105 A Midterm

the idea that relates to specialization of the labor force, essentially the breaking down of large jobs into many tiny components. This means that a worker becomes an expert at one isolated area of production and therefore increasing his efficiency. Also the fact that laborers don’t have to move from place to place or switch tasks saves time and money.

According to Marx, in Capitalism items (capital) increase in value based on the length of time that abstract labor is used to produce said capital. The labor is based specifically on the time of use by active bodily production rather than on the qualitative distinctions between types of labor ie weaver versus tailor.

The freedom to change your trade as often as you please and move your capital wherever it most benefits you. The market becomes self regulating (creating an equilibrium) only under the conditions of perfect liberty. Full economic autonomy

essentially a natural phenomenon that guides free markets and capitalism through competition for scarce resources. government intervention in the economy isn't needed because the invisible hand is the best guide for the economy. driven by peoples' pursuit of self-interest

Refers to the economic production organization in capitalism. This included the means of production, factories, raw material, land and such. This also involves the relations of production, the relationship between the owners of the means of production and those who dont.

defined by the way society organizes its mode of production. Under capitalism, the social relations of production lump everyone into two main social classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Under capitalism, the labor activity makes the person and the object. The worker is being dominated by capital and in result the product has mastery over you.

making an object that dominates you. The worker becomes alienated from the product that they produce for a wage

The relationship of the laborer to the producing activity itself. Work as a means to an end under capitalism without fundamental meaning intrinsic in the labor. You empty yourself into the object that you make and thus you empty yourself, preventing oneself from becoming fulfilled.

a capitalist system determines us to one task and this dehumanizes us into being like animals who do one single task for a lifetime

In a capitalist society, we confront a world of alienated people and of objects that are alienated. A person is alienated from their own as well as other peoples humanity in this stage.

your activities can create an object, but also create you as an object creator. For example, the act of painting becomes the creation of a painting which then is the creation of a painter. You become whatever you are making or producing.

Marx is saying that human labor is not pre-determined like animals. Animal instincts tell what labor an animal does while humans can change at will. A human is able to change their labor in order to further benefit themself.

a system in which a wage is exchanged for a person’s labor. This system is most often seen in a capitalist society. The wage labor system is what causes the 4 dimensions of alienation and forces people to become dependent on the wage. They become slaves to the wage.

a commodity. the only thing proletariat has to offer. what you exchange for a wage.

capital meaning property that requires the exploitation of labor in order to generate property

society moves forward through class conflict/contradictions. Contradictions in particular on the forces of production

value given to a commodity by it’s usefulness, the more it can be used the more value given to the commodity.\ Is derived from human wants and needs (not specific to capitalism)

Capitalistic. two things must be equal to be exchanged. Derived from the amount of other goods that can be exchanged for that good. Basis of the monetary system

is the labor time that is required to produce a commodity under “normal conditions” and includes the level of skill required at the time of production. it regulates the exchange value of the products that are being produced for trade.

Labor where goods are being produced solely for exchange. Specific to capitalism. expenditure of muscle, brain, nerves, labor extracted from specific task of weaving/tailoring) abstract labor in the commodity that allows all commodities to be exchanged for one another. Quantitative

is a labor you do for yourself with no wages being involved. Qualitative

Trade of money for a commodity in order to sell the commodity for more money than originally spent

When a bourgeois exchanges with a proletariat wage for labor, they trade for exchange-value but what they’re really getting is use-value(ex wage is enough for 4 hour shift but the proletariat works for 8 hours). the bourgeois does not pay for the surplus labor value.

The fetishism of commodities is the process by which the actual value behind products, abstract labor, becomes unidentifiable by the consumer. The consumer instead only sees the use value of the good they consume, therefore remaining ignorant of the actual human expenditure which actually produces the value of the good they consume.

Causes: The natural propensity to truck, barter, and exchange in order to better one's condition. Self-interest

Consequences: Increase in dexterity in every particular workman. Saving the time lost in passing work. Naturally turned workers thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods to facilitate production

Each person involved in capitalism tries to maximize their self-interest (self-regulating because people produce according to what people would buy and people consume according to what they wanted and could afford).

The Invisible Hand.

to keep up with increasing production. artisans and guilds become proletariats because they cannot keep up with production. the bourgeois must constantly keep up with each other in order to produce more and produce faster. Capitalism compels individuals to constantly revolutionize.

Marx’s theory of history is that history is formed out of the conflicts between classes. He criticizes the young Hegelians idealist theory of history by saying that history does not result out of ideas and is rather a product of class conflict and internal modes of production

alienation , wage labor, capitalism, *private property(bourgeois property),

Smith- would agree because the Division of Labor is an outgrowth of human nature in his eyes. It rose up from human nature. It is natural for humans to constantly want to ever better their condition. Human nature plays a role in his argument.

Marx- This does not fulfill, it alienates. Mention 4 dimensions of alienation. You can't

do what you want (coerced labor etc). Exploitation. Address outgrowth.( Compulsion aspect of capitalism. Marx wouldn't believe this is an outgrowth because of human nature because he doesn't believe in human nature.

Smith-ability to freely move capital and labor is to be free. Perfect liberty is HAVING the freedom to trade w/o interference from government.

Marx- freedom to pursue species being, to do whatever you want, capitalism suppresses that because people need to earn a wage in order to acquire commodities that enable them to survive.

Marx says things change over time and smith failed this aspect. Smith does not consider time as dynamic or transforming. Time is static to him. That society would reach a (pinnacle) an end to history. Political economy is not natural to Marx but social, and this needs to be explained.

Talk about the Young Hegelian's belief that ideas move history forward as opposed to Marx's belief that class conflict and internal modes of production move history forward