Theory Of Marx's Theory Of Surplus Value And Its Contemporary Significance

In this thesis, I examine Marx’s concept of surplus value from the perspective of historical materialism. The idea that Marxism is divided into three parts is commonly held, while in my opinion it needs to be reconsidered in order to ascertain the historical materialistic connotation of surplus value. As a organic totality of ideas, Marxism can be viewed from three levels, i. e. macroscopic, intermediate perspective, microscopic on the basis of the object and scope of the theory. Surplus value is categorized as the intermediate level in the theory of the essence and the capitalist society and its law of development, yet its in-depth study of capitalist society deepens and enriches the historical materialism, thus enriches the macro-level of Marxism, which is to examine the essence of the whole human society and the entire human history and its law of development.The conceptual system of surplus value reveals the existential basis and developing process of human society. The production of use value is the most fundamental prerequisite of the existence of human society and must take place in some organizational form of social labor. The emergence of the conception of value embodies the organizational form of social labor shifts from the direct interdependence and bondage between people to the individual independence based on the dependence on economic products. The conception of surplus value is the advanced phase and the stage of completion of the conception of value. On the one hand, it reveals the root of exploitation in a class society; on the other, it shows the full-scale materialization of modern society and the thorough alienation of humanity.The theory of surplus value not only elucidates the fundamental changes in human society by the deduction and development of its concept, but also displays the distinctions between ancient and modern organizational form of social labor and the actual founding process of modern society. Marx recognizes several distinctive modes of production characteristic of different epochs in human history:Asiatic mode of production, antique mode of production. Moreover, his study on the primitive accumulation of capital explains how modern society comes into being and therefore shows a radical distinction from the capitalist interpretation of history.The theory of surplus value uncovers the essence of capitalist mode of production. Marx reveals the materialization of contemporary social relations and the alienation of people by creating the concepts of constant capital and variable capital, which refer to distinctive factors in social labor. The production of absolute surplus value intuitively reflects the essence of exploitation; while the division of labor and cooperation in the production of relative surplus value indicate the organizational form of social labor of the capitalist mode of production. Besides, the application of machinery marks the capitalists’possession of human intellectual property via owning the means of production. Marx’s classification of social labor takes the process of capitalist production as a whole and Marx studies the rudimentary condition for its operation. As a result, the theory of surplus value furthers the research on the essence and scope of capitalist production.Surplus value reveals how modern society hides its essence profoundly. Modern society conceals its essence and law when functioning, and it is only on this presumption that the political economists are able to summarize and extract its phenomena and by this they construct the modern economic ideology. It is also for that reason that the ideology about modern economics can be widely accepted. However, surplus value breaks the political economic ideas on the existing mode of modern society. It gives a deeper explanation on the existing mode of modern society, whereas enriches the historical materialistic principle that the social existence determines social consciousness.The theory of surplus value reveals that the supersession (Aufhebung) of surplus value is a prerequisite to found a communist society; it supplements the theory about a future society from the perspective of historical materialism; and it explicates the basic features of communism. It gives us a more accurate understanding of communist society and offers an essential perspective on how to deal with the difficulties on the road to communism.