Karl Marx’s approaches on Human Development

Introduction

Development is the goal of the rich as well as the poor countries. The understanding of people about development is economic growth only. The word development came from a French word which means de- envelop. So it means to liberate people from the various forces that cover the poor and marginalized. To engage in the process of development means to build a world where the people can live a fully human life. Development process to be effective must becomes a people’s movement. There are many debates connected with development and liberation. In deeper sense development and liberation are complimentary. Sometimes liberation and development are integral to each other. Liberation without development becomes empty. The role of development includes the liberation of all the areas of human life. In this paper we will be looking for the contribution of Karl Marx in the area of human development.

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

Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier in 1818. During the first half of the 1850s the Marx family lived in poverty. Marx was educated at home until the age of thirteen. After graduating from the Trier Gymnasium, Marx enrolled in the University of Bonn in 1835 at the age of seventeen; he wished to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted that it was more practical to study law. By 1857 he had accumulated over 800 pages of notes and short essays on capital, landed property, wage labor, the state, foreign trade and the world market. He wrote many books on the basis of socio political economy.

Karl Marx has offered cardinal criticism against the dehumanizing factors. Marxism struggles to root out all kinds of discriminations, exploitations and oppressions of caste, class and gender. Marxism claims to fight against immoral activities and financial misappropriations. It opposes all dehumanizing structures of the society. It is based on democracy. It advocates equality in all spheres of the society. Marxism fights for the liberation of the exploited class. It stands for full humanization of the world. Neo-Marxism proves the power of Marxism to give new insights to different branches. It is relevant to note that several eminent Christian theologians are influenced by the humanizing insights of Marxism, for example, Jurgen Moltmann, Reinhold Neibuhr, Paul Tillich, Sebastian Kappen, Gustavo Gutierrez, and M. M. Thomas etc.


Marx’s concept of Human Creativity

Marx believes in the potentiality of human beings because it has the power to transform the nature, the society and to create the history. He writes “Men make their own history”. Marx affairs that individual has infinite capacity to change the world. Marx says that the creativity of human beings is revealed in the work of production. Production is the humanization of society. By the work, the human beings transform nature and humanize themselves. Marx has strongly argued that human creative power should be utilized for humanization.

Humanism of Marx

Marxism stands to bring back human beings to real and true humanism to replace the dehumanization in an estranged society. Capitalism degraded human beings merely into goods and raw materials. Therefore Marxism roots out the bourgeois class in order to liberate the working class from the exploitation and oppression. Marxian humanism is not only a theory but it is praxis to create a new humanized society through the humanization of the nature. Marx’s thought from beginning to end is a revolutionary humanism which struggles for full developed human beings. Marx’s humanism stands for the full humanization of the society. The fundamental basis of Marxian humanism is the ultimate and unlimited respect to the human beings.

Marx’s concept of Transcendence

In religion, the term transcendence consists of supernatural concepts. The history and future are decided and controlled by God. It is outside of human being’s potentialities. Marx denies the superhuman transcendence. Marx conceives transcendence as dynamic human reality, which consists unlimited potentialities of human beings to make history and their own destiny. Human beings are the subject of history because they make their own history. Human beings existential situation is a state of estrangement from their essential nature. According to Marx’s concept of transcendence, human beings have power to shape their own destiny, history and the future of the world. It advocates human potentialities to humanize the world.

Marx’s concept of classless society is based on the fully humanized and perfect equitable and just society. Classless society is a freedom society. Marx’s principle for a new society is, from each according to his/her need. Marxism argues to give equal wages without considering the skill and abilities of the workers. Marx’s concept of classless society is fully based on the vision of humanization.

Marx’s Theory of Revolution

Marx’s philosophy is a philosophy of revolution. Revolution is a practical-critical activity. According to the theory of Revolution of Marx, capitalism is the root cause of pauperization exploitation and oppression. It makes severe protest in the mind of the people. This protest leads to revolution. Revolution indicates the integral and fast transformation of the society. The target of all kinds of revolutions is to make a fully humanized world and human beings. Therefore revolution means the tremendous planned transformation of the society on the basis of humanization. The dominant class will not give up power, by which they exploit the working class, without a severe struggle. Therefore Marx realizes that there is an urgent need of revolution and revolution is the ultimate passion of human beings. Marx argues that we cannot humanize the society without revolutionizing it from the foundation. Marxism is a social ideology for combat, which stands for humanization. Marxian view of transformation of society and abolishment of poverty are nothing but the praxis of humanization.

Marx’s concept of Community

Marxian concept of community is a fellowship of the human beings. That fellowship aims at the perfection of the human beings by eliminating all elements of dehumanization in the society. Marx’s concept of new community is fully liberated from all kinds of alienations. There is no separate identity for individual and society in Marx’s concept of community. In the new community, Marx argues, individual must be reinterpreted as the inevitable element of the objective structure of the society. Freedom for self-determination, freedom of human will, freedom of reason, and freedom for criticism are salient features of Marx’s concept of community. It advocated equal opportunity to all. There would not be any kind of exploitation and oppression of caste, class and gender and any kind of dehumanizing structure. Therefore, Marxian concept of community is a fully humanized society.

