Changes

Marx saw "primitive" socialist thought as fundamentally a moral movement with no base in a practical science. Marx's solution was to ground an analysis of society on his principle of dialectical materialism.   

Marx saw "primitive" socialist thought as fundamentally a moral movement with no base in a practical science. Marx's solution was to ground an analysis of society on his principle of dialectical materialism.   

Dialectic was a principle created by German philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] which, although ferociously complex in his works, is based on the fairly  straightforward conception of action and reaction. A situation arises that is less than perfect ("thesis") which provokes a reaction ("antithesis"), eventually a settlement is reached ("synthesis") which, is still far from perfect and provokes its own antithesis. Hegel saw the driving force of changes being the "Geist", variously translated as "spirit" or "mind". Marx took the dialectic and replaced Geist with materialism, at root the metabolism of man. To put it bluntly: you've got to eat!. The difference between the ideal spirit and reality translates into Marx' view that man had become alienated from his true nature. Man had been created different from animals: he is creative, this is essential to his nature. However, in modern days, man is just automatically producing: he works to earn his wage, but has no tie to the product of his labour at all. This is the alienation from his true nature.

Dialectic was a principle created by German philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] which, although ferociously complex in his works, is based on the fairly  straightforward conception of action and reaction. A situation arises that is less than perfect ("thesis") which provokes a reaction ("antithesis"), eventually a settlement is reached ("synthesis") which, is still far from perfect and provokes its own antithesis. Hegel saw the driving force of changes being the "Geist", variously translated as "spirit" or "mind". Marx took the dialectic and replaced Geist with materialism, at root the metabolism of man. To put it bluntly: you've got to eat!. The difference between the ideal spirit and reality translates into Marx' view that man had become alienated from his true nature. Man had been created different from animals: he is creative, this is essential to his nature. However, in modern days, man is just automatically producing: he works to earn his wage, but has no tie to the product of his labour at all. This is the alienation from his true nature.  Marx found a solution: oulaw wages.

The necessity for material sustenance gives rise to an imperfect means of production, which changes as the internal contradictions of thesis and antithesis work themselves out. A key feature of Marx's sociology was that the competition for resources splits society into mutually antagonistic classes ("The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.") whilst the operation of the dialectic serves to continually reduce the numbers of classes until, in the industrial age, society was almost wholly split between "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat". Captialism, according to Marx, is just one system in a long series of economic systems in the world. He held that capitalist society had strong internal inherent tensions. In the development of capitalism, capital (money) would be increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. The difference in income between the poorest and richest would always increase. Through economic crises, the poor laborers would start to realize that the system would always be disadvantageous to them.

The necessity for material sustenance gives rise to an imperfect means of production, which changes as the internal contradictions of thesis and antithesis work themselves out. A key feature of Marx's sociology was that the competition for resources splits society into mutually antagonistic classes ("The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.") whilst the operation of the dialectic serves to continually reduce the numbers of classes until, in the industrial age, society was almost wholly split between "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat". Captialism, according to Marx, is just one system in a long series of economic systems in the world. He held that capitalist society had strong internal inherent tensions. In the development of capitalism, capital (money) would be increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. The difference in income between the poorest and richest would always increase. Through economic crises, the poor laborers would start to realize that the system would always be disadvantageous to them.