Marx On Alienation and Human Nature, Part 2

(NB: This is not a new essay; I have split the old one in two.)

Was Marx Right that People would not be Alienated Under Communism?

Three considerations prefigure an assessment of Marx’s account of workers’ alienation

Marx On Alienation and Human Nature

Marx on Human Nature and Alienation

What Is Alienation?

To know what Marx meant by ‘alienation’ is not straightforward because there is no single phenomena that he identified as alienating. Our colloquial usage of ‘alienation’ often refers to a feeling, but for Marx it need not be felt at all. Concepts of alienation were important in the idealist tradition contemporaneous to Marx, and were conceived of as the coming apart of something, the separation of essence from existence.