Comparative Analysis Of Karl Marx And Adam Smith’s Self-interest Thoughts

When markets play the decisive roles in allocating resources, free competition becomes the core principle. Seeking own maximal benefit becomes the basic motive of every subject in economic activity. Meanwhile, various political and social problems raised by self-interest emerge in an endless stream. According to this point, the study of human self-interest is especially important. This thesis, based on the reality, compares the self-interest thoughts of Adam Smith and Karl Marx in order to further promote the healthy and orderly development of the socialist market economy.Firstly, this thesis defines the basic connotation of self-interest after a comprehensive analysis of self-interest’s definition at home and abroad. Then, there is a brief introduction about western typical self-interest thought which has important effects on Smith and Marx. Secondly, it analyzes the background of Marx and Smith’s self-interest thoughts comparatively. It studies basic reasons about the differences between Marx and Smith’s self-interest thoughts from personal experience and social background. On this basis, the thesis mainly analyzes the details of Marx and Smith’s self-interest thoughts. The similarity is that they both recognize the rationality of self-interest. The differences are the logical argument about the rationality of self-interest and the view of relationship between self-interest and altruism. Smith proves that the existence of self-interest is reasonable by the development of liberal economies and believes that the "invisible hand" achieves the common increase of personal and social benefit. Marx regards the whole human history as research object and proves self-interest is reasonable from the view point of history and logic. What’s more, Marx believes that the elimination of private ownership is the fundamental way to achieve the unity of self-interest and altruism. The last part is the enlightenment of self-interest thoughts. After comparing Marx and Smith’s thoughts, we can obtain a further understanding of self-interest. On this basis, the thesis provides the primary means of regulating self-interest behavior.