Karl Marx’s Conception of Human Beings and Society.

Karl Marx’s Conception of Human Beings and Society.

Karl Marx’s conception of human beings and society is critical to many of his theories; Marx’s theory of estrangement, his conceptualization of communism, capitalism, and history. Marx’s conception of human beings is a dual approach that relies on a biological and historical standpoint to define human nature and, in turn, human being. The two approaches yield different pictures of human nature. Marx develops and utilizes both definitions of human nature. The biological explanation is significant to his theory of estrangement (alienation), where humans lose or separate from aspects of their human nature as a result of living in a stratified society. The historical model is mostly used to rebuff some of his competitors in works like the German Ideology (Wallimann 11)

Karl Marx states that, biologically, the defining factor of human beings, is the general difference between the human species and animals (Wallimann 12). Human beings are knowing creatures that have a consciousness and self-awareness; hence they can reflect on their human and natural surroundings. Therefore, humans have a sense of history and can contemplate and anticipate the future. They can passive and produce purpose individually and as a collective. Marx’s biological approach to defining what is human is by isolating human nature through the contrast between the human species and animals. The approach is not unique to Marx. He willingly recognizes that other thinkers such as Aristotle and the Stoics previously presented the idea of human beings having intellect, emotion, and will (Wallimann 12).

Marx’s historical approach to the definition of human nature is born out of his critique of Bentham’s definition of human nature through the principle of utility (Wallimann 14). Marx’s critique of Bentham’s concept of ‘normal man’ brings forth the idea of specific human nature. The placement of the combination of the biological definition of human beings and what is known of human nature into historical context creates specific human nature. For example, what Bentham defines as ‘normal man’ is merely the manifestation of human nature in, precisely, Bentham’s historical period. Marx’s approach to historical human nature is born out of the critique of the definitions of other thinkers like Bentham ((Wallimann 15). In short, Marx’s historical approach states that what many see as human nature only reflects human traits in their specific historical period; therefore, human nature is immutable (Wallimann 15).

The conception of society is one of Marx’s infamous theories. The Manifesto presents the history of all society as one of class struggles between the bourgeois and the proletarians (Marx 14). Marx sees class antagonism and oppression as a significant and constant defining factor of society. He states that the history of his society is marred by the gradation of social rank that has birthed a modern bourgeois society (Marx 15). Furthermore, Marx points to the use of alienation as a controlling tool against the proletariat. The rewards of alienation is a mass of labourers content with the payment of wages to the benefit of the bourgeois. Marx, like other thinkers before him, states that intellect, consciousness, and will are the defining factors of a human being. Alienation strips the proletariat of what is inherent in their human nature, the ability to passive and act against their subjugation.

References

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. The Essentials of Marx; The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; Wage-Labor and Capital; Value, Price and Profit, and Other Selections, by Karl Marx. New York: Vanguard press, 1926.

Wallimann, Isidor. Estrangement: Marx’s conception of human nature and the division of labour. Greenwood Press, 1981.