Karl Marx and Capitalist Alienation

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The concept of alienation plays a significant role in Marx's early political writing, especially in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1848, but it is rarely mentioned in his later works. This implies that while Marx found alienation useful in investigating certain basic aspects of the development of capitalist society, it is less useful in putting forward the predictions of the collapse of capitalism. The aim of this essay is to explain alienation, and show how it fits into the pattern of Marx's thought. It will be concluded that alienation is a useful tool in explaining the affect of capitalism on human existence. In Marx's thought, however, the usefulness of alienation it is limited to explanation. It does not help in either predicting the downfall of capitalism, or the creation of communism. Marx takes his idea of alienation from Feuerbach, who shows the alienation of man from God. Briefly, Feuerbach's argument is that God is created by man as the 'projection of man's species-essence, the totality of his powers and attributes raised to the level of infinity' (1). Religion alienates man by reversing the relationship between the subject and predicate - the Deity is supreme over man, even though it is created by man. Leszek Kolakowski suggests that the clearest material example of religious alienation is blood sacrifice. In general, therefore, alienation of man is the process that separates man from part of himself. In Feuerbach, the separation is between man and the god created in man's image. In Marx, as shall be seen, alienation is the separation between man and his life-activity, his product, society and the species. Each of these four relations can be seen as one aspect of man being separated from himself. ... ... middle of paper ... ...(rather than local) being. (13) Thus, although alienation provides an understanding of the problems of capitalism, it does not provide a means of escaping it. 1. L. Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, pp 115. 2. L. Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, pp 115. 3. B. Ollman, Alienation, pp 133. 4. S. Avineri, Karl Marx: Social and Political Thought. 5. This point is also put forward by Herbert Marcuse. 6. L. Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism. 7. K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. 8. B. Ollman, Alienation, pp131. 9. G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A defence. 10. H. Marcuse, Reason and Revolution. 11. K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. 12. B. Ollman, Alienation, pp138. 13. Spiritual in the sense of human fulfilment in work, rather than any religious sense. 14. K. Marx, The German Ideology, pp56.

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