Episode 26, Karl Marx's Political Philosophy (Part IV)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Courses

4.8 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2017

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Website: www.thepanpsycast.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/thepanpsycast Karl Marx is one of the most influential figures in human history. The Prussian-born philosopher, economist, political theorist, sociologist, and revolutionary socialist, produced some of the most controversial and influential works in the past two-hundred years. A champion of human rights for many and a dangerous radical for many others; Karl Marx, the communist, is considered one of the principal architects of modern social science. Regardless of your own points of view, it is hard to deny that Marx's critique of capitalism is relevant today. In January 2017, Oxfam published An Economy for the 99%, which found that the richest 8 men in the world are worth more than the poorest 3.6 billion. In 1848, alongside Friedrich Engels, Marx produced the Manifesto of the Communist Party. In the concluding remarks, Marx writes, "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!"

Transcript

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0:00.0	Part 4. Further analyses and discussion. Right, so in part four, we've got a few objectives on our hands, so I'll just give you a brief outline or manifesto of what we're going to be discussing. No, it's not a manifesto. So first of all, we're going to look at Marx's solution, and we're going to give some quotes from the manifesto of the Communist Party. Then we're going to give our strengths, our weaknesses, discuss Marx's legacy,
0:38.3	then we're going to give our concluding remarks. Then it's pop-pop philosophy quiz. And then
0:44.0	we'll say farewell to you all. So let's get going. That's a lot packed into that section, Jack.
0:48.3	So you think we're capable of doing it? Well, as the Communist manifesto says.
0:55.8	Um, no, apparently.
0:58.4	Right.
0:59.1	So Marx's solution, we've given a really detailed critique of capitalism.
1:03.7	For a lot of people, the value of Marx is his critique of capitalism.
1:08.0	And it's just as valuable today as it's ever been.
1:12.2	As I said at the start, in 2017, Oxfam found that eight men have more money than half of the world. That statistic is
1:20.9	ridiculous. So Marx's solution, what is it? Well, interestingly, and I'm sure most people would probably say,
1:30.4	not much of a solution, because, well, obviously, Marx and Engels produced the Communist
1:36.2	Manifesto, that's still more of like a call to arms. It's saying, like, you've got nothing
1:41.0	to lose but your chains and go and take what's rightfully yours but does marks
1:45.8	actually provide a very well like enlightening piece of writing on how a communist state should look like
1:53.4	well no primarily because he thinks that actually when a communist state happens that that will
1:59.5	actually be the eradication of the state itself,
2:02.2	that politics won't really be needed. You'll have like a, perhaps a group of bureaucrats that
2:07.2	kind of keep it organized. But as far as like, what's your king or monarch going to look like,
2:13.4	well, no, that's not going to be there. And you're not going to have like a democracy in the sense that we have now. And an economy won't exist in the same way because people won't be
2:23.5	buying and selling. You'll have, like, still have certain property, but it'll be owned by, well,
2:29.4	everyone. And it's the idea of that you, you know, you take what you need and you give what you can, and that's what he's looking for.
	...

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