DID KARL MARX’S “TURN” THE ORIGINAL SOCIAL THEORY OF CLASS STRUGGLE?

Cameron Weber ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this research I compare and contrast the class-struggle social theory of industrielisme in the writings of the French liberals around the Le Censeur Européen (1817-1819) with that of Karl Marx’s historical materialism. There are many similarities. Both use concepts of historical development and path-dependency, productive and unproductive labor, of exploitation, and of the necessary primacy of the market under capitalism to bring human freedom. Using Theories of Surplus Value (1860) and available correspondence I show that Marx knew about and respected the French liberal historians and political economists, especially Turgot and Augustin Thierry. It would be conjecture to say that Marx “turned” the original French liberal class struggle, that of free and productive man as exploited by the unproductive state, into his own labor as exploited by capital but we do find and present evidence to this effect.

Keywords: Political Economy; Karl Marx; Turgot; French Liberals; Class Struggle; Capitalism; Path Dependency; Exploitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B12 B14 D31 P16 P32 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:115897

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