On the Ideological Nature of Marxism in General, and the Theory of Surplus Value in Particular

The work is devoted to the analysis of the reasons for the ideological defeat of Marxism at the end of the 20th century. Without denying that during the Cold War the apologists of liberalism widely used manipulation of consciousness, the author believes that the main factor in the ideological defeat of Marxism was its objective systemic defects. The defi nition of ideology is given as part of the model of the world: a set of ideas about society and man (as an element of society), and the concept of ideologeme is introduced (“value judgments, ‘pretending’ to be a statement of facts”, or the declaration of philosophical hypotheses as scientific theories). The ideologemes underlying the theory of surplus value are revealed: a) value is created only by labor (the initial principle of the labor theory of value); b) the cost of labor power is equal to the subsistence minimum of workers. The falsity of Locke’s example, on the basis of which Marx accepted thesis (a), and the limited scope of application of thesis (b) are shown. It is substantiated that the theory of surplus value is, in essence, a special case of the theory of imperfect competition. It is concluded that Marxism is not a scientific doctrine, but a social ideology in the understanding of M. Blaug (with a claim to be fully scientific, while a significant part of Marxism is nothing more than a set of socio-philosophical hypotheses).