Instructions: Choose two of the following five questions. Your essay should be 2-3 pages typed in double space, with detailed material, from class notes from the text. You may use short quotes from the text SPARINGLY. You must write in complete sentences (not bullet points). The goal is to demonstrate that you have done the reading, understand the material, and can express your knowledge in an organized, coherent manner in your own words.
Remember to create an outline of the points you wish to make before beginning to write. Each essay should be edited for grammar, spelling, and typos. If the work is sloppy – even if some ideas are correct – you will not receive credit. If I find material that is “lifted” from any other source but your brain, notes and the text, you will not receive credit. Do NOT use outside sources.
This assignment is to be uploaded on Blackboard in a single WORD document at the end of the day on Tuesday December 14th.
Marx’s critique of the capitalist mode of production is rooted in a concept of human nature that says our “humanity” derives from his/her ability to produce (labor power). First, identify the elements of the labor process. Then explain why Marx views “production” as the essential human activity. Then show how Marx’s criticism of capitalism derives from this concept of human nature.
Marx argues that the legalization of private property is at the root of the exploitation of the working-class. Step by step show how private ownership of the means of production necessarily leads to the extraction of surplus value (and therefore exploitation) from the labor process.
Compare and contrast the functionalist view of society — in general –with Marx’s view of capitalist society – in particular. Don’t rely on vagaries: be sure to discuss, in detail, the core theoretical concepts that differentiate the two views.
Marx argued that capitalism as an economic system is, for a time, useful. It incentivizes invention and the development of technology, it permits even an exploited working-class some freedom and politically democratic rights. But eventually the capitalist system becomes unstable. Profits deriving from value added goods begin to decline, and although real wages rise, workers, as a class, become “poorer” – enjoying less and less of the wealth that is being concentrated in the hands of a few. Eventually, Marx believed, that the contradiction between the forces of production (the ability to produce a massive amount of goods) and the relations of production (the ever-increasing inequality in the distribution of wealth) capitalism would self-destruct. In full sentences outline this argument.
*IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE NOTES AND READING I PROVIDE YOU WITH BECAUSE THEN I WILL GET NO CREDIT!!!!!!! Thank you in advance.
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