118-415: Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (German: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie ), also known as Capital and Das Kapital ( German pronunciation: [das kapiˈtaːl] ), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy and critique of political economy written by Karl Marx , published as three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his life's work,
236-456: A mode of production , and seeks to trace its origins, development, and decline. Marx argues that capitalism is a form of economic organization which has arisen and developed in a specific historical context, and which contains tendencies and contradictions which will inevitably lead to its decline and collapse. Marx considered Das Kapital a scientific work, and in it critiqued both the system and bourgeois political economists who argue that it
354-473: A "strictly scientific work" of political economy , the content of which did not apply to monarchic Russia, where "capitalist exploitation " had never occurred and was officially dismissed, given "that very few people in Russia will read it, and even fewer will understand it". Nonetheless, Marx acknowledged that Russia was the country where Das Kapital "was read and valued more than anywhere". For instance,
472-454: A French translation, published in 44 installments from August 1872 through May 1875, and then as a single work with a printing of ten thousand copies, the largest up until then. Eventually, Marx's work was translated into all major languages. The definitive critical edition of Marx's works, known as MEGA II ( Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe ), includes Das Kapital in German (only the first volume
590-510: A basis for developing their own models of socialist economic systems . The Marxist view of socialism served as a point of reference during the socialist calculation debate . Marx himself did not use the term socialism to refer to this development. Instead, Marx called it a communist society that has not yet reached its higher-stage. The term socialism was popularized during the Russian Revolution by Vladimir Lenin . This view
708-421: A capitalist market economy do not exist in a socialist economy. The value of a good in socialism is its physical utility rather than its embodied labour, cost of production and exchange value as in a capitalist system. Socialism makes use of incentive-based systems, so inequality would still exist, but diminishingly so since workers are worker-owners. In this way, inequality is also diminished and capital and power
826-464: A class of slaves , then feudalism which was based on nobles and serfs , and then capitalism which is based on the capitalist class ( bourgeoisie ) and the working class ( proletariat ). In his idea of a future communist society, Marx explains that classes would no longer exist, and therefore the exploitation of one class by another is abolished. To historical materialists, hunter-gatherer societies constituted primitive communist societies. In
944-532: A collection of "high-sounding dramas of princes and states". While studying at the University of Berlin , Marx encountered the philosophy of Hegel (1770–1831) which had a profound and lasting influence on his thinking. One of Hegel's key critiques of enlightenment philosophy was that while thinkers were often able to describe what made societies from one epoch to the next different, they struggled to account for why they changed. Classical economists presented
1062-555: A dissertation comparing the philosophy of nature in the works of the philosophers Democritus (circa 460–370 BC) and Epicurus (341–270 BC). The logical architecture of Das Kapital is derived in part from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, including the fundamental distinction between use value and exchange value , the syllogisms ( C-M-C' and M-C-M' ) for simple commodity circulation and
1180-427: A fall in labor's share of output. Marx himself frequently polemicized against the view "that the amount of real wages ... is a fixed amount." Historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx 's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that technological development can change
1298-585: A full, three-volume edition as Theorien über den Mehrwert ( Theories of Surplus Value , 1905–1910). The first volume was published in English as A History of Economic Theories (1952). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union published its own edition of Volume IV in which it claimed that Kautsky's edition bastardized the original text, with their version containing more of the original, unedited material. The first translated publication of Das Kapital
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#17327652795741416-422: A lack of state . Slave societies, the ancient mode of production , were formed as productive forces advanced, namely due to agriculture and its ensuing abundance which led to the abandonment of nomadic society. Slave societies were marked by their use of slavery and minor private property ; production for use was the primary form of production. Slave society is considered by historical materialists to be
1534-412: A material quality possessed by them, since now, in contrast to capitalist society, individual labor no longer exists in an indirect fashion but directly as a component part of total labor. The phrase "proceeds of labor", objectionable also today on account of its ambiguity, thus loses all meaning. What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on
1652-406: A model of civil society based on a universal and unchanging human nature. Hegel challenged this view and argued that human nature as well as the formulations of art, science and the institutions of the state and its codes, laws and norms were all defined by their history and could only be understood by examining their historical development. Hegel’s philosophical thought saw it as an expression of
1770-507: A more recent English translation was made by Ben Fowkes and David Fernbach (the Penguin edition). In 2024, Princeton University Press published the first English translation of the second German edition of Capital, Volume 1, edited and translated by Paul North and Paul Reitter. Volumes 2 and 3 are forthcoming. In 2017, the historian Gareth Stedman Jones wrote in the Books and Arts section of
