Freud Essay -- essays research papers fc

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels present their view of human genius and the effect that the economic system and economic factors have on it. Marx and Engels deal human nature in the context of the economic factors which they see as driving history. Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, explores human nature through his mental view of the human mind.     Marx states that history "...is the history of class struggles" (9). Marx views history as organism determined by economics, which for him is the source of class differences. History is set forth in The Communist Manifesto as a series of involvements in the midst of oppressing classes and loaded classes. According to this view of history, massive changes occur in a society when new technological capabilities allow a portion of the oppressed class to destroy the power of the oppressing class. Marx briefly traces the development of this through incompatible periods, me ntioning some of the various oppressed and oppressing classes, but points out that in primitively societies on that point were many gradations of social classes. He also states that this class conflict sometimes leads to "...the common ruin of the contending classes" (Marx 9).     Marx sees the modern age as being distinguished from earlier periods by the simplification and intensification of the class conflict. He states that "bon ton as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps... bourgeoisie and labor movement" (Marx 9). The bourgeoisie, as the preponderant class of capitalists, subjugates the proletariat by using it as an object for the magnification of capital. As capitalism progresses, this subjugation reduces a larger portion of the people to the proletariat and society becomes more polarized.     According to Marx, the polarization of society and the terrific oppression of the proletariat testament eventually lead to a transformation by the proletariat, in which the control of the bourgeoisie impart be destroyed. The proletariat ordain then gain control of the means of production. This revolution will result in the creation of a socialist state, which the proletariat will use to institute socialist reforms and eventually communism.     The reforms which Marx ou... ...t (Freud 111). Freud can not cover some vision of a human utopia, but can further suggest that there is some possibility for the improvement of the human curb and society, but also warns that our success at overcoming destructive instincts may be limited.     Marx offers a radical philosophy which also sees conflict as hotshot of the constants of prior human existence. Unlike Freud, Marx believes that the aggressive and conflict-oriented aspects of human nature will disappear under the communist society which he sees as the needed product of capitalism. This is the hopeful element of Marxs philosophy. However, if communism is not seen as inevitable or the possibilities for reducing human conflict before a socialist revolution are considered, then Marxs view of human nature locks macrocosm into constant conflict. If the future is to be like Marxs version of history, then there is little hopefulness in this view of human nature.Works CitedFreud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Ed. pack Strachey. New York W.W. Norton, 1961.Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York International Publishers, 1994.