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Karl Marx's theory of alienation describes the estrangement (Ger. ''Entfremdung'') of people from aspects of their ''Gattungswesen'' (“species-essence”) as a consequence of living in a society of stratified social classes. The alienation from the self is a consequence of being a ''mechanistic part'' of a social class, which condition estranges a person from their humanity. The theoretic basis of alienation, within the capitalist mode of production, is that the worker invariably loses the ability to determine life and destiny, when deprived of the right to think (conceive) of themselves as the director of their own actions; to determine the character of said actions; to define relationships with other people; and to own those items of value from goods and services, produced by their own labour. Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realized human being, as an economic entity, is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, in order to extract from the worker the maximum amount of surplus value, in the course of business competition among industrialists. Karl Marx expressed the ''Entfremdung'' theory, of estrangement from the self, in the ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (1927). Philosophically, the theory of ''Entfremdung'' relies upon ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841), by Ludwig Feuerbach, which states that the idea of a supernatural god has alienated the natural characteristics of the human being. Moreover, in ''The Ego and its Own'' (1845), Max Stirner extended Feuerbach’s analysis that even the idea of “humanity” is an alienating concept for individuals to intellectually consider in its full philosophic implication; Marx and Engels responded to these philosophic propositions in ''The German Ideology'' (1845). ==Types of alienation== In a capitalist society, the worker’s alienation from their humanity occurs because the worker can only express labour — a fundamental social aspect of personal individuality — through a private system of industrial production in which each worker is an instrument, a thing, and not a person; in the “Comment on James Mill” (1844) Marx explained alienation thus: Let us suppose that we had carried out production as human beings. Each of us would have, in two ways, affirmed himself, and the other person. (i) In my production I would have objectified my individuality, its specific character, and, therefore, enjoyed not only an individual manifestation of my life during the activity, but also, when looking at the object, I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to be objective, visible to the senses, and, hence, a power beyond all doubt. (ii) In your enjoyment, or use, of my product I would have the direct enjoyment both of being conscious of having satisfied a human need by my work, that is, of having objectified man’s essential nature, and of having thus created an object corresponding to the need of another man’s essential nature . . . Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.〔Marx, Karl. "Comment on James Mill," ''Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844'': 1844.〕 In the ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (1927), Karl Marx identified four types of alienation that occur to the worker labouring under a capitalist system of industrial production.〔Alienation. ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'': Revised Second Edition (1984), p. 10.〕 ;(I) Alienation of the worker from the work — from the product of his labour The design of the product and how it is produced are determined, not by the producers who make it (the workers), nor by the consumers of the product (the buyers), but by the Capitalist class, who, besides appropriating the worker’s manual labour, also appropriate the intellectual labour of the engineer and the industrial designer who create the product, in order to shape the taste of the consumer to buy the goods and services at a price that yields a maximal profit. Aside from the workers having no control over the design-and-production protocol, alienation (''Entfremdung'') broadly describes the conversion of labour (work as an activity), which is performed to generate a use value (the product) into a commodity, which — like products — can be assigned an exchange value. That is, the Capitalist gains control of the manual and intellectual workers, and the benefits of their labour, with a system of industrial production that converts said labour into concrete products (goods and services) that benefit the consumer. Moreover, the capitalist production system also reifies labour into the “concrete” concept of “work” (a job), for which the worker is paid wages — at the lowest-possible rate — that maintain a maximum rate of return on the Capitalist’s investment capital; this is an aspect of exploitation. Furthermore, with such a reified system of industrial production, the profit (exchange value) generated by the sale of the goods and services (products) that could be paid to the workers, instead is paid to the capitalist classes: the functional capitalist, who manages the means of production, and the rentier capitalist, who owns the means of production. ;(II) Alienation of the worker from working — from the act of producing In the Capitalist Mode of Production, the generation of products (goods and services) is accomplished with an endless sequence of discrete, repetitive, motions that offer the worker little psychological satisfaction for “a job well done”. By means of commodification, the labour power of the worker is reduced to wages (an exchange value); the psychological estrangement (''Entfremdung'') of the worker results from the unmediated relation between his productive labour and the wages paid him for the labour. That division of labour, within the capitalist mode of production, further exploits the worker by limiting their ''Gattungswesen'' (species-essence) — the human being’s power to determine the purpose to which the product (goods and services) shall be applied; the human nature (species-essence) of the worker is fulfilled with controls the “subject of labour”. Hence, does capitalism remove from the worker the right to exercise control upon the value and the effects of their own labour, which, in turn, robs the worker of the ability to either buy (consume) the goods and services, or to receive the full value from the sale of the product. The alienation of the worker from the act of producing renders the worker unable to specialize in a type of productive labour, which is a psychologically satisfying condition; within an industrial system of production, social alienation reduces the worker to an instrument, to an object, and thus cannot productively apply every aspect of one's human nature. ;(III) Alienation of the worker from himself, as a producer — from his ''Gattungswesen'' (species-essence) The ''Gattungswesen'' (species-essence), human nature of individuals is not discrete (separate and apart) from their activity as a worker; as such, ''species-essence'' also comprises all of innate human potential as a person. Conceptually, in the term “species-essence”, the word “species” describes the intrinsic human mental essence that is characterized by a “plurality of interests” and “psychological dynamism”, whereby every individual has the desire and the tendency to engage