1888-424: A non-social, technical division of labour which would still exist in socialism. The incentive structure changes in a socialist society given the change in the social environment so that an individual labourers' work becomes increasingly autonomous and creative, creating a sense of responsibility for his or her institution as a stakeholder. In Marxist theory, the state is "the institution of organised violence which
2006-430: A planned fashion. There have been other concepts of economic planning, including decentralised and participatory planning . One of Marx's main manuscripts is a posthumous work called Grundrisse , published in 1953. In this work, Marx's thinking is explored regarding production, consumption, distribution, social impact of capitalism . Communism is considered as a living model for humans after capitalism . The emphasis
2124-430: A primitive communist society, the productive forces would have consisted of all able-bodied persons engaged in obtaining food and resources from the land, and everyone would share in what was produced by hunting and gathering. There would be no private property , which is distinguished from personal property such as articles of clothing and similar personal items, because primitive society produced no surplus; what
2242-417: A revolution in human thought, and a break from previous ways of understanding the underlying basis of change within various human societies. As Marx puts it, "a coherence arises in human history" because each generation inherits the productive forces developed previously and in turn further develops them before passing them on to the next generation. Further, this coherence increasingly involves more of humanity
2360-507: A society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. [...] The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into
2478-492: A specific culture rather than an eternal truth: "Philosophy is its own age comprehended in thought." In each society, humans were 'free by nature" but constrained by their "brutal recklessness of passion" and "untamed natural impulses" that led to injustice and violence. It was only through wider society and the state , which was expressed in each historical epoch, by a "spirit of the age", collective consciousness or geist , that "Freedom" could be realized. For Hegel, history
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#17327652795742596-592: A whole is to locate and describe the concrete forms which grow out of the movements of capital as a whole. Thus, the various forms of capital approach step by step the form which they assume on the surface of society in the action of different capitals on one another in competition and in the ordinary consciousness of the agents of production themselves (25) (Clarke). In volume 3 (as in his earlier text The German Ideology ), Marx discusses how primitive accumulation alienates humans from nature. In volume 3, Marx also describes capitalism as producing an "irreparable rift in
2714-406: A whole" and is concerned primarily with the internal differentiation of the capitalist class. The first three parts are concerned with the division of surplus value amongst individual capitals, where it takes the form of profit. The following parts are concerned with merchants' capital, interest-bearing capital and landed capital. The last part draws the whole account together. The aim of the volume as
2832-458: Is a lengthy polemic against Marx and Engels' fellow Young Hegelians and contemporaries Ludwig Feuerbach , Bruno Bauer , and Max Stirner . In the Marxian view, human history is like a river. From any given vantage point, a river looks much the same day after day. But actually it is constantly flowing and changing, crumbling its banks, widening and deepening its channel. The water seen one day
2950-485: Is an amalgam of contesting forces – some promoting stability and others striving for change. It is not just external factors that bring about transformation but internal contradictions. The unceasing drive of this dynamic is played out by real people struggling to achieve their aims. The outcome is that ideas, institutions and bodies of society are reconfigured into new forms expressing new characteristics. At certain decisive moments in history, during periods of great conflict,
3068-500: Is an expanded English translation of the successful 2008 Japanese pocket version Das Kapital known as Manga de Dokuha . The English translation of volume 1 by Samuel Moore and Eleanor Marx 's partner Edward Aveling , overseen by Engels, was published in 1887 as Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co. This was reissued in the 1970s by Progress Publishers in Moscow, while
3186-484: Is at the heart of Marx's account of history. Marx viewed labor throughout history, in all societies and in all modes of production, from the earliest Paleolithic hunter gatherers through to feudal societies and to modern capitalist economies as an "everlasting Nature-imposed condition of human existence" that compels humans to join socially to produce their means of subsistence. Marx identified two mutually interdependent structures of humans' interaction with nature and
3304-438: Is consistent with and helped to inform early concepts of socialism in which the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Monetary relations in the form of exchange-value , profit , interest and wage labour would not operate and apply to Marxist socialism. Karl Marx described a socialist society as such: What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on
3422-596: Is different from lower-stage socialism in fundamental ways. While socialism implies public ownership (by a proletarian semi-state apparatus) or cooperative ownership (by a worker cooperative enterprise), communism would be based on common ownership of the means of production . Class distinctions based on ownership of capital cease to exist, along with the need for a state. A superabundance of goods and services are made possible by automated production that allow for goods to be distributed based on need rather than merit. The fundamental goal of socialism from
3540-573: Is efficient and stable. In Das Kapital (1867), Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labor , whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value . The owner of the means of production is able to claim the right to this surplus value because they are legally protected by the ruling regime through property rights and the legally established distribution of shares which are by law distributed only to company owners and their board members. The historical section shows how these rights were acquired in
