Marxian Anthropology: Work, Alienation, and Human Essence

Explanation of Marxian Concepts

Marxian anthropology conceives of man as a natural being who possesses a series of capabilities. These allow individuals to meet their needs through the transformation of nature—a process Marx defined as work, which serves as the defining human trait.

The Role of Productive Activity

In the practice of work, humans realize their own being. Consequently, productive activity determines not only the constitution of each individual but also, under the doctrine of historical materialism, the entirety of social reality.

Historical Modes of Production

This human essence is historical because work takes on different forms across various settings, which Marx called modes of production. These comprise all productive forces and relations of production. In the capitalist mode of production, the human creature—who should find fulfillment in productive activity—is instead alienated from themselves.

The Mechanism of Alienation

Through productive action, the natural object is transformed into a product of human labor. Man is objectified in this product; however, in the capitalist model of paid work, the result of this action ceases to belong to the subject. Because the individual works for another, the product becomes strange and alien.

Consequences of Dispossession

• The product becomes an object alien to the worker.
• The worker is dispossessed of their own labor.
• The individual is denied their own nature.

In this state of alienation, man is relegated to the status of a dehumanized animal, with their freedom captured and their potential as homo faber (man the maker) stifled.

Overcoming Alienation through Communism

This alienation can only be superseded by Communism, specifically through the elimination of private property. Communism represents the final release from economic alienation, which serves as the root of all other forms of alienation, including:

• Social alienation
• Political alienation
• Religious alienation
• Philosophical alienation

Marx characterizes the latter two as ideology—a system designed to mask, sublime, and hide the injustices inherent in the structure of the bourgeois world.