Karl Marx: Philosophy, Politics, and Class Conflict

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Karl Marx was a German philosopher who studies at the university of berlin. He was a Hegelian. He was very active in the political scene, thus springing his desire to combined philosophy, political science and economics. Marx believes that we are the product of our environments but we also have the power to change our environment. He believed that human beings can shape the environment that we live in through our abilities. He also believes that philosophers should not only interoperate the world, but they should be able to change it (Citation). Marx believed that history is all based class conflicts. He uses the example of the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The bourgeoisie is the oppressive class, they consist of the rich, upper class, …show more content…

Marcuse believes that free enterprise is good to a point, it is starting to become detrimental. He believes that machines have become more efficient and there is now not a need for people (2). Society believes that the capitalist economic consumerism. We have to work harder to make money to buy what society wants us to buy. We also have false needs that treat us like objects. False needs are things that we think we need because of societal standards. It objectifies our critical capacities. By doing this, society is easily to control. There are also true needs, which is something that you would want or do without the pressures from society.by having these false needs we are also internalizing society’s values into our own, this is called internalization. We have to be a type of person, we classify ourselves as product people, “I am team iPhone” or “I am team android” , this is taking away from our individuality and we are now classifying ourselves to a product. Marcuse also believes that we alienate ourselves and from others through our false consciousness (11). Also the scientific method has been applied incorrectly in previous philosophy. There is more to life than what scientific tools can measure, this is seen in political life, social life and in human existence. By our capitalist society is based on a scientific outlook. We do not always need to be looking through a scientific lenses. Society also is dumbing down politics according to Marcuse. We are isolating ourselves into binaries, we are either this or that. And if we see something that we do not like, we just associate it with the opposing side. Lastly, Marcuse concludes with his prediction that as capitalism expands, the things that allow for personal engagement and personal growth will become reduced down to nothing. It will become dehumanizing. Society has to do something to change this in order to keep individuality

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