3.11.6

Karl Marx

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Karl Marx's View on the Exploitation of Workers

Karl Marx was a 19th-century philosopher and economic theorist. His most famous works are The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867).

Illustrative background for Marx's view of industrialisationIllustrative background for Marx's view of industrialisation ?? "content

Marx's view of industrialisation

  • Marx's ideas were important foundations for the development of socialism and communism.
  • As Marx was alive at the time of the industrial revolution, he noticed a paradoxical feature of the industrialised world that was emerging: as humans gained more control over the world, they felt more out of control in that world.
    • For Marx, this was because workers were being alienated from the product of their labour.
Illustrative background for Alienation of the workerIllustrative background for Alienation of the worker ?? "content

Alienation of the worker

  • In a factory or a mill, a worker might only focus on one particular part of the manufacturing process, with other people focussing on other aspects of the process.
  • So, a worker may be spinning cotton that is then dyed by someone else, then cut up by someone else and then stitched together by yet another person.
Illustrative background for Analysis of the worker's roleIllustrative background for Analysis of the worker's role ?? "content

Analysis of the worker's role

  • Here the worker is alienated from the product. There is no link to the product. The worker might never see the finished product. And so work becomes repetitive and dull.
  • The worker becomes little more than a machine, just one cog in a giant system. This dehumanises the worker, who spends most of their life doing the same unfulfilling job.
Illustrative background for Exploitation by factory ownersIllustrative background for Exploitation by factory owners ?? "content

Exploitation by factory owners

  • The factory owner, removed from his workers, comes to see the workers as mere parts; a means to an end.
  • Labour becomes like any other commodity: one that can be replaced by cheaper labour.
  • This results in exploitation as the workers only options are no work (and so no money to live) or to work for a very low wage.
Illustrative background for 21st-century worker exploitationIllustrative background for 21st-century worker exploitation ?? "content

21st-century worker exploitation

  • A Marxist analysis would argue this exploitation continues in the 21st century with a globalised economy.
    • The owners constantly seek cheaper labour to produce their products by, for example, moving production to a country with the lowest wages.

Jump to other topics

1Philosophy of Religion

1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato

1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle

1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body

1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation

1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason

1.6Religious Experience

1.7The Problem of Evil

1.8The Nature & Attributes of God

1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic

1.10Religious Language: 20th Century Perspective

2Religion & Ethics

3Developments in Christian Thought

3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings

3.2Death & the Afterlife

3.3Knowledge of God's Existence

3.4The Person of Jesus Christ

3.5Christian Moral Principles

3.6Christian Moral Action

3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology

3.8Development - Pluralism & Society

3.9Gender & Society

3.10Gender & Theology

3.11Challenges

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