Political Essay
ljj
MillMarxMay25.pptxMill is a utilitarian: liberty is good for its consequences, NOT for its own sake!
What are these consequences?
Intellectual progress through marketplace of ideas
Personal growth/individualism 63
Greek ideal of self-development: human flourishing/happiness, p.56
human being as a “noble object of contemplation” p.62
Development of human faculty of choice p.57-58, 60, 62
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How do we distinguish between self- and other-regarding behaviour?
Unclear.
BUT: Such inconveniences are ones society can afford to bear, pp. 80
Why?
Because “Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” p. 15.
The “odds are that [society] interferes wrongly, and in the wrong place.” p. 81.
“Moral police” p. 82
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Marx: context
Industrial revolution
End of feudalism
Spread of democracy
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3 components to Marx’s theoretical work:
Philosophy/theory of history
Political economy
Sociology/political theory
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The philosophical component:
“Historical materialism”
Productive activity is natural human activity
It is the locus of human fulfillment
It determines everything else about human life
Homo faber: man the maker
“Men can be distinguished from animals by their consciousness…"
“A mode of production is a definite mode of life…” The German Ideology, p. 150
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2 kinds of productive activity for Marx
Labor
Vs.
Free, conscious activity
What’s the difference?
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Alienation: Marx’s critique of wage labor
(“Paris manuscripts” Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844)
From whom or what are we alienated?
4 kinds of alienation:
1. From the product of his own labour (p. 72)
2. From the act of labouring (pp. 74-75)
3. Species-essence (pp. 73, 74, 76, 77)
“Life-activity, productive life itself, appears... merely as a means to satisfying a need” p. 75
The gap between our “essence” and our “existence”
4. Other human beings (77, 78)
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