Week 4 Is AntiCapitalist Modernity Possible Karl Marx

Week 4: Is Anti-Capitalist Modernity Possible? Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (p. 70 -101)

Karl Marx (1818 -1883) • Marx had a Ph. D in philosophy (his dissertation on Democritus and Epicurus) • Early writings: “Contribution to a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right”, “On the Jewish Question”, “ 1844 Manuscripts” (the last one was never published during his lifetime). • “ 1844 Manuscripts” focus on the concept of alienation which is not just a feeling but a sociopolitical fact that is a consequence of the mode of production in modern times.

Karl Marx (1818 -1883) • “ 1844 Manuscripts” is not only an enquiry on economy and politics but also a historical examination. Besides the analysis that give way to the concepts of self-alienation, selfestrangement, and objectification it discusses the future role of proletariat. • It is possible to read history through the selfalienation of human labour in modern times.

“Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844” • Estranged labour: “On the basis of political economy itself, in its own words, we have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production; that the necessary result of competition is the accumulation of capital in a few hands, and thus the restoration of monopoly in a more terrible form; that finally the distinction between capitalist and land-rentier, like that between the tiller of the soil and the factory-worker, disappears and that the whole of society must fall apart into the two classes-the property-owners and the propertyless workers. ” (p. 70)

“Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844” • Political economy does not explain the nature of private property which indeed generates the laws of the material process of private property, whereas it focuses on the process itself. • The main aim of Marx’s work is to expose the essential connection between notions such as private property and wages, competition and monopoly which seem unrelated and unspecific without displaying the connections.

The worker, the labour and the product • The “actual economic fact” that we should start from is that the worker as a producer becomes poorer as he produces more. It is because the labour of the worker does not only produce goods but also the worker itself, thus the worker becomes a commodity.

The worker, the labour and the product • Labour is realized through production of an object. However the object produced by the worker becomes something alien to the worker, it is now independent of the worker. The objectification of labour as the realization of it turns out to be a loss of reality for the worker: s/he loses the reality, the object as the “congealed labour” creates a distinction between the worker and her/his labour. This is one of the key processes for alienation.

The worker, the labour and the product • The more the worker produces the less s/he has; what s/he puts in the production of an object does not belong to her/him any more. The power of the worker which makes it possible to produce objects is now an external power to the worker; a power which indeed exists outside of the worker and confronts her/him: an alien power which makes the worker dominated by capital.

Objectification and estrangement • Nature is the material by which labour can be performed, without nature worker cannot create an object. It is the means of life both in terms of production and subsistence. Thus, when the worker appropriates nature more by producing objects, at the same time s/he loses the means of life in both senses: external world is not an object of the means of his labour and it is not any more the subsistence for his physical existence. However since without the material object the worker cannot create and cannot live, s/he becomes more and more dependent of the object.

Objectification and estrangement • “The extremity of this bondage is that it is only as a worker that he continues to maintain himself as a physical subject, and that it is only as a physical subject that he is a worker. ” (p. 73) • There is no other way for the worker but to put his/her labour in the product which will then become an alien power to her/himself.

Objectification and estrangement • • • The worker labour product Less left to consume More product Less valuable More valuable Less worthy More worthy Less formed More formed

Objectification and estrangement • By discarding the direct connection between the worker, the labour and the product, political economy hides the estrangement. The relation of the labour to the product generates from the relation of the worker to the object. Thus to understand the relationship of the labour we should first look at the relationship between the worker and the product. • There is another manifestation of estrangement apart from the alienation of the worker to the object; estrangement takes part in the act of production. If the result of the production activity (i. e. object) is alien to the worker then it must be fact that the activity itself is an alienation too.

The relation of the labour to the production activity • Labour is external to the worker which means that it does not belong to him; thus it is not an affirmation of his existence but a denial. The worker can feel her/himself only out of work. The work s/he does is not voluntary: it is not a satisfaction for his/her life, it is a necessity for satisfying material needs. It is forced labour. And since his/her labour does not belong to the worker any more but to another, it is a loss of self.

