Preview

Estranged Labor In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1233 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Estranged Labor In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx
Estranged Labor In The Communist Manifesto, Marx illustrates how the working class in society is alienated, under the system of private property, in several ways such from the product of their labor, the work itself, from species-being, and from each other. This private property the workers work on is owned by a minute portion of the population who, in exchange for mass production of their product, put their employees through unfair labor conditions. This leads Marx to believe that a human being puts all of his life into working on a product, while working for a capitalist system, but never gets to use it hence, becoming alienated from the product and important parts of life. In essence, the worker will also become alienated in distinct ways. In the following paragraphs, Marx views on working …show more content…
This quote communicates to the reader that the Bourgeois don't want to lose the Proletariat physically but in fact, they are losing them because the work the Proletariat are doing is making them become extinct in terms that they are no longer becoming human. The little things a person does at home like spend time with his family, perform hobbies during his leisure time, maintain his home, etc. which makes him human, is no longer part of the person's life as he becomes a worker, a Proletarian, the class in society that is mistreated and looked down upon. Marx has pointed how a worker loses his life and himself to the product of his creation and even becomes estranged from his own class but in essence, his life, himself, and his whole social class is what makes them a culture. However, the Proletariat, although a human species, no longer become a species as their work removes their culture from inside of each

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    “The worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no longer belongs to him but to the object”. This is because the worker’s labour is invested into the object, however as he does not own the fruits of his labour, which the capitalism appropriates from him. “Labour’s product—confronts it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer” (p. 32). The more the labour produces the more he becomes estranged.…

    • 2988 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although ownership of one's own labor is a key element in both Smith and Marx's theories, they have subtle dissimilarities, leading to substantial opposing conclusions about a capitalist society. In a capitalist society, while Smith views labor as the most sanctified property in the laborers disposal to achieve the goals of self-interest, Marx states that with two classes in society, labor is not truly "free" to use since the laborer is forced to work for the capitalist owner in order to survive. This is because of the alienation between the laborer and his means of production. As Marx states, " If the product of work is externalization, production itself must be active externalization" If the worker is alienated from the product, then the worker is alienated from…

    • 1710 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx describes that through capitalistic means of production, the worker sinks to the level of a commodity, and is objectified as an object that can be bought or sold. Marx illustrates that on the basis of political economy the worker is viewed as a commodity that can be bought and sold for wages; in addition, that the worker becomes wretched spiritually, of health, and of intelligence (438). The workers are seen as simply replaceable with no sort of individual identity, they are dehumanized and become alienated from their true selves. When an individual becomes objectified they are no longer viewed as themselves, but as an object that lacks all the personal characteristics that he or she truly possess. Instead of judging individuals based off of their personal traits and characteristics, they are only judged on the sole fact of how much labor value and products that they are able to produce to the owner of production. Through a political economy, the workers are robbed of their health and individualism making them alienated to their true essence. When an individual is not able to live a healthy or fulfilling life in which they are able to participate in the activities that he or she enjoys, they become alienated from their…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Marx's Theory of Alienation

    • 2653 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Alienation, a concept that became widely known during the 19th and 20th century has been looked at extensively by a number of leading theorists. Theorists such as Georg Hegel first used the idea of alienation as a philosophic idea, but his work was later grasped upon by theorists known as Ludwig Feuerbach and more importantly Karl Marx. The world till now has been witness to a change in different social structures and forms in which society operates. We as human beings must ask, what purpose do we serve within society? What means do we have to sustain an effective or prosperous way of living? Marx believed we have been through different economic stages and ownership of the things we need to live, beginning with the times of the ancient to feudalism (land granted from the crown) to now where we have arrived at capitalism (private ownership). He saw this as historical stages of development where each stage has the characteristics of a system of production and division of labour, forms of property ownership and a system of class relations (Morrison,K.1995:40). This brought forward Marx’s idea of historical materialism which centred on how to interpret the history of mankind and the development of one stage of society to the next. In turn it looks for reasons for changes in human society and how humans together produced the necessary requirements to live. In relation to historical materialism there was another idea of dialectal materialism. This was a term used by Marx to study natural phenomena, the evolution of society and human thought itself as a process of development which rests upon motion and contradiction (Clapp,R: Acc 10/11/2012). Marx further explains historical and dialectical materialism which will be looked at further in the essay. By understanding how humans produce the necessities to live (historical materialism) and how a way of reasoning helps us to see the growth…

    • 2653 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    because he is not the recipient of the product he creates. As a result labor is…

