Karl Marx

Critique of Capitalism and Human Nature?

• Karl Marx : The man, the myth, the legend; person associated with the theory of alienation and critique of capitalism .
• Capitalism rather than industrialism : Marx's critique was aimed at the social and economic system of Capitalism , not just the use of industrial machinery.
  * Industrialism: Shift towards technological mode of production (factories, machines).
  * Capitalism: Refers to the specific social relations built around it: private ownership of the means of production (factories, tools, land) by one class and the necessity for another class to sell their labor power for wages.
  * It was this ownership structure and the drive for profit inherent in capitalism that Marx believed caused alienation , regardless of the specific technology used.
• Humans: Not consciousness, but produces means of subsistence : This reflects Marx's materialist starting point.
  * He argued that the fundamental characteristic of human beings is not primarily their thoughts or consciousness (as idealist philosophers might argue), but their practical, physical activity of producing what they need to survive (food, shelter, clothing).
  * How humans organize themselves to produce these necessities forms the foundation of their society and shapes their consciousness, not the other way around.
  * Labor is central to human existence and self-definition.
• Reduction of social relations into market exchanges : Capitalism has this nature of making everything transactional, including human labor and relationships, into commodities to be bought and sold on the market.
  * Instead of relating to each other directly based on shared humanity, need, or community ties, people increasingly relate to each other through the lens of economic transactions , as buyers and sellers, employers and employees.
  * Human worth has became equated with market value.

Objectification vs. Alienation

• Objectification : According to Maxyyy, this is a natural and fulfilling process where humans express their inner thoughts, creativity, and abilities by creating external objects through labor. You make your ideas concrete in the world. (it is not the same as objectifying!)
• Alienation : Under capitalism, this natural process of objectification becomes twisted into alienation (alienation from yourself ).
  * Instead of being an expression of the self, labor and its products become something foreign and opposed to the worker.
  * The key difference lies in control and purpose : in objectification (ideally), the creator controls the process and product; in alienation, they lose control to the capitalist system and the demands of profit.

The Concept of Alienation( Sociological Interpretation)

• Marx derived the concept of ‘alienation’ from Hegel : Marx developed most of his theories after being influenced by the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, who also used the concept of alienation.
• Hegelian alienation is conceived on the philosophical or metaphysical level... spirit, Geist, is itself alienated in its works... :
  * For Hegel, alienation was primarily an idealist concept.
  * It described a process where 'Spirit' (Geist) -> a kind of universal consciousness or reason which externalizes itself in the world (through ideas, social institutions, etc.) and initially fails to recognize these creations as its own, thus feeling alienated from them.
  * It's a philosophical journey of Spirit coming to self-awareness.
• In Marxism, the process of alienation... is rooted in historical situations : Marx fundamentally changed Hegel's concept.
  * For Marx, alienation is not an abstract philosophical inevitability or a problem of consciousness alone.
  * It is a real, concrete condition experienced by humans resulting directly from the specific socio-economic structures of particular historical periods, most acutely under capitalism .
• Alienation, sociologically interpreted, is at once a historical, moral, and sociological critique... : Marx's concept serves as a powerful critique of the capitalist social order.
  * It's historical because it arises from specific historical conditions.
  * It's moral because it describes a dehumanizing state contrary to human potential.
  * It's sociological because it analyzes the social structures and relationships that produce this condition.
• In capitalism, the root of alienation is economic alienation : The economic structure of capitalism -> private ownership, wage labor, production for profit --> is the fundamental cause of all forms of alienation.
• Man is essentially a creature who works; if he works under inhuman conditions, he is dehumanized... In the capitalist economy, production does not help man realize its true potential, causing alienation :
  * Since work is fundamental to human nature, conditions that degrade work inevitably degrade the human being.
  * Capitalist production, driven by profit rather than human fulfillment, forces workers into conditions that stunt their development and prevent them from realizing their creative and intellectual potential through their labor, hence causing alienation.
• Instead of work being the expression of man himself, work has been degraded into an instrument, a means of livelihood : Under capitalism, work loses its intrinsic value as a form of self-expression or creativity. It becomes merely an instrumental activity – something one must do simply to earn money to survive, rather than something done for its own sake or for the fulfillment it brings.
• The entrepreneurs themselves are in a sense alienated... commodities... answer needs... put on the market... to procure a profit... :
  * Even capitalists are caught in the alienated system.
  * Their production is driven by the abstract goal of profit maximization and market demands, not necessarily by a direct connection to fulfilling the genuine needs of others or expressing their own creativity.
  * They too are subject to the impersonal logic of capital accumulation.
• The analysis of capitalist economy was the analysis of the alienation of individuals and collectivities losing control over their own existence... : For Marx, understanding capitalism is understanding alienation. It's about how human beings create a system (the capitalist economy with its market laws) that then takes on a life of its own and comes to dominate its creators, making them lose control over their work, their products, and ultimately their lives.
• For Marx, alienation remains... "man's own deed becomes an alien power opposed to him, which enslave him instead of being controlled by him” : This quote encapsulates the essence of alienation: what humans create through their collective actions (the economic system, the market, technology) turns back on them as an external, coercive force that dictates their lives, rather than being a tool under their conscious control.

The Four Horsemen of Alienation

• 1. Man and his producing activity :

* Labour is external and coerced...
* Division of labour & highly repetitive tasks...
* Worker does not feel content... mortifies the body and ruins the mind...
* Alienation from the act of working itself. Work feels forced, unpleasant, not part of one's true self.
* The capitalist division of labor , breaking tasks into small, repetitive steps, prevents workers from using their full range of skills or understanding the whole process, leading to boredom and mental/physical degradation.

• 2. Man and his product :

* Man is alienated from his product because the activity producing it is alienated...
* Product... exists outside him, independently &... becomes a power on his own confronting him.
* The product now controls the man...
* Articles of consumption have power... by virtue of the desire it creates.
* Alienation from the object produced. Since the activity is alienating, the product of that activity is also alien.
* It doesn't belong to the worker, exists separately, and can even take on a power that dominates the worker.
* Commodities, through advertising and market dynamics, create desires that compel people to work more or consume in ways that reinforce the system.

• 3. Man in relation to the other man :

* If the product does not belong to the worker... it means it belongs to some other man...
* Someone else is the master or owner...
* Alienation from other people. Because the worker is alienated from their product, and that product is owned by someone else (the capitalist), the fundamental social relationship between worker and owner is one of estrangement and opposition , based on control and exploitation rather than cooperation.
* Alienated labor inevitably creates alienated social relations.

• 4. Man and his species :

* “In tearing away from man the object of his production, estranged labour tears from his species life... transforms his advantage over animals into a disadvantage... inorganic body, nature is taken away... one man is estranged from the other, as each of them is from man’s essential nature.”
* Alienation from our essential human nature ( species-being ).
* Estranged labor strips work of its creative, conscious, social character, reducing humans to a level below their potential, sometimes even making their unique human capacity for conscious creation a source of misery.
* It separates humans from nature (which they should interact with creatively) and, by alienating individuals from their own essence, it necessarily alienates them from each other.

From Alienation to Exploitation

• From alienation to exploitation : Alienation is the necessary precondition for capitalist exploitation .
• Ricardo (1951) : Exchange value of a product in determined by the quantity of labour necessary to produce it : Marx adopted and adapted the Labor Theory of Value from classical economists like David Ricardo, stating that the economic value of a commodity derives from the amount of socially necessary labor time required to produce it.
• Exchange value of commodities vs labour for wages : There's a critical difference between the value embedded in a commodity produced by labor, and the value of the worker's ability to labor (their labor power ), which is sold for a wage.
• Labour is not an inanimate commodity, Labour power vs labour, Labour power within the production sphere, Labour is free :
  * Workers don't sell their finished labor embodied in a product they own; they sell their capacity or potential to work for a given time – their Labour Power .
  * Labour Power is what the worker sells for a wage (its value determined by the cost of subsistence).
  * Labour is the actual work performed during the production process.
  * Exploitation occurs because the value created by the worker's Labour during the workday is greater than the value of their Labour Power (their wage). This surplus value is appropriated by the capitalist.
  * "Labour is free" refers to the fact that workers are legally free individuals (not slaves) who 'voluntarily' enter into a wage contract, but they are economically compelled to do so to survive.

Post-Capitalist Freedom

• Freedom beyond workplace. “Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon” : This famous quote illustrates Marx's vision of unalienated life possible after capitalism.
  * It signifies a state where individuals are not confined to a single, repetitive, soul-destroying job dictated by economic necessity.
  * Instead, they are free to engage in a variety of fulfilling activities, developing their diverse human potentials.
  * Work becomes a chosen, creative expression rather than forced toil.
  * It represents liberation from the capitalist division of labor and alienation.