The relation of the labour to the production activity • The result of is that the worker is not defined by the characteristics that make her/him human (i. e. free activity) but only by material needs: • “eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling and in dressing-up, etc. ; and in his human functions he no longer feels himself to be anything but an animal. What is animal becomes human and what is human becomes animal. ” (p. 74)

Estrangement of the thing and self-estrangement Two aspects of estrangement detailed so far: • The relation between the worker and the object (the product of labour): labour becomes an alien power. [Estrangement of the thing] • The relation between labour and production activity: the worker has to engage in an activity which is neither voluntary nor does it belong to her/him. [Self-estrangement]

Estrangement from a species being • The third aspect can be deduced from these two above: • Man is a species being: s/he thinks that s/he is acting freely and universal. • An animal and a human-being differ from each other in terms of their life activity: an animal’s activity is aimed at satisfaction of immediate needs; therefore it is not conscious even it is some kind of production. However the conscious activity of humans can have purposes other than satisfying urgent needs.

Estrangement from a species being • Human beings, by engaging in activities in nature (i. e. by working) make nature a reality and a work of her/him. Thus s/he becomes aware of the conscious activity that makes her/him a species being. • But by tearing the human being from his work (both the object and the activity), the production process renders the conscious species existence of human alienated.

Other aspects of estrangement Therefore: • Man is alienated from its species being through both the estrangement of the thing and selfestrangement: his own body, labour, free activity and spiritual life become alien to him. • These three aspects of estrangement (from the product of his labour, from his life-activity, from his species being) results in estrangement of man to man.

Alienated labour • If a man’s work is alienated from him, both as the object and the activity, and if a man is not a freely active species being any more but his work is a result of coercion, and lastly if a man is estranged form man then what are the consequences? • First, it means that the labour of a man does not belong to him/her anymore, so to whom it does belong?

Alienated labour • Since man is estranged from another man, how can he have a real and objective relation to others and to himself? • The production itself becomes the source of loss of reality and loss of the self.

Estrangement and private property Now there are two problems to be solved: • The problem of private property (what is the relation between estranged labour and private property? ) • How does a human being become alien to her/his own labour?

Worker vs. Non-worker • We need to focus on the relation of worker to non-worker, more precisely the relation of the worker to the work and the relation of the nonworker to the work. Non-worker is also alien to the worker and his labour. • “First it has to be noticed, that everything which appears in the worker as an activity of alienation, of estrangement, appears in the non-worker as a state of alienation, of estrangement.

Worker vs. Non-worker • Secondly, that the worker's real, practical attitude in production and to the product (as a state of mind) appears in the non-worker confronting him as a theoretical attitude. • Thirdly, the non-worker does everything against the worker which the worker does against himself; but he does not do against himself what he does against the worker. ” (p. 81)

Private property and communism Communism as the abolishment of private property can be defined as: 1) The community relates to the world of things as a property but not a private one, a universal property. (generalization of the relation) - Crude communism 2) Communism as a political nature: still infected by private property even if it is an attempt for reintegration of man. (Because it is still not sensuous to the nature of human need and still not captured the positive side of private property).

Private property and communism 3) “The real appropriation of human essence by and for man”: the conflicts between man and nature and man are resolved through the realization naturalism. (positive transcendence of private property)

Week 4: Is Anti-Capitalist Modernity Possible? Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology

German Ideology • German criticism is rooted in Hegelian philosophy and it has never splitted away from Hegel’s philosophical system. • German critics have taken concepts from Hegel’s philosophy such as “substance” and “selfconsciousness” all of which appear as pure categories. • However German critics had nothing to do with German reality, i. e. the material world that surrounds them.

