Week 5.2: Communist Manifesto Debate

Cesare Maccari, Cicero Denounces Cataline (1889)

Today we will be having our class debate on The Communist Manifesto. The directions for this debate can be found under our Course Information & Documents header. Remember, that if you do not come today you will loose all the points associated with this assignment. There can be no make up debate. Come prepared  and support your team with your best effort.

Week 4.2: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Pyramid of the Capitalist System, issued by issued by Nedeljkovich, Brashich and Kuharich (1911)

issued by Nedeljkovich, Brashick and Kuharich,

Reading:
The Communist Manifesto, 17-26, 38-39
Recommended: The Communist Manifesto, 27-37

issued by Nedeljkovich, Brashick and Kuharich,

Study Questions:
1. How do Marx and Engels answer the following objections: 

• That they want to do away with private property
• That they want to do away with the family
• That they want to do away with the nation

2. Begin prepping for your debate on The Communist Manifesto. Be prepared to present your arguments on the points that your group assigned you to both your group and the class.  This will also involve some degree of preliminary research.

Week 4.1: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Andy Warhol, Four Dollar Signs (1982)

Karl Marx (1818–1883) is  known  as a philosopher and a revolutionary communist, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is hard to think of many who have had as much influence in the creation of the modern world. Trained as a philosopher, Marx turned away from philosophy in his mid-twenties, towards economics and politics. However, in addition to his overtly philosophical early work, his later writings have many points of contact with contemporary philosophical debates, especially in the philosophy of history and the social sciences, and in moral and political philosophy. Historical materialism — Marx's theory of history — is centered around the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power. Marx sees the historical process as proceeding through a necessary series of modes of production, characterized by class struggle, culminating in communism. Marx's economic analysis of capitalism is based on his version of the labour theory of value, and includes the analysis of capitalist profit as the extraction of surplus value from the exploited proletariat. The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx's prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism. However Marx refused to speculate in detail about the nature of communism, arguing that it would arise through historical processes, and was not the realisation of a pre-determined moral ideal. (Modified from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Before you begin the reading for our next class session, it will helpful to have a fuller understanding of some of Marx and Engels's terms as these might be unfamiliar. Read the following material below before doing the reading for our next session. I would also suggest taking a note card and writing down these definitions and using this note card as a book mark as you read.

• The Communist Manifesto (1848) is first and foremost a critique of capitalism. In Marxist analysis, capitalism is a socioeconomic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of the labor force. 
• As its name implies, capitalism is dependent on capital. In Marxist terms, capital is not money or wealth, per se. Rather, capital is generated when one buys an object in order to sell it at a higher price. The profit earned through this exchange is capital and will be reinvested in order to yield more capital. 
• Such transactions rely on objects having exchange value in addition to use value. The difference between these things is rather quite simple. The use value of a hammer, for instance, is that it is good for hitting nails. It's use is dependent on its physical values. An object only gains exchange value when it is sold on the market. Thus, a hammer has an exchange value of $15.00. In capitalist economies, exchange value predominates because almost  everything can be exchanged for money. Exchange value obscures the real value of any object, namely the amount of labor it took to produce an object. It is labor-value that ultimately determines the price of objects. 
• Those with capital constitute the dominant class. For Marx and Engels, this class is the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie are the middle class, but we need to qualify this term a bit since we use it differently today than Marx and Engels did in 1848. By middle class, Marx meant those who were neither members of the aristocracy, the peasantry, or industrial laborers. He also did not mean what we mean by the term today, those who need to work to pay their bills, but are financially comfortable and most likely live in the suburbs. Rather, Marx and Engels were referring to those who owned the means of production. By means of production, Marx and Engels meant "the tools and raw materials to produce a product." This might take the form of farm land or a factory. Essentially, the bourgeoisie are the owning class in society. 
• The bourgeoisie are thus separated and opposed to the proletariat. The proletariat consists of the "lower" or working class who must sell their labor for wages in order to survive. Since the proletariat does not own the means of production, and since they do not work directly for themselves, they are alienated from their labor. According to Marx and Engels, it is this group, the clear majority of people, who will lead a communist revolution and overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Reading:
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 3-16

Study Questions: 
1. According to Marx and Engels, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (4). What do they mean by this?  According to Marx and Engels what two forces were then engaged in class struggle? What do you think of this assertion?

2. In a famous passage, Marx and Engels write, "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with kind" (6). What do they mean by this? Why do you think that this important to Marx and Engels?

3. Bring in a passage that you find interesting either because it made you think or because you didn't fully understand it. Fully transcribe the passage and write about what you think about the passage. You will be sharing this with your peers.

Week 3.2: John Locke, Second Treatise on Government

Georges Lacombe, Chestnut Gatherers (1893)

John Locke (1632-1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot. Among Locke's political works he is most famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in the people and explains the nature of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the social contract. He is also famous for calling for the separation of Church and State in his Letter Concerning Toleration. Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism. This is apparent both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of institutions it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these institutions. Locke believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determine the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity. (adapted from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Reading:

John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Government" (395-404) 

Viewing: Georges Lacombe, Chestnut Gatherers (1893)
Review: Debate Assignment
Today's Reading Can Be Found in Our Course Packet

 Study Questions:

1. What is Locke's theory of property? How does this relate to the founding of political communities? 

2. What is the connection between his assumptions about property and slavery? 

3. What does the debate assignment ask you to do? What questions do you have?