3658-486: Is in French) and shows all the versions and alterations made to the text as well as a very extensive apparatus of footnotes and cross-references. The first unabridged translation of Das Kapital to Bengali was done by professor Piyush Dasgupta . It was published in six volumes by Baniprakash, Kolkata, India between 1974 and 1983. In 2012, Red Quill Books released Capital: In Manga! , a comic book version of Volume I which
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3776-527: Is more widely distributed. The method of compensation and reward in a socialist society would be based on an authentic meritocracy along the principle of " From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution ". The advanced stage of socialism, referred to as the upper-stage communism in the Critique of the Gotha Programme , is based on the socialist mode of production. It
3894-502: Is never the same as that seen the next. Some of it is constantly being evaporated and drawn up, to return as rain. From year to year these changes may be scarcely perceptible. But one day, when the banks are thoroughly weakened and the rains long and heavy, the river floods, bursts its banks, and may take a new course. This represents the dialectical part of Marx's famous theory of dialectical (or historical) materialism. — Hubert Kay, Life , 1948 Marx based his theory of history on
4012-406: Is not claiming that productive forces always develop or that they never decline. Their development may be temporarily blocked, but because human beings have a rational interest in developing their capacities to control their interactions with external nature in order to satisfy their wants, the historical tendency is strongly toward further development of these capacities. Broadly, the importance of
4130-420: Is spent on commodities for which there is market-demand, can be considered productive labour and therefore exploited on Marx's account. There are also those who argued that Marx's so-called immiseration thesis is presumed to mean that the proletariat is absolutely immiserated. The existing scholarly consensus tends towards the opposite view that Marx believed that only relative immiseration would occur, that is,
4248-561: Is the negation of capitalism . Socialist mode of production The socialist mode of production , also known as socialism or communism , is a specific historical phase of economic development and its corresponding set of social relations that emerge from capitalism in the schema of historical materialism within Marxist theory . The Marxist definition of socialism is that of production for use-value (i.e. direct satisfaction of human needs, or economic demands), therefore
4366-402: Is the key feature of the explanation." It is because the influences in the two directions are not symmetrical that it makes sense to speak of primary and secondary factors, even where one is giving a non-reductionist, "holistic" account of social interaction. To summarize, history develops in accordance with the following observations: Many writers note that historical materialism represented
4484-408: Is the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950. Marx's theory of historical materialism posits that the economic structure of society – in particular, the forces and relations of production – are the crucial factors in shaping its nature. Rather than a simple description of capitalism as an economic model , Das Kapital instead examines capitalism as a historical epoch and
4602-418: Is the point of departure for the topic of capital accumulation which was given its Marxist treatment later in detail by Rosa Luxemburg , among others. Das Kapital, Volume III , subtitled The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole , was prepared by Engels from notes left by Marx and published in 1894. It is divided into seven parts: The work is best known today for Part 3 which in summary says that as
4720-420: Is to provide an environment whereby individuals are free to express their genuine interests, creative freedom and desires unhindered by forms of social control that force individuals to work for a class of owners who expropriate and live off the surplus product . As a set of social relations, socialism is defined by the degree to which economic activity in society is planned by the associated producers so that
4838-408: Is upon fair distribution of goods, equality and the optimum environment for humans to live in to develop themselves to their best capabilities (art, politics and philosophy, among others) to achieve happiness and to satisfy intrinsic needs . Marx's goal was to design a social system that eliminates the differences in classes between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie . In doing so, the tension and
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4956-422: Is used by the ruling class of a country to maintain the conditions of its rule. Thus, it is only in a society which is divided between hostile social classes that the state exists". The state is seen as a mechanism dominated by the interests of the ruling class. It subjugates other classes, to protect and legitimize the existing economic system . After a proletarian revolution , the state would initially become
5074-525: The British Library in London. At the time of his death (1883), Marx had prepared the manuscript for Das Kapital, Volume IV , a critical history of theories of surplus value of his time, the 19th century, based on the earlier manuscript Theories of Surplus Value (1862–63). The philosopher Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) published a partial edition of Marx's surplus-value critique and later published
