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A 5 Pages Term Paper on Capitalism
What is capitalism “Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of capital.”(Stanley L. Brue, Economics, Principles, Problems and Policies, pg 34-35)
Different Theories on Capitalism
Karl Marx
Karl Marx attempts to show the ethical failure of capitalism by way of the notion of alienation, or self-estrangement. I shall argue that his arguments are based upon misunderstandings of a capitalist economy, faulty definitions, and an implausible conception of human nature.
Let us first define the proposition Marx wishes to assert. We can term it the alienation thesis and define it as the assertion that "the economic system of capitalism causes the alienation of any given worker in that system. Without a definition of alienation, we are left with a rather vacuous thesis. What exactly is alienated from what? What Marx means is that the laborer is alienated from his product, his work, and his human essence.
“First, Marx argues that the act of production devalues the laborer as a market commodity. Second, the act of production reduces the wealth of the laborer. Finally, the product controls the worker in that his work and life is dependent on the product.” (A Giddens "Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Weber.")
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The first claim is almost deliberately false. The better a worker is able to produce a product, that is, the greater the amount of a value he is able to give the product, the more people will be willing to pay for the product and thus the greater amount of value the worker will have in the labor market. That is, the worker will be able to command a higher wage for his productive abilities. The second claim is similarly refuted. The better the production, the more wealth the worker will have, either through direct exchange or mediated through an employer. Marxian is attempting to retain a productive worker. This is a case where Marx simply makes implausible claims without accompanying argument.
The third argument is similarly tenuous. While the object the worker produces does influence a great deal of control over the worker's life, the object is determined by the worker himself. If I produce slipshod chairs for a living, these chairs will have quite a degree of influence over my life, since I will make no money making chairs that no one wants. First, the fact that labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working and when he is working he is not at home. His labor is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labor. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy an end. Its alien character emerges clearly in the fact that as soon as no physical or other compulsion exists, labor is shunned like the plague.
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Finally, Marx contends that capitalism alienates the laborer from his human essence. It is first well worth clarifying what exactly Marx considers to be the essence of man. Marx elsewhere makes relevant statements about treating other humans' interests as ends to be sought by the individual; the basic meaning is that humans are uniquely and essentially communitarian, altruistic beings.
“The incompatibility of capitalism and the Marxian conception of human essence should be easy to spot. In capitalism, one labors for one's own survival and wealth accumulation. The act of exchange in such a market economy is merely a mutual satisfaction of self-interest.” (R Schwartz and J Miller (1964) American Journal of Sociology 159)
Durkheim’s Theory
Growth is central also to Durkheim’s conception of the modern division of labor. He argues that a profound recognition of personal individuality, of the self, moved society from a mechanical to an organic mode of solidarity, and consequently, growth occurs. Discussing our newfound individuality and the economic role associated with it.
The underlying premise behind expanding the number of "movements" it can accomplish is that this kind of growth is fundamentally beneficial to society.
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Durkheim was also concerned with the shifting ethical state that was concurrent with the onset of the new and complex variety of solidarity. He expressed concern about the anomic state of nineteenth century France, a country that had experienced industrialization (growth) at a very rapid rate.
"Durkheim claimed that if one’s appetite for things is not limited by an internalized social constraint, one’s desires would become insatiable. No matter how much wealth or luxury was amassed, the individual composed of, or dominated by, in tempered self-seeking egoism would never be satisfied. No matter how much one had, one would feel frustrated and unhappy at not having more. One’s desires, argued Durkheim, would be like a bottomless abyss that could never be filled. Durkheim called this the ‘malady of infiniteness’ " (S Lukes and A Scull "Durkheim and Law", an edited collection of Durkheim's writings.)
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Weber Theory of Capitalism
Weber theory say that the capitalistic economy of the present day is an enormous cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live. It forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to capitalistic rules of action. The manufacturer who in the long run acts counter to these norms, will just as inevitably be eliminated from the economic scene as the worker who cannot or will not adapt himself to them will be thrown into the streets without a job.
Thus the capitalism of today, which has come to dominate economic life, educates and selects the economic subjects which it needs through a process of economic survival of the fittest. But here one can easily see the limits of the concept of selection as a means of historical explanation. In order that a manner of life so well adapted to the peculiarities of capitalism could be selected at all, i.e. should come to dominate others, it had to originate somewhere, and not in isolated individuals alone, but as a way of life common to whole groups of men. This origin is what really needs explanation. Concerning the doctrine of the more naive historical materialism that such ideas originate as a reflection or superstructure of economic situations.
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Capitalistic attainment as an adventure has been at home in all types of economic society which have known trade with the use of money and which have offered it opportunities, through commend, farming of taxes, State loans, financing of wars, ducal courts and officeholders. Likewise the inner attitude of the adventurer, which laughs at all ethical limitations, has been universal. Absolute and conscious ruthlessness in acquisition has often stood in the closest connection with the strictest conformity to tradition. Moreover, with the breakdown of tradition and the more or less complete extension of free economic enterprise, even to within the social group, the new thing has not generally been ethically justified and encouraged, but only tolerated as a fact. And this fact has been treated either as ethically indifferent or as reprehensible, but unfortunately unavoidable. This has not only been the normal attitude of all ethical teachings, but, what is more important, also that expressed in the practical action of the average man of pre-capitalistic times, pre-capitalistic in the sense that the rational utilization of capital in a permanent enterprise and the rational capitalistic organization of labor had not yet become dominant forces in the determination of economic activity. Now just this attitude was one of the strongest inner obstacles which the adaptation of men to the conditions of an ordered bourgeois-capitalistic economy has encountered everywhere.
