Philosophy of Marxism briefly. The theory of Marxism is: briefly and clearly about the main provisions

Marxism is a social concept, the foundations of which were developed by K. Marx and F. Engels, as well as the ideological and political trend of his followers.

The concept of Marxism

The principles of Marxist theory were formulated in the work of K. Marx and F. Engels "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848), the letter of K. Marx to I. Weidemeyer (1852), the book of K. Marx "Capital" and his other works, such as "Civil war in France” (1871) and “Criticism of the Gotha Program” (1875), as well as in the works of F. Engels “Anti-Dühring” (1878), “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State” (1884), “Ludwig Feuerbach and end of classic German philosophy"(1886) and others.

The founders of Marxism sought to build a complete picture of the world without contradictions on the basis of the revised dialectics of G. Hegel and the materialism of L. Feuerbach. The desire to cleanse itself of Hegel's idealism led to economic determinism. The economy, primarily production, was considered in Marxism the primary factor of society, the "basis", and social Psychology, politics, law, ideology - secondary, "superstructure". Attention to the contradictions of society and the desire to overcome them, "remove", led Marx and Engels to a radical political program, the desire for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalist society and its replacement by communism - an integral society without class contradictions, which is controlled from the center according to a single plan. The bourgeois class can only be defeated by its opposite, the dispossessed proletariat class, which will establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx and Engels believed that after overcoming the resistance of the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship would wither away by itself. The society will become classless, first the first phase of communism will arise - socialism (sometimes this term was used as a synonym for communism), and as the last "birth stains" of capitalist society become obsolete, the second, mature phase of communism will emerge. In order to fight for communism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it is necessary to create a workers' political organization, a party expressing the interests of the proletariat, whether communist or social democratic.

Materialist dialectics defined the view of history known as historical materialism. According to him, the driving force of history is the struggle of classes. The existence of classes is connected with certain phases in the development of production. The development of the productive forces comes into conflict with the prevailing production relations. As a result, contradictions are growing between different classes, primarily the ruling exploiters and the exploited working people. The class struggle between them leads to a revolutionary change in the stages of development of society (socio-economic formations). The analysis of capitalist society is devoted to the largest work of K. Marx "Capital", in which he argued that the capitalists underpay the working class for labor, alienating surplus value in their favor.

Marx and his followers believed that their ideas about the development of society were the only scientific ones ("scientific communism"), and accused their opponents of utopianism.

Criticizing capitalism, the founders of Marxism developed the concept of a socialist society in less detail, which opened up various possibilities for interpretation. Focusing on the social class struggle, Marxists underestimated the importance of psychological, cultural and national factors. The strength of Marxism was in its all-encompassing systemic picture of the world, comparable only to religion in its ability to answer all questions. Marxism was incompatible with religion and treated any form of it sharply negatively.

Critics of Marxism

Already the first critics of Marxism (P.-J. Proudhon, A. Herzen, K. Vogt, M. Bakunin and others) pointed out the contradictions in this doctrine. Economic evolution inevitably leads to communism, but Marxists demand the speediest possible preparations for a revolutionary upheaval. The proletarians do not have the cultural skills to manage society as a whole, so the leadership of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat will be carried out by former communist workers and intellectuals. Marxists believe that former workers will act in the interests of all workers, but other provisions of Marxism say that a person's class position is determined not by his origin, but by his current social position. By becoming an official, the worker will act like an official, not like a worker. The new bureaucracy will retain exploitation and oppression. Marxists hope that the proletarian revolution will take place on a world scale, while in most countries of the world the majority of workers are peasants.

At the end of the 19th century, Marxism prevailed in the social democratic movement, but the contradictions of Marxist theory and the solution of practical political problems led to its division into a number of currents. Moderate Marxists, primarily "revisionists" led by E. Bernstein, believed that overcoming capitalism and replacing it with the first phase of communism - socialism - would be the result of the evolution of capitalism and the proletarian revolution was not necessary. The centrist Marxists (K. Kautsky, G. Plekhanov) believed that it was necessary to wage a political struggle for democracy, to alleviate the position of the working class, to create the economic and cultural prerequisites for socialism, but not to carry out a proletarian revolution until they were ripe. The working class is not yet cultured enough to be able to take over the management of the country and production. The economy is not yet sufficiently concentrated by capitalism to be managed from a single center. Radical Marxists (V. Lenin and others) believed that the prerequisites for a proletarian revolution may arise earlier than the prerequisites for socialism, but it is still necessary to fight for it.