5192-1118: The Cartesian rationalism of philosophers such as Descartes . Notable philosophers expounding materialist views included Francis Bacon , Pierre Gassendi , and John Locke . They were followed by a series of materialists in France in the 18th century such as Étienne Bonnot de Condillac , Claude Adrien Helvétius , and Baron d'Holbach . In the 19th century, the pre-Marxist communists Théodore Dézamy and Jules Gay adopted materialism in their historical analysis of society as well. Marx inherited his materialist philosophy from this Gassendi-Dezamy line of thinkers. Marx's ideas were also influenced by his reading of Young Hegelian writer Ludwig Feuerbach 's 1833 work Geschichte der neuern Philosophie von Bacon von Verulam bis Benedict Spinoza which covered Gassendi's materialist philosophy as well as Gassendi's treatment on materialist Ancient Greek philosophers such as Epicurus , Leucippus , and Democritus . Inspired by Enlightenment thinkers, especially Condorcet,
5310-443: The bourgeoisie . However, production was still largely for use. The capitalist mode of production materialized when the rising bourgeois class grew large enough to institute a shift in the productive forces. The bourgeoisie's primary form of production was in the form of commodities , i.e. they produced with the purpose of exchanging their products. As this commodity production grew, the old feudal systems came into conflict with
5428-551: The divine right of kings . A group of thinkers including Hobbes (1588–1679), Montesquieu (1689–1755), Voltaire (1694–1778), Smith (1723–1790), Turgot (1727–1781) and Condorcet (1743–1794) explored new forms of inquiry, including empirical studies of human nature, history, economics and society. Some philosophers, for example, Vico (1668–1744), Herder (1744–1803) and Hegel (1770–1831), sought to uncover organizing principles of human history in underlying themes, meanings, and directions. For many Enlightenment philosophers,
5546-416: The law of value no longer directs economic activity. Marxist production for use is coordinated through conscious economic planning . According to Marx, distribution of products is based on the principle of " to each according to his needs "; Soviet models often distributed products based on the principle of " to each according to his contribution ". The social relations of socialism are characterized by
5664-422: The modes of production over time. This change in the mode of production inevitably encourages changes to a society's economic system . Marx's lifetime collaborator, Friedrich Engels , coined the term "historical materialism" and described it as "that view of the course of history which seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in
5782-495: The proletariat effectively controlling the means of production , either through cooperative enterprises or by public ownership or private artisanal tools and self-management . Surplus value goes to the working class and hence society as a whole. The Marxian conception of socialism stands in contrast to other early conceptions of socialism, most notably early forms of market socialism based on classical economics such as mutualism and Ricardian socialism . Unlike
5900-450: The serfdom from the countryside to the city, forming a new proletarian class. This caused the countryside to become reliant on large cities. Subsequently, the new capitalist mode of production also began expanding into other societies that had not yet developed a capitalist system (e.g. the scramble for Africa ). The Communist Manifesto stated: National differences and antagonism between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to
6018-667: The socialist mode of production . The argument is an analysis of the classical economics of Adam Smith , David Ricardo , John Stuart Mill and Benjamin Franklin , drawing on the dialectical method that G. W. F. Hegel developed in Science of Logic and The Phenomenology of Spirit . Other intellectual influences on Capital were the French socialists Charles Fourier , Henri de Saint-Simon , Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon . At university, Marx wrote
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#17327652795746136-459: The utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825) formulated his own materialist interpretation of history, similar to those later used in Marxism, analyzing historical epochs based on their level of technology and organization and dividing them between eras of slavery , serfdom , and finally wage labor . According to the socialist leader Jean Jaurès , the French writer Antoine Barnave
6254-580: The "spirit of the age" drive history was mistaken in Marx's view. Hegel, wrote Marx, "fell into the illusion of conceiving the real as the product of thought..." Marx contended that the engine of history was to be found in a materialist understanding of society - the productive process and the way humans labored to meet their needs. Marx and Engels first set out their materialist conception of history in The German Ideology , written in 1845. The book
6372-460: The Marxian conception, these conceptions of socialism retained commodity exchange ( markets ) for labour and the means of production seeking to perfect the market process. The Marxist idea of socialism was also heavily opposed to utopian socialism . Although Marx and Engels wrote very little on socialism and neglected to provide any details on how it might be organized, numerous social scientists and neoclassical economists have used Marx's theory as
6490-536: The Russian edition was the fastest selling as 3,000 copies were sold in one year while the German edition took five years to sell 1,000, therefore the Russian translation sold fifteen times faster than the German original. This edition was in part worked on by revolutionary socialist Mikhail Bakunin , but "he quit after completing part of the first chapter" and it was completed by Nikolai Danielson and German Lopatin among others. Marx revised, rewrote, and monitored
6608-410: The abstract, or by entering into arbitrary or random relations chosen at will, but instead are determined by the development of the existing forces of production. The relations of production are determined by the level and character of these productive forces present at any given time in history. In all societies, human beings collectively work on nature but, especially in class societies, do not do
6726-652: The actions of "great historical men" can align with the "spirit of the age" to bring about a fundamental advance in freedom. The implication of Hegel's philosophy that every social order, no matter how powerful and secure, will eventually wither away was incendiary. These ideas were inspirational to Marx and the Young Hegelians who sought to develop a radical critique of the Prussian authorities and their failure to introduce constitutional change or reform social institutions. However, Hegel's contention that ideas or
