Alienation and Historical Materialism in Marxist Theory
Alienation and Types
For Marx, the contradictions of a society appear when a situation of alienation arises (when members of society or part of them lose what they produce and spend on behalf of others). Marx begins by stating that man is a natural being who needs to survive and has the ability to actually get what he needs. Secondly, it is something specifically human, i.e., someone is going by himself through productive activity. Every activity that makes the human being is praxis. In short, the essence of being human is not done, but it is growing throughout history, and in the third place, the human being is a social being. For Marx, man is made in society, and it produces this society. Marx concludes that one cannot speak of human beings on the margins of society, i.e., that the elements or the economic, social, political, and ideology of a society determine what each individual is. From what man is, we understand alienation and its types:
Alienation
The process by which the subject sets out whether an object and puts it outside if dispossessed of something that belonged to him, that is to say, any alienation is a process of dispossession, laying had lost something like property. In any process of alienation, there are 3 times: (externalization, alienation, and alienation). For Marx, man is essentially a producer. Under capitalism, the worker externalized his workforce in a product, which belongs to the capitalist. Since the entrepreneur has to enrich the product, it becomes opposed to the worker and serves as a tool to exploit the customer market because the product is not sold for its value in use but for the exchange value, which will be higher than the cost of production. This difference is called goodwill, with which the capitalist reduces a worker’s wages and exploits it to increase its wealth. The conclusion is that there is the fact of the commodification of labor and production relations. Economic alienation is the basis for other forms of alienation:
Social Alienation
Occurs when society is divided into classes (groups within a society and its economic position, i.e., the role it plays in productive activity). In capitalism, there are two groups: “The bourgeoisie” is who has the capital and enterprise, and the “proletariat,” who performs the activity, is productive and has no wealth.
Political Alienation
That which occurs when those who have the power do not exercise it in the role of freedom of the governed. For Marx, this happens with bourgeois democracy, expressing the freedom of all citizens to form civil society, and laws are the result of the free choice of all. For Marx, this is false, and in power, only representatives of the bourgeoisie create laws regarding the interests of the bourgeoisie, i.e., there is no freedom for workers.
Ideological Alienation
It is a consequence of the rest. It consists of alienation that takes place in the intellectual products of a society when these intellectual products hide the pressure situation.
Historical Materialism
Historical materialism is the philosophy of history of Marx and Marxism, that is, Marx’s explanation of history, and that he considers a scientific explanation, what he means is that the historical process is explained as a succession of necessary means of production (the human being is changing over time) that follow a dialectical rationality. Marxism is to develop principles of dialectics from Hegel, and this is called dialectical materialism (a dialectical explanation of changes from the reality of the matter, following 3 laws:
- Law of unity and opposition of opposites: k always been an assertion is followed by denial.
- Act of the transition from quantity to quality – law of negation of negation: Whenever there is a contradiction, it can be overcome by historical contradictions.
Historical Process assimilating elements: Primitive MP, slave, feudal, capitalist, socialist, and communist. How does Marx explain the mode of production? A mode of production is how society is described in terms of its productive reality. In production, there are 2 types:
Infrastructure
This is the material base of society and the superstructure that are non-productive elements of society. The cause of any change in society is in the infrastructure, and the superstructure is only a reflection and consequence of the infrastructure. Distinguish 2 components:
- The productive forces: All the elements involved in producing livelihoods and wealth.
- The social relations:
Superstructure
It has 2 components:
- The state and the law: The political superstructure in which power relations are produced and the law that regulates them. The state and the law always respond to the interests of the ruling class.
- Ideologies: The ideological superstructure and Marx are always a reflection of the other components of the mode of production and to justify and favor the ruling class.
Marx begins to study how it will switch between the socialist and capitalist production as this will give way to communist. Capitalism is based on the production of wealth and the concentration of this in a few hands, for that defends private property and free market. For Marx, the enrichment of a few will be attached to the progressive impoverishment of the majority of the proletariat to the point where they do not lose anything to the revolution. The revolution will be a necessary consequence that will give way to socialism. Under socialism, private property will disappear, and the dictatorship of the workers appears, i.e., the whole economy was centralized and managed as property. Once you delete all traces of private property and capitalism, it will give way to communism, where there is no state, and output will be collective in the sense that each work according to their interests and abilities. Communism will be the moment that all mankind would have attained freedom.
ave attained freedom.