Marxist organizations

The first organization of Russian Marxists in exile was the Emancipation of Labor group. The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was created, which in 1903 was divided into two main currents: moderate (Social Democratic) - Menshevism; radical (communist) - Bolshevism.

Marxists have made a great contribution to the study of the economics of imperialism. At the same time, radical Marxists exaggerated the readiness of the world economy to develop according to a single plan, "in a socialist way." Having seized power, a cohesive organization of revolutionaries could, according to Lenin, prepare the prerequisites for the creation of a socialist society, developing the ability of the working class to manage society and the economy.

The victory of Marxism

In the twentieth century, the Marxist-Leninists won in a number of countries where capitalism was not developed. Hopes for a world revolution did not come true. As a result, Marxism-Leninism was divided into a number of directions. An attempt to adapt Marxism to the conditions of these countries led to the strengthening of the authoritarian features of Marxism, the creation of societies in which the domination of the bureaucracy was established. The ruling communist parties officially declared that they had built socialism, although nowhere did society become classless. There was no withering away of the state, bureaucratic planning of the economy turned out to be ineffective, the "socialist" economy lagged behind the capitalist one, although the communists contributed to the acceleration of the industrialization of their countries. In the countries of developed capitalism, contrary to Marx's predictions, the communists could not win.

A number of Marxist thinkers and activists already in the middle of the 20th century stated the crisis of Marxism, connected with the fact that its forecasts in many fundamental issues are not being implemented in practice. Theorists of this trend were looking for a way out of the crisis, trying to find new, non-proletarian revolutionary forces, to correct the model of socialism, to combine Marxism with the achievements of Freudianism, anarchism and others.

Significance of Marxism

The fall of communist regimes as a result of perestroika and the East European revolutions weakened the position of Marxism. Nevertheless, Marxism had a significant impact on the development of social thought throughout the world, contributed to the scientific critique of capitalism, a systematic social class analysis of society, and the development of social reforms that alleviate the position of workers. The proponents of gradual reforms that would transform capitalism into "democratic socialism" prevailed in the social democratic movement. Despite the fact that capitalism has seriously changed, it has not yet been replaced by the next "socio-economic formation" - socialism. However, the development of capitalism is accompanied by many crisis phenomena, and Marxism retains its influence in science and the left social movement.

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The founders of Marxism, as is known, are two German thinkers Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) And Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895) . In the middle of the 19th century, these thinkers, realizing the growing influence of the working class, relying on the philosophy of G. Hegel, the teachings of utopian socialists (primarily Saint-Simon) and English economists (A. Smith, D. Riccardo), substantiated a new philosophical doctrine and at the same time a new ideology, which later received the name of Marxism.

The main ideas of the new philosophy Marx expressed in such works as "Capital" (1867 - 1883), "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848, together with F. Engels), "On the Critique of Political Economy" (1859), "German Ideology" (1845-46) .

Marxism is the ideology of the proletariat which believes that it is the working class that is the most advanced, conscious, organized social class, that the future belongs to it, namely, having destroyed the capitalists during the world proletarian revolution, the working class, led by the Communist Party, is called upon to create communism - a society of universal happiness, justice and social harmony, in which there will be no rich, no poor, no wars, no other social contradictions, and everyone will work in accordance with their abilities and receive free of charge everything they need for a full normal life.

At its core Marxism is materialism. The materialistic orientation brings Marxism closer to science and puts it in opposition to idealism and, in particular, religion. That's why Marxism is also consistent atheism. For the Marxists religion is the opiate of the people, a form of false consciousness that distracts people from the class struggle against the exploiters, makes them love "enemies", endure insults and humiliation, put up with social injustice, in a word, serving the interests of the rich.

Marx's most important discovery is materialistic understanding of history, according to which there are objective (i.e. material), independent of the consciousness and will of people laws of history, public life, these laws are also indispensable and objective like the laws of physics or biology, people cannot cancel their actions, but can only recognize them and take them into account in their practice, therefore, according to its supporters, Marxism, which discovered these laws, is just as accurate and scientific, like the natural sciences.

Another fundamental position of Marxist philosophy is economic centrism, asserting that the intentions and goals of people are ultimately determined by the objective material factors of their social life, i.e. place in the system of division of labor, attitude to property, etc., in other words, the public consciousness of people is a reflection of their social being, and the mode of production of material goods (economy) determines the development of the social, political and spiritual life of society (economic determinism).