in the many activities that promote mutual human survival and psychological well-being, by means of emotional connections with other people, with society. The psychic value of a human consists in being able to conceive (think) of the ends of their actions as purposeful ideas, which are distinct from the actions required to realize a given idea. That is, humans are able to objectify their intentions, by means of an idea of themselves, as “the subject”, and an idea of the thing that they produce, “the object”. Conversely, unlike a human being, an animal does not objectify itself, as “the subject”, nor its products as ideas, “the object”, because an animal engages in directly self-sustaining actions that have neither a future intention, nor a conscious intention. Whereas a person’s ''Gattungswesen'' (human nature) does not exist independent of specific, historically-conditioned activities, the essential nature of a human being is actualized when an individual — within their given historical circumstance — is free to sub-ordinate their will to the external demands they have imposed upon themselves by their imagination, and not the external demands imposed upon individuals by other people. ;Relations of production Whatever the character of a person’s consciousness (will and imagination), societal existence is conditioned by their relationships with the people and things that facilitate survival, which is fundamentally dependent upon co-operation with others, thus, a person’s consciousness is determined inter-subjectively (collectively), not subjectively (individually), because human's are a social animal. In the course of history, to ensure individual survival, societies have organized themselves into groups who have different, basic relationships to the means of production. One societal group (class) owned and controlled the means of production, while another societal class worked the means of production; in the relations of production of that ''status quo'', the goal of the owner-class was to economically benefit as much as possible from the labour of the working class. Moreover, in the course of economic development, when a new type of economy displaced an old type of economy — agrarian feudalism superseded by mercantilism, in turn superseded by the Industrial revolution — the rearranged economic order of the social classes favored the social class who controlled the technologies (the means of production) that made possible the change in the relations of production. Likewise, there occurred a corresponding rearrangement of the human nature (''Gattungswesen'') and the system of values of the owner-class and of the working-class, which allowed each group of people to accept and to function in the rearranged ''status quo'' of production-relations. Despite the ideologic promise of industrialization — that the mechanization of industrial production would raise the mass of the workers, from a brutish life of subsistence existence to honorable work — the division of labour inherent to the capitalist mode of production, thwarted the human nature (''Gattungswesen'') of the worker, and so rendered each individual into a mechanistic part of an industrialized system of production, from being a person capable of defining their value through direct, purposeful activity. Moreover, the near-total mechanization and automation of the industrial production system would allow the (newly) dominant bourgeois capitalist social class to exploit the working class to the degree that the value obtained from their labour would diminish the ability of the worker to materially survive. Hence, when the proletarian working-class become a sufficiently developed political force, they will effect a revolution and re-orient the relations of production to the means of production — from a capitalist mode of production to a communist mode of production. In the resultant communist society, the fundamental relation of the workers to the means of production would be equal and non-conflictual, because there would be no artificial distinctions about the value of a worker’s labour; the worker’s humanity (species-essence) thus respected, men and women would not become alienated. (See: Marx's theory of human nature). In the Communist socio-economic organization, the relations of production would operate the mode of production and employ each worker according to their abilities, and benefit each worker according to their needs. Hence, each worker could direct their labour to productive work suitable to their own innate abilities, rather than be forced into a narrowly defined, minimal-wage “job” meant to extract maximal profit from individual labour, as determined by and dictated under the capitalist mode of production. In the classless, collectively-managed Communist society, the exchange of value between the objectified productive labour of one worker and the consumption benefit derived from that production will not be determined by or directed to the narrow interests of a bourgeois capitalist class, but, instead, will be directed to meet the needs of each producer and consumer. Although production will be differentiated, by the degree of each worker’s abilities, the purpose of the Communist system of industrial production will be determined by the collective requirements of society, not by the profit-oriented demands of a capitalist social class who live at the expense of the greater society. Under the collective ownership of the means of production, the relation of each worker to the mode of production will be identical, and will assume the character that corresponds to the universal interests of the communist society. The direct distribution of the fruits of the labour of each worker, to fulfill the interests of the working class — and thus to an individuals own interest and benefit — will constitute an un-alienated state of labour conditions, which restores to the worker the fullest exercise and determination of their human nature. ;(IV) Alienation of the worker from other workers Capitalism reduces the labour of the worker to a commercial commodity that can be traded in the competitive labour-market, rather than as a constructive socio-economic activity that is part of the collective common effort performed for personal survival and the betterment of society. In a capitalist economy, the businesses who own the means of production establish a competitive labour-market meant to extract from the worker as much labour (value) as possible, in the form of capital. The capitalist economy’s arrangement of the relations of production provokes social conflict by pitting worker against worker, in a competition for “higher wages”, thereby alienating them from their mutual economic interests; the effect is a false consciousness, which is a form of ideologic control exercised by the capitalist bourgeoisie. (See: Cultural hegemony) Furthermore, in the capitalist mode of production, the philosophic collusion of religion in justifying the relations of production facilitates the realization, and then worsens, the alienation (''Entfremdung'') of the worker from their humanity; it is a socio-economic role independent of religion being “the opiate of the masses”.〔(Marx on Alienation )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marx's theory of alienation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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