The following text is taken from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 of Marx, published posthumously in 1932. The passage illustrates an important sociological concept that we studied in class, or the alienation of labor in the capitalist world. We have learned, in fact, that in previous modes of production l'alienazione era assente: c'era sì la schiavitù, la servitù, la subordinazione, il vassallaggio, lo sfruttamento, il disprezzo della vita umana: ma non c'era quel fenomeno tipico del capitalismo che è l'alienazione. Marx poi svilupperà in modo più "scientifico" queste sue tesi nei celeberrimi tre libri del Capitale . Marx parte da un'affermazione che sarà poi caratteristica del suo materialismo storico : "noi partiamo dall'economia politica, da un fatto presente". Il materialismo storico parte cioè da quello che accade veramente, dalle concrete condizioni materiali di esistenza degli uomini, dal loro lavoro , Not what should be (typical of the utopian socialist Saint-Simon). The question that then arises is: why the worker, as Marx writes, is foreign to the product of his labor? This seems to hide the "secret" of capitalism: it works better the more the workers are "alienated" from what they do, with devastating consequences, both psychological and individual than on society.
In discussing this text, I remind you that when Marx wrote these pages do not exist:
- unemployment benefits;
- layoffs and other "social"
- Welfare State.
"We start from a fact of political economy, a fact this .
The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extension. The worker becomes a commodity the more vile the greater the amount of goods it produces. The devaluation of the human world grows in direct relation with the enhancement the world of things. The work not only produces goods, produces itself and the worker as a commodity , and just in the same proportion in which it produces commodities generally.
This fact does not make more than this: the object that produces the work, the product of labor is opposed to it as a be foreign, as an independent power by the person who produces it. The product of labor is work that is fixed to an object, has become one thing, it 's objectification of labor. The completion of the work is its objectification. This realization of the work appears in the stage of the private economy as a cancellation of the worker, objectification appear as loss and enslavement object, the appropriation as estrangement as alienation.
The implementation of the work presents itself as a cancellation in such a way that is canceled until the worker to die of hunger. The objectification loss of the object is presented as such so that the worker is robbed of items needed not only to life but also for the job. Already, the work itself becomes an object of which he is able to seize only with the greatest effort and with the most irregular interruptions. The appropriation of the object appears as estrangement in such a way that many more objects the worker produces, the less he can possess and the more it ends up under the dominion of his product, of capital. All these consequences are implicit in the determination that the worker finds himself compared to product of his labor as compared with a foreign object . Indeed, based on this assumption it is clear that the more the worker is consumed in the work, the more powerful becomes the alien world, objectively, that he created before, the more he becomes poor, let alone his inner world belong to him. The same is true in religion. The more things a man moves in God, the less he believes in himself. The worker puts his life in the subject, but henceforth his life no longer belongs to him, but the object. The greater this activity, therefore, the more the worker is no object. What is the product of his work, not himself. How much greater then is this product, the smaller is himself. L ' alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his work becomes an object, something that exists to' outside, but that it exists outside him, independent of him, alien to him, and before he becomes a power to stand alone means that the life he has given the subject matter, is opposed to the hostile and alien. "
K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 , trans. com.'s N. Bobbio, Einaudi, Torino 1970, pp. 71-72.
In discussing this text, I remind you that when Marx wrote these pages do not exist:
- unemployment benefits;
- layoffs and other "social"
- Welfare State.
"We start from a fact of political economy, a fact this .
The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extension. The worker becomes a commodity the more vile the greater the amount of goods it produces. The devaluation of the human world grows in direct relation with the enhancement the world of things. The work not only produces goods, produces itself and the worker as a commodity , and just in the same proportion in which it produces commodities generally.
This fact does not make more than this: the object that produces the work, the product of labor is opposed to it as a be foreign, as an independent power by the person who produces it. The product of labor is work that is fixed to an object, has become one thing, it 's objectification of labor. The completion of the work is its objectification. This realization of the work appears in the stage of the private economy as a cancellation of the worker, objectification appear as loss and enslavement object, the appropriation as estrangement as alienation.
The implementation of the work presents itself as a cancellation in such a way that is canceled until the worker to die of hunger. The objectification loss of the object is presented as such so that the worker is robbed of items needed not only to life but also for the job. Already, the work itself becomes an object of which he is able to seize only with the greatest effort and with the most irregular interruptions. The appropriation of the object appears as estrangement in such a way that many more objects the worker produces, the less he can possess and the more it ends up under the dominion of his product, of capital. All these consequences are implicit in the determination that the worker finds himself compared to product of his labor as compared with a foreign object . Indeed, based on this assumption it is clear that the more the worker is consumed in the work, the more powerful becomes the alien world, objectively, that he created before, the more he becomes poor, let alone his inner world belong to him. The same is true in religion. The more things a man moves in God, the less he believes in himself. The worker puts his life in the subject, but henceforth his life no longer belongs to him, but the object. The greater this activity, therefore, the more the worker is no object. What is the product of his work, not himself. How much greater then is this product, the smaller is himself. L ' alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his work becomes an object, something that exists to' outside, but that it exists outside him, independent of him, alien to him, and before he becomes a power to stand alone means that the life he has given the subject matter, is opposed to the hostile and alien. "
K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 , trans. com.'s N. Bobbio, Einaudi, Torino 1970, pp. 71-72.
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