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Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
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Essay 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Essay 4 Summary: “Estranged Labor”
Marx turns to the scientific study of political economy, which he believes has conflated the way things are with the way things should be. It takes for granted that the capitalist’s profit is the chief goal of economic activity rather than trying to explain why the present economic system is designed around the greed of the few. He compares it with the Biblical account of evil, which simply presents it as a facet of human nature rather than offering a substantive explanation of how it developed. Marx takes a hard look at economic realities, namely the reduction of the worker to the status of a mere commodity as industrial production accelerates. The chief problem, according to Marx, is that the product of labor has become alienated from labor itself, which he calls a “loss of realization” (108). The further the worker is pulled away from the results of their efforts, the worse their condition becomes, because they are working ever harder and have less and less to show for it.
Marx argues that labor reflects a profound connection between the worker and their natural environment. Nature both provides the materials for labor and the sustenance of the laborer. However, the more work the laborer puts in, the more they deprive themselves of their sustenance. This means that the worker belongs to their work since they are dedicated to their task and need to complete that task to survive. The worker becomes “estranged” when work so thoroughly constitutes their existence that they can barely subsist, strengthening their dependency on an object that is in the meantime increasing in value. Political economy has not properly considered the real nature of the relationship between labor and production, considering them synonymous when they have become separate. They only work because they need it to survive, but the work is in no way fulfilling or ennobling. It has no value in and of itself for the worker, and to make matters worse, the value that it does have goes to the owners of capital. All that remains outside of work are “animal functions” such as eating and sex (111). Nothing is left that is truly human in the sense of lifting the spirit.
Another aspect of alienation is that labor cuts off the individual from the human species. Labor physically isolates the worker by restricting them to a mechanical task that they perform alone, and the purpose of their work is to satisfy their personal needs—neither the act nor its purpose has any meaningful social aspect. The worker lives simply to keep on living, another way of reducing them to an animal-like existence. Consciousness allows people to define their own lives and think of themselves as members of the human race. The greatest expression of freedom is to produce something on behalf of humanity, especially something that caters to spiritual and not just physical needs. That work bears a part of its creator, connecting the individual to humanity and enriching their sense of self. Under capitalism, according to Marx, everything is standardized and there is no room for creativity or spontaneity. The only remaining social connection is between the worker and the true owner of their labor, a relationship that is entirely coerced and oppressive. The worker becomes conscious of their alienation once they understand that their labor is going to someone else.
Private property is the consequence of alienated labor, not its source. For it to be the source, it would have to have an anterior existence, but it is the result of the asymmetric relationship between workers and masters. If the worker earned the fruits of their work, they would be entitled to private property, but since they are not, their wages are a method of securing their dependency so that they can continue to fund the property of capitalists. The emancipation of workers therefore requires the abolition of private property. Property is unnatural, as its existence bears no clear relationship to the work its owner put into it. Marx begins a closer inquiry into the nature of property, but the essay ends abruptly before he goes into detail.
Essay 4 Analysis
This essay focuses on alienation, generally regarded as a condition of modernity as an increasingly complex world leaves the individual feeling disoriented and anxious. Marx contributes to this perception by identifying the principal cause of alienation as industrial capitalism, the defining feature of the modern world. Yet throughout this essay, Marx also makes several comparisons between the status of the worker under capitalism and the religious believer (presumably a believer in Judaism or Christianity, given his reference to the “fall of man” although he does not name any specific religion). The comparison indicates that the problem of alienation, while perhaps more severe in the modern world, has deep cultural roots. The Biblical account of humanity begins with the alienation of humanity from God in the Garden of Eden. Marx is well known for his critique of religion, and the year before working on the Paris Manuscripts he penned his famous dismissal of religion as the “opiate of the masses,” distracting people from their earthly misery with promises of heavenly rewards in the next life. But while Marx is not a believer in the traditional sense, his writings on the theme of Alienation indicate a kind of spirituality that is not usually associated with a famously materialist philosopher.
The first point of comparison between religion and capitalism is that both identify their core problems as inevitable. Capitalism is bedeviled by the institution of private property without explaining how it derives from the relationship between labor and capital. Instead, it points to an imaginary “state of nature” in the distant past where the establishment of property marks the beginning of civilization, proving itself to be good and necessary. Likewise, the Judeo-Christian tradition posits that human beings are afflicted with original sin, weaving together a story about the first human beings falling from grace to prove that they need God to find salvation. In both cases, powerful institutions have defined the world in a way that makes themselves indispensable for human fulfillment. Another comparison to religion occurs shortly thereafter, where Marx likens the relationship between a worker and object to a believer and God. Because capitalism has severed the ties between worker and object, the worker becomes more alienated the harder they work. All their effort goes into something from which they derive no benefit until they are made empty. Similarly, a religious believer puts all their efforts into pleasing God at the expense of themselves. A believer would suggest the opposite, that pleasing God is the best way to fulfill oneself, but Marx is operating from the assumption that the God of Judaism and Christianity, like capital, is an artificial creation external to genuine human need. For Marx, institutionalized religion has taken the spiritual characteristics of humanity and packaged them into a specific and standardized set of rituals and beliefs, and so the believer is taking part in something that they had no part in creating.
Marx then turns from the practice of religion to a kind of religious instinct within the human person. Marx insists that human beings are distinct from animals insofar as they are capable of imagining beyond the basic requirements of their physical sustenance. Self-consciousness breeds a moral imperative to improve oneself and the overall condition of humanity. For Marx, this spiritual yearning expresses itself through labor, just as a religious believer might look to prayer or charitable deeds to experience something larger than themselves. Marx outlines what would later be called a “secular religion,” lacking any concept of the supernatural while still trying to connect human beings with a sense of what is true, good, and universal. Just as capitalism lays the socio-economic groundwork for communism, religion features prominently in its morality. Like Christianity, communism envisions a titanic struggle between good and evil, culminating in an apocalyptic final battle and the ultimate triumph of the righteous. For those in the here and now that see little evidence of that prospect, it is crucially important that they keep the faith.
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