Marx's "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts"

In his "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts," Karl Marx establishes through a series of short, often incomplete, essays the basic foundations for his provocative economic-social-political philosophy that would later find full voice in the inflammatory "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (Marx 141-167), co-written with Frederich Engels, and in his complex economic tome, Das Kapital. Though written in 1844 and unpublished until 1932, the "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts" nevertheless carry some import in the development of Marxist philosophy. In them, Marx works out his arguments on a variety of topics, subjecting each to "an entirely empirical analysis, based on a thorough, critical study of political economy" (Marx 41). One can argue whether or not Marx was actually so "thorough" in his "empirical analysis" - the prose borders upon the theologically mystic at times, examples are sparse - but it is evident that the arguments presented in the "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts" were convincing to Marx himself. The foundation of those arguments was the essay entitled "Alienated Labor."

As anyone with a vague understanding of Communist philosophy recalls, one of the basic characteristics of a capitalist society, as defined by Marx, separates society into two primary classes, workers (producers, the proletariat) and non-workers (non-producers, capitalist exploiters, bourgeois). Marx assigns to the non-worker the sins of the world, but not yet so fully in "Alienated

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ny political economy where there are producers trapped in the cycle, and non-producers who benefit from the cycle. Marx sees wages and private property as one-in-the-same (50), and considers any proposals for wage reform to be perpetuators of the exploitative status quo (51). For, in fact, by definition of the process, non-producers are exempt from the denigrations of the cycle. Non-producers are not alienated from their labor/product/self-worth/worth-to-society because, in fact, they are not participants in the process - they exploit it: ... the non-worker does everything against the worker which the worker does against himself, but he does not do against his own self what he does against the worker (Marx 52). Unfortunately for the reviewer of "Alienated Labor," Marx indicates that he will explain by close examination the nature of relationships described above - but does not: the manuscript was unfinished. Apparently, for Marx' own needs, the ideas had been worked out sufficiently enough that he did not need to complete the essay. For our purposes, viz. a critical review, we are left to discuss an admittedly incomplete text. As mentioned earlier, although invoking "empirical analysis," Marx' essay "Alienated Labor" te

Category: Philosophy - M