Marxism as an economic school. Marxist philosophy Scientific theory of communism

Main works

K. Marx F. Engels:

Capital Dialectics

Anti-Duhring

Key Ideas

K. Marx and F. Engels combined the dialectics of G. Hegel and the materialism of L. Feuerbach and from these positions explained nature, society and human thinking. Thus, they created a holistic, somewhat even a complete philosophical theory of “dialectical materialism.”

Key Ideas (continued)

A new interpretation of man. This being is not just a thinking one, cognizing the world, but an active one, changing this world (K. Marx).

Key Ideas (continued)

The main type of human activity is activity to change nature (material production). Marx formulated the law of the determining role of material production in the life of society. It is material production that will determine all other aspects of people’s lives: politics, art, science, etc.

Key Ideas (continued)

The main thing in Marxist philosophy–materialistic understanding of history (human society).

Its essence: “It is not social consciousness that determines social being, as previously thought, but, on the contrary, social being that determines social consciousness.”

The importance of ideas

The discovery of a materialistic understanding of history made it possible to look at society as a natural historical process developing according to objective laws (like nature).

Creation of a science of society (together with positivism)

The importance of ideas (continued)

Marxist philosophy, on the one hand, was a philosophical worldview.

On the other hand, it was a concept of a radical reorganization of society and was closely connected with political theory.

Neo-Marxism

In Russia (studied within the framework of Russian philosophy).

In Western Europe there has been a shift away from orthodox Marxism and exists in the 20th century as neo-Marxism.

Neo-Marxism (continued)

Neo-Marxism is characterized by:

A critical attitude towards capitalism,

and to the Soviet version of socialism.

Heterogeneity. Two stand out

directions:

1. Humanistic (D. Lukács, A. Gramsci, etc.): emphasis on the problems of man as the true creator of history.

2.Scientist (T. Adorno, J. Habermas, etc.): emphasis on the study of social laws.

Philosophy of Marxism

History teacher, KSU "OSH No. 21"

Temirtau city"

Baltabaev Marat Bopyshevich

The philosophy of Marxism naturally formed in Europe in the 40s of the 19th century as a theoretical reflection of profound changes in all aspects of Western European society.

Prerequisites for the emergence of the philosophy of Marxism:

- socio-economic: establishment of capitalism in Europe as the dominant mode of production; manifestation

the contradictions of capitalism; the intensification of the class struggle and the entry of the working class into the arena of political struggle;

- theoretical: classical English political economy (labor theory of value) - A. Smith (1723-1790), D. Ricardo (1772-1823); French utopian socialism - A.K. Saint-Simon (1760-1825), C. Fourier (1772-1837); German classical philosophy - G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), L. Feuerbach (1804-1872);

- natural sciences: rapid growth of discoveries in science and technology; in particular, three great discoveries in natural science - the laws of conservation and transformation of energy; discovery of the cellular structure of living organisms; Darwin's evolutionary theory.

Marxism -

Philosophy of Marxism as a doctrine of the dialectical process is an integral part of a broader doctrine - Marxism, which includes:

– philosophy; – economics (political economy); – scientific communism – socio-political issues.

The expression "dialectical materialism" is often used as a synonym for Marxist philosophy. However, it is not found in Marx and Engels, who spoke of “materialist dialectics.”

Friedrich Engels ( 1820 - 1895). German philosopher, one of the founders of Marxism, friend and like-minded person of Karl Marx, co-author of his works. In 1848, he wrote the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx. Author of scientific works “The role of labor in the process of transformation of ape into man”, “The origin of the family, private property and the state”.

Basic ideas of Marxism presented in the following works:

- “Economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844” - humanistic concept of man, its essence and way of existence, overcoming its alienation;

- “Manifesto of the Communist Party”, “The Civil War in France”, “The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” - justification of the world-historical mission of the proletariat ;

- “German Ideology”, “Towards a Critique of Political Economy”, “Capital” - materialistic concept of society and the corresponding categorical apparatus;

- “Anti-Dühring”, “Dialectics of Nature” - problems of dialectics .

In solving epistemological issues, the founders of Marxism proceeded from the fact that a person experiences the world with the help of his senses, which give him exact copies of reality in images.

For the first time in the history of philosophy, K. Marx and F. Engels extended the dialectical-materialist understanding to society. Much attention was paid to dialectics productive forces and production relations, whose unity forms mode of production.

