KARL MARX’S FIVE EPOCHS OF THE SOCIETY

         KARL MARX’S FIVE EPOCHS OF THE SOCIETY

KARL H. MARX

 Karl Marx; in his Communist Manifesto, tried to explain the power struggle which generated and emerged in the society in terms “the law of motion” which turns the society into the battle of competition. 

With the help of the Hegelian concept of Dialectic movement, he found history as the phase of these changes. 

However, he was influenced by Feuerbach which made him reject the concept of Hegel but accepted and adapted his theories of Dialectic movement and developed it to be the Dialectic Materialistic.  This concept involved the material aspect of the society as the cause of the struggle. 

This is due to the fact that, the dialectic movement which represents a struggle of opposite by conflict and contradiction, did not just emerge but through the material things that man used to produce things like food for his living. 

In an attempt to go into this historic struggle; he found out and distinguished five “particular historic phases” which Marx indicated that, the class struggle is bound up with. These were termed as “the five Epochs”.

These epochs were: primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and, as a prediction of the things to come, the socialist and communist phase. In these epochs, there is a class conflict which set them in motion to move from one stage to another.

This movement of conflict writes the history of the society and life. Marx’s main reason of the law of motion is to discover not only what history has produced these epochs but also the reasons why these particular epochs have unfolded as they are.

Primitive communal is the first epoch. In this epoch everything was free, there was unity among men. There also existed a harmonious living as well as interdependency among men.

However, due to the struggle of a few to take over as the “Lords” – introduction of class emerged – and lead to the birth of the next epoch – slave.

SLAVE

In the slave epoch the relationship was between the “Lords” (aristocrats) and the “Serfs” (slaves). The slaves have to show devotion and hard service for a reward from the owner. 

They need to be humbled to their masters so as the land (factor of production) that is given them will not be taken away to enhance their ability to live. 

With the same dialectic conflict that commenced among the lords due to dissatisfaction, power struggle, education, economic and politics, the history continues to the feudal system.

FEUDALISM 

As the historical perspective in Marxism; the process by which human creation and interdependency through the various parts of the society thus: economic, political, legal, education, family and religion are interconnected and influenced each other in motion.

These influences can only be understood in terms of their effect on man. 

The economic factor is the primary force that generated feudalism and primarily exerted influence on man which shapes the other aspect of the society.

 It evolved the process of human nature through tension and conflict which gives birth to social change. This change does not occur freely but comes with contradiction – the source of tension and conflict. 

In feudalism, there was the social contract between the lords (bourgeoisie) and the serfs (proletariat). The only distinctive feature here is that, the serfs are given factors of production through their effectiveness and humility towards their lords – the factor of production was not bought with money. 

The other members who do not own the factors of production are given by the owner and at the end; the fruit of their labor is shared into certain proportion which favors the worker. Afterwards, the land is given back to the owner – land was not sold. 

A typical example in the Ghanaian context is the “do ma yenkye” practice among the Akans and the other tribes.

As history is still in motion, the other parts of the society such as education influence the exodus from feudalism to capitalism.

CAPITALISM.

Capitalism according to Marx is the total distinction and destruction of the society. It begins right from childhood; how parents brings up their children to live on their own as well as how they should deal with life so as they could become somebody in future – this brought the individualistic nature of capitalism. 

The servant (Employees) on the other hand’s way of capitalism is selling his labor for money. By so doing only scanty money is given to the servant for his labor which paves way for alienation to set in. 

Marx view of history here is often referred to as dialectical materialism since people’s ideas are primarily reflection of the social relationship of economic production.Karl Marx; in his Communist Manifesto, tried to explain

 Marx view of history here is often referred to as dialectical materialism since people’s ideas are primarily reflection of the social relationship of economic production.