6844-435: The bourgeoisie, in the same way that the bourgeoisie was the revolutionary class in relation to the nobility under feudalism. The proletariat, then, must seize power as the new revolutionary class in a dictatorship of the proletariat . Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which
6962-545: The capitalist production system would be unavailable. Marx postulated that if workers are paid enough so that they still are able to buy products in a capitalist market, they will become essential contributors in assuring the domination of capitalism worldwide . Market forces to compel capitalists to produce use-values in pursuit of exchange-value. Socialist production involves rational planning of use-values and coordination of investment decisions to attain economic goals. In this approach, cyclical fluctuations that occur in
7080-528: The categories cannot explain. This meant that Marx had to build his arguments on historical narratives and empirical evidence rather than the arbitrary application of his ideas in his evaluation of capitalism. On the other hand, Das Kapital has also received criticism. There are theorists who claimed that this text was unable to reconcile capitalist exploitation with prices dependent upon subjective wants in exchange relations. Marxists generally reply that only socially necessary labor time , that is, labor which
7198-511: The changes in the modes of production and exchange, in the consequent division of society into distinct classes, and in the struggles of these classes against one another." Although Marx never brought together a formal or comprehensive description of historical materialism in one published work, his key ideas are woven into a variety of works from the 1840s onward. Since Marx's time, the theory has been modified and expanded. It now has many Marxist and non-Marxist variants. Marx's view of history
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#17327652795747316-410: The circulation of value as capital . Moreover, the description of machinery under capitalist relations of production as "self-acting automata " derives from Aristotle's speculations about inanimate instruments capable of obeying commands as the condition for the abolition of slavery . In the 19th century, Marx's research of the available politico-economic literature required twelve years, usually in
7434-492: The concepts of property, money, and commodity production. To Marx, the higher-stage of communist society is a free association of producers which has successfully negated all remnants of capitalism, notably the concepts of states , nationality , sexism , families , alienation , social classes , money , property , commodities , the bourgeoisie , the proletariat , division of labor , cities and countryside , class struggle , religion , ideology , and markets . It
7552-417: The contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society—after the deductions have been made—exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor. For example,
7670-419: The contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society – after the deductions have been made – exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor. For example,
7788-400: The development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto. The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. United action, of the leading civilised countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat. In proportion as
7906-449: The driving force in society or that the underlying cause of change was guided by the actions of leaders in government or religion. The " great man " and occasionally "great woman" view of historical change was popularized by the 19th-century Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) who wrote "the history of the world is nothing but the biography of great men". According to Marx, this conception of history amounted to nothing more than
8024-460: The economic base, but its features also ultimately correspond to the character and development of that economic base, i.e. the way people organize society, its relations of production, and its mode of production. G.A. Cohen argues in Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence that a society's superstructure stabilizes or entrenches its economic structure, but that the economic base is primary and
8142-506: The emergence of an entirely new mode of production as the culmination of the same historical dialectic that led to the emergence of capitalism from prior forms. The third volume is highly controversial, peculiarly the tenth chapter, as some economists feel like Marx contradicted himself with the Marxian fundamental value theory while trying to tackle the transformation problem . Volume 3 is subtitled "The process of capitalist production as
8260-406: The exploitation of one individual by another will also be put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end. Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie and proletariat become the two primary classes. Class struggle between these two classes
8378-589: The first class-stratified society formed of citizens and slaves . Surplus from agriculture was distributed to the citizens, who exploited the slaves that worked the fields. The feudal mode of production emerged from slave society (e.g. in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire), coinciding with the further advance of productive forces. Feudal society's class relations were marked by an entrenched nobility and serfdom . For Marx, what defined feudalism
8496-425: The first place chiefly through plunder and conquest and the activity of the merchant and "middle-man". In producing capital , the workers continually reproduce the economic conditions by which they labour. Das Kapital proposes an explanation of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist economic system from its origins to its future by describing the dynamics of the accumulation of capital, the growth of wage labour ,
8614-436: The first volume. These three volumes are collectively known as Das Kapital . NML: Das Kapital, Volume I (1867) is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production , how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production and of the class struggle rooted in the capitalist social relations of production. The first of three volumes of Das Kapital