Based on the ideology of progress, Marx creates the doctrine of socio-economic formations as progressive stages of development of any society. From this it followed that, firstly, world history is one, all societies go through these stages in their development one after another, from the lowest, primitive communal formation to the highest, communist (five formations in total) and, secondly, the formation itself was considered as the unity of the economic basis and the political and legal superstructure, while the former determines the latter.

The engine of this movement, the source of social change is class struggle: in every society there are two main classes - the haves and the have-nots - antagonism, the contradiction between which is the source of the development of society. The apogee of the class struggle is the social revolution. Revolutions were assessed entirely positively by Marx as "locomotives of history", "holidays of the oppressed". But only socialist revolution, unlike the bourgeois ones, it opens the way to a truly just society. According to Marx, the socialist revolution is initiated by the proletariat, led by its vanguard, the Communist Party. This revolution is taking place simultaneously in all countries of developed capitalism and, as a result, dictatorship of the proletariat.

Having seized power, the proletariat organizes the people to build a new type of society - communism, the first phase of which is socialism. Communism is the fifth, most progressive (both from the point of view of the economy and from the point of view of morality) socio-economic formation that completes history. Communism abolishes private property, the exploitation of man by man, and gives all power to the people. Gradually, during the development of the communist formation, during the transition from the first phase (socialism) to the second (communism proper), money and the state disappear, and, in the end, humanity turns into a single classless, supranational community of “universal abundance and universal justice”, where “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.

These are the main provisions of the philosophy of Marxism, which was primarily interested in social questions.

As a result of the activities of Marx and Engels in the second half of the 19th century, workers' parties began to form everywhere in Europe and America. And in 1864 they created the First International - the first international organization of workers. Under the leadership of the social democratic parties, a labor movement unfolded in Europe, the result of which was the Paris Commune (1871) - the first socialist republic that lasted a little less than two months.

In Russia, the first workers' organization was the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of Labor" (1883) headed by G.V. Plekhanov, in 1895 in St. Petersburg headed by V.I. Lenin created the "Union for the Emancipation of the Working Class", and in 1898 the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Labor) was created. In 1903, the party split, its most militant, left wing was called the "Bolsheviks", it was they who, in 1917, taking advantage of the weakness of the Provisional Government, organized the world's first socialist revolution, which ended in success. Thus, Russia became the first country of victorious socialism. For 73 years, our country has been building socialism on 1/6 of the earth's land, involving dozens of countries around the world in this construction ... However, in the economic competition with capitalism, Soviet-type socialism lost, and therefore the world socialist system collapsed ...

But this does not mean that the very idea of ​​a classless, just society is inadequate. Today, countries such as Sweden, Norway, Germany and others have advanced quite far in the direction of building a socially just society, but they are inspired not by the ideas of Marx and Engels, but by a more moderate social democratic ideology, the foundations of which were developed by K. Kautsky, E. Bernstein and others. Social Democracy, supporting the idea of ​​building a classless society, denies the fruitfulness of revolutionary paths, insisting that such a society should slowly, through reforms, mature in the bowels of capitalism, which today we see in many countries Western Europe.

CONCLUSIONS on question 1:

1. The growth of the working class and the development of the labor movement in Europe received a response, reflection and support within the framework of the philosophy of Marxism, which raised the ideas of social equality and justice to a new level. The founders of Marxism were K. Marx and F. Engels, in Russia a major contribution to the development of Marxism was made by V.I. Lenin.

2. At its core, Marxism is consistent materialism and atheism. Its central ideas are mainly of a socio-political nature - this is the doctrine of a materialistic understanding of history, socio-economic formations, the highest of which is communism, the progressive role of the working class in history, the engine of which is the class struggle, and the apogee of such a struggle is the proletarian revolution. . Thus, Marxism is the ideology of the proletariat.

3. In our country, for many years, Marxism played the role of the leading and only ideology, but after the collapse of the USSR and the socialist system, the influence of Marxism in the world is steadily declining, although its belief in the possibility of a socially just system remains relevant for many people.

The founders of Marxism became odious and politicized figures, heroes of pamphlets and caricatures. Therefore, it is worth remembering what they really thought, and not what they are credited with. Let us try to briefly describe the main ideas of Marxism. Moreover, there are enough sources. It did not originate in a vacuum. He was influenced by the theories of Hegel and Feuerbach, as well as other representatives of the German classical school of thought.

Marxism: basic ideas and concepts

First of all, one of the main theories of Marxism is the recognition of the existence of social progress. its called economics. The main characteristic of a person as a being is the presence of labor, practice. The latter is aimed at transforming nature and society. In fact, practice is the basis of history, as well as its meaning. Since the main ideas of Marxism consisted in the spread of materialism to social life, then the understanding of history in it was appropriate. Practice is primary in society; it also acts as a criterion for the correctness of any theory.

