Marx 's Theory Of Alienation

Functionalism looks at society in aspects of how it contributes to the steadiness/cohesion of the whole society (Anderson, Taylor, & Logio, P. 18). There are many institutions that are looked at that include the economic system, government, education, religion, health care, and family. All of which have different roles and perform different functions to ensure that society operates in a well-ordered manner. An example of this would be how family reproduces, takes care of children, exposes children to culture and heritage, supports other family members, and shares life experiences. Shared values and social stability are keys to this perspective. When this system breaks down it is because people’s needs are not being covered and shared values are deteriorating. When this occurs, it affects all parts of functionalism and the society must achieve

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a revolutionary German economic theorist and communist with many publications on sociology, economics and politics. Many of his writings can be used and applied into the media. Marx stated that in prehistoric times, people had no concept of private ownership, and everything was shared freely. There was no government to rule over everyone, but small tribes of people who each had their own leaders. This was known as primitive communism. As time went by, people became greedy and craved wealth. Private ownership of land led to the class system developing, with the upper class owning the land that the lower classes lived on and worked off. This became the feudal system, which was headed by a king. This system suited the upper class however it also meant that the lower class was always kept at the bottom, with no way of moving up from their positions. Industrialisation in the 1700’s meant that power in society fell into the hands of the wealthy, as they owned the land and had the money to build factories,

Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.

In this essay Marx’s and Nietzsche’s philosophies on the term “alienation” will be analyzed first with explanations of both philosopher’s theories, then a contrast of said theories. Marx and Nietzsche both see most people as profoundly alienated, but for many different reasons. Marx’s theory of alienation comes from the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, with the product of labor being the sole cause of alienation. Nietzsche observes that alienation is determined by a reactionary response to master morality, which is slave morality. The main clash between Marx and Nietzsche’s two theories of alienation is the way that the author interprets and perceives the cause and outcome of one’s alienation.

Alienation is Marx’s term for, in a capitalist society, people having distances with others due to lack of common value and integration and lack of connections to the products that they produce, and usually expresses as communication breakdown and absence of social relationships. Alienation is produced by social division of labor immobility and rationalization. When bureaucracy and rational-legal authorities obtain dominant power after currency becoming the legal exchange tool for transactions in capitalist market, rationalization has been extended into all division of society. And employees who work in bureaucratized company are easier to grow alienation because of the lack of sensibility of rationalization. Alienation is important to study sociology because it is applicable to explain social relationships in a capitalist society as it is related to capitalism, rationalization, and explain the reason why proletarians usually fail to recognize their rights. Marx implies a possible solution is making a revolution as people cannot end alienation by “changing their perception of ration” to oppose to Hegel’s idealism (Turner, Beeghley, and Powers 51; 121).

    In Marx’s theory of alienation, Marx explains work on an assembly line by demonstrating the coercion of the dominant force in society which is the bourgeoisie towards the proletariats. Marx explains how in the current economic system of capitalism the workers not only experience impoverishment, but they also suffer an alienation from the world. He explains how in an assembly line workers are undermined and they hand over their essence as human beings to the factory owners which are the wealthy capitalists. Marx shows  how humanity is held back by the constraints of capitalism, and uses his theory of alienation and the assembly line to show the poor human condition that the economic system leads to.

The second term that Marx uses interchangeably with alienation in Capital is reification. Reification is an extension of alienation. Put as simply as possible, this is the transformation of people into things, objects. Not physically, capitalism is not quite as insidious…yet. It is a mental process. To illustrate with an example from my own life, the other night I searched amazon.co.uk, a shopping website, to find a book for this essay. Immediately following I visited pof.com, a dating website, to get myself a new girlfriend. I went from shopping for objects to shopping for people. There is no difference in the interface. Both websites contain a picture of the “object”, dimensions, other pertinent information, and a description. However,

Alienation: For Marx, history was the progression of human society, at the same time it was a process of alientation in which reaches its peak in capitalist society. In describing the characteristics of societies Marx explains the devision of labour, that is the taks that must be done in society are divided amoung its memebers. However, the basis for this division of labour crated varying degrees of exploitation and alientation characterized by private ownership of the means of production of the working class (the nonowners) (cite). As mentioned above and will be analysed in the definition of commodity fetishism, Marx believed the idea of commodity in capitalist economy lowers humans and human labour to be viewed as a thing of value. When

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

Marxism is the theory of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, it’s based on the economical and social system. Marxism emphasizes on the importance of class struggle in society. They thought that economic processes and class struggles laid the groundwork for every important era and movement in history, and would lead to the downfall of the upper class and the rise of an egalitarian communist society. Under capitalism, the working class or “the people,” own only their capacity to work; they have the ability only to sell their own labor. According to Marx a class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of production. The worker is alienated because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The

THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.

everyone’s individual jobs relies on another’s, whether it be in a big or small way. Therefore, as alienation pulls individuals in society away from each other creating a conflict, solidarity has them pull together to create a consensus.

When considering the concept of sociology and its definition, one immediately thinks of trying to understand the world in which we live. However, for Karl Marx we should not only understand the world, but also seek to actively change it (Macintosh, 1997). The concept of alienation differs in terms of its sociological meaning in relation to that of the psychological definition and has been used to describe many other phenomena’s over the last four centuries. The aim of this essay is to assess the concept of alienation according to Karl Marx and explore his theory relating to four differing perspectives assigned to this, whilst also researching its historical roots and any relevance in

One of the philosophical concepts which managed to mark the world and its history through its deep political, social and economic implications is represented by Karl Marx’s principle of alienation. A very harsh interpretation of the social and economic reality which he lived in, this theory was the basis for new political ideologies which, unfortunately, latter in time led to consequences that Marx would have surely disapproved of.

In this essay I shall describe some key aspects of alienation in modern society as identified by Marx. Specifically, that labour under modern capitalist production is alienated, which in-turn results in the individual's 'human essence' itself becoming alien to the individual. Additionally, I will also describe how, for Marx, although modern capitalism can be considered the pinnacle of universal alienation, such a level of alienation may provide a fertile ground for the blossoming of individual realisation, and the destruction of the very paradigm that led to such mass alienation. I will then discuss what Marx sees as the causes of such alienation, which in-turn reveals Marx's conception of human nature, society, and freedom. Ultimately, I will