Karl Marx’s Core Concepts: Work, Alienation, and Dialectics
Karl Marx’s Core Concepts: Man and the Essence of Work
Marx’s political economy views the worker as a working animal, reduced to the strict necessities of life, and considers labor as an abstract commodity.
For Marx, there is no human nature in general; man becomes himself through history by transforming society and nature. Man’s essential activity is work, which Marx sees as overcoming the conception of man merely as a theorist. Work places man in relation to nature and with other men. Nature appears as the product of his work and reality, serving as the inorganic body of man.
Through work, man builds himself and society, coming to terms with others. As Marx states: “The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality, it is the ensemble of the social relations.”
Marx conceived of human beings as immersed in social life. Their interaction with nature (work) is collective and generates a form of social life. However, this process, driven by social work, is not free under capitalism. The result of the work does not belong to the worker, leading to an alienated human life. This situation demands the defense of freedom and the condemnation of all forms of slavery, such as alienation.
Marx’s Dialectical Method and Historical Materialism
Marx’s dialectic is a dialectic of reality and not merely of the idea; it is a dialectic focused on the transformation of this reality.
The three laws of dialectics, formulated by Engels, serve as a reference to derive a particular dialectical conception of movement—a method for interpreting history in all its processes. This method is based on the law of the negation of the negation: every historical moment necessarily engenders contradictions, which lead to class struggles. From this denial comes the leap forward.
Thus, history appears as a continuous evolution driven by denial and the negation of the denial. Marx applies this dialectic to history and economy. This doctrine is known as Historical Materialism.
The Concept of Alienation (Entfremdung)
The concept of alienation has philosophical roots:
- For Hegel, alienation is the infinite spirit which is alienated in nature, returning to itself only through self-consciousness.
- For Feuerbach, alienation is conceived primarily as religious alienation, where man projects his essence onto a divine being.
Marx argues that the problem must be moved to its true ground: the task of philosophy is to eliminate the radical alienation of man. His early work, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, focuses specifically on the alienation of the worker in capitalist society.
Work is where man must act as a human being. But under the conditions of wage labor, the opposite occurs: alienation takes place in four distinct forms:
The Four Forms of Alienation in Capitalism
- Alienation from the product of labor: The product becomes capital, appearing to the worker as an independent power that he neither owns nor dominates. Paradoxically, the more objects the worker produces, the less he possesses, and the more subject he becomes to capital.
- Alienation from his own activity: The worker is alienated from the act of working itself. Labor is external to the worker, not belonging to his essential being.
- Alienation from Nature: Nature appears as something alien to the worker, as the property of another (the capitalist).
- Alienation from other men: Man, unlike animals, can work not only for himself and his own needs but also for others. However, alienated labor cuts all ties with nature and humanity, separating the worker from his fellow human beings.
Overcoming Alienation: Communism
Marx concludes that private property is the consequence of alienated labor. Marx believes that only communism (the abolition of private property) allows for the elimination of all forms of alienation and the humanization of man.
The meaning of having must disappear so that man can release all his senses and relate to things based on love and genuine human need, rather than possession.
Marx also criticizes what he calls vulgar communism, characterizing it as mere envy or a desire for crude equalization (leveling down).