The main ideas of Marxism and materialism in history

Concepts and theories are not the source of life. They only reflect it, sometimes true, and sometimes distorted. Their totality is called ideology, which can both help and hinder it. The reason for the processes occurring in society are people. They interact with each other to satisfy their needs. And since material desires are primary: to eat, sleep, and so on - and then to philosophize, then the main relations between people are labor, production. Therefore, when studying history, it is necessary to pay attention to the basis of social life. And this is the level of the mode of production, the basis of the entire society. are the backbone of any state. They correspond to a certain level of legal, political ties, as well as the state of public consciousness. This Marx called the superstructure. All together it is a socio-economic formation that changes during the transition to a new mode of production. It is often carried out in a revolutionary way, if there is an acute conflict between groups of people who differ in relation to property, that is, classes.

The main ideas of Marxism and the problem of man

There is a reason that becomes the main factor in the political struggle. This is private property. It generates not only injustice in society, but also alienation between people. There are several forms of this phenomenon. Alienation can be from the products of production, from labor itself, and, finally, from each other. The need (in fact, coercion) to work leads to an increase in the desire to have (possess). The only way out that Marx saw from this situation was the emancipation of man, the creation of such conditions when he could work not out of need, but for pleasure. Then people will turn from possessive beings into real humanists. But the philosopher believed that this way out was rooted in the political solution of the issue: the destruction of private property through the revolution of the proletariat and the onset of communism. True, it should be said that Marx and Engels, in their clear and systematized analysis of their contemporary economy and social relations, saw such a society very vaguely. They rather put it forward as an ideal. The practical theory of revolution and communism was already engendered by Marxism. The main ideas, briefly analyzed in this article, were inherited by many political and philosophical currents and used both for the benefit of humanity and for its detriment. But that's a completely different story.

Marxism is a philosophical system that occupies an intermediate position between classical and non-classical. classical philosophy. On the one hand, Marx was the first of the philosophers to abandon the thesis about the rational nature of man. On the other hand, Marx believed that a change in social conditions can change the nature of man, turning him into a rational being (NEW MAN), i.e. the classical understanding of man is an ideal that needs to be realized. Marx said: “Philosophers only explained the world, but the point is to change it.

Basic ideas of Marxism.

1. Materialistic understanding of history.

“Before thinking, loving, creating, a person must eat, drink and dress, i.e. man is not a rational, but an economic being, i.e. he is driven not by reason, but by greed.”

2. The doctrine of classes and class struggle.

According to Marx, the question of the meaning of life (why live?) is devoid of any meaning for a normal person. Main question human life is a question about lifestyle (how to live?). From the point of view of Marxism, two main ways of life are possible:
1. You can live at the expense of the transformation of nature, at the expense of labor;
2. You can live through exploitation.
Since exploitation is more effective than labor, in all societies the exploiters form the upper class. Along with the upper class, a lower class (exploited) and a middle class (people who live by their work) are formed. Class division is relative.
3. The doctrine of socio - economic formations.
Socio-economic structure is historical type society, characterized by a certain level of economy and a specific way of coercion to work. Marx identifies five formations:
1. primitive system. The level of productive forces is extremely low, so it is not economically viable.
2. slave system. Main classes: slave owners and slaves. Forced labor is physical in nature. The middle class are free peasants. Slavery is not economically profitable, because it does not involve complex labor.
3. feudal system. Main classes: feudal lords and peasants. The middle class are city dwellers. Forced labor is in the nature of an agreement. This form of exploitation is also not effective, since the agreements are not respected.
4. capitalist system. Main classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat. The middle class is people employed in the service sector. Forced labor is here of an economic nature. Under capitalism, money is raised to the highest degree, i.e. everything is bought and sold. To exist, something must be sold. There are two types of life:
1. "goods - money - goods"
2. "money - goods - money"
The second type of life is characteristic of capitalists. If a person has nothing to sell, then under capitalism he sells himself, turning into a proletarian.
According to Marx, the development of capitalist society leads to the erosion of the middle class and the absolute impoverishment of the majority of the population. The polarization of society leads to a social revolution and the emergence of a new classless formation - communism.

24 RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY: MAIN DIRECTIONS AND FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT

The initial period of the formation of Russian philosophy is the XI-XVII centuries, it is called differently: ancient Russian philosophy, Russian medieval philosophy, philosophy of the pre-Petrine period. The main feature of this period is the lack of an independent status and entanglement in the fabric of the religious worldview.