8732-608: The forces of production tend to develop and expand as new skills, knowledge and technology (for example wooden scratch plows then heavier iron plows) are put to use to meet human needs. From one generation to the next, technical skills, evolving traditions of practice and mechanical innovations are reproduced and disseminated. Marx extended this premise by asserting the importance of the fact that, in order to carry out production and exchange, people have to enter into very definite social relations, or more specifically, "relations of production". However, production does not get carried out in
8850-636: The great landmarks of nineteenth-century thought, it is [because it connects] critical analysis of the economy of his time with its historical roots. In doing so, he inaugurated a debate about how best to reform or transform politics and social relations, which has gone on ever since. Positive reception also cited the soundness of the methodology used in producing the book, which is called immanent critique. This approach, which starts from simple category and gradually unfolds into complex categories, employed "internal" criticism that finds contradiction within and between categories while discovering aspects of reality that
8968-513: The idea that modes of production do not exist in isolation but rather are materialized from the previous existence is a core idea in historical materialism. There is considerable debate among communists regarding the nature of this society. Some such as Joseph Stalin , Fidel Castro , and other Marxist-Leninists believe that the lower-stage of communism constitutes its own mode of production, which they call socialist rather than communist. Marxist-Leninists believe that this society may still maintain
9086-415: The instrument of the proletariat . Conquest of the state by the proletariat is a prerequisite to establishing a socialist system. As socialism is built, the role and scope of the state changes. Class distinctions, based on ownership of the means of production, gradually deteriorate. The concentration of means of production increasingly falls into state hands. Once all means of production become state property,
9204-415: The interdependent" connection of humans and nature. The purpose of Das Kapital (1867) was a scientific foundation for the politics of the modern labour movement . The analyses were meant "to bring a science , by criticism, to the point where it can be dialectically represented" and so "reveal the law of motion of modern society" to describe how the capitalist mode of production was the precursor of
9322-405: The manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in each single workshop. With the rise of the bourgeoisie came the concepts of nation-states and nationalism . Marx argued that capitalism completely separated the economic and political forces. Marx took the state to be a sign of this separation—it existed to manage
9440-432: The massive conflicts of interest which arose between the proletariat and bourgeoisie in capitalist society. Marx observed that nations arose at the time of the appearance of capitalism on the basis of community of economic life, territory, language, certain features of psychology, and traditions of everyday life and culture. In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels explained that the coming into existence of nation-states
9558-400: The modes of production by later authors. In each of these stages of production, people interact with nature and production in different ways. Any surplus from that production was distributed differently. Marx propounded that humanity first began living in primitive communist societies, then came the ancient societies such as Rome and Greece which were based on a ruling class of citizens and
9676-424: The more the productive forces develop and expand to bind people together in production and exchange. This understanding counters the notion that human history is simply a series of accidents, either without any underlying cause or caused by supernatural beings or forces exerting their will on society. Historical materialism posits that history is made as a result of struggle between different social classes rooted in
9794-405: The necessity of labor to ensure physical survival. In The German Ideology , Marx wrote that the first historical act, was the production of means to satisfy material needs and that labor is a "fundamental condition of all history, which today, as thousands of years ago, must daily and hourly be fulfilled merely in order to sustain human life". Human labor forms the materialist basis for society and
9912-414: The new capitalist ones; feudalism was then eschewed as capitalism emerged. The bourgeoisie's influence expanded until commodity production became fully generalized: The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by
10030-408: The oppressors. The other was expressed in the expansion of links among nations, the breaking down of barriers between them, the establishment of a unified economy and of a world market ( globalization ); the first is a characteristic of lower-stage capitalism and the second a more advanced form, furthering the unity of the international proletariat . Alongside this development was the forced removal of
10148-453: The organic fixed capital requirements of production rise as a result of advancements in production generally, the rate of profit tends to fall . This result which orthodox Marxists believe is a principal contradictory characteristic leading to an inevitable collapse of the capitalist order was held by Marx and Engels to—as a result of various contradictions in the capitalist mode of production —result in crises whose resolution necessitates
10266-564: The overall primacy of the productive forces can be understood in terms of two key theses: (a) The productive forces tend to develop throughout history (the Development Thesis). (b) The nature of the production relations of a society is explained by the level of development of its productive forces (the Primacy Thesis proper). In saying that productive forces have a universal tendency to develop, Cohen's reading of Marx
