Marxist Socialism: Philosophical Foundations in Education

Philosophical Foundations of Marxist Socialism in Education

Theory of Human Alienation

Historical Materialism

Philosophical Presuppositions: The theory of human alienation is based on the original work of Marx, but it also refers back to Hegel, where alienation is operated within consciousness or thought. In Marx, it has real substance and purpose in the living conditions of the working man, relying on specific situations and unique historical processes.

• In Religion: Born of the miserable circumstances in which relationships develop. Hence, there is only one way out of this religious alienation: the radical transformation of society.
• Politically: Marx criticizes the state as the source of our political alienation. It is, therefore, an instrument of oppression in the hands of those who hold power, to the extent that it warrants its alleged rights of class and ensures human alienation.
• In Social Work:
  • Alienating the product of labor: When a product made by the hand and know-how of the worker enters the commercial channels of supply and demand, it escapes them (dispossession).
  • Alienation of the act of work: The employer imposes on the worker not only the ends but also the means, methods, and times of the work itself. Nothing takes into account their own abilities or efforts. It is an appendage of the mechanical industrial gear (depersonalization).
  • Alienating the generic life: All human progress is based on knowledge accumulated over time. It is humanity that accompanies the generic worker (dehumanizing).

Dialectical Materialism

The focus is the dialectical evolution of matter, conceived as absolutely primary data and fruitful of all beings that inhabit nature. Nothing is static in nature, but everything is in constant dialectical transformation, by way of evolution, always from a higher stage of matter.

Historical Materialism

Dialectic drives the evolution of human history from the socioeconomic base. All becoming of man through the ages has an explanation about the coordinates that describe different relations of production in each period. It is these relations of production that mark and confirm the thinking of men, not the reverse. The whole history of man is not a peaceful path of linear evolution but a dialectical revolution, by qualitative leaps forward. Marx is essentially optimistic about the historical development of mankind.