The foundation, theoretical basis of the philosophy of Marxism is dialectical materialism - the science of the most general laws of movement and development of nature, society and thinking (according to F. Engels) . The materialistic nature of the philosophy of Marxism is manifested in the fact that it recognizes matter as the only basis of the existing world; consciousness is considered as a property of a highly organized form of matter, a specific function of the human brain, which has the ability to reflect the objectively existing world. The dialectical essence of Marxism is determined by the recognition of the universal interconnection of objects and phenomena of the world, which are in constant movement and development.

1. The philosophy of Marxism is dialectical materialism, i.e. the unity of dialectics and materialism.

2. The philosophy of Marxism is materialistic, as it proceeds from the recognition of matter as the only basis of the world, and considers consciousness as a property of highly organized matter, a function of the human brain.

3. It is called dialectical because it recognizes the universal interconnection of objects and phenomena of the world, movement and development as a result of the internal contradictions operating within it.

4. The essence of the revolutionary revolution carried out by K. Marx and F. Engels in philosophy is considered to be the spread of materialism to the understanding of the history of society, in justifying the role of social practice. Supporters of Marxism believe that any materialism before K. Marx could not provide a materialistic explanation of social life, that is, it was idealism in the understanding of society;

5. Marxist philosophers believe that no matter how diverse philosophical teachings are, all of them, explicitly or implicitly, have as their main theoretical point the question of the relationship of consciousness to matter (the main question of philosophy).

6. Matter is the main category of philosophy. Matter as an objective reality is uncreated, eternal and infinite. Matter is characterized by such universal forms of its existence as movement, space and time. Movement is a universal way of existence of matter. There is no matter without motion, and motion cannot exist without matter.

7. Practice is the basis for the formation and source of knowledge, the main incentive and goal of cognition, the criterion for the truth of the results of the cognition process. In contrast to agnosticism, dialectical materialism proceeds from the fact that the world is knowable, human knowledge penetrates more and more deeply into the laws of existence.

8. There are universal laws of existence in the world, that is, the laws of dialectics. These are considered to be: a) The law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones; b) The law of unity and struggle of opposites; c) The law of negation of negation.

9. An integral part of the philosophy of Marxism is historical materialism as a philosophical concept of the historical process. Historical materialism is a concretization of the principles of dialectical materialism. World history is presented as a change of eras under the influence of the contradiction between productive forces and production relations. A certain phase of the unity of productive forces and production relations is called the “mode of production.” The progress of society is understood as a transition from one method of production to another, more advanced and economically more efficient. Society, taken in its unity (the mode of production plus the political superstructure) received the name “Socio-economic formation” in Marxism.

Rationale materialistic understanding of history society is the central theme and most important achievement of Marxist philosophy. The young Marx explained the essence of the materialist understanding of history as follows: “People themselves create history, but under circumstances beyond their control.” And even brighter: “People are both authors and actors of their own drama.” Marx gave a conceptual presentation of his views in 1859 in the preface to “Critique of Political Economy”, introducing a number of philosophical and sociological concepts (“productive forces”, “relations of production”, “base”, “superstructure”, “social revolution”) , summarizing his discovery as follows: “It is not the consciousness of people that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.”

When studying human society, the founders of Marxism proceed from the fact that the fundamental basis of social life is material production. To exist, society must produce something.

According to K. Marx and F. Engels, material production is nothing more than the influence of people on nature in order to obtain the means of subsistence necessary for life, in particular, food, housing, clothing, etc. The most important thing in this process is labor activities of people.

The founders of Marxist philosophy assign an important role in material production to the productive forces of society and production relations and the relationship between them. Productive forces mean those with the help of which society influences nature and uses it for its own purposes.

The main role in material production, according to Marx and Engels, belongs to social productive forces, which mean the means of production created by society and, above all, the tools of labor, as well as the people who use them to create material wealth.

Importance in material production have industrial relations. Due to the fact that production has always been and is social, people, creating material values, are forced to enter into certain relationships with each other - economic, political, ethical, etc. In addition, goods created in the process of material production are exchanged and distributed between people. These relations and other relations that arise in this case are what Marxism calls production relations.

Fundamental role in industrial relations Ownership of the main means of production plays a role, but it is important whether it is public or belongs to individuals. Marxism believes that the quality of production relations depends on who owns the property. According to Marx and Engels, public property serves the interests of all, private property is used to enrich individuals through the exploitation of working people.