The second period in the development of Russian philosophy begins in the 18th century.

Two main interrelated factors:

- the process of Europeanization of Russia, associated with the reforms of Peter the Great;

- secularization of public life.

At this time, philosophy moves away from scholastic images and becomes free from the church. The first supporters of scientific knowledge and philosophy of the New Age in Rus' were:

– M.V. Lomonosov;

– A.N. Radishchev;

- Feofan Prokopovich;

- V.N. Tatishchev;

– A.D. Kantemir and others.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (171 1-1765) laid the foundation for the materialistic tradition. He spoke from materialistic positions, but, like all materialists of that time, understood matter only as matter.

Independent philosophical creativity in Russia begins in the 19th century, which is the third stage in the development of Russian philosophy.

The first who began independent philosophical work in Russia was Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev(1794–1856). He expressed his thoughts in the famous "Philosophical Letters". The main teachings of Chaadaev were the philosophy of man and the philosophy of history.

Following Chaadaev, two directions appear that are opposite in understanding the meaning and significance of the Russian idea:

– Slavophiles(laid the foundation of the Russian religious philosophy second half of the 19th century);

– Westerners(they criticized the church and gravitated towards materialism).

In the late 60s - early 70s. 19th century worldview appears in Russia populism. His main idea was the desire to come to socialism, bypassing capitalism, and the recognition of the originality of the path of development of Russia. The successors of Slavophilism in the 60-70s. came soil workers, the idea of ​​their philosophy is the national soil as the basis of the social and spiritual development of Russia.

The next stage (the end of the 19th - the first half of the 20th centuries) of Russian philosophy is associated with the emergence of philosophical systems.

Character traits:

- anthropocentrism;

- humanism;

- religious character;

- the emergence of Russian cosmism(mystical, theological).

End of work -

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Historical conditions for the emergence of Marxism

Marxism as a system of philosophical, economic and socio-political views arose in the middle of the 19th century, its founders were the German scientists Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).

Marxism is a direction economic theory, the purpose of which is to study the laws of capitalism and determine its historical place, "the discovery of the economic law of the movement of modern society." The emergence of Marxism as an integral theoretical system that reflects the interests of the proletariat was prepared by the entire course of development of society, preceding the development of capitalism.

The material prerequisite for the formation of Marxism is the development of productive forces and further changes in the system of production relations of capitalism.

The industrial revolution that took place at the beginning of the 19th century, first in England and then in other countries of Western Europe, led to the fact that the basis of the economy was machine production, the rapid growth of factories, plants, a change in the old forms of production relations, the class structure of society. The development of machine production in the early stages caused a deterioration in the position of the working class and an aggravation of the contradictions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, which manifested itself in the uprising of the Lyon weavers in Germany (1844).

The aggravation of social and economic contradictions predetermined the need to rethink a number of provisions of economic theory that linked social progress and the growth of the people's well-being with the industrial revolution. The deepening of the contradictions of capitalism and the inability of the old bourgeois economic theories to find ways to resolve them are also prerequisites for the formation of Marxism. In addition, the proletariat entered the arena of historical struggle, and its class struggle against the bourgeoisie in the most developed countries of Europe came to the fore. There was a need for a theoretical substantiation of the economic and political demands of the working class. These tasks were realized by Marxism. The creative heritage of the founders of this doctrine includes several dozen volumes, among which the priority belongs to the four-volume "Capital" by K. Marx. The first volume of "Capital" was published in 1867. After the death of K. Marx, F. Engels edited volumes II and III, Volume IV was published by the leader of the German Social Democracy K. Kautsky in 1905-1910 and is called The Theory of Surplus Value.

The creative heritage of K. Marx has much in common with the achievements of his predecessors in the "classical" school of economic thought, especially A. Smith and D. Ricardo. K. Marx also belongs to the classics of political economy, who brought the science of wealth production to perfection.

K. Marx, like all the classics, considered the historical study of the problems of the sphere of production to be the subject of political economy. Only the production relations of people in relation to production, he gives a class character and considers them from the standpoint of the interests of the proletariat, substantiating its historical mission.

5.2. Methodology of K. Marx

According to K. Marx himself, as a scientist, methodologically, he proceeded simultaneously from three scientific sources: the English classical political economy of A. Smith and D. Ricardo, the German classical philosophy of Hegel and Feuerbach, and French utopian socialism.

From other directions and schools of economic theory, Marxist school differs, first of all, in the peculiarity of the methodology. One of them is the historical approach to the analysis of the studied phenomena and processes.

