Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

Marx & Proudhon in the Digital Age

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the third section, I will present three case studies where digitisation is already rapidly

transforming the social and political norms in society. These changes will effectively serve as a

framework for the relation of Marx and Proudhon’s theories of mechanisation to the oncoming

effects of digitisation. Finally, I will conclude that Proudhon’s theory of machinery as a second

economic evolution, and the effects he suggests, are more compatible with the modern

digitisation of society. This means that while Marx’s ideas were applicable to the Industrial era,

they will probably now be superseded in the digital era by Proudhon’s ideas. Thus, ‘Proudhonism’

might become the ‘Marxism’ of the future.

Before evaluating the utility of Marx and Proudhon in the digital era, it is appropriate to first

summarise the key elements of the labour theory of value. The labour theory of value is most

simply expressed as the idea that separate items are given value in a capitalist society through the contribution of individual labour. 3 This theory arises from the contradiction which arises due to the divorcing of an object’s utility value from its price in economic terms. While this idea was most primarily described in Das Kapital , 4 the origins of this idea are seen in the two works

analysed in this essay.

2 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s and the Division of Labour

Proudhon argues that in an agrarian society the individual’s differing innate skills mean that

they are unable to perform equally in production. Also, in the absence of a central organisation, individuals are compensated unequally as a result. 5 Proudhon conceptualises the division of

3 Gerald A Cohen, “The labor theory of value and the concept of exploitation,” Philosophy & Public Affairs , 1979, 338–360. 4 K. Marx et al., Capital , Capital Series (Penguin Books Limited, 1992). 5 Proudhon, “The Philosophy of Poverty,” Chapter 3 ‘Economic Evolutions First Period. The Division of labour’.

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