Karl Marx’s thought is wide-ranging and
has had a massive influence, especially in philosophy and sociology. Marx is best known for his unsparing criticism
of capitalism. His first major critique maintains that capitalism
is essentially alienating. The second major critique
maintains that capitalism is essentially exploitative. This essay focuses specifically on Marx’s
theory of alienation, which rests on Marx’s specific claims about both economics and human
nature. Marx’s Analysis of Capitalism
For Marx, the idea of the means of production is a crucial economic category. The means of production include nearly everything
needed to produce commodities, including natural resources, factories, and machinery. In a capitalist economy, as opposed to a communist
or socialist economy, the means of production are privately owned, as when a businessperson
owns a factory. The key element not included as part of the
means of production is labor. As a result, members of the capitalist economy
find themselves divided into two distinct classes: those who own the means of production
(the capitalist class or bourgeoisie) and those workers who do not (the proletariat). Marx’s Concept of Species-Being For Marx, whether capitalism
and its class-division is a suitable arrangement for human beings
depends on human nature. Because humans are biological beings, and
not merely free-floating immaterial minds, we must interact with and transform the natural
world in order to survive. But what distinguishes us from all other animals,
like bees, spiders, or beavers, which all transform the world based on instinct, is
that we transform the world consciously and freely. Thus, the essence of a human being – what
Marx calls our species-being – is to consciously and freely transform the world in order to
meet our needs. Like many other philosophers, Marx believes
that excellently doing what makes us distinctively human is the true source of fulfillment. Alienation in Capitalist Society
We can now make clear Marx’s claim that capitalism is alienating. The general idea of alienation is simple:
something is alienating when what is (or should be) familiar and connected comes to seem foreign
or disconnected. Because our species-being is our essence as
human beings, it should be something that is familiar. To the extent that we are unable to act in
accordance with our species-being, we become disconnected from our own nature. So if work in a capitalist society inhibits
the realization of our species-being, then work is to that extent alienating. And since we are being alienated from our
own nature, alienation is not merely a subjective feeling, but is about an objective reality. So how are workers alienated
from their species-being under capitalism? Marx distinguishes three specific ways. A. Workers are alienated from other human
beings. In a capitalist economy, workers must compete
with each other for jobs and raises. But just as competition between businesses
brings down the price of commodities, competition between workers brings down wages. And so it is not the proletariat who benefits
from this competition, but capitalists. This is not only materially damaging to workers,
it estranges them from each other. Humans are free beings and can cooperate in
order to transform the world in more sophisticated and helpful ways. As such, they should see each other as allies,
especially in the face of a capitalist class that seeks to undermine worker solidarity
for its own benefit. But under capitalism workers see each other
as opposing competition. B. Workers are alienated from the products
of their labor. Capitalists need not do any labor themselves
– simply by owning the means of production, they control the profit of the firm they own,
and are enriched by it. But they can only make profit
by selling commodities, which are entirely produced by workers.Thus, the products of the worker’s labor strengthen
the capitalists, whose interests are opposed to that of the proletariat. Workers do this as laborers,
but also as consumers: Whenever laborers buy
commodities from capitalists, that also strengthens the position of the
capitalists. This again stands in opposition to the workers’
species-being. Humans produce in response to our needs; but
for the proletariat at least, strengthening the capitalist class is surely not one of
those needs. C. Workers are alienated from the act of labor. Because capitalists own the firms that employ
workers, it is they, not the workers, who decide what commodities are made, how they
are made, and in what working conditions they are made. As a result, work is often dreary, repetitive,
and even dangerous. Such work may be suitable for machines, or
beings without the ability to consciously and freely decide how they want to work, but
it is not suitable for human beings. Enduring this for an extended period of time
means that one can only look for fulfillment outside of one’s work; while “the activity
of working, which is potentially the source of human self-definition and human freedom,
is … degraded to a necessity for staying alive.” As Marx puts it in a famous passage: In his work, therefore, he [the laborer] does
not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop
freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside
of work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and
when he is working he is not at home. If Marx is right about all
of this, then contemporary complaints about the degrading nature of work are not hyperbole. Insofar as capitalism prevents us from realizing
our own species-being, it is, quite literally, dehumanizing. Conclusion
One may find great inspiration in the idea that true fulfillment can come from creative
and meaningful work. Yet most people’s actual experience of work
in capitalist economies is characterized by tedium, apathy, and exhaustion. Marx’s theory of alienation provides a conceptual
framework for understanding the nature and cause of these experiences, and assures us
that these subjective experiences are about an objective reality – and, crucially, a
reality we can change.