Marx's historicism lies in the conclusion that capitalism will inevitably be replaced by a more progressive social system. However, in the works of K. Marx and F. Engels, criticism did not turn into a complete denial of the achievements of bourgeois science. On the contrary, the scientific elements of existing theories have been preserved and developed.

The representatives of the classical school of political economy borrowed and creatively developed the labor theory of value, the provisions of the law of the downward trend in the rate of profit, productive labor, etc.

Critical analysis was carried out on the basis of the method of materialistic dialectics.

Materialism, as a direction of philosophy, was known in antiquity and as a method of cognition proceeds from the primacy of the material and the secondary nature of the spiritual.

The dialectical approach, in addition to the principle of historicism, presupposes, according to K. Marx, the clarification of the causes of the emergence, evolution and disappearance of phenomena, the development from simple to complex, from lower to higher, in the study of the transition from concrete to abstract, the presence in them of contradictory principles, which seemed to be class interests of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

The name of K. Marx is associated with the widespread use of the abstraction method, by means of which the most typical, stable essential features of a phenomenon are singled out, categories and laws of science are formed.

The method of abstraction involves, in the study, a distraction from secondary phenomena, the selection of the main, essential and its analysis. So, when analyzing the structure of a class society under capitalism, K. Marx singled out two main classes of this society - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, abstracting at this stage of the study from the rest of the classes and social groups of society.

In the theory of K. Marx, such an element as a systematic analysis is manifested. Empirical, statistical, mathematical methods play the role of auxiliary tools of knowledge. This set of methodological principles of analysis was used by K. Marx in the development of his economic doctrine.

K. Marx defined the subject of economic economy as a science that studies the production relations of people and the laws of their development. The creative heritage of K. Marx has much in common with the achievements of his predecessors in the "classical school" of economic thought, especially A. Smith and D. Ricardo. K. Marx, like all classics, considered the priority study of production to be the subject of political economy. In his words, political economy, beginning with W. Petty, explores the internal dependencies of bourgeois relations of production.

Thus, political economy, as defined by K. Marx, in the broadest sense is the science of the laws that govern the production and exchange of material, vital goods in human society. The subject of political economy are relations of production, that is, certain economic relations between people that arise in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods and services.

History of Economic Doctrines: Marxism. Economic views of K. Marx. Proof of the labor theory of value.

One of the most interesting trends in economic thought in the second half of the nineteenth century is Marxism, which can be seen as a kind of development of classical political economy. This applies both to the problems studied by Marxist theory and to the methodology

The founder of this doctrine is Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German economist, journalist and philosopher. Taking the statements of Smith and Ricardo as the starting point of his research that the value of all commodities is based on the amount of labor spent on their production, K. Marx tried to create a coherent theory describing the laws of functioning and development of the capitalist economic system. However, Karl Marx failed to complete his theory before his death...

Marx outlined his ideas in the well-known work "Capital", which he wrote for 40 years, and only the first volume was published during the author's lifetime (1864), the remaining volumes were edited by Marx's friend and colleague F. Engels.

Let us say in more detail about the method of economic research by K. Marx and the prerequisites he made. First, the basis of Marx's method was abstraction and simplification; i.e., one might say, the construction of an economic model. Other representatives of the classical school also built simplified models, but Marx built the most simplified model of the economy for his theoretical constructions. Secondly, Marx analyzed the resulting model by deducting the structure of the provisions of his theory. Thirdly, Marx's analysis is mainly macroeconomic in nature, and it uses the concept of equilibrium in the economy. In some places, K. Marx uses the mathematical analysis of his models, but his mathematical method is not developed, in particular, Marx does not use the limiting analysis of the economy. In some of his constructions, Marx uses the historical method of economic analysis, i.e. examines the history of the economy in development. This causes him to occasionally apply dynamic model analysis.

Karl Marx showed how from simple commodity production, the purpose of which is consumption, and where money is only an intermediary in exchange, capitalist production follows quite logically, where the goal is the increase of money, profit. Like the representatives of classical political economy, Marx distinguishes between two aspects of a commodity: use value and exchange value.. The first is understood as the ability of a thing to satisfy any human need, regardless of whether it is caused by "stomach or fantasy", the second - the ability of a thing to be exchanged in certain proportions for another commodity. Marx argues that the proportions of exchange are based on the costs of labor, which determine the value of the commodity. But it is quite obvious that a homogeneous commodity is produced by various commodity producers and each of them spends different amount time to produce a unit of goods. However, the proportion of the exchange of this product for others in the market will be the same. Marx answers that the value of a commodity will be determined by the costs of the group that produces the bulk of the output. To illustrate this point, the following example can be given. Suppose there are three groups of commodity producers who produce a certain product at different costs:

Group 1 - the cost of producing a unit of goods - 4 hours,

Group 2 - the cost of producing a unit of goods - 6 hours,

Group 3 - the cost of producing a unit of goods - 10 hours.

