Marx Theory Of Alienation example essay topic

Alienation according to Marx means that people are separated from their essential human powers, and values specific to humans. Marx theory of alienation has a long history and was influenced by Feuerbach, Hegel and the English Political Economy. The concept of 'alienation' provides the focal point of Marx's critical interpretation of modern society, it is the main support of his critique of capitalism. Although it was originally thought that Marx's concept of alienation was founded upon the premise that man is 'naturally' good, but corrupted by society, it is clear that to measure alienation primarily against a hypothetical state of nature means neglecting the most essential aspect of Marx's writings; the historical nature of man.

# The concept of alienation has vast and complex problems, because Marx takes his inspiration from so many areas, including law, economy and philosophy. The theory of alienation, and the factors that influence it have real significance in Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx theory of Communism is based on historical analysis. History proved that capitalism is needed to create communism, because capitalism creates productivity, which needs labour.

The conditions of labour for all across the world will be roughly the same and this creates the possibility of international solidarity to overthrow capitalism. Therefore capitalism creates the need for communism on a global scale. The 1840's saw economic alienation, because people did not have real control of their lives; although people could vote, this did not mean democracy in the work place. A man's life activity was his work.

Marx saw that there was the need to extend freedom and democracy into the economy of the labour process. According to Marx, the key quality of a human being is imagination, which humans can act upon. Human beings need to collectively control their own society and nature, but they have to want to do this. Under capitalism this kind of collective control isn't possible, and individual potential is developed in a one-sided manner; material wants and needs outweigh spiritual needs and relationships of any kind. Politics can also create alienation, in the Prussian state, the people were alienated from their leaders, Hegel believed that this alienation served the common interests of the people, but Marx concurred that it only served the needs of the leaders. Political alienation is overcome by democracy, which makes the state accountable to its people.

Philosophers, Hegel and Feuerbach each employed a notion of alienation in their individual accounts of human life. Hegel claimed that an individual suffers from alienation when he fails to identify himself with the natural world and with the institutions of society#. In his view, alienation can be overcome by an individual learning to envision himself and his natural world as part of the spiritual world, this will help him to develop. Feuerbach believed that a person is alienated when he subscribes to a belief in the existence of any extra-human spiritual entity, no matter whether these entities are traditional or like Hegel's Spirit. # Humans, because they are religious give their powers of decision to God, their capacity is to love God not people, known as transformative criticism.

Both men believed that alienation could be overcome by a person freeing himself of intellectual error. Whilst Marx was influenced by the thinkers, he took his theory of alienation further; "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it". # He believed that alienation was an actual objective condition of a person. It was condition that could not be removed simply by transforming consciousness.

Individuals suffer alienation, not because they give in to intellectual error, but because their basic social institutions obstruct the actualization of their human potentials. To remove alienation from society meant getting rid of the institutions that caused it and replacing them with more welcoming ones. Marx was aware that a human being who was unable to live a human life, was not going to be able to sustain a sense that life had a meaning or a sense of his own self-worth. He placed much blame on religious beliefs, claiming that acceptance of beliefs was systematic to the condition of alienation; "Religion... is the opium of the people". # Of course he believed capitalism was the main reason people became alienated.

In Marx's analysis of bourgeois society, there are two directly related, but partially separable sources of alienation rooted in the capitalist mode of production#, firstly capitalism controls market economy meaning there was no economic freedom, a worker is alienated in his labour because he plays no part in deciding what he does. Secondly, capitalism prevents humans from gaining autonomy because of the nature of the sort of production activity that puts excessive demands on humans. # Man is separated from the result of his labour- the product. Marx points out that the alienation of the product is double, not only is a worker separated from his own product, but as the power of capitalism grows, the product actually weakens the workers position in society. Capitalism also alienates man from other men, class antagonism separates workers from capitalists and the labour market ensures that man would constantly be oppressed to other men because of competition. For Marx, both types of alienation are fundamental to the expansion of the divisions of labour, because the emergence of class societies in history was dependent upon the growth of the specialisation of tasks made possible by the existence of excess production.

A classless society can only be formed by abolishing the division of labour that exists under capitalism. It would be possible to overcome production alienation by re organising society in a revolutionary manner, this would hopefully lead to the fragmenting of alienation, freeing individuals from the confines of production. Marx was were passionate about the unpleasant demands of the workplace under capitalism, in fact he never ceased to be pre-occupied with this aspect of capitalism; 'Within the capitalist system of production all methods for raising the social productivity of labour are put into effect at the cost of the individual worker... they alienate from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process... ' # Marx felt that capitalist society was not a genuine society, and that capitalists regarded individuals merely as a means to private ends and the negative nature of work meant that workers were obliged to perform tasks, meaning they had negative feelings for their capitalist employers, which only leads to further alienation. Marx offered two main reasons for his claim that human beings would enjoy far greater autonomy in communism than they could in capitalism, firstly communism can bring economic activity under human control, rather than allow it to be governed by market forces and secondly communism also allows for greater opportunity for individual self-expression. Communism reduces the length of the working day to less than that required of workers in capitalism, and this increases individuals free time.

Marx believed that them ore free time people had, the more time they could dedicate to improving themselves, both spiritually and mentally. According to Marx, communism could secure the full realisation of human potential, and abolishing the division of labour would mean allowing people to develop their individual talent. He also believed that when the economic activity of society was centrally planned, the members of that society could be said to enjoy more freedom than they did when the society's economic activity was regulated by the capitalist market. Marx had the idea that a planned society could promote the self-sufficiency of its members if these members had a voice in the formulation of the plan, a democratic decision. He believed that capitalism promoted selfishness in society, but a communist economic structure would make people unselfish.

When scarcity in society was abolished, than individuals could be free to spend their time in creative self-expression. Of course Marx's theory of alienation does have its problems, if capitalism was destroyed and replaced by communism, profit motive would be destroyed and without this motive it is doubtful if there would be the same degree of incentive in society for people to search for new ways of increasing the productivity of labour. Also, communism could lead to people actually being altruistic, because the more free time people have, the more time they have to dedicate to things they want, becoming more selfish over time. As man became more aware of what he could achieve and as he became capable of producing more, so his desires increase. In the presence of scarcity, people would be obliged to use effort in activity which is not undertaken as a means to an end, if they wanted to get what they wanted. Work cannot be turned into an activity that people will want to do for its own sake, neither can human beings who are predominantly self-regarding be made to take an interest in others.

If the overcoming of alienation is supposed to mean that barriers put up through capitalism would be brought down, this would mean a utopian world would have to be created, in which human self-determination reigns supreme and all human potentials would finally be realised#. But overcoming alienation does not mean this, because society will still continue to be 'external' to the individual. The concept of alienation was useful in pointing out the differences of a capitalist and communist society. In Marx's view, capitalism prevents the distinctively human potentialities of the individual members of society from being actual ised to any significant degree. He believed communism could overcome this. Whilst there are flaws in Marx theory of alienation, it is clear that his overall idea was a good one.

Marx saw that humans had real potential, and that this potential was being sacrificed because of business interests, this is even more obvious today than it was in the nineteenth century. Conway. D A Farewell to Marx Penguin Books 1987 pp 34-40 Giddens. A Capitalism & Modern Social Theory Cambridge Uni.

Press 1971 pp 225-234 McLellan. D Karl Marx: Modern Master Fontana Press 1986 2nd. Edition Oll man. B Alienation: Marx's Concept of a Man in a Capitalist Society Cambridge Uni.

Press 1977 2nd Edition pp 130-140 Engels. F & Marx. K The Communist Manifesto Penguin Classics 1967 web web web.