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The Significance Of The Alienation Of Labour In Karl Marx
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The 17th century philosophy, the enlightenment period, is significant for so many reasons. Not only did it witness the emergence of many vigorous thinkers, but it also shifted the attention of philosophy from the cosmos (ancient period) and God (medieval period) to the appreciation of man as both the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem of all reality. In a splendid way, the philosophies of the German idealist, Hegel and the materialist, Feuerbach respectively contributed to the shaping of the philosophical views of another great thinker, the founder of Historical Materialism, Karl Marx.
Hegel formulated the main principle, law and categories of dialectics, showing that ideas develop progressively from lower to higher form and that in the course of such development, there is a transformation of quantity into quality and internal contradiction are the source of development. This view in a special way depicts Marx’s methodology in exclusion of idealism, in place of the cognition and revolutionary transformation of the existing world. In the same vein, Feuerbach’s materialism, which portrayed that philosophy, should study nature and man as a product of protracted development of nature purged out of its metaphysical and contemplative approach, in place of socio-political sphere of human life. Hence, Marx puts man as
First of all a natural being…. and a living natural being, who is endowed on one hand with natural powers… these powers exist in him as aptitudes and instincts, on the other hand as an object, natural, physical, dependent and limited being… that is the object of his instincts exists outside him, independent of him, but as for the object of his need, indispensable and essential for the realization and confirmation of his substantial powers[1].
It is this natural power and its instinctive manifestation in man that explain historical movement in Karl Marx. But a pertinent question arises at this juncture: who is Karl Marx?
Karl Marx, son of a famous German lawyer of Jewish descent, was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany. Although a Lutheran, he was educated in Catholic schools and at the university of Berlin, where at twenty, he wrote his doctorate thesis on Democritus and Epicurus, under the influence of Hegelian thought. However, the Hegelian triadic or dialectical method suddenly captured his interest and he conceived history as a process of overcoming opposition and at the same time being reconciled to it, incorporating it within its being. He lost focus in Hegelian idealism and opted for a more materialistic and economic interpretation of man and history with the same dialectical method.
In 1842, he became a journalist for the liberal Rheinische Zeitung and distinguished himself as an erudite and vibrant thinker. Thus, he was described as follows: “he combines the deepest philosophical seriousness with the most biting wit. Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, Holbach, Lessing, Heine and Hegel fused into one person—I say fused, not juxtaposed—and you have Dr. Marxâ€2. Marx was married to Jenny Von Westphalen, and later became radically involved in politics, which underlines his emigration to London, where he came in contact with the French socialists Friedrich Engel (1820-1895) who later became his lifelong friend. “Through Engel, Marx gained insight into British economic theory and the economic and social conditions of Britain,â€3 which contributed much in his philosophical works. His principal works are “Economic and Philosophical manuscripts†of 1844, “The communist manifesto†(with Friedrich Engels, 1848) and “De Capitalâ€, 3 vols., 1867, 1885,1895. Marx died in 1883.
In the manuscripts of 1844, he critically observed that under capitalism, the workers (proletariats) are wage-slaves (not free), exploited by the capitalists and as such are alienated beings. This has always been manifested in the relationship between the capitalists and the workers everywhere in Nigeria. Moreso, the researcher wishes to discuss the issue of alienation of labour in Nigeria with inspirations from the Marxian notion of alienation of labour.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
Page 1 of 5
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