An Analysis of the Concept of Alienation by Karl Marx Karl Marx was one of the greatest social thinkers during his time. His theories regarding society and its structure, as well as the various ins and outs of the society were revolutionary at the time of their conception. As a great social thinker, Marx was able to contribute invaluable insight on the present form of society and was even able to somehow predict the potential future outcomes. His theories became the stepping stones towards the future discovery of various other theories which we use today in order to further understand our society. Out of all the contributions of Marx to the social sciences, the concept which he is most well known today is for is the concept of alienation. …show more content…
Most of Marx’s discussions on the subject of alienation can be found in his work The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. It is in this work that Marx first discussed alienation in detail. According to Marx, alienation is a relationship which is produced between two or more people or even parts of an individual in which one is cut off from. This process of cutting off then results to an estrangement or “alienation” from the other parts from which the part is cut off. Such alienation is in short a separation between parts which ought to belong to each other in the first place. In the Marxist theory of alienation, Marx focused on capitalism and linked the two concepts together. According to him, in a capitalist society, individuals actually become cut off from many things – their friends, families, products of their labor, and even themselves. Because of this cutting off, the individuals affected cannot be “whole” beings who are fully developed to their potential inside the capitalist society. This is the humanist perspective of Marx on the matter of alienation. According to him, alienation is bad since work has become the central form of self expression in a capitalist
Marx, discusses a certain concept of alienated labor as an unavoidable result of a capitalist system. The framework that he tries to draw in the book is that capitalist system should be blamed for class strafication and alienated labor in the society. In a capitalist society, people suffer from class conflict and property ownership of bourgeoisie. Bourgeoisie owns the big factories and businesses, so then, small manufacturers have to shut down and basically have to join the labors in the big businesses. Workers in the capitalist system are obligated to work for long hours under unhealthy conditions for really low salaries.
Karl Marx sums up the basics of his thoughts on alienated labour well in the first paragraph in the last section of the first Manuscript. “On the basis of political economy itself, in its own words, we have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production; that the necessary result of competition is the accumulation of capital in a few hands, and thus the restoration of monopoly in a more terrible form; and that finally the distinction between capitalist and land rentier, like that between the tiller of the soil and the factory worker, disappears and that the whole of society must fall apart into the two classes – property owners and propertyless workers.” This is how our society today really does work, and it is much more evident then in 1844 when karl marx was writing about this.
Marx thought that you could have domination and oppression without alienation; however, you could not have alienation without domination and oppression. Marx believed that alienation happened when workers no longer saw themselves in their work. Alienation occurs when someone no longer works to sell his or her property to another person. But rather they sell their time in order to live, and create these products not because they get joy out of it, but because
Alienation, as defined by Williams, has two meanings. He first describes the term as "an act of estrangement, normally in relation to a `cutting-off' or being cut off from God, or to a breakdown of relations between a man or a group and some received political authority." The second definition Williams gives for alienation is "the act of transferring the ownership of anything to another, and especially the transfer of rights, estates, or money. Alienation is a major concept in Marx's Communist Manifesto. Marx argues that class struggle causes the formation of all historical developments. He identifies alienation as the main cause of class inequality. The two class rivals in Marx's Manifesto are the bourgeoisie, or middle class, and the proletariat, or wage-laborers. According to Marx, the proletariat was alienated.
I argue that the way Marx looks at alienation should open the worlds eyes to the negative effects that alienation has on people. Marx’s idea that, alienation is just another form of inequality because its to stand apart of or as stranger to something. And we see a lot of alienation and inequality in regards to the work place, race, class and life itself. Both of the words alienation and inequality are negative and a question that I believe is important to ask is , “ why does alienation occur so often?” Marx believes that “ working for money and not for the creativity of labor is akin to selling your soul” (lecture 4).
In closing, both Marx and Durkheim were extraordinary thinkers and theorist of their time. Both their theories have provided a better understanding of our society by examining our society and the crucial elements within it at a deeper level. Alienation then, is the breakdown of the interconnectedness in society imposed by the structure of society that is, to Marx an important part of life. Well, at least in an ideal sense. Anomie is defined as a state reached when society is marked by unchecked economic progress. Although Marx and Durkheim approached the issue of modern society in different analytic manner, there is one thing that is undisputed, it has greatly impacted sociology today and maintain a level of truth as well as value for the future.
He also perceived money as a cause of alienation. Money is what drives people to be an active member in society, for example where they work. People must work to survive. Marx sees this as selling themselves to their job, which is a form of alienation. He then broke down alienation into different types of alienation. One type of alienation Marx discussed was the alienation of man from himself. This is when a man “does not fulfil himself in his work but feels miserable, physically exhausted and mentally debased” (Stevenson, 142). When a man cannot see how his work is contributing to society as a whole, he begins to lose motivation to succeed. Also, when all of a person’s time and effort go into their work it will become their identity. People will lose their identity in their work, that’s all they will be known for, rather than their hobbies or talents. Marx also argues that man feels alienated at work. “The materials he uses and the objects he produces are alien to him, because they are owned by someone else.” (Stevenson, 142). He
Marx’s theory of alienation describes the separation of things that naturally belong together. For Marx, alienation is experienced in four forms. These include alienation from ones self, alienation from the work process, alienation from the product and alienation from other people. Workers are alienated from themselves because they are forced to sell their labor for a wage. Workers are alienated from the process because they don’t own the means of production. Workers are alienated from the product because the product of labor belongs to the capitalists. Workers do not own what they produce. Workers are alienated from other people because in a capitalist economy workers see each other as competition for jobs. Thus for Marx, labor is simply a means to an end.
Marx explains the condition. of estranged labour as the result of man participating in an institution alien to his nature. It is my interpretation that man is alienated from his labour because he is not the reaper. of what he sows. Because he is never the recipient of his efforts, the labourer lacks identity with what he creates.
Karl Marx’s article titled Estranged Labor as found in his 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts pays significant attention to the political economic system, which is commonly referred to capitalism. He further delves into nature of the political economy with a keen focus on how it has negatively impacted the worker or laborer. Therefore, the laborer forms the subject of his critical and detailed analysis as tries demonstrates the ill nature of the political economy. To start with Karl Marx portrays how the political economy as presented by its proponents has led to emergence of two distinct classes in society; the class of property owners and on the other hand, the class of property less workers. According to Karl Marx (2004), proponents of the political economy have introduced concepts such as private property and competition indicating without providing any form of analytical explanation but rather just expecting the society to embrace and apply such concepts. In particular, political economists have failed to provide a comprehensive explanation for division that has been established between capital and labor. Estranged Labor clearly depicts Marx’s dissatisfaction as well as disapproval towards the political economy indicating that proponents of such a system want the masses to blindly follow it without any form of intellectual or practical explanation. One area that Karl Marx demonstrates his distaste and disappointment in the article is worker or the laborer and how the worker sinks to not just a commodity but rather a wretched commodity (Marx, 2004). This is critical analysis of Karl Marx concept or phenomenon on the alienation of the worker as predicted in Estranged Labor in several aspects and how these concepts are ...
THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.
The first type of alienation is from “product of labor”. This is where the worker is separated from their work. This is basically saying that the work that the worker is creating does not necessarily show their creativity. Marx wrote:
Marx’s theory of alienation reflexes the current situation of workers in an era of capitalism that may be improved one day with the revolution of means of production. It is of great philosophic significance that influences the perspective of another two great philosophers - Hegel and Ludwig and is widely considered as the key to explain and solve alienation.
Class and Alienation is one of the theories that Marx’s came up with, which can also be used when looking at education. This is a theory that shows how a Marx’s perspective critiques the function of schooling society. According to Marxists, education does not give everybody a fair chance and that it uses the “alienation of schoolwork” (idea that children will do the work if they are rewarding for doing it), to socially control people until they are ready for ‘exploitation’ in the world of work (Functions of Education According to Functionalists and Marxists , 2009). Alienation for Marx was based on work where to alienated labour there was two steps, the first one was to alienate nature from man and second was to alienate man from himself from his own active function, his life activity so it alienates him from the species (Grusky, 2001). When looking at this statement and comparing it to education, one can see the similarities between the two. Marxist claim that alienation bein...
He is known worldwide for his numerous theories and ideas in regards to society, economics and politics. His outlook on these subjects is known as Marxism. Marxism focuses on the imbalance and struggle between classes and society. Marx’s theories stem from the concept of materialism based society and the implications thereof. These concepts leads to the Marxist theory of the failure of capitalism. Marx had a number of specific reasons for the downfall of capitalism yet capitalism remains very real and successful. Marxism covers a wide range of topics and theories, but an in depth analysis of his criticism to capitalism and how it is not relevant to modern day will be explored.