Karl Marx and Alienation: Perspectives on Human Condition

IB Philosophy Core Theme: The Human Condition The problem of the human condition includes our distinctive personalities, selves, and traits that set us apart from other living things. This may include issues such as the purpose of our lives, individuality and human society. Karl Marx > Karl Marx: Stated that ‘alienation’ is neither metaphysical nor religious, but really social and economic – due to the events in the early 1990s, when the communist countries of the Eastern Block fell and the new governments embraced free-market capitalism, he has been largely discredited. – (foregrounding #1) – “all religious, moral and political life is rooted in economics.” – (foregrounding #2) – “people have needs and desires, and society structures itself to meet them.” – (foregrounding #3) – “this has given rise to a capitalist society where workers produce goods and services and rich industrialists and land owners profit from their labor. – (foregrounding #4) – “this in turn forces the individual to view labor and therefore themselves as an object, producing goods within the capitalist system and results in their alienation.” – (foregrounding #5) – “this prevents them from being human and creates tension in society.” (Marx responds to his social context by stating how many workers have become alienated from what they produce. As the individual no longer views themselves as producers who benefit from the goods that they earn, they no longer view themselves as worthy human beings and tension arises in the society where the rich benefit from their work.) For: Marx believed that the individual, not God was the highest being. People have made themselves what they are by their own labor – they use their intelligence and creative talent to dominate the world by a process called production. – (argument #1) – “the private ownership of the chief means of production was at the heart of the class system; for people to truly be free, the means of production must be publicly owned by the community as a whole” – with the resulting general economic and social equality, all people would have an opportunity to follow their own desires and to use their leisure time creatively – unfair institutions and customs would disappear; all these events would take place when the proletariat revolted against the bourgeoisie. – (argument #2) – “as a consequence of being a materialist, any notion of ‘life after death’ was dismissed” – he saw it as being a fantasy dreamt up by religion – everything about the individual person was determined by the material conditions of his life. – (argument #3) – “essentially, man is a social being; everything apart from biologically necessary factors is determined by the society we live in” – therefore, people in one society at one time will differ from those in another. – (argument #4) – “man is an active, productive being and he fulfils all his needs through productivity; the kind of life that is right for man is one of ‘productive activity’ – indeed, alienation is the result of a lack of fulfillment in industrial labor. This led to Marx’s insistence that the coming communist era would enable each individual to fulfill his or her talents, which is why Marx is often referred to as a humanist. This idea; stems from his belief that it is always wrong to treat a human being merely as a means to an economic end.