Marx's Theory of Alienation PDF

Marx’s Theory of Alienation Marx developed the theory of alienation to convey two central points: 1) Human beings make society, and society is a natural extension of their nature and their being – it reflects them, and they feel at home in it. 2) As modern society develops...

Marx’s Theory of Alienation Marx developed the theory of alienation to convey two central points: 1) Human beings make society, and society is a natural extension of their nature and their being – it reflects them, and they feel at home in it. 2) As modern society develops, human beings begin to feel that society is not of their own making and no longer reflects their being or their nature, but instead appears to be alien and stands over and against them. In short: the idea that society starts out as an extension of human beings and ends up as something apart and external is what the theory of alienation is trying to explain.  Marx’s Theory of Alienation What’s behind Marx’s theory of alienation? → Human beings define themselves in nature and history primarily through their laboring activity. Marx believed that labor is so central to humans’ existence that was part of their essence, or what defined them as human beings. Laboring was the primary means by which human beings realized themselves in nature and history. → Labor defines human beings in at least three ways: - through it, individuals exert control over nature and feel themselves to be active rather than passive in history. - labor is the source of human existence in that it produces the material necessities of food, shelter, and clothing. - labor is part of human self-definition, since through it, individuals control their circumstances and feel confirmed in their being.  Alienated Labor 1. Alienation of workers from the products they produce. Objectification of labor; labor and the objects produced exist outside of the worker; control the worker; the worker is measured against what he/she produces. 2. Alienation of workers in the production process. Work is active alienation – the worker is an object in the production process. 3. Alienation of the workers from their species being. Coerced labor diminishes the worker’s freedom/creativity/humanity. 4. Alienation of workers from other workers/people. The controlling and competitive demands of work reduce workers’ participation in a shared human-social existence with others.  Alienated Labor 1.1) Alienation from the product: This type of alienation takes place when human beings become estranged from the things they produce. But how can workers lose their product? Feudal society: what laborers produce belongs to them directly, and they consume it so satisfy immediate economic needs, and this sustains life and existence. Capitalist society: in capitalist societies production is for exchange. What is produced enters a medium of exchange we call “the market”. What is produce, then, is not owned by the laborer because it belongs to the capitalist. And because ownership over the means of production is concentrated in another class – both the object of labor and the labor itself confronts the worker externally as something not of their own making. → the life which the worker confers upon the object confronts the worker as something alien and hostile.  Alienated Labor The bond between “nature” and humans”: Marx believed that the worker is connected to nature and can produce nothing without it. This bond to nature is expressed in two ways: 1) People receive sustenance from it: it provides means of livelihood. 2) People receive self-definition from it. → In capitalist society, workers lose the connection to nature in the sense that the means of production no longer belong to them but are privately owned. The product of labor may be said to stand over and against workers because workers never engage the means of production directly since it is mediated by ownership and exchange.  Alienated Labor Marx reasoned that the loss of the workers’ relation to the means of production increases their dependence on it in two ways: a) They receive work from it. b) They receive the means of physical subsistence, but only indirectly in the form of a wage. 3) Product alienation breaks the connection workers form in identifying with the product of their production. What does that mean? Through the product of our labor, we recognize ourselves in it; it is a source of self-identification. BUT as exchange becomes the dominant social relation, product alienation becomes greatest when the workers cannot use or identify with the product they produce.  Alienated Labor 2) Alienation from “productive activity” → In this type of alienation human beings lose control over the capacity of their labor to affirm their being and define their self-existence (holy goat!) To understand this dimension of alienation, we must look at Marx’s concept of “relation”. Marx uses the idea of relation to describe the connection between the individual and the outer world. He wants to foreground how individuals are connected to “existence”: (i) in respect to themselves, and (ii) in the respect to other and the social world.  Alienated Labor → Productive activity (labor, what we do to secure our means of subsistence) acts to “affirm” our relation to ourselves BUT alienation breaks the connection to the self-affirming nature of labor. - In capitalist societies, labor is external to the worker. It belongs to the capitalist class rather than belonging to the workers’ “essential being”. Because it does not belong to the worker, it cannot “affirm” them. Workers don’t own their labor, someone else does. - Marx reasoned that workers do not belong to themselves, because their labor operates independently of their will, purpose, and desire. This results in them feeling “outside of themselves” at work.  Alienated Labor 3) Alienation from the human species → Marx contends that human beings are alienated from their own species-being. Marx believed that human beings live in an active relation to the natural world and in this sense have characteristics that mark them off from other species. What separates human being from the animal world is what he called “conscious being” -- the ability to take oneself into account and be conscious of oneself. - Animals produce only to satisfy their direct physical needs. Humans, on the other hand, create an objective world by their own social action.  Alienated Labor Species alienation breaks the connection human beings have to the conscious being in two ways: a) Because it turns labor into a physical act (only), it revokes what nature has given human beings over animal (purely physical) life. Alienation turns a conscious being into a physical being. b) Human nature is turned against itself in that human beings become creatures of physical activity.  Alienated Labor 4) Alienation of workers from other workers or alienation from “fellow humans” and the human social community. → as far as capitalism compels individuals to be isolated from one another and to pursue their private interest for personal gain, they enter in competition with each other – they are made into individual beings where they were once collective beings. → Alienation from fellow human beings occurs as society makes another class the sole beneficiary of the product of their labor.  Alienated Labor: re-humanizing labor In this discussion of alienation, Marx made a distinction between the end result of alienation and the process of objectification: → Alienation is the loss of the ability of laborers to realize themselves, objectification is the realization of labor in that it refers to the capacity of human beings positively to “duplicate” themselves in the world they create.  Alienated Labor This duplication in society through labor is the realization of human aims. It is through this that human beings can contemplate themselves in the world they have created. What does that mean? By producing things, an individual becomes an object for others within the structure of social relations. The value of labor resides in the subject’s ability to produce use value for others, and thus confirm themselves. What is important here is that the social connection is between individuals, not things/commodities. → For Marx, objectification is necessary if individuals are to humanize nature, to transform it into an expression having human qualities.  Alienated Labor Objectification ≠ Alienation →Objectification is not synonymous with alienation. Objectification is a positive realization of “laboring activity”. Alienation, on the other hand, is the loss of the ability of laborers to realize themselves. → For Marx, the end alienation will emancipate species by rehumanizing labor.