blog




  • Essay / Karl Marx: On denial, unity and human nature

    Differentiation, decomposition, alienation, estrangement: these words appear again and again in Marx's writings to describe the failures of capitalism. For him, emphasizing community and equality was the solution to the demeaning competitive atmosphere he observed around him. Much of his work could be interpreted as an attempt, often through critiques of the divisions he observed in capitalism, to imagine and describe a social order characterized by unity. It is only in this future society that his implicit and elusive conception of human nature can finally be realized. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayIn Marx's writings, it is clear how private property and the division of labor lead to the alienation of man of man and the product of his labor. The capitalist mode of production creates a society in which men compete for personal gain and use each other for selfish ends, even to the point of inventing artificial needs in others in order to profit from them. Private property unfairly cuts off part of the outside world from the worker who produced it, thereby creating unnatural divisions in nature. The work that enables this private wealth is “hostile and foreign”; instead of producing a product that satisfies real human needs, it becomes an indirect means of satisfying those needs. Furthermore, the capitalist system strips people and objects of their individual history and complexity, reducing them to a single trait: their exchange value. The personal implications of this economic situation (man's alienation from himself and from nature) are more complex and less distinct. Marx claims that in the capitalist system, the employee suffers a “loss of reality” while working, he numbs himself to the outside world in order to continue. These theories were based on urban factory conditions during perhaps. the most miserable stage of the industrial revolution: workers were deprived of sunlight and fresh air, and exposed to fumes and constant noise during a workday that could easily exceed 12 hours. Repetitive and dangerous work often led to deformities, illnesses or injuries. Workers cannot consider this setting as their “real” life and continue to live healthily. The worker only lives outside of work, but these rare hours are marked by exhaustion and the endless struggle against poverty. The appalling conditions that the worker must endure clearly distance man from his animal nature; no creature in nature would willingly remain in conditions that cause such physical harm. However, the first proof, according to Marx, of man's alienation from himself is his inability to engage in uniquely "human" activities, for which he has neither the time nor the resources to take advantage of it. These “mindful living activities” are listed as reading books, dancing, loving, traveling and learning, among others. These modes of expression and personal development are not options for the salaried worker. At the other end of this extreme, the ruling classes enjoy increased life experience, at the expense of the oppressed proletariat. The wealthy have the time and resources to develop their own talents, use their intellect, and cultivate a greater appreciation for the outside world. However, the capitalist degrades himself when he defines his human value by his property and possessions. He wastes his wealth on extravagance,treating it as something to be destroyed for instant gratification. He reveals himself to be a "sacrificing and empty being" when he uses his prosperity simply to display his power, rather than as a means to pursue "conscious life activity". The cruel subordination of others that this unjust power allows is as inhuman as the worker's inability to love and learn. Despite these harsh critiques of society, Marx does not propose that civilization inherently alienates man from the outside world. Ilse realizes that “the training of the five senses is a work of the entire history of the world up to the present day”. The development of art and music, for example, has cultivated our eyes and ears. Marx recognizes the cultural contributions of the ruling class throughout history; even the capitalist system admirably created an international culture and a certain degree of interdependence between nations, both of which fostered a kind of intellectual emancipation. Until the arrival of capitalism, only the inequality characterizing civilization, caused in part by a lack of awareness of “species being,” was unjust. Uncivilized man was a slave to “raw practical need,” but we now have the means of production to produce abundance and satisfy everyone’s needs. However, capitalist society, despite the wealth that efficient industry allows, creates even greater perversions in nature in the way it divides and objectifies people, nature and commodities, reducing them all to the common denominator of value. exchange. Where ancient societies simply distributed wealth unfairly, thereby failing to actively promote human development, the entire structure of capitalism was based on divisions that destroyed community and alienated man from external nature. In a Marxist society, however, prosperity and other benefits of bourgeois culture would be preserved but shared, while inequalities and divisions would be eliminated, in order to unite "the two sides of a whole (133)." In this new social order, the isolating competitiveness of capitalism would disappear, to be replaced by harmony and collective effort. The ideal society envisioned by Marx highlights his understanding of human nature, as well as that of man's complex relationship with nature itself. If Marx did not have a certain conception of human nature, he would have no justification for valuing one type of society over another. another. Clearly, he envisions a state of affairs that would do justice to humanity. Although he states that "the human essence...is the totality of social relations", he obviously does not think that human beings can "adapt" to the type of conditions and interactions that the wage worker undergoes in the capitalist system. There must be an inherent human nature that is violated in some way and will eventually rebel against it. A clue to this conception of an innate, albeit malleable, human nature can be found in the statement that "the relationship of man to woman is the most natural relationship between human being and being human” (83). Although relationships between men and women have changed outwardly, there is an element of mutual need and mutual respect that has varied little throughout history. Furthermore, he suggests that socialist society will not change this state of affairs. To the extent that this relationship can be seen as a constant in human nature, it seems to suggest that certain human attributes can be assumed. Marx proposes that throughout human history we have controlled nature to satisfy our needs, thereby creating a "..