For Marx, alienation exists mainly because of the tyranny of money. He refers to Aristotle’s praxis and production, by saying that the exchange of human activity involved in the exchange of human product, is the actual generic activity of man. Man’s actual conscious and authentic existence, he states, is social activity and social satisfaction.
Moreover he sees human nature in true common life, and if that is not existent as such, men create their common human nature by creating their common life. Furthermore he argues similarly to Aristotle that authentic common life does not originate from thought but from the material base, needs and egoism. However in Marx’s view, life has to be humanly organized to allow a real form of common life, since under alienation human interaction is subordinated to a relationship between things. Hence consciousness alone is by far not enough.
Relating alienation to property, Marx concludes that alienation converts relationships between men, to relationships between property owners.
To satisfy needs, property has to be exchanged, making it an equivalent in terms of trade and capital. This is called the labour theory of value. Property becomes very impersonal. It is an exchange value, raising it to become real value.
The cause of alienation is to be found in capitalism based on private property of means of production and money. Capitalist organization of labour exploits the working class. It is actually thrown back at animal level while at the same time the capital class gains wealth.
31.12.2016
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