Alienation and Ideology in Marx’s Philosophy

Marx’s Historical Context

Karl Marx was born in the early nineteenth century. His thinking was influenced by several elements of his historical context.

First, the consolidation of capitalism as an economic system. This involved the separation of capital and labor, generating vast capital and a large mass of propertyless workers living in appalling conditions.

Liberalism promoted the freedom of enterprise procurement, production, and market price. The engine of the economy was to obtain capital gains in a market governed by the laws of supply and demand. Labor became a commodity in the market.

Marx was also influenced by scientific positivism, which rejected the certainty of any knowledge not backed by scientific expertise, and the philosophy of Hegel, which aimed to overcome the impasse created by Kant between phenomenon and noumenon. Hegel’s philosophy can be summarized as follows:

  • Everything real is rational, and all that is rational is real.
  • Reality is the absolute spirit, manifested in three interrelated ways.
  • Reality is dialectical; the three poles of the same reality (spirit, subject, and object) exist and produce one another in a permanent relationship.

Marx reinterpreted the Hegelian dialectic as dialectical materialism. Thus, reality is singular but material (obtainable through sensory knowledge). Reality is also dialectical, meaning it has three poles—Object, Subject, and Idea—which coexist, relate, and are subject to the laws of dialectics. Because reality is material, the pole that triggers the relationship is the object, which generates the idea in the subject. The idea then transforms the object through the subject, and so on.

The Laws of Dialectics

The laws of dialectics are:

  • Law of the Control of Opposites: The three poles of reality are constantly in conflict. From this confrontation, new realities emerge.
  • Law of the Negation of the Negation: The object is the thesis, which is denied by the subject (the antithesis). Both are then denied by the idea (the synthesis).
  • Law of Qualitative Leap: The accumulation of quantitative changes leads to a qualitative change when those changes reach a critical point.

Since humans are part of the dialectical process, they introduce an element (conscious action) that inevitably alters the state of reality. For Marx, reality becomes history. Thus, he introduces the concept of historical materialism. History results from the dialectical interaction between the object (world), the subject (humans), and ideas (ideological products). The specific historical relationship between subject and object occurs within a particular mode of production. This involves the process of production and the relations of production (labor).

Alienation in the Capitalist Mode of Production

Applying this analysis, Marx argued that workers in the capitalist mode of production are alienated. The basis for this lies in the analysis of labor. According to dialectics, subject, object, and product constitute a unified whole that complements each other and provides meaning. In the capitalist mode of production, this unity is broken, and there is a loss of reality for the individual worker as they become separated from the product.

Marx uses two terms to describe alienation, which he considers synonymous but offers different perspectives:

  • Entfremdung: This refers to what happens when the subject transfers something of themselves to the object, which is lost when the object passes into other hands.
  • Veräusserung: This refers to foreclosure and destruction. In the capitalist mode of production, the object passes into the hands of the capitalist.

The basis of this analysis is the increase in value. Capital gain is the profit generated by the production process, achieved through human labor, which increases the value of the product. If this surplus value does not remain in the hands of the producer, it produces alienation. Wages (the market price of labor) are not equivalent to the value added to the product by the worker, as the capitalist receives the surplus value.

In the capitalist mode of production, a triple alienation occurs. First, the product is alienated as it passes into the hands of capital. Second, labor is alienated, ceasing to be a means for the subject to realize themselves in relation to the object and becoming merely a means to meet basic needs precariously. Finally, the subject is alienated, deprived of their subjectivity and their work, reduced to a commodity whose value is determined by the laws of supply and demand.

Ideology as a Distorted Reflection of Reality

Society (subject), in relation to matter and the means of production (object), generates ideas. These ideas constitute the consciousness of society itself and are expressed in moral values, philosophy, art, etc. These ideological products form ideology. In an idealistic view, these products are considered neutral, the fruits of a disembodied and autonomous evolution of the relations of production. Ideology is defined as a systematic set of ideas with a historical existence and role within society. However, Marx argues that the ideology of a capitalist society, where the relations of production generate alienation, is itself alienated and alienating. It does not represent the consciousness of society but is imposed by the ruling class. Ideology is, therefore, a misrepresentation and falsification of the conditions under which it operates.

Ideology justifies the historical outcome of the relations of production, presenting them as necessary and immutable (hiding their historical character), ideal and reasonable (concealing their dialectical character), and common to all (concealing their class character).

Therefore, ideology has a crucial social function. It represents an imaginary relationship between individuals and their actual living conditions, reproduces reality in a distorted manner, unites the social structure, and serves the ruling class to perpetuate its domination over the dominated class.