Question

1. Identify and define the main tenets of Marxist theory.

2. Describe how Marxist theory enables users to challenge the status quo.

3. Explain the potential Marxist theory has as tool in the Social Sciences, and in your field, in particular.

Answer 1

Marxism's historical premises are its economic theories. Its importance reflects in the labor theory of value and the idea of surplus value. Marxists believe that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor required for its manufacture. They argued that The value of the goods purchasable by the worker's wages is less than the value of goods he produces which is called surplus value, represents the profit of the capitalist. The main tenants of Marxist theory are as follows the workers spend their time and labor to produce goods, but the free market determines the value of their work. communist society is one in which the means of production are taken away from individuals and controlled by the collective . Marxists} is focused on the idea of social class, which it defines as a group of people Categorized by their role in the economy, and specifically their relationship to the production of goods. 2-Marx constructs the notion of class around two poles: the

proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He suggests that modern capitalism tends to polarize all class

relations, folding the unsuccessful petty bourgeoisie in with the proletariat and forcing an ever

widening gap between the two class groups. In a historical sense, Marx was aware that the

socioeconomic landscape was in fact much more complex; however, this polarization must be

understood as functionally necessary to his notion of dialectical materialism and eventual class-

based revolution. The existence of other, intermediate class groups was a historical particularity

that neither invalidates nor adds insight to his theory of class relations, and is therefore

theoretically irrelevant.