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What is the significance of the concept of alienation in Mark's thought?
The concept of alienation plays a significant role in Marx's early political writing, especially in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1848, but it is rarely mentioned in his later works. This implies that while Marx found alienation useful in investigating certain basic aspects of the development of capitalist society, it is less useful in putting forward the predictions of the collapse of capitalism. The aim of this essay is to explain alienation, and show how it fits into the pattern of Marx's thought. It will be concluded that alienation is a useful tool in explaining the affect of capitalism on human existence. In Marx's thought, however, the usefulness of alienation it is limited to explanation. It does not help in either predicting the downfall of capitalism, or the creation of communism.
Marx takes his idea of alienation from Feuerbach, who shows the alienation of man from God. Briefly, Feuerbach's argument is that God is created by man as the 'projection of man's species-essence, the totality of his powers and attributes raised to the level of infinity' (1). Religion alienates man by reversing the relationship between the subject and predicate - the Deity is supreme over man, even though it is created by man. Leszek Kolakowski suggests that the clearest material example of religious alienation is blood sacrifice. In general, therefore, alienation of man is the process that separates man from part of himself. In Feuerbach, the separation is between man and the god created in man's image. In Marx, as shall be seen, alienation is the separation between man and his life-activity, his product, society and the species. Each of these four relations can be seen as one aspect of man being separated from himself.
A man's life-activity is his work. In a capitalist society, the worker is alienated from his labour - 'he plays no part in deciding what to do or how to do it' (2). The division of labour ensures that each worker only does one job, and the labour market decides which job any particular worker will do. During labour, the worker uses capital not under his own control. The capital available determines the nature of the work. On top of all this, the worker has no choice but to work, as wages are needed to provide the worker's means to life. Work is seen to be 'not voluntary, but forced' (3). This shows that in a capitalist society, the worker is separated from the decisions of whether or not to work, what the work will be, and what form the work will take. This alienation of labour is the separation of man from his life-activity.
Not only is the worker alienated from his labour, but he is also separated from the result of his labour - the product. This is the most obvious manifestation of the alienation of the worker; he has no power over what he produces. The wage contract ensures that the products of labour are surrendered to the capitalist, who then sells them on the market, and pays the worker a wage. Marx points out that the alienation of the product is double - not only is the worker separate from his own product, but that product, as increasing the power of capital, actually weakens the worker's position. (4) Marx refers to the product of labour as 'the objectification of labour'. The worker's labour objectified is used against him in a capitalist society.
Capitalism also alienates man from other men. Firstly, and most clearly, there is the class antagonism separating workers from capitalists. As well as this antagonism, the labour market ensures that man will constantly be opposed to other men through competition and conflicts of self-interests. This means that any form of community is impossible, '...the enslavement of the collectivity to its own products entails the mutual isolation of individuals' (5). This shows that the alienation of society and alienation of the product of labour are closely linked. The links between the aspects of alienation will be further explored below.
Marx also sees capitalism as alienating man from his 'species-being'. A species-being is what defines a man, in other words, his humanity. Marx sees labour under capitalism as removing from man's humanity. He says, 'he is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home.' (6) This shows again the alienation of labour, but also illustrates the fact that work is unpleasant for man. He is a 'living appendage of the machine', and that 'when the compulsion to work is gone, he avoids work like the plague'. The alienation of a man's life-activity leaves a man with only 'animal pursuits', such as eating, drinking and procreating, to fulfil his humanity. Man has become animal in his work, and so the only area where he can be human, is in those pursuits common with animals. This is referred to as the 'animalization' of man.
All these four aspects of alienation of man under capitalism are inter-linked. The alienation of labour implies the alienation of man from man through class conflict and competition. This is also strengthened by the alienation of the products of labour, as mentioned above. The alienation of man from his species-being is contributed to by all the other three aspects. Indeed, this final form of alienation is very general, but is useful in helping show the alienation of man at work. All four are related aspects of alienation of man under capitalism. 'The theory of alienation is the intellectual constraint in which Marx displays the devastating effect of capitalist production on human beings, on their physical and mental states and on the social process of which they are a part' (7). All aspects of alienation, therefore, can be explained in terms of the links between the mode of production, and the actors involved.