10384-408: The power differences which force workers to labor in bad conditions for poor wages, disappear. According to Marx, capitalism is a system guaranteed to collapse because big companies would buy small companies , leading to monopoly . In such a scenario, a very small number of people control most of the money and power . Poverty for the masses would prevail. Significant capital to buy products from
10502-481: The power of ideas became the mainspring for understanding historical change and the rise and fall of civilizations. History was the gradual advance of the "spirit of liberty" or the growth of nationalism or democracy , rationality and law . This view of history remains popular to this day. Beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries, materialism came to prominence in Western philosophy , especially in opposition to
10620-453: The process of producing their subsistence : the forces of production and relations of production . The forces of production are everything that humans use to make the things that society needs. They include human labor and the raw materials, land, tools, instruments and knowledge required for production. The flint sharpened spears and harpoons developed by early humans in the late Paleolithic period are all forces of production. Over time,
10738-421: The same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another. Socialism is a post- commodity economic system and production is carried out to directly produce use-value rather than toward generating profit . The accumulation of capital is rendered insufficient in socialism as production is carried out independently of capital accumulation in
10856-412: The same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another. This lower-stage of communist society is, according to Marx, analogous to the lower-stage of capitalist society, i.e. the transition from feudalism to capitalism, in that both societies are "stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The emphasis on
10974-458: The same work. In such societies, there is a division of labor in which people not only carry out different kinds of labor but occupy different social positions on the basis of those differences. The most important such division is that between manual and intellectual labor whereby one class produces a given society's wealth while another is able to monopolize control of the means of production . In this way, both govern that society and live off of
11092-468: The scientific journal Nature : What is extraordinary about Das Kapital is that it offers a still-unrivalled picture of the dynamism of capitalism and its transformation of societies on a global scale. It firmly embedded concepts such as commodity and capital in the lexicon. And it highlights some of the vulnerabilities of capitalism, including its unsettling disruption of states and political systems. [...] If Das Kapital has now emerged as one of
11210-494: The social intertwining of the different capitals, of the component parts of capital and of revenue (= s)". This intertwining, conceived as a movement of commodities and of money, enabled Marx to work out at least the essential elements, if not the definitive form of a coherent theory of the trade cycle, based upon the inevitability of periodic disequilibrium between supply and demand under the capitalist mode of production ( Ernest Mandel , Intro to Volume II of Capital , 1978). Part 3
11328-440: The social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of means of consumption as much as
11446-440: The social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of means of consumption as much as
11564-447: The solid foundation on which the whole of the unfolding analysis is based. Marx wrote in a letter sent to Engels on 30 April 1868: "In Book 1 [...] we content ourselves with the assumption that if in the self-expansion process £100 becomes £110, the latter will find already in existence in the market the elements into which it will change once more. But now we investigate the conditions under which these elements are found at hand, namely
11682-409: The state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat . Marx also describes a communist society developed alongside the proletarian dictatorship: Within the co-operative society based on common ownership of the means of production, the producers do not exchange their products; just as little does the labor employed on the products appear here as the value of these products, as
11800-630: The study of history lies in the ability of history to explain the present. John Bellamy Foster asserts that historical materialism is important in explaining history from a scientific perspective, by following the scientific method , as opposed to belief-system theories like creationism and intelligent design , which do not base their beliefs on verifiable facts and hypotheses . The main modes of production that Marx identified include primitive communism , slave society , feudalism , capitalism and communism . Mercantilism , mixed economy ( state-capitalism ) and socialism are sometimes included in
11918-416: The superstructure secondary. That said, it is precisely because the superstructure strongly affects the base that the base selects that superstructure. As Charles Taylor wrote: "These two directions of influence are so far from being rivals that they are actually complementary. The functional explanation requires that the secondary factor tend to have a causal effect on the primary, for this dispositional fact
12036-402: The surplus product produced by socialised assets is controlled by a majority of the population through marxist-democratic processes. The sale of labour power would be abolished so that every individual participates in running their institution as stakeholders or members with no one having coercive power over anyone else in a vertical social division of labour which is to be distinguished from
12154-418: The text contains Marx's analysis of capitalism , to which he sought to apply his theory of historical materialism "to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society", following from classical political economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo . The text's second and third volumes were completed from Marx's notes after his death and published by his colleague Friedrich Engels . Das Kapital
