Free Essay on Analysis of Marx, Alienation and the Denial of Dignity of Work

Alienation is a term that can have a lot of interpretations both legal as well as technical. This term is used most of the term to give a description of how people feel especially when they are separated from activities as well as situations which they don't like (Schacht and Richard, 24). According to the dictionary, the term means separating the person from his former position or where he or she was attached initially. On the other, if it is a property it can mean conveying the property to another. The ideas of separation or transferring of something to a different owner is a notion that is actually the new way of looking at alienation. This new way is the same way that Marx's uses to develop the term. According to Marx the main foundation of alienation lies on the separation of the worker from the work.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

There are numerous ways which Marx uses alienation. He uses alienation in expressing his concerns in philosophy as well as history. For example in religion Marks says that God had usurped the position of man. Marx also likens religion with the imaginations of man. He looks at it as the human ear and brain that work independently even if they are on the same body. They operate like aliens.

According to Marx religion is just an illusion. He further says that in as much as religion claims to create happiness. The problems and suffering of human beings cannot be solved by the improvement of religious illusion, what he says the only solution is removing the sources of the problems and the sufferings from this world (Marx and Karl, 25). He also said just as religion is alienating, philosophy also can be alienating in the same way especially when it puts the idea in the place of God. He also says that the whole idea of philosophers looking at the development of ideas as being history is pure alienation of the history of humans. Taking note of what I happening to workers that are under capitalism is the beginning of Marx's analysis of alienated labor. He says that, as the worker is busy creating wealth, the wealth is for the capitalists, he says that the condition of workers gets worse every day. Marx says that the commodities that the worker produces are in turn used to create capital, and the capital, in turn, is also used by employers to dominate the workers. Even as this happens, the worker continues being looked down upon by the employers despite the fact that their success lies on the hard work of the workers. According to Marx labor produces a service or an object, and since this object or service ends up being power independent of the producer Marx says that at this point it becomes an alien. It is important to note that the outcomes of work involve the loss of some essential aspects of life as well as losing even the work itself. At the end of the day the domination of labor that is the product of work becomes so high and on the other hand, the potential is also subjected to its opposite. He likens religion and work and says that just as like as there is less to the worker even as he produces more, the same thing happens to religion.

Human labor Importance

Marx looks at alienated labor and likens it with economic alienation (Drucker and Peter, 110). The alienated labor forms a very crucial for the analysis that Marx did late on the labor process as well as the value. He pointed the importance of labor in several writings, he also pointed out that, labor was actually the source of value in the economy of British, these ideas he combined them with ideas from other socialists as well as enlightenment thinkers to bring out the human potential. Human labor together with the labor process are always the key ideas in his analysis.

According to mark the fact that, human beings can work is the main factor that separates human beings from animals. He also argues that since human beings are social beings as compared to animals then they can form a very nice and better society. Even if animals produce or work, the produce for their consumption only and they work in a manner that is not properly organized. On the other hand, human beings are organized and they plan what to produce and at what time and period they are supposed to do it, they are fully conscious of what they are doing and a manner in which they want to do it. On the other hand, human beings are creative and they are orderly in the manner in which they carry out their various tasks. Actually, the whole idea is that human beings have developed brains more than animals and therefore before they do anything they thing and contrast on what they are supposed to do before they do it. According to Marx integration of labor and mental is something that is very admirable and according to Marx and the others, this is the main essence that is behind human labor in its full form.

In as much as others may not put more emphasis on this point, it is amusing how labor is the main focus in the analysis that is done by Marx on the human labor as well as the labor process and according to Marx unlike the others, labor is the key thing that actually defines the society. The way human beings works and the way they make nature reproduce by providing the rightful conditions, nature ends up looking like the work of their hands to some extent (Bleyer and Jennifer, 65). The potential of human beings is actually very big to an extent that, the past and present social economic forces cannot obtain enough human beings to meet the potential. Marx says that even as labor is behind the success of the former economic systems as well as the capitalism the fact still remains that, capitalism still limits the human potential.

The present sociologist may actually not give labor the same weight that Marx gave it. Hoffer and Memmi argue that what distinguishes human beings from animals is their cultures, activities, values as well as languages and nit labor as Marx says. In their arguments, they also say that human beings are also alienated from their fellow human beings. This is because according to human relationships has been reduced to market relationships. Marx on his side he says that, the relationship that exists in the market where people exchange things is just but a social relationship and that that at end of the day may look like a money relationship between the people. However, according to Marx an immediate effect of man alienation from the products of his labor is the alienation of man from his fellow human beings and it may also end in them being alienated from their lives.

The final important thing on this subject is that labor should be looked at by all as a venture that is cooperative (Healy and Mike, 120. This means that work that is in the society can be completed by the past labor as of the present works. However, capital and labor will always look as if they are very separate sources of production and this is because, something that ends up making works to be isolated and this because capitalism together with political economy most of the time are organize production with the main goal of producing products, they also divide labor according to specialization and despite the fact that alienation has a lot of weaknesses it is widely used today especially in politics, social psychology as well as studies that are conducted on labor and work. The analysis of Marx was mainly based on his early writings on the subject of alienation. This is what actually helped him later to put together his background on philosophy. In his analysis, he points out how alienation ends up being exploitation. Even if Hoffer, Marx, and Memmi have different ideas about alienation, the fact is that alienation has been impressed today vary widely in almost all fields, and the information that is obtained from those who apply alienation especially in politics they say that, it works pretty perfect and its outcomes are good and impressive.

References

Bleyer, Jennifer. "A Doorway to Change." Psychology Today50.3 (2017): 60-87.

Drucker, Peter. The end of economic man: The origins of totalitarianism. Routledge, 2017.

Healy, Mike, and Iwona Wilkowska. "Marx, Alienation and the Denial of Dignity of Work." Dignity and the Organization. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017. 99-124.

Marx, Karl. "Alienated labour." Working in America. Routledge, 2015. 21-28.

Schacht, Richard. Alienation. Psychology Press, 2015.