Marx explores the historical development of alienation in relation to the division of labour. As society forms into tribes and villages, labour becomes divided and exchange must occur for society to survive. As exchange increases, the difference between 'exchange-value' and 'use-value' emerges. Use-value is the amount an object is useful to someone, an indication of the demand for the good. Exchange-value, on the other hand, is the amount of other objects which can be exchanged for that object. In a capitalist society with a standard exchange commodity, money, greater emphasis is placed on 'exchange-value'. This is due to the fact that acquisition of money has gained a value of its own, through 'commodity fetishism'. This also shows itself in the fact that '...men labour because their products have value, whereas in fact they have value because labour has bestowed it on them' (8). This is a form of 'reification', defined as '...the process through which capitalist society makes all personal relations between men take the form of objective relations between things' (9).
Commodity fetishism in the Marxian sense is the attribution an objective value into a commodity, whereas the value actually stems from the social relations underlying the production of that object. The idea of fetishism permeates throughout the investigation of the alienation of man in capitalist society. This concept helps show how the capitalist, as well as the worker, may be alienated in a money-dominated society.
Capitalists are alienated through the dominance of money and exchange-value. The rich owner of capital can effectively 'buy' attributes, rather than pursue his own natural ones. Marx says 'I may be bad, dishonest, ruthless and narrow-minded, but money ensures respect for itself and its possessor. Money is the supreme good, and a man who has it must be good also' (10). Thus the capitalist is also alienated, in the sense that he is separated from his true self by the illusory power of money. This is the clearest example of the link between fetishism and alienation. It is the perceived power of money which enables him to take on or 'change' attributes.
The concept of alienation is useful is pointing out the differences of a capitalist and communist society. 'Work in communism is the affirmation of human nature, while capitalist labour is its denial' (11). Alienation, or the lack of it, shows the affect of the mode of production on the spiritual (12), mental and physical lives of the people within that society. It also helps to predict the downfall of capitalism, to an extent. The workers will be alienated under capitalism, and they will be unhappy and unfulfilled through that alienation. The capitalists, through the power of money and commodity fetishism, will prosper through their alienation. If this difference becomes sufficient, and the workers become aware of their position and how to change it, there will be calls for revolution.
The move from alienation to revolution, however, is more difficult than it seems. It requires several factors which are separate from alienation. This is most likely the reason why Marx stayed away from the ideas of alienation in his later work, preferring to use tension between the forces and relations of production, and the concept of exploitation as the cause of revolution. One way of linking alienation with the relations of production is put forward by Leszek Kolakowski. He suggests that alienation is the cause of private property. He uses a broad definition of alienation, so that the division of labour appears as a particular form of alienation. It can then be seen that alienation is primary to the division of labour and private property relations, and so plays a very fundamental role in Marx's thought.
Finally, it is possible to clarify Kolakowski's definition so that it is possible to use alienation as a fundamental concept in Marx's formation of capitalist society. The division of labour creates commodity fetishism due to the necessity for exchange. Fetishism is a form of alienation, in that the value invested by man into an object is removed from him, and he is made subservient to it. From this, Marx's view of capitalist society follows. It is important to note, however, that alienation will only give rise to the downfall of capitalism in accordance with two other premises, as pointed out in The German Ideology. These are that conditions become 'intolerable', and that man exists as a 'world-historical' (rather than local) being. (13) Thus, although alienation provides an understanding of the problems of capitalism, it does not provide a means of escaping it.
- L. Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, pp 115.
- B. Ollman, Alienation, pp 133.
- S. Avineri, Karl Marx: Social and Political Thought.
- This point is also put forward by Herbert Marcuse.
- L. Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism.
- K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
- B. Ollman, Alienation, pp131.
- G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A defence.
- H. Marcuse, Reason and Revolution.
- K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
- B. Ollman, Alienation, pp138.
- Spiritual in the sense of human fulfilment in work, rather than any religious sense.
- K. Marx, The German Ideology, pp56.