KARL MARX ‘S CONCEPT

OF THE
HUMAN PERSON
(ALIENATION)

Michelle P. Ranges
INTRODUCTION

Marx was writing as a polemic in response to the idealist philosophers

Hegel, Feuerbach and Fitchte

IDEALISM was a philosophy which posited that ideas are the only reality
out of our subjective consciousness
INTRODUCTION

Marx believed that the nature of Man is to be “producers”

• Man as HOMO FABER (man the maker ) than homo sapiens (man the
knower)
• The ethical consideration should be to promote man as a homo faber
– to always provide an avenue for his SELF EXPRESSION.
INTRODUCTION

WORK – fills our

species’ essence.

WORK allows us
to LIVE, TO BE
CREATIVE and to
FLOURISH
INTRODUCTION

• However: 19th century Europe

WORK destroyed workers

WORKERS- those who have nothing to sell but their

labor.
LABOR ALIENATED workers
ALIENATION

• Capitalist Society= SEPARATION of

a. Labor
b. Capital
c. Land
• Pre- Capitalist Society people own tools by which they produced for
themselves and their community to satisfy their subsistent needs.
ALIENATION

AFTER – Transition to FEUDAL & CAPITALIST SOCIETY

Someone else owns the tools and takes the goods that are produced.
The Capitalist pays a wage to the worker who purchases the goods in
order to satisfy their subsistent needs
ALIENATION

2 Sets of Relations according to Karl Marx

a. Relation A b. Relation B
RELATION A- 3 Elements
1. Worker Object
2. Worker Production
3. Species Being Life Activity
ALIENATION

RELATION A
1. Worker Object – ALIENATION OF THE WORKER
FROM THE PRODUCT
Labor becomes an object – labor exists outside the worker.
IT DOES NOT BELONG TO THE WORKER.
 ALIENATION

Ex. Shoe Factory in India- Workers walk bare feet.

The workers produce for a foreign market and NOT for themselves/
subsistence.

THEY ARE ALIENATED FROM THE PRODUCT THAT THEY LABOR.

 ALIENATION

RELATION A
2. Worker Production
This is the relation of labor to the act of production within the labor
process. Thus NOT just the finished product (shoes) but also the
activity of production NO LONGER belongs to the worker.
 ALIENATION

RELATION A
3. Species Being Production
Humans separate themselves from their life activity = the activities
necessary to meet immediate needs.
Humans produce even when they have satisfied their immediate needs
• With Alienation- the object of production, the activity of production and life
activity itself become alienated from humans
 ALIENATION

RELATION A
Question:
If this things no longer belong to the worker then, to whom does it belong?
 ALIENATION

RELATION A
Answer:
They belong to the MASTER of LABOR.
THE CAPITALIST- class that consumes but DOES NOT produce. Their
consumption is the condition of the labor of the WORKER.
 ALIENATION

RELATION B
1. Non Worker Worker
2. Non Worker Object
Private property – HEART of these relations
- This is both the product of the alienated labor and the means by which
labor becomes alienated.
 ALIENATION

RELATION A and RELATION B

Private property embraces both relations:: the relation of the worker to work,
to the product of his labor and to
the non- worker, and the relation of
the non- worker to the worker and
to the product of his labor.
 ALIENATION

Karl Marx Insight: CAPITAL is ACCUMULATED LABOR.

Ex. Clothes Factory
Raw Material = cotton
Worker
Capital= Sewing Machine
Object= Clothes
 ALIENATION

Traditional Political Economy states that:

• The object belongs to the owner, because all of the inputs belong to the
capitalist.
• But according to Marx: Capital is itself a product of labor that has been
alienated from the worker.
 ALIENATION

COMMUNISM
- The reversal of alienation
- Reclaiming of the private property away from the capitalist BACK to the
worker or THE RIGHTFUL OWNER of what they have produced as well as
their own labor power.
 CONCLUSION

• To the CAPITALIST: A worker is an ABSTRACT IDEA with a stomach that

needed to be filled. The WORKER had NO CHOICE but
to TOIL long hours for a minimum wage.
WORKERS MAKE THINGS THEY CANNOT AFFORD
TO BUY to make MONEY for those who paid for them.
 CONCLUSION

WORK ALIENATED US FROM ONE ANOTHER.

And for KARL MARX the only way out is to organize a

REVOLT.