The most important opponent, with which the capitalism, in the sense of a definite standard of life claiming ethical sanction, has had to struggle, was that type of attitude and reaction to new situations which we may designate as traditionalism. In this case also every attempt at a final definition must be held in abeyance. On the other hand, we must try to make the provisional meaning clear by citing a few cases. We will begin from below, with the laborers.
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One of the technical means which the modern employer uses in order to secure the greatest possible amount of work from his men is the device of piece-rates. In agriculture, for instance, the gathering of the harvest is a case where the greatest possible intensity of labor is called for, since, the weather being uncertain, the difference between high profit and heavy loss may depend on the speed with which the harvesting can be done. Hence a system of piece-rates is almost universal in this case. And since the interest of the employer in a speeding up of harvesting increases with the increase of the results and the intensity of the work, the attempt has again and again been made, by increasing the piece-rates of the workmen, thereby giving them an opportunity to earn what is for them a very high wage, to interest them in increasing their own efficiency. But a peculiar difficulty has been met with surprising frequency, raising the piece rates has often had the result that not more but less has been accomplished in the same time, because the worker reacted to the increase not by increasing but by decreasing the amount of his work.
To be sure the capitalistic form of an enterprise and the spirit in which it is run generally stand in some sort of adequate relationship to each other, but not in one of necessary interdependence. Nevertheless, we provisionally use the expression spirit of capitalism to describe that attitude which seeks profit rationally and systematically. This, however, is justified by the historical fact that that attitude of mind has on the one hand found its most suitable expression in capitalistic enterprise, while on the other the enterprise has derived its most suitable motive force from the spirit of capitalism.
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Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian, he is well known as "father of psychoanalysis" who generated major theories concerning psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and sexuality. His ideas have been widely used in cultural theory by all sorts of people (psychoanalytical studies are really big in the humanities);
“If Marx looked at the consequences of our need to labor in terms of the social relations, social classes and forms of politics which it entailed, Freud looks at its implications for the psychical life” ( Anthony Giddens (1971) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory.)
Freud's work centered on explaining personality in terms of sexual drives. Basically, we all repress our tendencies to simple gratification and pleasure, the "pleasure principle" in order to work, function, and survive in the modern world. Often we can deal with this repression, but sometimes it becomes too great and we become ill. This repression is centered in our unconscious, which contains many of the clues to why we become neurotic. The primary purpose of psychoanalysis, then, is to explore the unconscious and figure out what's wrong. There's a lot of stuff about ids, egos, penis envy, and Oedipus complexes, but we don't need to go into that here.
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Analysis
Karl Marx
Karl Marx believed in the ‘Materialist conception of history’. He believed that the driving force of historical change was material rather than spiritual’. Not in mere ideas and certainly not in any cosmic Spirit, but in the economic conditions of life lay the key to all history. Alienation is at root neither metaphysical nor religious but social and economic. Under capitalism, labor is something alien to the laborer. He works not for himself but for someone else who directs the process and owns the product as private property. Marx sought, “not just to interpret the world, but to change it”. He was convinced that history was ‘moving forward to the revolution where capitalism would give way to communism’. In Marx’s work we find ‘German philosophy, French socialism, and British political economy’. He took these three things together and ‘welded them into the theory of history’, which Engel’s came to call ‘scientific socialism’. Marx believed that he and Engel’s had discovered the correct scientific method for the study of human society.
Marx thought that alienation was the cause of societal problems in the early capitalist era. Alienation occurred because of reasons discussed earlier. Alienation consists in a lack of community, and this makes morale lower, as people cannot see they are contributing to a group of which they are members. Marx’s main discontent was with the institution of private property.
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Weber
Weber theory of capitalism is based on the modern capitalistic economy in which he says that the capitalistic economy of today is massive thing which absorb every one into it and nobody have any control on it. It forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to capitalistic rules of action. The manufacturer who in the long run attempts to change its norms, will just as inevitably be eliminated from the economic scene as the worker who cannot or will not adapt himself to them will be thrown into the streets without a job.
Durkheim
Durkheim says that growth is the central concept of the modern division of labor. He argues that a profound recognition of personal individuality, of the self, moved society from a mechanical to an organic mode of solidarity, and consequently, growth occurs.
Durkheim was also showed concern with the shifting ethical state that was concurrent with the onset of the new and complex variety of solidarity.
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Sigmund Freud
Freud’s method of psychoanalysis developed from Breurs own assumptions that ‘hysteria was caused by some intense emotional experience (a “trauma”) that the patient had forgotten; his treatment was to induce the recall of the experience and a “discharge” of the corresponding emotion. Freud believed that neuroses always have a sexual origin. He analyzed everyday errors such as slips of the tongue. He concluded that nothing is an accident, and a slip of the tongue is something beyond the control of the person it happens to. He believed the mind consisted of 3 parts, the ego, the superego and the id. Religion to Freud was a ‘system of false beliefs whose deep root in our minds must be explained psychoanalytically’.
Freud says that for an individual to be healthy, equilibrium must be reached among the various parts of the mind and between the person and the external social world. Neurotic illnesses result from the frustration of the sexual instinct, either because of external obstacles or because of internal mental imbalance. Freud believed that repression was crucial in causing neurotic illness. The basic repressions in early childhood are sexual. It is essential for adult health that the child passes through the normal developments of sexuality.
Freud theory was only based on the psychical life of the labor, which includes the mental position of the labor. This will also judges various situations that affect them and also how they react with various kind of stimulus. The 3 parts of mind id, ego and super ego have enormous effect on the labor attitude and behaviors.
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References
Stanley L. Brue, Economics, Principles, Problems and Policies, pg 34-35.
A Giddens "Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Weber"
S Lukes and A Scull "Durkheim and Law" (An edited collection of Durkheim's writings
Anthony Giddens (1971) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory
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