Los Valores y la Enajenación del Hombre

Escuela Nacional Preparatoria No. 7

• This book is part of the "Colección Biblioteca Prepa 7" number 20
• The book was published by "Ediciones de la Viga" in its second era.

Title and Author

• The book is titled "Los Valores y la Enajenación del Hombre" (Values and the Alienation of Man)
• It is written by José Castillo Farreras and Ezequiel A. Chávez J.

Publication Details

• The book was published in Mexico in 1995.

Preliminary Remarks

• The author believes that essays like this one, regardless of their modest qualities, should be made public.
• This is to ensure that those convinced of the possibility of social critique against capitalism are aware of it and continue to provide it
• The author states that it is cowardly to dismiss previous communist beliefs.
• It is a sign of little faith to abandon them after the fall of Moscow.

Introduction

• The author states that the essay is not a marxist essay.
• It acknowledges the history of culture in Western Europe.
• It offers a synthesis and an analysis of the brutalities of the capitalist system.
• It is hidden in interpersonal relationships such as sports, work, and love, examining their connection to values

Acknowledgements and Disclaimers

• The author acknowledges Risieri Frondizi, Carlos Marx, José Ferrater Mora, and others as recognizable sources for the text.
• The description of the author's outrage over the deaths of seamstresses in the 1985 earthquake is presented as unique
• The author recognizes Claudio Cevallos as a brother and friend.
• He provided important corrections and suggested that the author address concerns about being perceived as anachronistic and obsolete
• The author intends to make a statement of his convictions about a world in which communism is not considered a noble doctrine.
• The author recognizes that his statements are based of knowledge from others.
• The author says he wants the men and women, everyone, can fulfill themself

Section I: Values

• The concept of value as a philosophical study object emerges from the beginnings of philosophy.
• Plato explored the questions of duty, truth, justice, and goodness in depth, approaching values in a specific way.

I.1. Hermann Lotze

• In the 19th century, the research of the value started giving birth to a new philosophy discipline.
• Hermann Lotze the german, gave the first formal definition of a value, gaining the name of “The father of Axiology”
• Lotze researched within the object theory, placing value as a new class among them.
• Lotze had two classes of objects: ser and valer.
• Ser objects can stay in the idea of Being and Valer object in Value category
• Both exist but some can be defined as “they are” while others can be defined as “they worth” this difference creates the definition: Being is, but values are only worth

I.2. Transition to Initial Trends

• Lotze's tautological definition ("Being is" and "Value is worth") was criticized and repeated.

I.3. Subjectivism and Objectivism

• Subjectivists believed that claiming "Being is" means asserting "exists in time and space, like physical phenomena."
• Objectivists suggested that stating "Value is not, but worth" means it is neither physical nor psychic.
• Subjectivism respects the anthropocentric idea that man is the measure of all things.
• The subjective current bifurcates into individualism and collectivism.

I.4. Neopositivism in Axiology

• For neopositivism, terms that designate values are false concepts.
• They provide no real meaning, as explained by Rudolf Carnap.
• Concepts are either authentic or false as per this movement.
• An authentic concept has an objective correlate or reference with demonstratable existence
• Value judgments exhibit characteristics, include a word that designates a value.
• They do not qualify as true or false and are not demonstrably empirical

I.5. Robert S. Hartmann's Thesis

• Robert S. Hartmann, a German professor and researcher at UNAM, proposed a thesis to overcome the errors of subjectivism and objectivism, considering neopositivism.
• The theory was introduced in his book 'The structure of value'
• Summary Formula: v is c
• V: object
• C: concept
• Object is valuable when it fulfills all the requirement of its concept

Section II: The Alienation of Man in Capitalism

II.1 Cultural Relativism

• The concept of "cultural relativism" was used for the first time within the field of anthropology by Eduard Westermarck
• There is not only one culture but many, and none is better/worse than the others, just different

II.2. Economic Values

• Economists promoted the values in a philosophical sense.
• From the time of economics to these days, they talk about values.
• Use Value and Value of Exchange: basic and elemental concepts.
• Use Value: the capacity of an object for being used or being changed with another object
• The aptitud to become a mean to realize a Fin

II.3 Human Dignity and the Ethical Essence of Capitalist Society

• The philosophy has considered human as the center of everything
• To degrade human creates degrade also the value
• The man transforms in the thing and then the worth becomes merchandise

II.4. The alienated life. Death

• The alienation is present everywhere at society interactions
• Being human is transformed into Merchandise

II.5 The Alientated Job

• The Reification can be seen everywhere
• The reification can be perceived on the job, and social relations

II.6. The Alienated Love

• The alienation leads the reification and also transforms human
• The affection turn into secondary
• The love is conditioned for the materials of the society

Conclusion

• In a society that everybody is worker and everybody owns everything there aren't alienation forms.
• The economic values make a change to the philosophy on values