kinds of religious unfreedom of conscience, and the workers' party should endeavour to liberate the conscience from the witchery of religion. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Critique of the Gotha Program [1875], IV) | |
| A reaction: We see this in modern 'faith' schools in the UK, which do not seem to be required to live up to the standards of freedom of belief expected in the rest of a liberal society. |
| 24316 | Private property is self-interested freedom, rather than freedom through community |
| Full Idea: The right to private property is the self-interested right to dispose of one's own fortune, independently of society, and is the basis of civil society. It makes men see in others not the realisation of his own freedom, but the barrier to it. | |
| From: Karl Marx (On the Jewish Question [1844], Vol 3: 135), quoted by Peter Gibson - Natural Ideas: a naturalist system of philosophy | |
| A reaction: The idea that freedom is a communal matter is probably Hegel's main legacy to Marx. |
| 24315 | The state pretends that inequalities are non-political, but takes their influence for granted |
| Full Idea: The state abolishes distinctions of birth, rank, education, occupation, by saying they are non-political, making all citizens equal partners. But the state allows private property, education, occupation, which exert their influence, and are presupposed. | |
| From: Karl Marx (On the Jewish Question [1844], Vol 3: 153), quoted by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 6.1 | |
| A reaction: It is certainly true that educational qualifications are seen as equal, despite any inequalities in how they are achieved. Marx persistently sees the supposed virtues of liberal societies as illusory. |
| 20519 | Marxists say liberal rights are confrontational, and liberal equality is a sham |
| Full Idea: For Marx liberal rights are egoistic rights of separation: they encourage each individual to view others as limitations to his or her freedom. ....Liberals set up a sham community of 'equal' citizens. | |
| From: report of Karl Marx (On the Jewish Question [1844]) by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 4 'Marxist' | |
| A reaction: The point is that equality in law does not ensure equal treatment in daily life. I suppose a liberal right can be seen as an opt-out clause for some aspect of society. |
| 7128 | Religion is the opium of the people, and real happiness requires its abolition |
| Full Idea: Religion is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Contrib to Critique of Hegel's Phil of Right [1844], Intro) | |
| A reaction: Not being religious myself, I have some sympathy with this ringing clarion-call. However, while opium satisfies an artificial and superficial need, religion certainly seems to speak to something deeper and more central in people. |
| 5299 | Religious feeling is social in origin |
| Full Idea: The "religious sentiment" (discussed by Feuerbach) is itself a social product. | |
| From: Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach [1846], §VII) | |
| A reaction: Recent brain research has identified a part of the brain which is only active during religious thought and experience. It is easy to produce cynical political accounts of religion, but in its time it was also quite a good scientific account of nature. |