11. Dialectic
the process whereby opposite
views or forces come into
conflict, which eventually
leads to the overcoming or
reconciliation of the opposition
in a new and presumably
higher form
13. The Master-Slave Dialectic
• The master becomes master by physically
conquering another, whom he then
enslaves.
• Seeing oneself through the eyes of the
Other.
• The master and slave are engaged in a
symbiotic relationship.
• The master and slave are engaged in a
conflictual relationship.
• The true relationship revealed through
resistance.
• A Happy Conclusion…
25. Marx’s Materialist Conception of Society
(Ball and Dagger, “Socialism and Communism: More to Marx”)
IDEOLOGICAL
SUPERSTRUCTURE
IDEAS, IDEALS, BELIEFS
(Morality, Law, Religion, Etc.)
SOCIAL RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION
BASE
MATERIAL FORCES OF PRODUCTION
(“Productive Forces”)
27. “Religious distress is at the
same time the expression of
real distress and the protest
against real distress. Religion
is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the heart of a
heartless world, just as it is the
spirit of a spiritless situation. It
is the opiate of the people…
28. “The abolition of religion as
the illusory happiness of the
people is required for their real
happiness. The demand to
give up the illusions about its
condition is the demand to
give up a condition that needs
illusions…
29. The criticism of religion is
therefore in embryo the
criticism of the vale of woe, the
halo of which is religion.
Criticism has plucked the
imaginary flowers from the
chain, not so that man will wear
the chain without any fantasy
or consolation…
30. …but so that he will shake off
the chain and cull the living
flower.
Karl Marx
Contribution to the Critique of Hegelʼs
Philosophy of Right.
35. 1. Merchant capitalists
hastened the demise of
feudalism
2. Capitalism has made men
masters over nature
3. Capitalism requires
constant innovation and
change
40. 4 ways in which workers are
alienated under capitalism:
1. They are alienated from the product of their labor
because they are forced to sell their labor and do not
own what they produce.
2. They are alienated from the activity of production
itself because the capitalist system of mass
production kills the creative spirit, leaving workers
unable to find satisfaction in their labor.
3. Workers are alienated from their unique and
distinctively human nature and potential,
particularly the power to create and enjoy beauty, by
the dulling effect of living in a capitalist society.
4. Capitalism alienates workers from each other
because it forces them to compete for jobs & wages.
44. Bourgeois-Proletariat
Dialectic
•The Worker is enslaved by the
Capitalist, though at first, he or she
does not know it
•The Worker wakes from a “False
Consciousness”
•The Dialectic turns…
•Establishing the classless society
45. Bourgeois-Proletariat
Dialectic
•The Worker is enslaved by the
Capitalist, though at first, he or she
does not know it
•The Worker wakes from a “False
Consciousness”
•The Dialectic turns…
•Establishing the classless society
46. Bourgeois-Proletariat
Dialectic
•The Worker is enslaved by the
Capitalist, though at first, he or she
does not know it
•The Worker wakes from a “False
Consciousness”
•The Dialectic turns…
•Establishing the classless society
47. Bourgeois-Proletariat
Dialectic
•The Worker is enslaved by the
Capitalist, though at first, he or she
does not know it
•The Worker wakes from a “False
Consciousness”
•The Dialectic turns…
•Establishing the classless society
48. The Revolutionary Sequence
COMMUNISM
WITHERING AWAY OF
THE STATE
DICTATORSHIP OF THE
PROLETARIAT
SEIZURE OF STATE
POWER
REVOLUTIONARY
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
IMMISERATION OF
THE PROLETARIAT
ECONOMIC CRISES
57. “I have tried to produce goods
which should be genuine as far
as their mere substances are
concerned, and should have on
that account the primary
beauty in them which belongs
to naturally treated
substances.”
William Morris
62. Morris’ Principles
•It is right and necessary that all men
should have work to do which shall be
worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to
do; and which should be done under
such conditions as would make it
neither over-wearisome nor over-
anxious.
•Nothing should be made by men’s
labour which is not worth making; or
which must be made by labour
degrading to the makers.
63. Morris’ Principles
•It is right and necessary that all men
should have work to do which shall be
worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to
do; and which should be done under
such conditions as would make it
neither over-wearisome nor over-
anxious.
•Nothing should be made by men’s
labour which is not worth making; or
which must be made by labour
degrading to the makers.
64. Morris’ Principles
• No one who is willing to work should ever fear
want of such employment as would earn for him
all due necessities of mind and body.
– Honourable and fitting work
– Decency of Surroundings
– Leisure
• It is NECESSARY to human well-being that “In a
well ordered state of Society every man willing
to work should be ensured honourable and fitting
work, a healthy and beautiful house, and full
leisure for mind and body.”
65. Morris’ Principles
• No one who is willing to work should ever fear
want of such employment as would earn for him
all due necessities of mind and body.
– Honourable and fitting work
– Decency of Surroundings
– Leisure
• It is NECESSARY to human well-being that “In a
well ordered state of Society every man willing
to work should be ensured honourable and fitting
work, a healthy and beautiful house, and full
leisure for mind and body.”
73. • Monopoly arose out of the
concentration of production at a very
advanced stage of development.
• Monopolies have accellerated the
capture of the most important sources
of raw materials.
• Monopoly has sprung from the banks
(creation of a financial oligarchy).
• Monopoly has grown out of colonial
policy.
75. Four Conclusions:
1. Confirmed his suspicions and hatred of the
“revisionist” Marxists who proposed gradual
change by working through parties within the
current system.
2. Members of the working-class in the West have
been infected with a “trade union mentality,” in
effect becoming “bourgeoisie” themselves, and
unreliable for bringing the Marxian revolution.
3. The (Vanguard) Party plays the indispensable
role of raising the consciousness of the working
class.
4. The revolution will come FIRST to those areas
most immiserated and led by an active
vanguard party.
79. Mao proposed to rely on the Chinese
agrarian peasantry for 2 reasons:
1. Poor peasant farmers were an
overwhelming majority of the Chinese
population, and if organized and mobilized,
would provide an almost irresistible force.
2. They were the poorest and most oppressed
segment of the population. They had
nothing to lose but everything to gain from
revolution against their oppressors.