In order to eliminate the exploitation of man by man, to create better conditions for the development of productive forces, Marxism considers it necessary to eliminate private ownership of the means of production, turning it into public property.

Social existence - These are the material relations of people to nature and to each other, arising in the process of formation of human society and existing independently of social consciousness.

Social consciousness - the spiritual side of the historical process is not the totality of individual consciousnesses of members of society, but an integral spiritual phenomenon that has a certain internal structure, including various levels and forms. Marxism proceeds from the fact that social consciousness, on the one hand, is a reflection of social existence, and on the other, has relative independence. The determining role ultimately belongs to social existence.

One of the essential components of historical materialism is the doctrine of socio-economic formation. Analyzing the history of the existence of the human race from ancient times to the 19th century, the founders of Marxism identified a number of periods that have much in common and at the same time differ from each other. Historical materialism identifies five main socio-economic formations, differing from each other in forms of ownership and production relations based on it: primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist and communist.

"Base" and "superstructure"

When analyzing the socio-economic formation, along with the use of concepts such as material and ideological relations, the philosophy of Marxism also uses the concepts of “base” and “superstructure”. These concepts are correlative and closely related to each other. By basis is meant the economic structure of society, the totality of production relations of a given society. We can say that the basis is a form of material productive forces and production relations, intended to express the social nature of production relations as the economic basis of social phenomena.

The superstructure is a set of social ideas, institutions and relationships that arise on the basis of the existing economic base. As society develops historically, the activity of the superstructure increases, and it can have a significant impact not only on the functioning of its base, but also on its change.

The doctrine of socio-economic formation

Society passes in its development through a number of stages, or socio-economic formations, which differ from each other in methods of production, i.e. in the level of development of productive forces, the relations that objectively develop on their basis (primarily property relations) as well as the legal and political superstructure and spiritual culture. The efficiency of labor, its productivity, determines the advantage of one formation over another. The transition from formation to formation is a transition from intra-qualitative (quantitative) changes to qualitative ones, i.e. means a revolution, a leap in the development of society.

Scientific theory of communism

K. Marx rethought the theory of classes and class struggle, first put forward by French historians of the early 19th century, about which he wrote: “What I did that was new was to prove the following: 1) that the existence of classes is connected only with certain historical phases of the development of production; 2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat; 3) that this dictatorship itself constitutes only a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a society without classes.” Based on the materialist understanding of history, Marxism developed the scientific theory of communism, the first stage of development of which in the 20th century began to be considered socialism.

Doctrine of Man

An important merit of Marxist philosophy is the development of the doctrine of man. The initial, basic form of existence and characteristic of a person is labor - a process in which, according to Marx, man, through his own activity, mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature. Man is a creative being; he actively transforms nature, while animals only adapt to natural living conditions.

BASIC CONCEPTS

Dialectical materialism - a direction in philosophy in which the world is viewed as a self-developing material system that does not require any otherworldly forces for its existence.

Marxism - a worldview whose founders are considered to be Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The essence of Marxism is a dialectical-materialist approach to the world, in the recognition of a formational approach to history, according to which the development of society is ensured through the dialectics of productive forces and production relations.

Materialism - a direction in philosophy that recognizes matter as the primary principle of the existence of the world, recognizing adequate knowledge of the world by man.

Historical significance of Marxism

In their understanding of nature and society, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were materialists. They, relying on the philosophical work of Hegel and Feuerbach, rethought idealistic dialectics and anthropological materialism, which resulted in the creation of a fundamentally new philosophical direction - dialectical materialism.

Social practice has shown that Marxism’s position on the world-historical mission of the proletariat and its dictatorship, on the disappearance of commodity-money relations in the era of socialism, turned out to be historically limited. But even now the dialectical method of analyzing social phenomena, the ideas of social justice and solidarity, and the position that the free development of everyone is a condition for the free development of all remain relevant.

CONCLUSION

Many philosophical movements of the 20th century. felt the influence of Marxist teaching, which became an important element in the evolution of the spiritual culture of Western civilization. For several decades in Europe, Marxism served the oppressed classes (workers and peasants) as a program for their revolutionary movements. Throughout the entire historical period of the existence of the USSR, the philosophy of Marxism was proclaimed as the ideology of the state, considered as an instrument for building socialism, capable of transforming into a communist society in the future.

