I thought I’d attempt to briefly summarize what we’ve read and discussed, so far.
Marx’s Project and Context
Marx was essentially trying to uncover the reason why society was the way it was. The 19th century was a time of tremendous political and social change. New technologies and forms of organization (the factory system) had significantly increased the productivity of manufacturing in all across Europe. Alongside this was the enclosure of common lands, which pushed peasants and craftspeople into low paying, gruelling and dangerous jobs, eroding traditional hierarchies and community bonds. People were brought together in cramped, dirty towns and worksites and the new financial and industrial elite supplanted the old aristocracies.
In addition …show more content…
Alienation would cease when people became fully self-conscious and understood their environment and their culture to be emanations of Spirit. Marx was dissatisfied with this analysis because it put the emphasis on ideas rather than material reality. Marx did not believe, like Hegel, that the material world hides from us the “real” world of ideas; on the contrary, he thought that the historically specific ideas and ideologies, prevented people from seeing the material conditions of their …show more content…
In capitalist society, for example, alienation manifests itself in four different ways. Workers are alienated: 1) from products of own labour. 2) from the process of production or from work itself. 3) from Species-Being or from our humanity and human potential. 4) from other people. This stems from the fact that workers are cut off from the means of production and, thus, do not see the benefit of their own labour. This alienation is also felt by the capitalists, although their own elevated status alleviates some of the effects.
Marx connects this alienation with the division of labour, wages and private property. In earlier societies, there was a very simple division of labour, perhaps by sex and age. People may not have specialized in particular occupations, rather there were often group or communal activities. As the division of labour developed, and as people began to specialize in different occupational activities, a surplus of goods began to develop. At this stage, production was generally small scale and exchange mostly at a local level, so that control over production was close to the
Marx’s Project and Context
Marx was essentially trying to uncover the reason why society was the way it was. The 19th century was a time of tremendous political and social change. New technologies and forms of organization (the factory system) had significantly increased the productivity of manufacturing in all across Europe. Alongside this was the enclosure of common lands, which pushed peasants and craftspeople into low paying, gruelling and dangerous jobs, eroding traditional hierarchies and community bonds. People were brought together in cramped, dirty towns and worksites and the new financial and industrial elite supplanted the old aristocracies.
In addition …show more content…
Alienation would cease when people became fully self-conscious and understood their environment and their culture to be emanations of Spirit. Marx was dissatisfied with this analysis because it put the emphasis on ideas rather than material reality. Marx did not believe, like Hegel, that the material world hides from us the “real” world of ideas; on the contrary, he thought that the historically specific ideas and ideologies, prevented people from seeing the material conditions of their …show more content…
In capitalist society, for example, alienation manifests itself in four different ways. Workers are alienated: 1) from products of own labour. 2) from the process of production or from work itself. 3) from Species-Being or from our humanity and human potential. 4) from other people. This stems from the fact that workers are cut off from the means of production and, thus, do not see the benefit of their own labour. This alienation is also felt by the capitalists, although their own elevated status alleviates some of the effects.
Marx connects this alienation with the division of labour, wages and private property. In earlier societies, there was a very simple division of labour, perhaps by sex and age. People may not have specialized in particular occupations, rather there were often group or communal activities. As the division of labour developed, and as people began to specialize in different occupational activities, a surplus of goods began to develop. At this stage, production was generally small scale and exchange mostly at a local level, so that control over production was close to the