The Communist Manifesto Seminar

This seminar was based around the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 which presented and analysed the problems of a capatalist state. During this seminar three members of the group presented a seminar paper giving different interpretations of the manifesto. All three of the papers were highly informative and this led to a fairly intense group discussion where we were all able to share our opinions of Marx's ideas. The general feeling amongst the group was that even though Marx did not intend to create a plan for a new communist society it has been interpreted and adapted by dictators all over the world and used to suppress the masses in many countries such as Russia and China. This shows that a document which originally set out to solve the problems of capitalism within a country has been used in a much more brutal and controlling manner throughout the course of the 20th century until Communism's collapse in 1989.

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx
May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883

Karl Marx was one of the key philosophers of the 19th century and his ideas of creating a new state where everyone was regarded as equal has been adapted and used all across the world in many Eastern European countries such as Russia. He was born in 1818  in Germany to Jewish parents and he studied Law, Philosophy and Revolution but during his time at the University of Berlin he bacame increasingly fascinated by the works of Hegel. After he graduated he focused upon Revelation and radical journalism and his ideas were very controversial within society at the time so he was forced to flee from Germany and other countries before settling in London where he lived until his death in 1883.

In 1844, Marx met Fredrich Engles who published his works including the Communist Manifesto and in 1848 when revolution was spreading around Europe he pledged his full support. He wanted to change the world and move away from capitalism towards a new ideology where everybody is equal and working for the common good. The state would be destroyed and there would be no personal possessions, religion and countries would all unite for the sake of Communism. He believed we can explain everything in society by analysing economics and our society was economically determined. He took a very scientific approach into proving the world was economically dependant by studying tax records and commodity prices every day for several years. He thought that humans had the power to trigger a revolution as they were the most dominant species as they had the ability to produce tools in order to survive.

In order for a revolution to begin and trigger a change, the prolatariat who were the working class had to rise up against the borgoisie who were the elite class. Marx believed this would happen over time as the proletariat had nothing to lose as they had no property or wealth but everything to gain as if his theories worked the proletariat would have more wealth. Capitalism alienates people as we value some things over others and this causes a degree of inequality.

Marx thought humans have three needs within themselves, a natural self where humans need to eat, drink and sleep in order to live, an alienated self where the natural self is perverted for example sex is perverted as we live in a male dominated society and finally species self where everybody is part of one another and this self turned out to be one of the most important characteristics of Communism. He stated that humans are stuck in the alienated self as we do not get job satisfaction as we can see our collegues in higher positions and work in general causes an alienation of our self as it does not develop the mind or body.

Marx used Hegel's model of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis to explain how a new society would form. The Thesis was the dominance of the Bourgoisie, free market Capitalism, a liberal state and individual rights and this would be opposed to by the Proletariat and Socialism would be the result or Synthesis. This change would be inevitable no matter how hard states tried to stop it and a revolution by the proletariat was imminent.

Kant and Hegel Seminar

The seminar was based around the ideas of Emmanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and the seminar paper was read by myself and Asha and this gave the group a very good introduction to the discussion. We had a long discussion as a group about how influential Hegel's ideas were on other philosophers such as Karl Marx with his belief that history can be divided up into three stages, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis and these stages allow human being to have self knowledge and understanding. A thesis is a proposition such as a fact or belief that a human believes and an antithesis allows the proposition to be contradicted or agreed up. The synthesis is the end product where either the thesis or antithesis is combined to create a belief. When humans have full knowledge of the world around them via this process known as a dialectic then they have full knowledge and Hegel thought that this is the point where history ends as there is no more to be discovered.