Das Kapital : Karl Marx

Das Kapital is one of the most influential works written by Karl Marx (1818–83), who was a German-born economist and philosopher who lived during the 19th century. In this book, Marx explains his theory of the capitalist system, including its dynamism and its tendencies toward self-destruction. He stated that he wanted to expose “the economic law of motion of modern society” as his motivation for writing the book. The first volume was released in Berlin in the year 1867, while the second and third volumes, which were edited and released posthumously by his colleague Friedrich Engels (1820–95), came out in 1885 and 1894, respectively.

Capital of Karl Marx

Das Kapital, also known as Capital: A Critique of Political Economy or sometimes just Capital (German: Das Kapital 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, critique of political economy, and politics written by Karl Marx. Das Kapital was originally published between 1867 and 1883. In contrast to classical political economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx sought to uncover the economic patterns that underpinned the capitalist mode of production. Marx’s goal was to do so. Marx did not live long enough to see the publication of the second and third sections that he had planned; nonetheless, his colleague Friedrich Engels was able to complete them from his notes and publish them after Marx’s passing. In the field of social science, the book with the most citations for its publication before 1950 is Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.

Arguments of Marx in Das Kapital

Marx contends that an economic system predicated on private profit is doomed to fail due to its very nature. Workers in factories are subjected to exploitation at the hands of factory owners, and they are not given ownership of the goods that are produced as a result of their labour.

Marx contends that classical economists and philosophers did not adequately grasp the nature of capital. They believed that the purpose of the market system was solely to facilitate the trading of commodity inputs, such as land, capital, and labour, in order to generate profits from the sale of commodity products.

Their error was in thinking of capital as an entity, such as a machine or even a quantity of money, rather than a relationship between people that also takes on the form of social ties between things. This was their demise.

Criticism of Capitalism

The economic system known as capitalism is one that is extensively practised and characterised by the existence of private ownership of the means of production. A market-oriented economy is typically included in modern capitalist systems. This type of economy is one in which the production and pricing of goods, as well as the income of individuals, are dictated to a greater extent by market forces resulting from interactions between private businesses and individuals than they are by central planning undertaken by a government or a local institution. The notion of private property, the drive for profit, and competitive markets are the pillars on which capitalism is founded. Capitalism, also known as a free-market economy or a free enterprise economy, is an economic system that has predominated in the Western world since the fall of feudalism. Capitalism is characterised by the private ownership of the majority of the means of production, with production being largely directed and income distributed through the operation of various markets.

A problem with individual outcomes of capitalism might fall anywhere on the spectrum of what is considered to be critical of capitalism. This can vary from a disagreement with the fundamental principles of capitalism as a whole to dissatisfaction with specific outcomes of capitalism.

The critique of capitalism can be found in many different political and philosophical perspectives, such as anarchist, socialist, and Marxist perspectives, as well as religious and nationalist perspectives. While there are those who feel that the only way to overthrow capitalism is through a revolutionary movement, there are others who believe that fundamental change may be brought about gradually through democratic changes. Some people who are opposed to capitalism acknowledge that it has positive aspects and argue that it should be tempered with some kind of social control, most often in the form of government regulation (e.g. the social market movement).

The accusations that capitalism is inherently exploitative, alienating, unstable, and unsustainable, as well as that it creates massive economic inequality, commodifies people, and is anti-democratic and leads to an erosion of human rights while it incentivizes imperialist expansion and war, are prominent among critiques of capitalism.

Conclusion

In the end, the “capitalist class becomes unfit to rule,” as stated in Das Kapital, “since it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery.” As a result, the capitalist system comes to an end, and the working class comes to control the economy as well as the political system. Despite the fact that Marx viewed capitalism from an economic perspective and took great satisfaction in the intellectual rigour of his work, Das Kapital, particularly the first volume, is filled with rich empirical detail. Marx lauded the work of the Factory Inspectorate, from whose reports he derived vivid and terrible illustrations of the overwork and ill-treatment that British working people endured. Marx applauded the work of the Factory Inspectorate. His vicious description of so-called “primitive accumulation,” the process by which Britain was transformed from a precapitalist to a capitalist economy, is more of a polemical triumph than an analytical one. Primitive accumulation refers to the process by which Britain was transformed from a precapitalist to a capitalist economy.