The philosophical, economic, and political views of Marx and Engels still have a colossal influence on society. In 1999, a massive survey was conducted in Great Britain, during which the greatest thinkers of the outgoing millennium were identified who had the greatest influence on the destinies of the world. The first, ahead of A. Einstein and I. Newton, was Karl Marx.

Karl Heinrich Marx German philosopher, sociologist, economist, writer, poet, political journalist, public figure. In economics, his work shaped the theory of surplus value. Author of such works as “Manifesto of the Communist Party”, “Capital”. Some of his works were written in collaboration with like-minded person Friedrich Engels.

Marxist political economy is a direction in economic theory, the basis of which is the labor theory of value (Adam Smith, David Ricardo), which Karl Marx expanded with the theory of surplus value. This direction was developed by: Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. In the Soviet Union, the study of Marxist political economy was a necessary component of economic education. Considered as the only correct starting point in the study of socio-economic processes.

Divisions of Marxist political economy Political economy of capitalism Political economy of socialism Served as the basis for studies of economics and relations of production in the capitalist world and its periphery. Touched upon formation-specific issues of the development of the national economy and international economic relations of socialist countries; formulated the main target function and ways of its implementation with an emphasis on the principle of planned development.

Commodity A commodity is a thing that is involved in an exchange. With the development of the division of labor, objects gradually begin to be produced primarily for exchange rather than for personal consumption. The commodity becomes a general form of production relations, developing and developing into capital, the main production relation that characterizes the essence of the capitalist mode of production.

A commodity simultaneously has utility and exchange value. Utility means the property of a thing to satisfy a human need of one kind or another. The use value of one good is not identical to the use value of another good. Exchange value, or simply value, is manifested in exchange. The exchange values of various goods are homogeneous and differ from each other only quantitatively. Adam Smith was one of the first to distinguish between utility and exchange value. He concluded that value in the process of exchange depends on the amount of labor required to produce goods. Cost is measured by the quantity of this labor, that is, by hours of labor time.

Concrete and abstract human labor Concrete labor: 1. A type of concrete activity necessary to produce a concrete thing that has utility. 2. Differs from other types of labor that produce other things and is not directly compared with them 3. Not associated with any historically determined organization of labor and property rights 4. Can only be carried out in conjunction with the forces of nature and relying on them Abstract labor: 1. Qualitatively homogeneous human labor, impersonal and comparable to the labor of another person 2. Is carried out in the form of a physiological expenditure of human labor 3. Is a source of value that manifests itself exclusively in the process of equivalent exchange.

Capitalism The main features of capitalism can be called the following: 1. production aimed at exchange is universal in nature 2. labor power is a commodity 3. the desire for profit 4. separation of the direct producer from the means of production 5. capital strives for global integration through world markets. 6. the basic law of development, distribution of profits in proportion to invested capital

Productive forces Productive forces are means of production and people who have certain production experience, skills to work and put these means of production into action. Thus, people are the main element of the productive forces of society. Productive forces act as the leading side of social production. The level of development of the productive forces is characterized by the degree of social division of labor and the development of means of labor, primarily technology, as well as the degree of development of production skills and scientific knowledge.

Production relations Production relations are relationships between people that develop in the process of social production and the movement of a social product from production to consumption. The term “relations of production” was coined by Karl Marx. Industrial relations are the basis in relation to politics, ideology, religion, etc. Industrial relations are a social form of productive forces.

Criticism of Marxist political economy Many economists and historians who analyzed Marx's legacy in the field of economics consider the scientific significance of his works to be low. Criticism of the theory of labor value is also contained in foreign textbooks on the history of economic thought. Some authors pointed out the vagueness, ambiguity and non-specificity of Marx's formulations, which are similar not so much to economic as to philosophical conclusions. Marx himself did not highly value his contribution to economic science, in contrast to his contribution to the field of social theory.

Political significance Political influence of Marxism in the 20th century. was huge: Marxism dominated about 1/3 of the globe. Marxist political economy acted as the economic doctrine of socialism, implemented in the 20th century in the USSR, China in the countries of Eastern Europe, Indochina, Cuba, and Mongolia. In turn, social changes in the countries that built socialism prompted a profound transformation of the socio-economic structure of developed capitalist countries, which qualitatively improved the social situation of the bulk of their population and the development of democratic institutions in these countries.