‘Alienation: an Introduction to Marx’s Theory’ by Dan Swain is a introduction to a German philosopher, sociologist, economist and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx. Swain comments thought and economic theory of Marx by his key concept ‘alienation’.
Digests of each chapters are below.
Introduction – Marx described how our human activity could come to be experienced as something external, alien and hostile to us as the theory of alienation. Alienation affects negative to our body and mind.
Chapter 1 – Contemporary economics ignores social and political dimensions of economy. Classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricard considered the wealth in the relation among human beings, nature, labour and objects. Also Jean-Jaques French philosopher Rousseau stated technological and scientific progress brought misery, inequality and moral problem in people’s economic institutions. According to him, alienation brought individual rights and liberty, but we can’t give away them.
Chapter 2 – Marx’s philosophical thought mainly succeed to ideas of Georg Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach. He was a Left Hegelian disputant. But Marx criticise both Hegel and Feuerbach, such as Hegel’s positive idealism, Feuerbach’s thought of ‘education settle the problem of alienation’ and his static conception of human nature, then he developed his own theory of alienation.
Chapter 3 – Capitalist society required dividing society into two classes, the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the proletariat (workers). Proletarians have no means production and are in miserable condition. Though Marx believed that the proletariat is the class can abolish capitalism and class division by their collective struggles.
Chapter 4 – Essentially, human labour is collective, conscious and transforming engagement with the natural world. In capitalism society, labour works are shaped by wages. For Marx, alienation means lack of control of our process of production. The human labour transformed into a commodity, the affair is the most fundamental form of alienation in capitalism.
Chapter 5 – Under capitalism it occurs alienation from product. Proletarians work to produce things they can’t own themselves. The labour embodied by capital is as ‘dead’. The worker performs more, he pours into the dead labour.
Chapter 6 – People relate to each other through commodities. Marx defined it as ‘commodity fetishism’. Products of labour appears as piles of abstract labour. Thus our social and personal life become commodified and is regarded as a particular value form.
Chapter 7 – Alienation of labour altered our social life and relationships with others. Capitalism and its alienated labour place the second order mediation between man and man. Capitalism causes not only struggle between classes, but also its alienation encourages proletarians to compete with workmates. Even capitalists are slaves to their own inclinations and the markets.
Chapter 8 – Marx argued, capitalism also bad for our individuality. Organized labour work and its alienation harm our physical and mental condition. Under capitalism, we’ve lost control of ourselves.
Chapter 9 – Our alienation form labour and products also means becoming alienated from the natural world in which we live and work. This drives capitalist production that extend productivity itself. The global environment is catastrophically damaged by repetitions of these processes.
Chapter 10 – A new from of labour now dominated is ‘immaterial labour’ which means the production or manipulation of symbols, texts, emotions of feelings. And bosses in company restrained by his leadership and ‘employee autonomy’. Also one feature of labour market on these days is increasing the workers get ‘over-qualified’ jobs, the jobs need degree-level or higher qualifications. Problems of alienation of work still continues today.
Chapter 11 – ‘Young Marx’ thought labour as the way in which we can find fulfilment in the world also under capitalism society. And he argued that great productivity of capitalism reduce working time and give people to more leisure time and recreational activity. But ‘Mature Marx’, in ‘Capital’, would be changed his view point. The capitalist system is autonomous process breeds ills. There’s no human nature in it.
Chapter 12 – Engels argued by the concept of ‘socialised production’, the capitalist production is social and maintained an individualised method of exchange. The capitalist production processes are collective and cooperative, but the products are distributed to people entirely individually. This ambivalence is one of the causes of crisis within capitalism society.
Chapter 13 – Capitalism alienated people from each other and from themselves. And Marx believed people exist in alienated positions in society, the matter make difficult for people to illustrate the detailed shape of an alternative society. His settlement to problem of alienated labour lay in the need for revolution by proletarians. Revolution is a essential thing of overcoming alienation.
In this book, Dan Swain introduces and comments Marx’s theory, various topics of economics and today’s social problems by young Marx’s key concept ‘alienation’. Simultaneously Swain criticise the concept and Marx’s theory, and presents many opinions about them.
Author would think economics of Marx is a theory of relationship between products or production work and human nature or human being. Alienation is key to understand the economics. The concept of alienation has ambivalent aspects. Alienation made human nature independent from natural nature, as the same time alienated labour separated human nature from their own products and production. I think alienation is not only a negative concept or situation. Alienation from natural nature and products or commodities in democratic capitalism societies can make us control ourself, include fashion, education, media and medical service.
I think some chapters go beyond Marx’s own theory. They are only reports of today’s economic issues. Marx is a 19th century person, his theory restricted by the historical dogma and he couldn’t overcome his own ideology. Marx’s theory as it is, should not adjust to today’s problem. And I think author has dogmatic left-wing thinkings like below ‘Major companies exploit poor people.’, ‘Brand is bad and only a commercial mark tempts consumers.’…
But this book is one of lucid, comparatively critical and totally good introduction to Marx’s theory and ‘economics’ that is consideration on relationship between human beings and their products.
Alienation: An Introduction to Marx’s Theory
Dan Swain
Bookmarks Publications, London, 1 May 2012
112 pages, £5.00
ISBN: 978-1905192922
Contents:
Introduction
1. Alienation and Enlightenment
2. Hegel, Feuerbach and Marx
3. A Universal Class
4. Alienation from the Labour Process
5. Alienation from Product
6. Commodity Fetichism
7. Alienation from Others
8. Alienation from Self
9. Alienation from Nature
10. Has Work Changed?
11. Species-being and Controversies of Interpretation
12. Collective Control
13. Revolution
Further Reading
Notes