Do you understand dialectical reasoning as it pertains to Karl Marx's social theory?

Question

Yes or No. If yes I'd like to contact you sometime to strenghthen my own understanding of the concept.

Answer 1

Don't listen to those who think Marx was crazy. His views were merely different from some other intellectuals, but by no means dumb.

"dialectical reasoning: reasoning from "opinions that are generally accepted," i.e., "by every one or by the majority or by the philosophers"; -as Aristotle put it.

A reasoning in which "society is treated as an historically evolving and systemically interrelated whole."

Answer 2

First, I would say you need to read Thomas More's UTOPIA.

Therein More gives you the existing system of government, following by the an opposite system of government. Those are two parts of the dialectical process.

You need a thesis, the way that things are now.
You create an antithesis, the diametrical opposite of the way things are
But then you take the good points out of both systems, they way things are now and the perfect system, and you form synthesis of both of those.

However, as soon as you get the synthesized system in place, you start the process all over again.... The existing System is bad, there should be a new system (diametrical opposite), and synthesize a new system. Theoretically, if you continue to do that, you will end up with a perfect system.

In US law, as Thomas Jefferson thought, there should be a revolution every generation. What he is stating is that the laws of the country were made for the time that it was created, but some of those laws might have no need to exist in the next generation. You figure which laws of the older system need to exist, remove those that have no reason in the new generation, then create laws more applicable to the prsent generation.

You can use a similar example in Economics, which was Marx's field and, theoretically, you will end up with a system that is fair and equal to all.

Under capitalism we have people who are hungry, basically naked. Christ said feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and left that up to the believers to do, but the believers did not do that voluntarily, so in my opinion, Marx (born a Jew but was Christian) laid that responsibility on the government because he knew that the individuals would not do it themselves. The new system was to hand the responsibilities to the government, but then we find out that does not work so we create another dialectical set.

The existing system is bad
We need a new system, but then you take the good out of the old system and the good out of the new system, combine them, improve things, creating a synthesized system. Getting that set up, you start the whole process again. Theoretically, the concept is eternal betterment of the systems in question.

That is probably a bit redundant, but it should give you an idea.

Marxism is perceived as wrong, but only because of misinterpretations of his concept of communism. Russian Communism was not Marx's, Chinese Communism is not Marxist. Marx, interestingly enough, actually reported on the the US Civil War for the New York Herald, thinking it was an attempt of the proletariats (really agrarians) to overthrow the industrial capitalist.

Marx was not the first to suggest communism, Try reading Plato's Republic.

Answer 3

No, I looked at this link and have no understanding of what Marx's was doing. It appears to me to be illogoical giberish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic

This link includes Marx's dialectics which make it no clearer. However, I wouldn't waste too much time with Marx he wasn't exactly a great thinker. The power of his ideas have more to do with wishful thinking and the promise of a utopia at the end of the journey. And in no small part to "Schadenfreude" where inflicting damage on the rich provides some pleasure to the poor.

Your time would be better spent reading John Locke or some other sensible thinker than the lunatic Marx.

Answer 4

Groucho Marx was my favorite Marx Brother.