Previous Year Question

Karl Marx explained social and historical change primarily through the material and economic conditions of society. His method is associated with dialectical materialism.

Materialism signifies that the actual material conditions of society—such as its mode of production, ownership of property, labour and economic relations—strongly influence social and political institutions.

Dialectics signifies that contradictions exist within every socio-economic arrangement. The conflict arising from these contradictions causes the existing order to change and a new order to develop.

Two important aspects of the production system in Marx’s analysis are:

• Forces of production: Labour, tools, machinery, technology and productive knowledge.

• Relations of production: Ownership of the means of production and economic relations among different classes.

When contradictions develop between the forces and relations of production, conditions for social conflict and historical transformation emerge.

Under capitalism, the principal conflict is between:

• The bourgeoisie, which owns the means of production.

• The proletariat, which sells its labour power.

• Their competing interests concerning profits, wages and control over production generate class struggle.

Examination of the options:

• Option (a): Empirical liberalism is not the theoretical basis of Marx’s explanation of class struggle.

• Option (b): Existentialism concentrates on individual existence, freedom, choice and responsibility.

• Option (c): Darwin’s theory explains biological evolution through natural selection; Marx’s theory of class struggle was not based on biological evolution.

• Option (d): Dialectical materialism explains social transformation through contradictions and conflict within material conditions.