István Mészáros 1970

Marx’s Theory of Alienation

Written: 1970;
Source: Marx’s Theory of Alienation;
Transcribed: Andy Blunden;
Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton, 2006.

Table of Contents

Prefaces
Introduction

PART I: ORIGINS AND STRUCTURE OF THE MARXIAN THEORY

I. Origins of the Concept of Alienation
1. The Judeo-Christian approach
2. Alienation as "universal saleability"
3. Historicity and the rise of anthropology
4. The end of "uncritical positivism"

II. Genesis of Marx's Theory of Alienation
1. Marx's doctoral thesis and his critique of the modern state
2. The Jewish question and the problem of German emancipation
3. Marx's encounter with political economy
4. Monistic materialism
5. The transformation of Hegel's idea of "activity"

III. Conceptual Structure of Marx's Theory of Alienation
1. Foundations of the Marxian system
2. Conceptual framework of Marx's theory of alienation
3. Alienation and teleology

PART II: ASPECTS OF ALIENATION

IV. Economic Aspects
1. Marx's critique of political economy
2. From partial to universal alienation
3. From political to economic alienation
4. Division and alienation of labour; competition and reification
5. Alienated labour and "human nature"

V. Political Aspects
1. Property relations
2. Capitalistic objectification and freedom
3. Political "negation of the negation" and emancipation

VI. Ontological and Moral Aspects
1. The "self-mediating being of nature"
2. The limits of freedom
3. Human attributes
4. The alienation of human powers
5. Means and ends, necessity and freedom: the practical programme of human emancipation
6. Legality, morality and education

VII. Aesthetic Aspects
1. Meaning, value and need: an anthropomorphic framework of evaluation
2. Marx's concept of realism
3. The "emancipation of the human senses"
4. Production and consumption and their relation to art
5. The significance of aesthetic education

PART III: CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF MARX'S THEORY OF ALIENATION

VIII. The Controversy about Marx
1. "Young Marx" versus "mature Marx"
2. "Philosophy" versus "political economy"
3. Marx's intellectual development
4. Theory of alienation and philosophy of history

IX. Individual and Society
1. Capitalist development and the cult of the individual
2. Individual and collectivity
3. Self-mediation of the social individual

X. Alienation and the crisis of education
1. Educational utopias
2. The crisis of education

Glossary References:

Alienation | Labour | Fetishism