Political Science 2237E Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: The Communist Manifesto, Lumpenproletariat, Labour Power
14 Mar 2018
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Week 19 karl marx: class society and the critique of capitalism: marx (1818-1883), f. engels (1820-1895) Did not want to interpret the world he wanted to change it. Engaged in an intense study of economics. Engels family owned a big textile company. Marx saw the horrible working conditions within the company. Marx and engels were associated with working class radicals. A contribution to the critique of political economy (1859) What are we born into: every person is born into a system of economic relations that they didn"t choose, independent of our will. Society"s base and superstructure: economic production and relations constitute the economic structure/base of society, the superstructure responds to the base. Main themes: alienation, classes vs class interests. Proletariat: workers who sell their labour power. Lumpenproletariat: the unemployed, the unemployable, criminal element. Objective position within economy and class system: people occupy an objective material position within the economy.