Suppose that the group that produces the vast majority of products is the second group of commodity producers, whose costs are equal to 6 hours, and it is their costs that will determine the proportions of the exchange of this product for other goods. What will happen to the first and second group of commodity producers? The first will receive in exchange more than they spent, that is, enrich themselves, the second - less, that is, go bankrupt. Next, we need to turn to the logic of A. Smith, to his concept of selfish interest as the main engine of economic development and the condition for the prosperity of the nation. The natural desire to receive additional income will push commodity producers of the second and third groups to reduce labor costs for the production of goods, that is, to increase labor productivity. How? The best organization of labor, the introduction of new processing methods, etc. Let's assume it succeeded. But what's the bottom line? The vast majority of production will be produced at a cost equal to 4 hours, and it is they who will determine the proportions of the exchange. This means nothing more than a reduction in the price of this product relative to others. Could there be a better illustration of Smith's position on the beneficence of self-interest. After all, it is he who makes people improve production, contributes to the development of the productive forces of society. But this is only one side of the coin. The reverse side is the stratification of commodity producers. In our example, the third group of commodity producers, whose costs exceed the socially necessary ones, go bankrupt. Critics of the capitalist mode of production, in particular S. Sismondi, paid attention to this process. However, it should be noted that this is the inevitable price of technological progress. It was Marx who first clearly formulated this position.

Note that Marx himself, having stated the ruin of the second group of producers, did not deduce from this that these producers would leave the market, which would lead to a decrease in production and an increase in the price of goods. As a result, it will turn out that the price is determined by the marginal producer, and not by the average one.

Having pointed out that the value of commodities is equal to the average amount of labor expended on production, Marx thereby proves that in production that does not require tools or an object of labor, the value is equal to the amount of labor expended. alive labor. Those. there can be no profit here. After this, Marx argues that the value of the means of production is also equal to the amount of labor expended on them. And in the process of production reified in the means of production, labor is transferred to the product. Since profit cannot arise with such a transfer, profit should not arise under the capitalist mode of production either (i.e., capital should not be a factor of production).

But where does the profit come from then? K. Marx claims that it is a product of exploitation, i.e. robbery of the working class by the capitalist class. The cause of exploitation for Marx is the separation of the direct producer from the means of production. As a result, the direct producer, i.e. the worker is forced to sell his labor power, the value of which is lower than the value created by the worker in the labor process. The cost of labor power is lower than the cost of labor because the first is determined by the cost of reproduction of the worker, and the second is determined by the productivity of labor, which, by the way, increases with the growth of the capital-labor ratio. Those. will increase with the development of capitalism.

