Marx\'s Philosophy on Labor and Alienation Marxist

Marx's Philosophy On Labor And Alienation

Marxist philosophy against capitalism and its proponent variables towards communism is faulted in its inherent arguments regarding labor, the worker, and society. In this argument, a worker's humanity gradually decreases in reverse proportion to the amount of capital garnered. Thus there is alienation between the laborer and the production of said labor, a spiritual failing in and of itself. Capitalism becomes a system of dehumanization, whereas the author moves toward a more "humanistic" outlook, one that borders on the ideas of communism. There are, however, flaws to this, as the arguments that attempt to take on a less capitalistic viewpoint provides an argument for said capitalism.

Labor and Human Existence

Labor is diversified into two categories with relation to human existence: (1) labor in which one produces less and thus the laborer becomes a higher commodity; (2) labor in which one produces more and therefore sells more, making the laborer a lower commodity. There is a direct relationship between the worker's production and the worker's humanity. With this philosophical idea, a human worker is devalued the higher the efficiency of the production. Thus "the worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent" (Marx, p. 2). By the same note, the "worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces" (Marx. p. 2).

Why the inverse proportions? This is where Marx begins to fault the economy, a failing capitalistic world that has created a huge divide between the filthy, capitalistic rich and the laborious, poorer worker. The more the worker tends to gain capital for his or her service, the more the worker sacrifices to make ends meet. Gone is the meaningful subject of human spiritual production, for the worker has completely objectified the very fruits of said labor, thereby inducing the Hegelian term of estrangement -- alienation.

2. Alienation and Capitalism

To better understand Marx's use of the concept of alienation regarding workers and the capitalistic system, one must comprehend Hegelian's philosophy on estrangement. By Hegelian philosophy, the process of estrangement is a dehumanizing process, one that distances the aspect that makes humans unique and the human himself. It is a term that -- according to specific conditions -- defines a human being's loss of self, a human being's loss of the essence of what truly makes him human. Marx takes upon this Hegelian philosophy of estrangement -- also called "alienation" -- though he inverts the dehumanizing conditions and focuses on the capitalistic failings of the economy.

The inverted Hegelian philosophy -- as devised by Marx -- sees humans as having alienated themselves by giving too much away of what he terms their "self" -- that is, the products of their labor. The laborer accordingly produces his work, and in exchange, earns capital -- that with which is needed to survive in human society. This idea of capital and labor, however, perverts the idea of production, thereby leading to alienation. With the promise of more capital, the worker overproduces, and as a result continues to give his creations away, gaining capital as an acceptable trade-off. Greed and the capitalistic ideals have turned the worker into a dehumanized person, someone who has lost an essence of spirituality, which in turn leads to the alienation, process as described by Marx. "The more the worker exerts himself in his work, the more powerful the alien, objective world becomes…the poorer he and his inner world become" (Marx, p. 2).

3. Man as a Species-Being

For the arguments against capitalism and estrangement to collude, Marx reasons that humans are "species-beings," wherein they "look upon [themselves] as the present, living species, because [they] look upon [themselves] as universal and therefore free beings" (Marx, p. 4). As a species-being, humans are separate from the animals by the nature of being "free beings." Whereas animals live for the barest necessities, humans become unique wherein they can "feel themselves." That is, they can freely choose to feel pleasure, unhappiness, happiness, and other emotions thereof. Capitalistic labor, however, hinders this "free feeling," especially when the worker has deleted himself of the emotions with regards to the labor at hand.

When a laborer begins to estrange himself from his work -- through a denial of the self and the miserable outlook of the labor -- then the worker has been stunted in the process of "feeling himself." He does not feel for the job; his happiness is determined only at home when he is not working, and when he is working, he is at a point of unhappiness. The labor itself becomes "not a satisfaction of a need but a mere means to satisfy needs outside itself" (Marx, p. 3). This labor no longer becomes a voluntary form of labor, but one of involuntary forms, one which can be attributed to "forced labor." Thus one can conclude that this would result in alienation and the spiritual disappearance of the human as a "species-being."

4. Conclusive Application of Communism

The estrangement of the worker can be summarized as thus in accordance to Marx's law of political economy: the worker's increase of production leads inherently to the worker's dehumanization. The more value placed on the object, the less important the worker becomes; the more the worker objectifies his work, the less "soul" the worker has in creating the products. For Marx, capitalism leads to this spiritual loss, indicating that the worker is losing himself and becoming the "slave of nature" (Marx, p. 2). Through capitalism, a worker is granted capital that can enable him to fulfill the necessary animalistic concerns of survival: eating, sleeping in a particular territory, keeping warm within a hygienic environment, etc. Perhaps even the basest urges are also satisfied, but to what means and what purpose? Surely then humanity becomes more animalistic in this capitalistic world.