Collectivist Theories: Marxism, Anarchism, and Statism
Collectivist Theories
The man is only part of a whole that is society. The individual is an abstraction and has no value in itself.
Marx and Communism
The man is a completely material being, which differs from the rest of nature by transforming this activity.
The main thing is man’s work, and the essence of social life is the mode of production, the economic structure, which is the infrastructure of life and human society.
If man is alienated (inhuman) in its basic structure, the other aspects of your life are dehumanized as well.
Originally, man lived in isolation but as part of human groups or flocks, everything was all (primitive communism). Individualism, linked to the idea of private property, occurred later. The man only makes sense within the community.
Against capitalism, which is the thesis, Marx proposes to raise a great antithesis socialism
This will lead ultimately to the large sum, the end communism,
Assets will be common to both productive assets such as consumer goods.
There will be no social classes and everything will be all.
No State) in capitalism the state’s role was to perpetuate the privileges of the ruling class, b) and socialism, the state’s role was to eliminate capitalism c) but in communist society human beings cooperate spontaneously with acts for the benefit of the community
Theory of Natural Human Sociability
The human individual has value in itself, but to be fully realized needs society, in order to receive from it and give to it. So the man is naturally social.
Plato but his thought has something of collectivist
Aristotle thought that man could not be morally good, ignoring political life.
Augustine thinks that the state is necessary because of human malice
Aquinas thinks that the State would still be necessary if human beings were all very good
Francisco Suárez, Jaume Balmes, Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier
The main reasons given by these philosophers in support of their approach are:
The spontaneous inclination of humans to interact with men and to live in society.
The fact of human language that allows communication between people, the first condition of social life.
The fact that man, to achieve that perfect property as a person, requires the cooperation of other human beings.
Human beings need others, not only to receive from them, but also to give to them
Anarchism
Bakunin: believes that no power is legitimate. They claim that there should be no authority, because they believe that no one can force another to do anything. Even the powers exercised by the learner/educator seem excessive.
Popular Sovereignty
The theory of popular sovereignty believes that power comes from the people. Rousseau, Hobbes, and Locke
Hegel’s Statism
Believes that the power is received by the State from the “Spirit.” The Spirit is the ultimate expression of the idea (that is, the Absolute, or God) and that the highest expression of Objective Spirit is the state itself. It is the spirit which gives unity to the people.
Statism of Marx
Marx believes that the only supreme being is man himself, and it only makes sense connected to the community.
1 ª) In his theory must be distinguished the socialist stage, the communist era intermediary
2 ª) Marx believes that the community, the people, has the power for himself, and gives it to whomever you want, but this is not done by elections, but what happens is that a group (the Communist Party) which claims to represent the true interests of the people, seizes power and keeps it.