12272-615: The transformation of the workplace, the concentration of capital, commercial competition, the banking system, the decline of the profit rate , land-rents, et cetera . The critique of the political economy of capitalism proposes: After two decades of economic study and preparatory work (especially regarding the theory of surplus value ), the first volume appeared in 1867 as The Production Process of Capital . After Marx's death in 1883, Engels introduced Volume II: The Circulation Process of Capital in 1885; and Volume III: The Overall Process of Capitalist Production in 1894 from manuscripts and
12390-459: The underlying economic base. According to G. A. Cohen , author of Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence , the level of development of society's productive forces (i.e., society's technological powers, including tools, machinery, raw materials, and labor power) determines society's economic structure, in the sense that it selects a structure of economic relations that tends best to facilitate further technological growth. In historical explanation,
12508-403: The view of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was the realization of human freedom and individual autonomy . Specifically, this refers to freedom from the alienation imposed upon individuals in the form of coercive social relations as well as material scarcity , whereby the individual is compelled to engage in activities merely to survive to reproduce his or herself. The aim of socialism
12626-485: The wealth generated by the laboring classes. Marx identified society's relations of production (arising on the basis of given productive forces) as the economic base of society. He also explained that on the foundation of the economic base, there arise certain political institutions, laws, customs, culture, etc., and ideas, ways of thinking, morality, etc. These constitute the political/ideological " superstructure " of society. This superstructure not only has its origin in
12744-505: The whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The bourgeoisie, as Marx stated in The Communist Manifesto , has "forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class—the proletarians." Historical materialists henceforth believe that the modern proletariat are the new revolutionary class in relation to
12862-595: The worker and the industrialist (as in Volume I), but rather the money owner and money lender, the wholesale merchant, the trader and the entrepreneur or functioning capitalist. Moreover, workers appear in Volume II essentially as buyers of consumer goods and therefore as sellers of the commodity labour power , rather than producers of value and surplus-value , although this latter quality established in Volume I remains
12980-608: Was in the Russian Empire in March 1872. It was the first foreign publication with the French edition beginning publication in August 1872 and the English edition appearing 15 years later in 1887. It was even published before the first modern Russian translation of the whole Bible in 1876. Despite Russian censorship proscribing "the harmful doctrines of socialism and communism ", the Russian censors considered Das Kapital as
13098-475: Was now prevalent. With the emergence of capitalism, productive forces were now able to flourish, causing the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Despite this, however, the productive forces eventually reach a point where they can no longer expand, causing the same collapse that occurred at the end of feudalism: Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property,
13216-415: Was produced was quickly consumed and this was because there existed no division of labour, hence people were forced to work together. The few things that existed for any length of time - the means of production ( tools and land), housing - were held communally. In Engels' view, in association with matrilocal residence and matrilineal descent, reproductive labour was shared. There would have also been
13334-448: Was published on 14 September 1867, dedicated to Wilhelm Wolff and was the sole volume published in Marx's lifetime. Das Kapital, Volume II , subtitled The Process of Circulation of Capital , was prepared by Engels from notes left by Marx and published in 1885. It is divided into three parts: In Volume II , the main ideas behind the marketplace are to be found, namely how value and surplus-value are realized. Its focuses aren't so much
13452-525: Was shaped by his engagement with the intellectual and philosophical movement known as the Age of Enlightenment and the profound scientific, political, economic and social transformations that took place in Britain and other parts of Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Enlightenment thinkers responded to the worldly transformations by promoting individual liberties and attacking religious dogmas and
13570-435: Was the first to develop the theory that economic forces were the driving factors in history. Marx came to his commitment to a materialist analysis of society and political economy around 1844 and completed his works The Holy Family in 1845, The German Ideology or Leipzig Council in 1846, and The Poverty of Philosophy in 1847 along with Friedrich Engels. Marx rejected the enlightenment view that ideas alone were
13688-401: Was the power of the ruling class (the aristocracy ) in their control of arable land, leading to a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands, typically under serfdom and principally by means of labour, produce and money rents. Simple commodity production existed in the form of artisans and merchants. This merchant class would grow in size and eventually form
13806-439: Was the result of class struggle, specifically of the capitalist class's attempts to overthrow the institutions of the former ruling class. Prior to capitalism, nations were not the primary political form. Vladimir Lenin shared a similar view on nation-states. There were two opposite tendencies in the development of nations under capitalism. One of them was expressed in the activation of national life and national movements against
13924-434: Was the working through of a process where humans become ever more conscious of the rational principles that govern social development. Hegel's dialectical method presents the world as a complex totality where all aspects of society (familial, economic, scientific, governmental, etc.) are interconnected, mutually influential, and unable to be considered in isolation. According to Hegel, at any particular point in time, society
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