Marx on page 327 of his essay “estranged labor” is describing what to him were the fundamental conditions of labor under capitalism and why he found them It is an essay about how people experience work. Marxcriticizes capitalism by analyzing his theory of alienation.The theme for this essaywas how workers in capitalism are alienated from their work .It covers 4 forms ofalienation in capitalist society.Alienation is the transfer of property from one to another; foreign strange,unknown or to separate. Marx explains how labor negatively produces itself andthe workers as a commodity. The object that labor produces confronts the laboreras something alien and a power independent of the producer. The product oflabor is labor, which has been frozen in an object. In capitalism the loss of the object is loss of reality for the worker. These facts are all tied to his concept of alienation. Alienation precededprivate property. It is not the separation between those who own thematerial forces of production and those who don't that causes alienation,but rather it is the other way around. There are four forms of alienation: The first form of alienation is alienation of the worker from the productionprocess. In order for the worker to produce the worker needs nature in which toachieve the objectification of their subjectivity (to create an object) and also toreproduce themselves. However in the capitalist system the worker receiveswork (being productive is part of the species being) and receivessustenance for work. Therefore in order to exists as a species being, the workerhas toobtain substance of their species being from someone else. Therefor byselling the ability to work for a period of time (labor), the workeris estranged from themselves and the production process. The workers arenot producing to improve themselves, but rather is producing and doingtheir most basic life activity to survive. The labor process is purely ameans to s...