    • 1845 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx and Moore

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Marx perceives society made up as two classes, the powerful and exploitive higher class known as the bourgeoisie and the industrial wage earners that must earn their living by selling their labor known as the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is known as the private property owners and the proletariat works for the bourgeoisie. There is an inequality between these two classes because the bourgeoisie takes advantage of the proletariat by having them work in order to live. Marx believes that what make us human are our productive and creative abilities and when the proletariat works, they lose individual character because they are working for their lives. This causes the proletariat to be alienated while the bourgeoisie capitalist basically sits back and uses the proletariat’s work to its full advantage.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marxism is the theory of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, it’s based on the economical and social system. Marxism emphasizes on the importance of class struggle in society. They thought that economic processes and class struggles laid the groundwork for every important era and movement in history, and would lead to the downfall of the upper class and the rise of an egalitarian communist society. Under capitalism, the working class or “the people,” own only their capacity to work; they have the ability only to sell their own labor. According to Marx a class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of production. The worker is alienated because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The capitalists sell the products produced by the workers at a proportional value as related to the labor involved. Surplus value is the difference between what the worker is paid and the price for which the product is sold.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 is a compilation of thoughts regarding German economic and political concerns. Karl Marx conceives capitalist society’s responsible for the estrangement of the laborer. The capitalist mode of production ensures that man’s labor necessarily restricts him from acting in accordance with his humanity. The theory of capitalism diverts him, in the sense that it provides false hope for betterment, while the structure of capitalism, in coercing him to fluctuate his priorities away from that of an autonomous social being towards that of a collective individual, debases man’s special bond to his species- what is self-contradictory is it asks him to abandon his deepest bond to humanity, while at the same time offering him the hope of becoming a better social being. As a result of this contradiction, Marx affirm, man’s labor alienates him from himself and from his species. Yet I am here to argue, although man may feel alienated from himself and product of work, man has the choice, option to free himself from notions of capital enslavement. Within this essay, I will define estrangement of labor and the four main dimensions of alienation, evident in a capitalist society. I will discuss how alienated labor comes about as a result of capitalism and why said labor is not socially commend. Furthermore, I will elucidate on what non-alienated labor would be like, compared to alienated labor, in a capitalist society. Ultimately, I will annotate why Marx’s critique of capitalism is unfound and how labor under capitalism is in fact, engaging.…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Marx believed that the poor were working their fingers to the bone to create value for society, while the rich simply siphoned off a portion of that value, which had been created by the poor. The rich do this without putting any effort into creating this value or their own value. In order for society’s productivity to be maximized, rich people’s syphoning off of a share of production must be done away with. Instead, the means of production (factories, stores, natural resources, etc.)—which rich people owned and used in order to siphon off poor people’s productivity—ought to be owned by the people themselves as a collective group. This prevents the rich from using their ownership position to syphon off a portion of society’s productione. Now, the people would continue to do all the producing, but the results of production would benefit only the people. In other words, each member of society must do what he or she can to produce the good and services society…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alienated Labor in Marx

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this paragraph, Marx introduces the notion of the “practical, real world” claiming that in reality, “self-estrangement can manifest itself only in the practical, real relationship to other men” (Marx 331). In the paragraphs leading to this one, Marx establishes his argument for how man estranges himself from both the product of his work and the act of production itself. Both of these points, however, merely serve as individual stepping-stones in the realm of the whole. When Marx conceptualizes the “practical, real” version of estrangement, he introduces the umbrella, which, when placed over the individual stones, grants pertinence and meaning to everything he has been discussing thus far.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Marx’s vision, there are four aspects in his theory of alienation. According to his writing, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, alienation means that workers are alienated from the…

    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx is counter arguing against capitalists. The argument against communism that Capitalists make is that communism does not allow those who work harder to be rewarded by their hard work. Therefore, Marx mocks the capitalists saying that in it is only 10% of the population that maintains the wealth in a capitalist society in reality. Marx’s most relevant argument regarding this view of capitalism or being only for 10% of the population is when he say’s “According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything do not work.” Marx believes that the working class should be rewarded more for the hard work they put in vs the rich who are wealthy and do not have to put in as much work.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    work. So barring the Encarta definition and my own probes into various pieces of Marx…

    • 1466 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx said that in the product of labor the worker is alienated from the object he produces because it is bought, owned and disposed of by someone else, the capitalist. In all societies people use their creative abilities to produce items which they use to exchange or sell. Marx believes that under capitalism this becomes an alienated activity because the worker can't use the things that he produces to engage in further productive activity. Marx argued that the alienation of the worker from what he produces is intensified because the products of labor actually begin to dominate the laborer. Rubin outlines this principle by explaining that the worker is paid less than the value that he creates. He also says that a portion of what the worker produces is appropriated by his boss and the worker is therefore exploited. The worker also puts creative labor into the product that he produces but he can not receive any creative labor to replace it.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a workplace environment, a worker can feel alienated for a multitude of reasons. One reason is because they do the same monotonous thing every day. It can also be the realization that your work is not unique from the others and that you can be replaced at any time, like a piece in a machine that has gotten rusty or stopped working. It is the feeling that you have you are forced to not have a unique identity in order to fulfill your duties. Carl Marx writes, “Just as in religion the spontaneous activity of human fantasy, of the human brain and heart, reacts independently as an alien activity of gods or devils upon the individual, so the activity of the working is not his own spontaneous activity” (pg. 57). What Marx means by this is that the employer takes all control away from the worker and makes them produce their product exactly the way the employer wants.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays