Essay on Karl Marx's Estranged Labor

to him as well. So by adding labor to property we add something of our

In his discussions of capitalism in The German Ideology he frequently accuses existing social structures for alienating man from his production. “Each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape” (Marx, Page 160) as a result of the division of labour in capitalist societies. This division of labour exists because there is higher priority placed in communal interest than individual interest. As such, there is an inequality here – communal interest is taken to be of greater importance than individual

Another idea that Marx brought up is the proletariat population being subjugated. Just because they have to use their labor to earn money they are unable to make money off their products. Marx (1848) argues that, “Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist”. Meaning that small laborers that work hard at producing products are forced to hand them over to the capitalist. These products that the proletariat made in former years that gave them happiness and made them feel significant about ones self. He also states that, “Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over looker,

Operating under the assumption that laborers are self-interested agents, Smith lists the overall desirability of an occupation as the

Marx’s views on human nature make up the philosophical element of his ideas. He believed human beings define themselves primarily through their labouring activity. Labour is therefore what they live for, it defines human beings and also performs functions by connecting them to their existence. This is achieved in three senses which Marx outlined (Morrison, 2006). Firstly individuals exert control over nature which makes them active in history, rather than passive. Secondly, labour provides the necessities a human requires to live, without it they would have no food, shelter or clothing and would not exist. Thirdly Marx believed labour allows an individual to define themselves. Through labour humans feel in control of their survival and are confirmed in their own existence (Morrison, p. 120).

Marx see's religious beliefs as a form of ideology that serves to prevent any revolutionary consciousness and increases levels of false consciousness

He explained, that when the worker becomes a servant of an object’ rather than being the object of a secondary to the worker’s needs, meaning that the poorer they are the more riches they produce. The labor that is under free enterprise is basically use to continue the system in which a worker is supposed to serve and products labor. The more the worker works, the more they are denied the abilities of life. Many workers end up working in order to get objects, rather than getting substance and by doing so they end up getting a little of

The very idea of capitalism is that trade and production is controlled through free enterprise. It is this system that allows items to become commodities. But this capitalistically inherent view of crafted goods, takes away from value of labor and instead, hands the value to the item itself. This in the broadest sense is the fetishism of commodities. Marx’s ideology regarding commodities exposes just how exploitive the nature of capitalism is when it comes to laborers, especially when looking at modern procedures such as outsourcing.

     Marx often used the views of other philosophers, like Hegel and Feuerbach to support his social theories. Feuerbach, for instance, was very critical of religion. Hegel saw human history as the progression from bondage to freedom. Freedom is achieved as the desires of the individual are integrated into the unified system of the state, in which the will of one is replaced by the will of all. This theory is shown in his division of history into three stages, the first of which is in the ancient orient where only the ruler was free, the second in Greece and Rome where some were

According to Marx, “we human beings differ from animals in that we act upon nature to produce the things we want and need” , that is to say, we control the development of the means of production. But these productive powers appear alien and hostile to man and are therefore hinder, rather than serve human beings. This statement is backed up by the following “The materialist conception of history tells us that human beings are totally subject to forces they do not understand and cannot control” . Marx states “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness” .

Whether god was created in mans image or man was created in god’s image isn’t a core problem to Marx. Marx thinks that the idea of intangible essence should be completely put to rest as far as philosophical thought is concerned. This is because Marx believes that since man has focused so much energy into the idea of essence, capitalism and alienated labor were able to oppress society. Marx says, “Once the earthly family to be the secret of the heavenly family the former must itself be destroyed in theory and practice (Marx pg282)”. Marx believes that as a society, man needs to move away from any thought of essence and religion whatsoever in order to better shape our society.

The products of human work are the ‘objectification’ of an individual’s human nature; the individual is in what he makes and through this objectification we ultimately come to understand ourselves (ibid: 92). Furthermore, the application of the human mind’s unlimited conceptual abilities to our work means an unconstrained life with unlimited possibilities, and therefore work is what liberates the human. This is how Marx comes to theorise that work is the distinctive essence of his human nature that sets us apart from all other species.

Here, Marx explained that product designs and how it is manufactured are determined by capitalist classes who part

In Capital (Marx, Capital Vol.1), Marx writes in reference to commodities - “a man must not only produce an article satisfying some social want, but also his labor itself must form part and parcel of the total sum of labor expended in society .” (Marx, Capital Vol.1). Marx states that in the process of labor the worker must not only take into account the social demand and the cost of the material he is working with to create the product, but also the time expended in the creation of said product.

Marx states that the working class are alienated from the production process because the ruling class forces them into the way that the products are made. For example, the ruling class determines how many hours they must work, the number of products they need to make and the speed that the products should be made (Ollman, 1977: 139). Marx called this forced labour and explains that the production process does not allow the working class to have the essential enjoyment of using their imagination or being creative (Giddens, 1971: 12). Therefore, work is not valued or felt important, but mechanical and repetitive (ibid.). For example, a factory worker does not need to use their brain or think for themselves because they must follow instructions and use the same method of making the products.