Materialist conception of history • The premises of a materialist conception of history has to be real premises: • First premise is therefore, the ultimate fact of all human history, is that the existence of human individuals. • Human beings begin to distinguish themselves by producing (their means of subsistence). This is also production of material life (in an indirect way).

Materialist conception of history • This production is also an expression of existence for human beings; they do not just reproduce themselves, they also define themselves by how and what they produce. • The material conditions of production (or modes of production) determine the mode of individual life.

Division of labour • Productive forces amongst a community (or a nation) requires division of labour, and by each new production force there is needed a development of division of labour. • In order to modify the society acoording to the new mode of production introduced by the entrance of a new productive force, organization of productive forces is necessary.

Divison of labour • Consequences of division of labour: 1) separation of industrial forces and agricultural production. 2) separation of town and country 3) separation of needs and wants 4) experting in single area

Division of labour • Division of labour also brings different stages of development in terms of individuals, and their relationship to one another. • This results in different development stages of property amongst a community with respect to the relations between man and man, man and his work, man and his product, etc.

Forms of private property 1) Tribal property: - Undeveloped production - People mostly live on hunting, agriculture etc. - The division of labour is elementary; not very different from that of the family. - Social structure is also similar to family structure. - Slavery (latent in family, extended in community)

Forms of private property 2) Ancient communal and state property: - Slavery remains in this type of society - Class conflicts between citizens and slaves - Citizens own their slaves and their labour only within a community - Private property begins to develop but still as an exception.

Forms of private property 3) Feudal or estate property: - Feudal development is related to country, not to the town as it is in state property - There is a producing class (as in the communal property) but it is organized and associated in a different way: land owners have property and serf labour is dependent on them. - Feudal kingdoms monarchs

Social being and social consciousness • Produciton of ideas is in a close relationship with production of materials. (How people think is not separable from how they live). • Consciousness is nothing but a conscious being, i. e. men as producers of their thoughts, ideas, feelings etc. are also producers of material life. “In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here it is a matter of ascending from earth to heaven. ” (p. 42)

History and production • The production of material is rooted in the satisfaction of needs; human beings produce to meet their material needs. • Satisfaction of material needs (first step) lead to the creation of new needs. • While producing material needs, human beings also propagate their own kind: family and reproduction.

The production of life • These three steps of production do not appear as separate stages, they should be treated as aspects of human history. • Production of life is two-fold: it requires social relation as well as a natural one. • A specific mode of production is always related to a specific mode of co-operation: thus it always requires a certain mode of social organization.

Consciousness • - Consciousness have always been a social product: It is merely a consciousness of external world Consciousness of nature Consciousness of other individuals Thus, consciousness is not a pure category but a result of man’s relation to himself, to nature and to others around him.

Social division of labour • Distribution of labour, products and property • In the first form, i. e. the family, wife and children are the slaves of husband. (latent slavery) • Since division of labour brings about the difference in property owning, they are identical. • Individual interest vs. General interest

Division of labour and interest “Just because individuals seek only their particular interest, which for them does not coincide with their common interest, the latter is asserted as an interest ‘alien’ to them, and ‘independent’ of them, as in its turn a particular and distinctive ‘general’ interest” (p. 53). That is why worker’s labour under the natural division of labour is alien to him.

Division of labour and interest • If there is an abyss between particular interest and general interest, and as long as human activity is non-voluntary but coerced (due to the fact that it serves general interest not the one that is freely determined by the individual), then division of labour necessarily results in alienation of man to his work.

Estrangement • When particular interest does not coincide with general interest, the work done by an individual becomes an acitivity of necessity; both as the product and as the process of activity. • One cannot control her/his activity as a free, voluntary expression of life under the circumstances of natural social division.

Abolishment of estrangement • In order to abolish estrangement, there are two practical premises: 1) In the high development stage of production, most of people are propertyless. 2) This stiuation is necessary (development of productive forces and the generalization of want) and universal. Proletariat is worldhistorical as well as communism.