Economic Realities and Human Freedom

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the philosophies of J.S. Mill, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It argues that these philosophers' notions of human freedom are intimately entwined with their respective attempts to address and rectify the increasingly intolerable economic order of the day. More specifically, the paper maintains that Mill's notion of human freedom actually works to preserve the status quo, while Rousseau's and Marx's do not shy away from calling for a complete and systematic overthrow.

From the Paper:

"The same can be said of Marx's understanding of nationalism. In The Communist Manifesto, that thrilling duel between bourgeoisie and proletariat, he famously writes that, "The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality. The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got" (Marx and Engels 174). According to Marx, nations and nationalism, like religion, are illusions, as the working poor are barred from participating in the political life of the nations that work to ensure their miserable living standards. Here, Marx erred badly. His instance on the irrelevancy of national differences is, obviously, one of the necessary preconditions for socialist revolution, but the history of the past century emphatically highlighted the link between the poor and nationalism. Poor people are, in fact, far more willing to don uniforms and sacrifice their lives in war than are the sons and daughters of the wealthy, and a casual glance at the disproportionately high representation of this nation's poor in the armed forces attests to the power of nationalism. And yet, Marx would likely argue that illusions, powerful as they may be, are still illusions. Accordingly, much of his work aims to unveil systems of thought that hinder human freedom."

Sample of Sources Used:

• DeLue, Steven M. Political Thinking, Political Theory, and Civil Society. 2nd Edition. New York: Longman Publishers, 2002.
• Marx, Karl. Toward a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: Introduction. Ed. Lawrence H. Simon. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. 27-39.
• Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Ed. Lawrence H. Simon. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. 157-186.

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