How WE Come to Know Things Plato Marx
HOW WE COME TO KNOW THINGS: Plato through Marx In the Marxist view of knowledge, “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but their social being that determines their consciousness,” (P775). ... By this, Marx means that no one is born into a poor class with a rich consciousness and vice versa. ... Marx breaks down a person’s social being into material terms. ... Marx believed that all learning and knowledge is based on the exchange of and production of material goods. The upper classes come to know things in terms of the upper classes and it is the only thing they know to dominate and rule over the lower classes and serve their own interests. Marx also believed that this was a rather unjust way of life. ... Marx believed that the evolution of society towards communism would come in a way that he derived from Hegel’s philosophy of thesis/antithesis = synthesis. ... Marx’s thesis and antithesis were the two classes respectively of the exploiters (owners) and the exploited (workers). ... Platos dialectical method is similar to the basis of Marx’s idea of progress. Plato poses a thesis, and an imaginary character plays the part of the anti-thesis and from their dialogues a synthesis, or greater truth or way of being is realized. Yet Plato’s philosophy is more idealist like Hegel in that they both believed that ideas shape us and make us progress, touch the spirit and or soul. Plato believed that he and others could come to know things through philosophy and reasoning. ... On the other had, Marx believed in the material and practical sense of knowing and the Hegel formula. Plato believed that people evolved and came to know things through ways such as his didactic and they could therefore benefit from this. This appears to contradict Marx’s statement that social being determines men’s consciousness’ instead of men consciously determining their beings. With the writing of Republic, Plato is trying to consciously shape men’s beings and reform society.