The New Toughness of Mind: Realism, Positivism, Marxism Section 12.61:

Key Terms to Know Toughness of Mind Materialism and Realism Positivism Realpolitik Marxism Communist Manifesto “..let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!” Labor theory of value Dialectical materialism Class War Between Bourgeois and Proletariat Opportunism

The End of the Springtime of Peoples The springtime of peoples (Revolution of 1848) was followed by chilling blasts of winter Major accomplishment of 1848 revolutions was emancipation of peasantry Constitutional governments were secured in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Piedmont France had popular sovereignty but not democracy (really a popular dictatorship) However, peasantry showed little concern for constitutional or bourgeois ideas Result strengthened the forces of political counterrevolution Most immediate result of Revolution of 1848 A new toughness of mind emerged Idealism and romanticism are out Revolutionaries became less optimistic Conservatives became more willing to exercise repression Realism becomes the watchword Labor shifts to the organization of unions Honore Daumier, The Third-Class Carriage, ca. 1862. oil on canvas. French.

Materialism, Realism Materialism Was the new philosophy that came out of the New toughness of mind Holds that every thing real is an outgrowth of physical or physiological forces In the arts it was called realism Realism describe and reproduce life as it exists Madame Bovary, by Flaubert precise, unsentimental, literal Gustave Flaubert, French writer, wrote meticulous descriptions of provincial woman’s tedious unhappy marriage in Madame Bovary (1857) It mocked illusions of romantic literature Trust in science and scientific knowledge grows natural and social world increased skepticism role of religion is examined because it is unscientific is shouldn’t be taken seriously and is necessary only to preserve social order Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary Gustave Courbet. The Stone Breakers, 1849. oil on canvas. French.

Positivism Positivism (reaction to metaphysical abstractions of the revolutions) Auguste Comte Positive Philosophy he saw human history as a series of three stages, theological, metaphysical, scientific revolutions in France suffered from empty words, high flying principles (excessive metaphysical abstractions) to better society people must adopt a scientific outlook study society he created sociology!! Insistence on verifiable facts Avoidance of wishful thinking A questioning of all assumptions A dislike of un-provable generalizations Demands observational facts Tests of ideas Try to be humanly useful Led to growth of social sciences Auguste Comte

Realpolitik new tough mindedness created Realpolitik in politics means “the politics of reality” In domestic affairs people should give up utopian ideals people should be thankful of for orderly, hard working government For radicals it meant use the tools of politics to reform rather than leaning on utopian ideals In international affairs Governments should follow their practical interests Not be guided by ideology or by any system of natural enemies, allies Make any alliances that seemed useful Disregard ethical theories and scruples Use any practical means to achieve their ends War was accepted as a strategic option sometimes needed to achieve a political purpose a tool of realistic statesmanship Not confined to Germany

Early Marxism Karl Marx: (1818-1883) Son of a lawyer in western Prussia Disappointed revolutionary Studied law and philosophy at several German universities and received a doctoral degree in 1841 Couldn’t find work, associated with radical German intellectuals, writing in a left-winged journals, moved to Paris Frederick Engels (1820-1893) Son of German textile manufacturer Sent to England (Manchester) to manage family interests Marx and Engels met in Paris in 1844 and began their collaboration

Communist League Joined the Communist League in 1847 League called for liberal reforms free education, progressive income tax, state ownership of banks, railroads, canals, mines, collective agriculture Some community ownership of major national resources League was crushed by counter-revolutionary forces 1848 Communist Manifesto but there still wasn’t Marxism and it played no role in 1848 Marx and Engels return to England after 1848 revolutions 1867 Marx publishes Capital

Sources of Content of Marxism German philosophy Believed that the course of history would lead to a free society (Hegel – Prussia) French Revolutionism Believed that The promise of the French Revolution had not yet been reached Social and economic equality did not follow civil and legal equality British Industrialism Alienation of labor Marx’s idea that workers become estranged from what their make in the mechanicalized world of Industrial Revolution (capitalism) They don’t benefit from the products of their labor True freedom would become possible when private property in capital goods was abolished

