Zarrin 5

Evaluating Marx’s THEORY OF Alienation

Adam Zarrin

2125989

Dr. Erfani

Western Philosophy

Reaction Essay #1

10-15-07

Evaluating Marx’s Alienation

In this essay I will evaluate Karl Marx’s theory of alienation as found in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Estranged Labour. I will first define the four types of alienation. These are: 1) man from object; 2) man from his work; 3) man from the individual; and 4) man from other men.[2 spaces] Also, I will discuss Marx’s idea of the “species-being”. 2sp Finally, I will show that the estrangement (alienation) of man still happens today, even without the industry-based societies that Marx referred to later in his Communist Manifesto.

First, there is the relationship of the worker to the product of labor [and] man’s interactions with the “external world” and “natural” objects. 2spThere was a regression in time of the relationship they had with work [this sentence is vague]. For example, during the middle ages, a carpenter would be focused on only making a chair. He may only create one chair, but he would have a relationship with that chair because he made it. But, with the industrial revolution, multiple chairs could be made at once. And a man would only put together one part of the chair. This means that his interaction with the chair is distanced; he no longer feels as if his sweat and blood had gone into that one chair—and it is difficult to distinguish which chairs he did have a hand in making and which he did not. Thus, there is no relationship between the two other than the relationship between the worker and the product; therein, creating an “estrangement of the object” (Marx).

Then, there exists the relationship of labor to the act of production within labor. This relationship encompasses or includes the different activities that man engages in [does], which ultimately lead to “self-estrangement” rather than being estranged from the object. The different activities can be a man’s labor—or his relationship with labor—or his life’s work—eating, drinking, and sleeping. 2spMarx describes this relationship as “his [man’s] own activity...is alien and does not belong to him, activity as passivity, power as impotence, procreation as emasculation, the worker’s own physical and mental energy, his personal life—for what is life but activity?” (Marx).2sp This is what “self-estrangement” is[: ]when man views that his own activities—things that should belong to him—no longer do belong to him, and have become alien to him. 2spBy separating the two, man’s life becomes “independent of [himself] and does not belong to him” any longer. (Marx)

After introducing the first two types of alienation, Marx then pauses to explain the idea of a “Species-being” (Marx). Marx does this because he first wants to show that there is a difference between men and animals and this also allows Marx to transition into his final examples of alienation. The phrase itself shows how the species-being is set up: there is first the “species” (universal and humanity) and then the “being” (particular and individual). By putting these two ideas together, Marx is able to show that man can view himself as an example of all humanity and that at the same time humanity views man. All of nature is a part of men.

The next type of alienation is the species-being becoming estrangement from his body and soul. With the condition of estranged labor established—the first two alienations mentioned above—it begins to dissolve the ties that man has with both “nature and his intellectual species power” to the point where it becomes “alien to him and a means of his individual existence” (Marx). Man is losing the essence of his humanity and becomes a machine. Returning to my earlier example of the chair assembly line, now that man has lost all ownership with his work and feels nothing about the activities of his life, he comes to the factory, sits down, and screws in his screw each time a new chair comes in front of him. This tears rips man down to the foundation of what man is [omit;]until finally man no longer knows his body from anything around him, from “nature as it exists outside him” and his “spiritual essence” (Marx)—his soul, the foundation of man. He no longer knows his own soul, and therefore, no longer knows that he exists.

Finally, there is the estrangement of man-to-man relationships. This is a continuation of the third alienation. In order to understand man’s relationship with himself, man must analyze his relationships with other men. But if man no longer is able to recognize that he exists or no longer has a relationship with his essence, relationships between individual men cannot exist.

Now, after identifying the different types of alienation and the species-being, the question is whether these ideas still exist today[omit? and replace with period] Are workers still affected by the estrangement of labor about which Marx philosophized [omitabout]? The simple answer is yes. But, the application of it is different. During the 19th century, people were moving into the cities, working in factories, and factory owners were beginning their exploitation of their workers—long hours, low salary, and unsafe working conditions. During this time, a person’s work was either agricultural or industry-based. Today, however, our economy is much more globalized and evolved. An individual in the United States will more likely have a job in the service-sector rather than in industry. So, in the sense of application, we have evolved from factories to cubicles. At least in a factory, man could see the [omitother] faces of other men. He may not have a relationship with them, or even with the object he is making, but there is the face of another man. There is another being. However, in a cubicle, there are four-walls separating you from everyone around you. There is no human contact [and only work finish this thought]. The same situation exits even when and how we entertain ourselves with television. We are detached and not an active audience. Our lives are spent keeping to ourselves, working in a small cubicle omit dash that can be described as a jail cell—detached from the world.

The one thought that one is left with after reading Marx is notion that if we alienate men in these ways, what else can we take away from man? If man has no connection with the object he makes, the life he lives, the soul he has, and the men he knows, what else can we take from this same man? Men are just machines then. Who are programmed to go through their lives, eating, sleeping, working, and procreating for the profit of the ruling-class. Marx identified this social problem, and tried to open our eyes to a condition to which our lives were reduced.

Bibliography

"Communism." Wikipedia. 11 10 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism>.

"Karl Marx." Wikipedia. 9 October 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx>.

Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour." Marx, Karl. Economic and Philosphical Manuscripts of 1844. 1844.

"Marx's Theory of Alienation." Wikipedia. 9 10 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx's_theory_of_alienation>.