Marx and society

At the cornerstone of his thinking about the society is the concept of the class struggle. Marx did recognize that the existence of classes was bound up with particular modes of production or economic structure and the new working class that Capitalism had created, had a historical potential leading to the abolition of all classes and to the creation of a classless society. He mentioned that "the history of all existing society is a history of class struggle". Each society, whether it was tribal, feudal or capitalist was characterized by the way its individuals produced their means of subsistence, their material means of life, how they went about producing the goods and services they needed to live. Each society created a ruling class and a subordinate class as a result of their mode of production or economy. Marx referred to this relation as the relations of production. The feudal economy was characterized by the existence of a small group of lords and barons that later developed into a landed aristocracy and a large group of landless peasants. The capitalist economy that is characterized by a small group of property owners who owned the means of production i.e. the factories, the mines and the mills and all the machinery within them. This group was also referred to as the capitalist class. The feudal economy as well as the capitalist economy will create graves for the society. These ideas we can see in The Communist Manifesto (1847, 48).

Marx and economy

Marx’s concept of economy begins with an analysis of the idea of commodity production. A commodity is defined as a useful external object, produced for exchange on a market. Thus two necessary conditions for commodity production are the existence of a market, in which exchange can take place, and a social division of labor, in which different people produce different products. Marx suggests that commodities have both use-values and exchange-values. Although Marx's economic analysis is based on the discredited labour theory of value, there are elements of his theory that remain of worth. The Cambridge economist Joan Robinson, in An Essay on Marxian Economics, picked out two aspects of particular note from Marxian concept. First, Marx's refusal to accept that capitalism involves a harmony of interests between workers and capitalist, replacing this with a class based analysis of the worker's struggle for better wages and conditions of work, versus the capitalist's drive for ever greater profits. Second, Marx's denial that there is any long-run tendency to equilibrium in the market, and his descriptions of mechanisms which underlie the trade-cycle of boom and bust. Both provide a salutary corrective to aspects of orthodox economic theory.

Marx’s concept of Labour

Possession of land or landed properties divided the society into the rich and the poor. As a result, a poor labour class that is oppressive, miserable and exploitative started emerging. Exploitation occurs as the products of the labour of those who do the work are taken by those who own property or capital and this surplus value was turned into profits, interest and rent. True development would come only through the struggle for liberation of the labour class. Marx is totally against of superficial development and realized that these kinds of development will enslave the citizens to a different country.

According to Marx, development is not up-lifting, but up-rising. Marx discovered in the proletariat not only the suffering class, but also the struggling class. He is interested not in up-lifting it, but in their up-rising. Socialism means for him not plans to care for the proletariat, but the result of the struggle of the proletariat itself, for the struggle for national liberation has taught the Marxians that they need to develop their own cultural identity in the quest for human emancipation.

Marx’s concept of Capital

For Marx, development will mean economic development. For him, the whole superstructure of development is built on the basis on the economics. The rich own not only the capital needed for production, but also the means of production. Marx has asserted that production for its own sake means nothing but the development of human production forces, in other words, the development of the richness of human nature is an end in itself. Holistic development will mean for Marx the development of rich individuality which is all-sided in its production as well as in its consumption.

Marx mentioned about four types of suffering for a worker who work under capitalism. First is from the product. As soon as the product is created is taken away from its producer. Second is in productive activity (work) and is experienced as a torment. Third is from species-being, for humans produce blindly and not in accordance with their truly human powers. Finally is from other human beings, where the relation of exchange replaces the satisfaction of mutual need. Quite possibly in the course of writing he came to understand that a different methodology is required for approaching economic issues.





Marx’s concept of Organization

The Marxian Model of development emphasizes collectives such as social classes, the whole society and economy. As we have already mentioned, the working classes proletariat organize them to overthrow the capitalists and the capitalism and hope to create a more humane economic system in the long run. Thus for Marx, the economic development is the expression of the collective will of the people, particularly the working class. Marx painted a very positive picture of capitalism as a powerful and expansive economic system, able to destroy previous social, economic and political structures, and replace them with a progressive economic system which could vastly expand human potential. He looked on capitalism as an economic force that would create possibilities for true human emancipation, by laying the foundations for socialism and communism.

Conclusion

Marxian philosophy is to be considered as philosophy of humanization. His thoughts always based on anthropocentric. The ultimate aim of the whole theories and praxis of Karl Marx is the betterment of the human being. Through the vision of the classless society he realized a new humanity. As mentioned above many theologians influenced by the Marxian humanization. Likewise we, a theological community can earn many things from the ideas and concepts of Karl Marx to do a meaningful ministry.