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NAME : SARAH PINTO

CLASS : 1ST PECOS

SUBJECT : SOCIOLOGY

TOPIC : KARL MAX

COLLEGE : JYOTI NIVAS COLLEGE AUTONOMOUS

YEAR : 2019-2020

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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY………………………………………………1

2. KARL MARX…………………………………… …………………………………..2

3. KARL MARX’S BELIEFS…………………………………………………………..3

4. KARL MARX’S INFLUENCE…………………………………………………..…4

5. CONTRIBUTIONS OF MARX………………………………………………….…5

6. MAIN WORKS OF MARX…………………………………………………………6

7. CHALLENGES OF MARXIAN SOCIALISM……………………………………7

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INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is the scientific study of society, including patterns of


social relationships, social interaction, and culture. The
term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste Compte in the
1830s when he proposed a synthetic science uniting all knowledge
about human activity. In the academic world, sociology
is considered one of the social sciences.
Sociologists study all things human, from the interactions between
two people to the complex relationships between nations or
multinational corporations. While sociology assumes that human
actions are patterned, individuals still have room for
choices. Becoming aware of the social processes that influence the
way humans think, feel, and behave plus having the will to act can
help individuals to shape the social forces they face.

Auguste Comte, who gave the name to sociology, confidently


expected that it would provide the highest level of scientific
explanation in establishing laws of human society itself.From its
original purpose as the 'science of society', sociology has moved on
to more reflexive attempts to understand how society works. It
seeks to provide insights into the many forms of relationship, both
formal and informal, between people. Such relationships are
considered to be the 'fabric' of society. Smaller scale relationships
are connected to larger scale relationships and the totality of this is
society itself. Human beings have wants, needs and desires but the
form that these take is related to attachments to social groupings
and participation in social institutions. The latter are patterns of
human interaction which become 'instituted' over time. People
therefore recognise them and orientate their actions towards them.

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KARL MARX

Karl Marx was a German economist, sociologist and philosopher.


He was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier – which was then part of the
Prussian Rhineland – and died in London on 14 March 1883.

Marx became interested in communism – the theory that the means


of production ought to be owned in common and managed for the
public good – after starting a career as a radical journalist in the
early 1840s. He proceeded to become the foremost advocate of
communism in 19th-century Europe and became famous chiefly
through his association with the Paris Commune (1871) – a socialist
working-class uprising against the French government that lasted
two months.

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KARL MARX’S BELIEFS
For us to understand the basics of Marx’s beliefs, it is important to
recognise what was going on in Europe during the 19th century.
During this period a new factory system was introduced that
increasingly concentrated the workforce - industrial
proletariat into poorly-paid, dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
Poverty was rife in the new urban slums.
Marx believed that as more and more workers were pushed down
into poverty, they would eventually rise up against their bosses.
Socialist propagandists would then convince the workforce that
production for human need rather than profit was preferable. They
would persuade the proletariat to try to overthrow the system, Marx
thought.

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KARL MARX’S INFLUENCE
Whether Marx intended for the proletariat to rise up and foment
revolution or whether he felt that the ideals of communism, ruled by
an egalitarian proletariat, would simply outlast capitalism, is
debated to this day. But, several successful revolutions did occur,
propelled by groups that adopted communism—including those
in Russia, 1917-1919, and China, 1945-1948. Flags and banners
depicting Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution,
together with Marx, were long displayed in the Soviet Union. The
same was true in China, where similar flags showing the leader of
that country's revolution, Mao Zedong, together with Marx were
also prominently displayed.

Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in


human history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the
millennium" by people from around the world. The memorial at his
grave is always covered by tokens of appreciation from his fans. His
tombstone is inscribed with words that echo those from "The
Communist Manifesto," which seemingly predicted the influence
Marx would have on world politics and economics: "Workers of all
lands unite.”

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CONTRIBUTIONS OF MARX

Karl Marx is a prominent pillar of sociology, and he is well


established as classical thinker in sociology, his contribution is in
many core areas of sociology such as political sociology,economic
sociology, methodology, sociological theories as well as
sociological thought. Beyond this, Marxist/Marxism itself as a
perspective has a different angle/dimension to look at the social
issue in sociology , from class formation to class conflict in conflict
perspective, stages of development of society a historical analysis,
mode of production, surplus production, capitalism, are one and
unique, dialectal materialism a philosophical approach are few
examples from many. Marx and his ideas are a big failure in 21st
century, but Marx remains alive even in near future.
His most of the theories are the focal point of discussion among the
sociologists across the world. He changed the methodology of the
historical analysis. Marx rejected the history of rise and fall of
kings-kingdoms and their dynasties.

His way of history is history of change of mode of production.


Change of mode of production brings change in society. History
contains the analysis mode of productions.
In the beginning society was classless, so, in the last stage of
development of society again society will be classless.
Surplus production causes the creation of benefits through market,
in later course that creates classes - proletariat and bourgeois.
Through dialectal materialism he proved that material brings
change in human as well as society. He corrected to Hegel through
as Hegel was believing in spiritual dialectics. Though he borrowed
the idea from Hegel, but he changed the entire perspective.
Karl Marx witnessed the change happened across Europe in his life
time, therefore he has been a great critique of industrialisation and
it's post impact on society.
He is often criticised on the basis that Marx was unaware of
emergence of the middle class which is the centre of modern
economy. And also, Marx was not aware of cooperative movement
that is the backbone of many countries, that brought huge change in
society.

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Main Works of Karl Marx

1. The German Ideology, 1845, with Friedrich Engels.

2. The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847.

3. Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848, translated by S.


Moore, New Edition -1952.

4. The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850.

5. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 1852 with F


Engel.

6. The Holy Family.

7. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,


Translated by N.I. Stone, 1904.

8. Das Kapital, [Vol. I in 1867, Vol. 2 and 3 published by Engels


in 1865 and 1894.]

9. (a) The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844


[1964] and (b) Grundrisse -1973

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Challenges to Marxian Socialism

>"Marxism is opposed to freedom."

On the contrary, Marxists (in the spirit of Marx) want to establish a


social system in which the workday can be shortened, with no
reduction in pay, so that people will have more time in which they
are not "chained to a job." Moreover, they advocate workers
democratic control over the workplaces, which shorter workdays or
work weeks will make feasible (since workers can use some of their
non-labor time learning what they need to co-manage the
workplaces). This alone would increase freedom, but with less
wasteful forms of production and consumption, the work week
could eventually be shortened to a small fraction of what it is today,
freeing up time and energy for creative activities of all sorts.

>"Marxism is opposed to democracy.”

The capital system is fundamentally opposed to democracy while


the Marx philosophy wants to promote a high-intensity version of it.
The capital system can tolerate a low-intensity version of
democracy whereby people who lack real political power are
permitted to vote every two or four years as to which political
machine controlled by capital will make up the government, so it
does not really matter which party is in power.

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