Struggles Of Class Struggle

Decent Essays
Throughout political history, countries across the world, especially the Unites States have experienced class struggles. These class struggles usually surround the working class vs. those who own the means of production. With the help from political philosophers, this essay will tell the story of the working-class struggles. Plato’s work the Republic, Aristotle’s works of literature Nicomachean Ethics, and Politics, Iris Marion Young’s Five Faces of Oppression, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto and Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country will all be incorporated in this essay to paint the full picture of how class struggles have affected the ways of life. Political Philosophers, past and present, have shown the struggles that the working-class face compared to those who own the means of production. A definition of class struggle can be said to be, “conflict between different classes in a community resulting from different social or economic positions and reflecting opposed interests” (The Definition of Class Struggle). The struggles of the working class are not a new phenomenon and that is evident when …show more content…
Aristotle’s explains the class struggles in his city through the concept of happiness. Aristotle spoke of eudaimonia, which takes on different definitions. In Aristotle’s context, eudaimonia means flourishing, flourishing in life or some other aspect dealing with an individual good. Not everyone in Aristotle’s society can be happy though. All activities that we are completing in life should lead to happiness. Happiness is the greater goal of all human beings, but the poor and working class cannot achieve that level (Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Book I, 4-8). The working class could never achieve true happiness because for the rest of their lives they would be working just to maintain a certain level of

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