The Marxist Theory of Alienation

by Ernest Mandel

Alienation from one's fellow human beings is rooted in the development of class society itself, the authors argue. It can be overcome only through the revolutionary fight for a society both free of domination by the capitalist class, and with complete democratic control of the government and economy by working people.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Economics, Theory

119 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1973

About the author

Ernest Ezra Mandel was a German born Belgian-Jewish Marxian economist and a Trotskyist activist and theorist. He fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium and he became a member of the Fourth International during his youth in Antwerp. Mandel is considered to be populariser of marxism.

Reviews

[Amin Dorosti]

این کتاب یکی از بهترین کتاب هایی است که برای آشنایی با مارکسیسم کلاسیک و مفاهیم بنیادین آن می توان خواند. در این کتاب نوواک و مندل، که هر دو از چهره های شاخص و مهم مارکسیسم کلاسیک به شمار می آیند، کوشیده اند تا با قرار دادن مفهوم «از خود بیگانگی» به عنوان بنیاد نظریه مارکس، سایر نظریات اقتصادی-سیاسی او را حول این محور تشریح کرده و نیز به تشریح این مفهوم، علل پیدایش آن و هم چنین چگونگی غلبه بر آن در جامعه سوسیالیستی بپردازند.

[Katie]

Very good - clear, concise, unpretentious, intelligent.

[Sarah]

The first chapter is definitely the best, most concise one. Good history of Marx's theory of alienation and how it developed, as well as the contradictions surrounding it. I also appreciate the emphasized optimism that alienation is a man-made phenomenon, and can therefore be unmade, particularly relating to labour. We don't/won't always have to feel like this.

[Marlon]

this is very readable, and explores fundamental principles of Marxism in a way that’s useful if you have a surface understanding of the theory. what I enjoyed most was the honest, yet hopeful, exploration into why “Marxism” had failed so far and what leads us to continue recreating hierarchies. a bit dependent on technology for a utopian future, but seems on point.

[Marc Lichtman]

"Religion, as Feuerbach explained and Marx repeated, reverses the real relations between mankind and the world. Man created the gods in his own image. But to the superstitious mind, unaware of unconscious mental processes, it appears that the gods have created men. Deluded by such appearances--and by social manipulators from witch doctors to priests--men prostrate themselves before idols of their own manufacture. The distance between the gods and the mass of worshippers serves as a gauge for estimating the extent of man's alienation from his fellow men and his subjugation to the natural environment."--Novack

This contains two essays by Mandel and one by Novack, who also wrote the introduction. You may find yourself surprised by Marx's views, but you will definitely learn more about his entire philosophy. 119 pp.

Also, read Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity: The Long View of History.

[Jonathan Norton]

From 1970, a survey of the issue of alienation in its Hegelian and Marxist sources, and how those contrast with 20th century existentialist thinking. The main theme here is the disenchantment of western communists with the USSR, and the death of any residual hopes that there might be a post-Stalinist revival - the fate of the Prague Spring is taken as showing that will never happen. At the same time, the divergence of leftists such as C.P.Thompson who wanted a "spiritual" reinterpretation of socialism, based on Marx's earlier writings pre-Capital, is criticised as a theoretical regression. This is an historical document of where the left had got to by the end of the 60s - complete exhaustion, and the only new developments to come out of the Foucauldian movement in social and critical theory. Which explains why the economic and political fields - the material bases of real power - got ceded to the nascent neoliberalism.

[Octave Boom Hoola Hoopa Lagoon]

i am not a marxist either

[NC32]

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