Preview

Marx and Alienation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1129 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marx and Alienation
Marx and Alienation
The essence of human beings relations to each other is formulated through the process of labor. In modern society, labor has taken on a form of production that is not necessarily production of one’s own desires; rather, what Marx refers to as estranged labor, the idea that this form of production makes man alien to the product of his labor. Alienation according to Marx is the objectification of human powers used for production that does not represent your own essence. Once the worker puts their life into the object they produce through their labor, it’s gone forever. To this effect your labor is what enables your existence, rather than your existence being displayed through your labor. When means of existence are displayed through labor, we approach a problem which for Marx is that of why alienation in a capitalist society is bad for individuals. The inherent relationship between capitalist to labor was for Marx the downfall of capitalism. The negative relationship forms when the capitalist’s only offer is an exchange for the most amount of labor for the least amount of compensation; this allows alienation to consume every form of human relations existing in a Capitalist economy. “Each man views the other with the standard and the position in which he finds himself as a worker.”(Marx 1844 pg.77) At the point where we allow an economic practice to consume every bit of potential we have to relate to ourselves and alienate us from ourselves is the point where alienation becomes a problem in a capitalist society. In a society that is not capitalist, social relations flourish as the human relationship to the labor process is restored by working as an expression of our nature rather than to receive a wage. Human activity as a result of this receives a similar restoration in which it regains the ability of the individual to again impose its own subjective image of existence. An indication for what an un-alienated society would look like



Cited: Marx, K. (1844). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. New York NY: W.W. Norton and Company ltd. Castle House.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Marx and Walmart

    • 2109 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Marx, K. (1963) Preface to A contribution to the Critique of Political Economy; trans. T.B. Bottomore and…

    • 2109 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Marx Alienation

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Marx believed in objectification when it came to labor, or essentially the outside/visible things we create are the workings of our internal thoughts—in my job, this is seen when I program accounts for our call takers as I make the visible (the account the agent works from) by thinking internally what the way to get the best functionality of the account would be. Marx though had some other theories about labor such as how work is a material thing, i.e. we farm for the food, we dig for the oil, etc. Marx believed that labor transforms us in terms of what we need, our level of self-consciousness, and so on. Marx though thought of work as the human need to work due to their needs—this is relatable as I work because I need to money, I need the money because I have bills and because I am in college. There is though an interesting topic that pretty much every job has that Marx thought of—alienation.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Marx’s theory and concepts are wide-ranging and had a massive influence and impact society development. Through reading and deeply thinking Marxism theory, I am interested in assessing issues about concept on alienation. I would like to focus more on page 70 to 81 in The Marx-Engels Reader and read over and over again which are the content mostly related to alienation. The reason why I am absorbed in this topic because I notice that Marx had a specific understanding with significant experience of alienation which is found in modern bourgeois society. Later on Marx developed this understanding through his critique of Hegel.…

    • 1788 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful 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
  • Good Essays

    Marx View on Capitalism

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages

    1b. Summarize Marx’s views on the market, alienation, the labor theory of value, the surplus value, and the accumulation of capital. Are these views relevant in the 20th century and during the contemporary globalization? If so, how? How are these views related with Thorstein Veblens ideas? Please give specific reference to the relevant readings.…

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Marx’s Theory of Alienation is the assertion that through Capitalist industrial practices, the worker will experience a series of feelings of disconnection from integral parts of the labour process and ultimately, from humanity itself. I will argue that this theory will be relevant as long as the reign of Capitalism dominates modern society. Marx advocates that the only way alienation can be alleviated is through the destruction of the current economic base which he predicts is an inevitable gravitation towards a classless, stateless society known as socialism.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Philosphy Marx