Engels The Condition of the Working Classes in England(1844) Book based on his own first hand knowledge Depressed condition of labor was an actual fact Labor received a relatively small share of the national income Much of the wealth was being reinvested in capital goods as private property of private persons but not labor Government was in the hands of the well off Religion was a tool to keep the masses in order The family was disintegrating within the labor class Women and children working Overcrowding in living quarters

THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO A call for revolution Class struggle in Paris seemed to confirm Marx and Engels’ beliefs Believed the proletariat would rise against the bourgeoisie Meant to be inflammatory Workers are deprived of the wealth they created State is a committee of the bourgeoisie for the exploitation of people Religion was a drug to keep the worker quietly dreaming Workers should be loyal to nothing except their own class Workers every where had the same problem The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. Workers of the world unite! “..let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!” THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

British political economy Marx believed that revolution would be the result of coalescing historical forces – not made Believed the subsistence or Iron Law of wages Therefore, no future existed for labor Labor theory of value The value of any human made object depended ultimately on the amount of labor put into it Therefore capital is stored up labor Therefore workers never receive the full measure of the wealth they produce and can not afford the goods on the market Therefore capitalism will fail from overproduction and cause economic down swings and the constant pursuit of new markets With every economic down swing Marx believed revolution was nearer Honore Daumier. "It's true you have lost your case... but you should have gotten a lot of pleasure hearing me plead [your case]." From the Series Les Gens de justice. Lithography

Dialectical materialism Based on Hegelian idea that all things are in movement and in evolution All change comes through the clash of antagonistic elements Historical development is the result of conditions created by the interaction of such forces History is not predetermined but is always shaped by impersonal forces and deep structural changes, not individuals or mere chance events history is scientific The resultant conditions give birth to ideas (Conditions are the roots; ideas are the trees) Hegel had believed that ideas are roots, conditions of society are trees All ideas are generated by economic and social conditions Honore Daumier. The Insurrection. c. 1852-58

Historical development Conditions/relations of production give rise to economic classes Agrarian conditions produce a landholding class Commercial conditions produce a merchant or bourgeois class Each class develops an ideology suited to its needs Religion, government, laws and morals reflect the outlook of the class in power The two classes inevitably clash Bourgeois revolutions against feudal interests break out As the bourgeois (Capital) class asserts itself it calls into being its dialectical antithesis The proletariat (Labor) emerges Capital tends to consolidate into fewer hands (bourgeois devour each other) Displaced members of the bourgeois transfer into the proletariat Proletariat eventually expropriates the expropriators and abolishes private property in the means of production A classless society is the result The state and religion (bourgeois creations) wither A dictatorship of the proletariat exists until the state withers

Class War Between Bourgeois and Proletariat Class war is the struggle between the labor and capital Labor needs the intellectual to recognize the ploys of the bourgeoisie The government is an instrument of class power, religion is form of psychological warfare, the opium for the masses Workers must not be fooled Workers must maintain solidarity To improve labor they must stick together Individuals that seek to improve themselves are moving toward the bourgeoisie (betraying their class) Individuals must lose themselves in the whole Labor should not negotiate with capital Labor should not put faith in existing government institutions that favor the bourgeoisie (law or the will of the strongest)

The appeal of Marxism: Its strength and weaknesses Advantages Claim to be scientific Rested upon the study of actual facts and real processes Socialism would not be a miraculous reversal but a historical continuation of what was already taking place Did not speculate on the future socialist society Disadvantages The working people of Europe Not in the frame of mind of an army in battle Hesitated to subordinate all else to class revolution Not exclusively class-people Religion was still alive as well as “natural law” ideas Didn’t believe that morality was a creation of class weapon National loyalties to country (not workers of the world)

Opportunism Marx’s word for the tendency of working people to better themselves by dealing with employers and by obtaining legislation through existing gov this was most dangerous to Revolution to Marx Cure for the 1848 revolutions was greater participation in existing processes abolition of serfdom rising wages expansion of the vote organization of labor unions to pressure employers led to opportunism or dealing with employers and using existing state institutions Opportunism led to diminished impact of Marx’s ideas Lenin would breath new life into class conflict with Leninism