Marx And Freud Essay, Research Paper
) In Capital, Marx analyzes the commodity form, its characteristics, and the kind of society that rises with it. What is his argument about the nature of commodity exchanges? On what foundation of this analysis, he attempts to “force the secret of profit making” in capitalism. How does he demonstrate the way the way in which capital produces profit?
Marx reference to commodity can be seen in two forms, use and exchange value, every useful value can be looked at from two points of view, quality, and quantity. A use value is a commodity that is useful. Use value is dealing with definite qualities, such as a dozen of vases or yards of material. Only by consumption, use value becomes a reality.
Exchange value can be viewed as a quantitative relation. Goods are changed according to their equality of one another; for example, three tons of rice may equal a ton of iron. Use value commodities differ in qualities whereas exchange values differ in quantities. All products of commodity have only one thing in common and that they are all required in labor. When a product is transferred to another, where that product will serve as a use value by means of exchange, it becomes a commodity. Marx claims, The common substance that manifest itself in the exchange -value of commodities whenever they are exchanged, are their value. Although the exchange-value of commodities is only expressed in value, one has to consider the nature of value independently of this, its form. The value of each commodity is determined by the labor time it took to produce it in that society. What determines value of anything is the amount of labor socially necessary in its production. If product exchange at the amount of labour time socially necessary in their production then it would mean that the worker should be paid the value of their labor, the value of the commodities they create, but then where does product come from? How do capitalist makes money? Well capitalists are only interested in making profit, and they make it from surplus value. The capitalist does not purchase labor but labor power; the ability to labor possessed by most people. Labor power has a value like any other commodity. The value power is determined by the cost of subsistence, the money needed to buy all the products that the worker needs to reproduce their labor power. The capitalist pay other capitalist for the value of an intermediate good and equipment purchases from them, but the worker was only paid the value of the good and services in that a working class family needed to get by. This of course is considerably less than the value that the worker imparted to the products. The capitalist starts with a capital, that is money then purchases raw material and labor, paying the value of each, then sells the product of its value, then takes that profit and starts over again purchasing the same thing over, (M-C-M). This is how commodity turns their money into capital, giving raise to The Labor theory, which says labor is what determines the value.
Marx says that we fetish money, worship it, we give this object of power that it really doesn?t deserve and in the process of making money capitalist exploits the worker, working them longer hours and less pay.
The capitalist works the laborer longer hours and pays him less money. The capitalist makes a profit by the surplus value that is produced by the labour. If it took 40 hours to produce raw materials, and 30 hours direct labor, its value will be an equivalent amount of 70 hours of labour, but the worker puts in a 10 hour day even though it only takes 6 hours to produce a product, therefore the capitalist profits 4 hours each day, giving the capitalist his surplus value. Which gives him profit?
2) According to Freud, what accounts for the fundamental unhappiness of humans within civilized life? Is Specific in tracing his argument regarding the nature of civilization, what comes to oppose it and own civilization defends against this opposition?
Freud believed that real happiness does not exist in a civilized life because there are forces that make you repress your instinct, which causes happiness. He believed that we experience happiness only in a contrast way, but real happiness existed only in one place, it traces back to the mother womb, the oceanic feeling is what we are constantly trying to get back to. There is the only place where there are no boundaries or restrictions. From the time we are born, we feel helpless because we count on others to survive and as we get older there are rules and regulations that constrain us that makes us unable to be as free as we like to be. He believed that the body has to learn to work because at birth our bodies are an element of sexual pleasures.
Freud believed our happiness is already restricted by our constitution. It is easier for man to be unhappy then it is to be happy one has to work at being happy. We are threatened with suffering from three things. One is, Our body, which is going to decay, two from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction, and three, our relations to others. This suffering from the third one is probably the hardest one to deal with; it brings the most pain. Relations with others is what determines how we feel that day, if we come across an old friend who we haven’t seen in awhile, we are happy it set the mood for the rest of the day. If we hear, something said about us or to us that is unpleasant, then we are depressed and we cannot seem to move away from that mood. Under the pressure of these possibilities of suffering, man moderates their claim to happiness, like the pleasure principle has to accustom it self to fit in the external world. Happiness would come from living in an unrestricted world, acting on any instinct without worrying about the punishment. We would have to put enjoyment before cautions, but we do not live in this type of world. We live in a world where we are expected to follow rules and repress our instinct.
An individual has to repress their natural instinct in order to be able to fit in society. We have to carry out the rules and have to push away our instinct. The id, ego, and superego are constantly in battle because the id thrives on instinct and pleasure while the other two have to keep the id from following out its desire. Repression of our instinct brings us to unhappiness because we are no longer acting out on our instinct, we have to ignore who we really mare and try to create someone that is only right for society not for us. Aggressive instinct want to take over but we must learn to control because it threatened civilized life. We have to repress our instinct energy because if we did not then chaos would break out.