Economic theory of K. Marx

One of the greatest philosophers and economists of the 19th century in terms of its influence on social thought. was Karl Marx (1818-1883). He was a lawyer by training, a journalist and a professional revolutionary by occupation. His closest assistant and co-author of a number of his works was Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). A certain milestone in the life of Marx were 1847-1848. By this time, his philosophical theory of historical materialism had already been developed. In 1847, with the participation of Marx and Engels, the International Union of Communists (the forerunner of the First International) was organized, for which Marx and Engels wrote the programmatic work Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848). After the European Revolution of 1848, Marx and Engels moved to England, where they lived until the end of their days. Here Marx finally set about developing his economic theory. In the late 1850s he prepared the first version of his main work Capital and in 1859 published the first short edition of this work under the title On a Critique of Political Economy. But then Marx stopped publication, deciding to finalize the manuscript. Two more draft versions of Capital were written, until finally, in 1867, the first volume appeared, the only one published during Marx's lifetime. The second and third volumes of Capital were published by Engels in 1885 and 1894 based on Marx's drafts. Subject and method The subject of study in the economic theory of Marx, like all representatives of classical political economy, was the sphere of production. Marx attached such paramount importance to it that he called all economic relations production relations. The method was based on his philosophical theory of historical materialism. Marx's materialistic approach to social relations was as follows. certain population public relations Marx calls "social formation". The "basis" of these social relations, he considers the economy, which, in turn, is determined by the level of development of technology ("productive forces"). All social relations that are not related to economic (political, cultural, etc.) are a "superstructure" over the "basis". Thus, technology ("productive forces") determines the nature of the economy ("relations of production"), and the economy determines the nature of all other social relations. At the same time, unlike other representatives of classical political economy, who considered certain social (and economic) relations to be “natural” (capitalist, small-scale or socialist), Marx used a historical approach, arguing that social formations naturally replace each other in a revolutionary way. True, the idea of ​​“naturalness” is still present in him latently, since the communist formation is the last and final in his scheme. Marx used his theory of social formations to prove the historically transient nature of the capitalist economy, which, in his opinion, will inevitably have to be replaced by a socialist economy. Basic theoretical provisions Just like Mill, Marx systematized the theoretical provisions developed by previous representatives of classical political economy. The structure of "Capital" was as follows. In the first two volumes, Marx dealt with capitalist industry, with the first volume dealing with the problems of production and the second with the problems of circulation. In the third volume, the spheres of trade, credit and agriculture are connected to the consideration. In addition, in all sections of Marx's economic research there is a "super task" - to show the "unfair", exploitative essence of the capitalist economy as proof of the need to eliminate it. 1. Cost. In his study, Marx resorts to a special methodological device - the consideration of economic categories with varying degrees of abstraction. In particular, in the first two volumes, value is considered in the most general view as a result of labor costs of the worker. Marx divides value into three parts: "constant capital" (c), i.e. the cost of material costs, "variable capital" (v), i.e. the cost of labor power, and "surplus value" (m). The division of capital into fixed and variable was new; before Marx, there was only a division into fixed and circulating capital. The appropriation by the capitalist of the "surplus value" created by the workers, Marx calls "exploitation". The ratio of the income of the capitalist to the income of the workers m/v he calls the "rate of surplus value" and an indicator of the degree of exploitation of the workers. In the third volume, Marx introduces a new concept - the "price of production", interpreting it as a converted form of value. It consists of the cost of purchasing means of production and labor and the average profit for all industries. The concept of "price of production" has sparked a debate among economists. Recall that after Smith, the theory of labor value and the theory of value determined by costs were opposed within the framework of classical political economy. Therefore, after the release of the third volume of "Capital", a statement appeared about the contradiction between the first and third volumes of "Capital", since different theories of value are used there - labor theory and cost theory. The Marxists (Marx himself had already died by the time the third volume of Capital was published) responded by repeating that one category is a transformed form of another; the famous German economist W. Sombart argued that labor value is only a logical prerequisite for the real concept of value, determined by costs, but in general the discussion did not have a large scope, since classical political economy had already left the stage. Among other economic categories of "Capital", modern economic science considers Marx's greatest contribution to the theory of social reproduction and the theory of intersectoral competition and the flow of capital. 2. Social reproduction. In his theory of social reproduction, Marx returned to scientific circulation the problem of the redistribution of the gross national product, the study of which was begun in F. Quesnay's "Economic Table" and lost due to the advent of "Smith's dogma". In contrast to the three-sector model, Quesnay Marx built a two-sector model, dividing the sphere of production into the production of means of production, i.e. elements of constant capital, and the production of consumer goods for workers and capitalists, and derived a formula for the exchange between sectors of that part of the product that goes beyond intra-sector turnover. I(c + v + t) - the cost of the product of sector I. II(c + v + t) - the cost of the product of sector II. In physical terms, the product of sector I is intended for Ic and IIc, therefore, after replenishment of Ic, the remaining product of sector I, equal in value to I(v + m), is sent to sector II to replenish PS. The result is a formula for the exchange of sectors I and II: I(v + m) = IIc. Another difference between Marx's theory and Quesnay's "table" was that Quesnay considered only simple reproduction, while Marx presented both simple and extended reproduction. Marx's schemes of expanded social reproduction are, in fact, the first model of economic growth. 3. Intersectoral competition and capital outflow. Marx introduced the concept of inter-industry competition, which, unlike intra-industry competition, is not competition for the sale of homogeneous goods, but competition for the most profitable investment of capital. Here (in the third volume of "Capital") Marx no longer operates with the concept of "surplus value", but with its "transformed form" - "profit". Since different branches of the national economy have different rates of return, i.e. the ratio of profit to advanced capital (m/c + v), then capital flows from less profitable industries to more profitable ones. This is reflected in the fact that enterprises in less profitable industries are closed, and new ones are built in more profitable ones. As a result, in less profitable industries, supply decreases, while prices and profits rise, while in more profitable industries, the opposite process occurs. In general, the economy tends to form an average profit for all industries.