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Under the economic system of private ownership, society divides itself into two classes: the property owners and the property-less workers. In this arrangement, the workers not only suffer impoverishment but also experience an estrangement or alienation from the world. This estrangement occurs because the worker relates to the product of his work as an object alien and even hostile to himself. The worker puts his life into the object and his labor is invested in the object, yet because the worker does not own the fruits of his labor, which in capitalism are appropriated from him, he becomes more estranged the more he produces. Everything he makes contributes to a world outside of him to which he does not belong. He shrinks in comparison to this world of objects that he helps create but does not possess. This first type of alienation is the estrangement of the worker from the product of his work.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The concept of alienation remains a significant feature of modern society. I will discuss Karl Marx’s central concern with alienation in conjunction with his critique of capitalist society and note the contemporary relevance. Karl Marx was born into a middle class home in Germany in the 19th century. He studied at University’s around Europe and was exiled from Cologne and Paris where he wrote for radical newspapers, eventually ending up in London where he and his family lived in poverty. Such things as the French and the times of the Industrial revolution were present leading from feudalism to capitalism times that have led to the way we live in current society. The basis of a capitalist system is the drive to increase profit for companies so that they stay open and running and this requires extracting surplus values. We rely on capitalism to gain what we need like homes, clothing, food, cars, and electricity. According to Marx, people in society cannot provide these things on there own so they rely on the market production, private property assumes that man produces to own something for himself and that this alienates man from his own humanity.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marx saw the development of society in a predominantly optimistic light because he anticipated change occurring through a social revolution (ultimately to be brought about by class conflict). The problems he saw, however, laid in that the working class was exploited and oppressed to maintain the interests of the dominant class--and under capitalism this would never change. Marx saw the rise of capitalism as poisonous to society because it could only ever benefit those in power (aka those who were in control of the means of production). Another problematic change that arose with the quickly developing society was what Marx referred to as alienation. Alienation was a problem experienced almost exclusively by the working class, and on a variety of levels. Workers became alienated from their end product (the product of all their labor), each other, and they could even become alienated from themselves.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    In The History Of Work

    • 2200 Words
    • 6 Pages

    2. Marx, K (1844) “Estranged Labour”, in Lemert, C.(2010) Social Theory: The multicultural and classic readings [e-book] Westview Press: Boulder, CO. pp32-38 The permanent…

    • 2200 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Race Class Gender

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. the alienated labor is when” private property and its owners hires and controls others and defines labor for them” Instead of results of one’s labor benefiting one’s self, the labor becomes a function that benefits the property owners (184). Therefore, capitalist get to hold on to their money by the “means of production”(184). In a capitalist society Owners vs. non-owners, conflict the rises between the “haves” and the “have not’s” are inevitable. Class structure is maintained by 3 mechanisms; State (ruling class asserting their common interest 185), Ideology (Ideas that support and legitimizes the position of capitalist 185) and the capitalist structure itself due to custom an training views the condition of capitalism a normal process and creates a dependency of workers on the system which makes it hard to resist or rebel. For Ma0rx the important issues structure of economic relations that drives everything else(185, 186. His ideology correlates with contemporary society because of the overabundance of productions which then leads to bankruptcy (2009 housing crisis)(188).…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nra Gun Control

    • 2198 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Marx first expressed the idea, "The object that labor produces, its product, stands opposed to it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer."(Marx. 1) Most of us don 't own the tools and machinery we work with nor the products that we produce because they belong to the capitalist that hired us. But everything we work on and in at some point comes from human labor. The irony is that everywhere we turn, we are confronted with the work of our own hands and brains, and yet these products of our labor appear as things outside of us, and outside of our control. Work and the products of work dominate us, rather than the other way around. Rather than being a place to fulfill our potential, the workplace is merely a place we are compelled to go in order to obtain money to buy the things we need. "Hence," Marx wrote, "the worker feels himself only when he is not working; when he is working, he does not feel himself. He is at home when he is not working, and not at home when he is working. His labor is, therefore, not voluntary but forced, it is forced labor ' '( Marx pg.37) It is, therefore, not the satisfaction of a need but a mere means to satisfy needs outside itself.…

    • 2198 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the process of making these material goods, Marx believes that the worker becomes estranged or alienated. This is because the worker makes the products but isn’t able to keep it. The worker is also alienated from labor or the act of production because he puts time and labor into making the product. He is alienated from the nature of the material since he has no direct contact with the materials as they began in their natural forms, coming from the earth. He is also separated from himself his own emotions and feelings and since he must conduct himself according to the company policies.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Few philosophers viscerally strike a chord with their readers, regardless of the subject in question. Yet there is something within Marx's essay, Alienated Labor, that is able to communicate directly to working people laboring even over one-hundred and fifty years subsequent to its publication. There is good reason for this: Marx elucidated a theory of labor in which workers become subservient to the objects they produce, a theory where people are not exalted by their labor, but devalued by it. Marx's concept of alienated labor describes the internal conflict and disparity of workers, be they from the 19th or 21st century, when their existence is contingent upon fulfilling the desires and wants of another and neglecting their own.…

    • 586 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karl Marx

    • 563 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Who is Karl Marx? Karl Mark was a German philosopher and revolutionary socialist. “The theory of alienation, as expressed in the writings of Karl Marx, refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to put antagonism between things that are properly in harmony” (Boundless). This means anything that should normally be put together has been alienated in some way at the work place. Marx identifies four aspects of alienation highlighting the correlation between capitalist and the under valued worker. Who is very often ostracized from the labor they’ve produced.…

    • 563 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays