Karl Marx's Theory Of Alienation: An Interpretation And Critical Evaluation

1843 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Marx and division of labour

Karl Marx’s Theory of Alienation: An Interpretation and Critical Evaluation

Karl Marx is one of the most influential socialists, economists, and philosophers to emerge in the 19th century. His work was largely ignored by the scholars of his lifetime, yet has gained rapid acceptance since his death in 1883. One of his greatest works includes the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 which introduces his central concepts of alienation labor. In this essay I will provide an interpretation of what I understand Marx’s account of alienated labor to be well as a critical evaluation of the material he provides.

Personal Interpretation Karl Marx wrote his theory of alienated labor during the industrial revolution. He witnessed the unjust …show more content…

Under capitalism, the proletariat relates to their labor as a strange object and lack any sort of identification with it. They invest their lives into objects and no longer own their own labor. The worker becomes more alienated the more he or she produces. The worker shrinks in comparison to this world of objects that he or she helps create but can not possess and habitually loses the power to determine life and destiny. They can not think of themselves as the directors of their own actions, are under control of the bourgeoisie, and treated as a …show more content…

The worker comes to believe that the maintenance of individual existence is thus the single and solitary goal of their life activity.” He believes that if a worker works only for the wage then he deprives himself of purpose in life. In turn, he implies that labor is the only way to affirm one’s purpose in life. Life is about the mindset each person carries. It is possible that one could work a job simply for the wage. However, that does not to mean that they have to lack self-actualization. One could be working a job that they don’t completely enjoy but realize they have found purpose in providing for their family. To be able to provide for their family and create happiness within them, is all it takes for some. The means of production in a capitalist economy does not inevitably lead to alienation. Others may work a job solely for the wage but find purpose in non-economic activities. For example, people could find their purpose in the church, playing a sport, tutoring children, and more. Your job doesn’t have to define your meaning in

Show More
Related

  • Marx Alienated Labor Analysis

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the worker’s product is owned by someone else, the worker regards this person, the capitalist, as alien and hostile. The worker feels alienated from and antagonistic toward the entire system of private property through which the capitalist appropriates both the objects of production for his own enrichment at the expense of the worker and the worker’s sense of identity and wholeness as a human being.

    Read More

  • The Gender Politics of Work Exposed in The Yellow Wallpaper

    2465 Words  | 5 Pages

    With the emergence of an industrial working class that arrived from the farms and countryside new theories and ideologies about the political economy began to appear. Karl Marx, a political philosopher during this time, introduced the idea of "alienation of labor". His theory proposed that labor has the ability to create a loss of reality in the laborer because the laborer himself becomes a commodity or object due to the nature of work. In terms of the roles of women it can be argued that the effect is even greater due to the limited choices of work available. This theme is expressed in literature through the writings of Gilman and Alcott.

    Read More

  • Mead And Marx's View On Human Nature

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class…”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products (…) chases the bourgeois over the whole surface of the globe” (Marx, 212) and creates a world that cannot exist without the separation of workers and owners and competition for the lowest price. The struggle between the

    Read More

  • Theory of Alienation: Marx and Nietzsche

    2372 Words  | 5 Pages

    Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.

    Read More

  • Understanding Social Reality through Marxism

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    People work based on goals capitalist to pay them. In capitalism, labor is no longer a goal in itself but as an expression of the ability, potential of humanity and effort to earn money. The individual who experienced alienation in capitalist society is basic focus of Mark analysis in the structure of capitalism that became the source of alienation. Marx used the concept of alienation to the influence of capitalist production on people and on society. The most important thing is the two-class system in which capitalists use and treat workers (and thereby, their working time) and their production (tools and raw materials) as final products and workers are forced to spend their time to work to the capitalist in order they can

    Read More

  • Kuyper Against Marx

    1801 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...

    Read More

  • The Communist Manifesto and The Jungle

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Modern industry has replaced the privately owned workshop with the corporate factory. Laborers file into factories like soldiers. Throughout the day they are under the strict supervision of a hierarchy of seemingly militant command. Not only are their actions controlled by the government, they are controlled by the machines they are operating or working with, the bourgeois supervisors, and the bourgeois manufacturer. The more open the bourgeois are in professing gain as their ultimate goal, the more it condemns the proletariat.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx and Capitalist Alienation

    1843 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Marx 's Theory Of Class Conflict

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The capitalist is motivated by being rewarded wealth. Capital can only multiply by giving itself in return of labor power. This exchange is based on specified percentages. For example, after a long 12 hours of weaving the worker is only compensated two shillings. They attain residual wealth by taking advantage of workers. These workers are being compensated less than the value of their work. The workers endure great deals of exploitation. Workers put their labor power into effect to acquire means of survival which makes existence possible. The amount of commodities is based on the cost of life and the workers’ work ethic. Marx foreseen that class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would result in the collapsing of capitalism. The motivations of the capitalist and the workers create conflict because the capitalist attempt to uphold capitalism by advocating their principles, beliefs, and fabricated perceptions that prevent proletariats from rebelling. Once the two classes conflict with one another the cla...

    Read More

  • Summary Of Karl Marx Estranged Labor

    1878 Words  | 4 Pages

    Prompt 1: In Karl Marx Estranged Labor he explains how capitalism divides society into two parts, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He explains the proletariat are the working class who produce commodities in the society in which they live. This includes things such as working in factories, to producing natural resources. The bourgeoisie are the members of this society who own all the means of production. They own the factories in which the proletariat work, and essentially dictate their lives.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx on Estranged Labor

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    argues that man becomes to be viewed as a commodity worth only the labour he creates

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis Of Estranged Labor By Karl Marx

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, Marx states that the worker is alienated from his own life as well as individuality. This level of estrangement from one’s own life can be equated to slavery as he cannot think, make decision or plan for his future life but rather the capitalist is his owner. Labor camps tend to characterize workers as objects which should be act or behave as normal human beings but are required to follow a set routine of activities in the production of products.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx - Capitalist Alienation

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Because of the conditions that the wage-workers worked in, Marx described it as exploitation. Marx felt that the wage workers were being exploited. The capitalist, also known as the bourgeoisie, were exploiting the wage workers, the proletariats, because of their cheap labor. They were essentially using them to create and increase their own profit. This in turn brought up alienation. Basically, alienation, also known as estrangement, is when a person is separated from their work, what they produce, themselves, and their environment. Marx’s theory of alienation was used to describe workers laboring under the capitalist society. The workers, also known as wage laborers, were commodities—things that are bought, sold, or exchanged in the market. They were selling their labor which means that they were being alienated from what they were doing.

    Read More

  • Socialism - The Best Economic System

    1465 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Under capitalism workers receive only a small fraction of the wealth that they alone produce, while the lion’s share goes to the capitalist owners and to the bankers, landlords, insurance companies, lawyers, politicians, and all the other parasites who live off the back of labor and perform no useful work.” (SLP). Thus, laborers are paid much less than the value of the labor that they contribute. As Karl Marx said, this is stealing, or exploitation of labor. The wages for these laborers are often too small to live off of.... ...

    Read More

More about Karl Marx's Theory Of Alienation: An Interpretation And Critical Evaluation

Open Document