Marxism

1. Axioms

The following axioms function as non-derived premises within Marxism. They express foundational assumptions about history, power, and the structure of economic life.

1. Material conditions shape society: Economic organization and production relations largely determine social institutions, culture, and politics.
2. Class structure is central: Societies are structured by classes with conflicting interests rooted in ownership and control of production.
3. Exploitation is systemic under capitalism: Capitalist production generates profit through structural extraction from labor rather than isolated moral failure.
4. History is conflict-driven: Social change occurs primarily through struggle between classes and contradictions within economic systems.
5. Ideology mediates domination: Dominant ideas and norms often function to stabilize existing power relations and conceal structural conflict.

2. Derived Doctrinal Commitments

From these axioms, Marxism derives a framework for critique, prediction, and political strategy.

• Capital accumulation and crisis: Capitalism tends toward concentration of capital, recurring instability, and periodic crises.
• Alienation: Work under capitalist conditions can estrange workers from product, process, self, and community.
• State as class instrument (in many strands): The state tends to reflect and defend the interests of the dominant class, though interpretations vary.
• Revolutionary transformation (in classical forms): Fundamental change typically requires a break with capitalist property relations, not merely reform.
• Collective ownership: Replacing private ownership of key productive assets is treated as necessary for ending exploitation.

3. Ethical Framework

Marxism is often presented as a scientific critique, but it also implies ethical commitments about freedom, human flourishing, and opposition to domination through class power.

• Anti-exploitation: Structures that systematically extract from labor for private accumulation are morally suspect.
• Collective emancipation: Freedom is understood as social and material, not merely formal or legal.
• Solidarity: Collective organization is emphasized as necessary for changing entrenched systems.

4. Practices

Practices function as strategies for analysis, organization, and transformation of economic structures.

• Class analysis and critique of ideology
• Worker organization (unions, parties, councils)
• Collective action and political mobilization
• Advocacy for collective ownership and decommodification
• Institution-building aimed at structural change

5. Internal Diversity

Marxism contains significant internal variation downstream from shared axioms.

• Classical Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, and other revolutionary traditions
• Western Marxism and critical theory variants
• Reformist versus revolutionary strategies
• Different interpretations of the state, democracy, and historical determinism