Marx on alienated labour in the forms preceding capitalist production

Abstract

Alienated labour emerges when labour, which Marx describes as the essential life activity of human beings, acquires an alienated character. And again, alienated labour is the constitutive element of Marx's theory of alienation, which is the prominent theme of his early philosophical and political-economic works, and is often used by Marx and his commentators to explain the capitalist mode of production and societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production. The use of the theory of alienation to explain various forms of relations mostly in capitalist societies and the use of alienated labour to refer to the labour of the wage worker engaged in capitalist conditions of production almost all the time, have contributed to the perception that alienated labour is a phenomenon specific to capitalism. However, Marx does not make a clear statement on whether alienated labour is a phenomenon specific to capitalism or also found in pre-capitalist societies. In fact, his statements on this subject contain some contradictions. This makes Marx's view on the existence of alienated labour in pre-capitalist societies ambiguous. On this ambiguity, which has not been brought up much, two types of views can be mentioned among Marx interpreters. The prevailing view is that alienated labour is specific to the capitalist mode of production, in other words, to commodity production. The marginal view, on the other hand, argues that alienated labour is not specific to capitalism and is also found in pre-capitalist societies. However, this view has so far neither explicitly confronted the prevailing view nor provided a detailed justification of its stance with reference to Marx's works. This deficiency leads to the overlooking of an approach whose foundations can be found in Marx's works, which would make possible the application of the theory of alienation to pre-capitalist societies and thus support the marginal view. The aim of this study is to present this approach in detail. In Chapter 1, the problem that constitutes the subject of the dissertation is explained, and the different views on whether alienated labour is specific to capitalism are discussed. Also, the shortcomings of these views in various aspects are emphasized. Chapter 2 focuses on the foundations of Marx's theory of alienation and his conception of alienated labour presented in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 are discussed. Chapter 3 discusses alienated labour in the context of property relations and questions the possibility of the existence of alienated labour in pre-capitalist forms of society. Chapter 4 deals with a reassessment of alienated labour and pre-capitalist forms of society dominated by alienated labour. Since the study of labour in communist society, which Marx expresses as the society in which alienation is overcome, will tell us what unalienated labour is and, indirectly, what alienated labour is, in Chapter 5, labour in communist society is discussed and the conditions for labour to be a truly free activity are put forward. In conclusion, it is claimed that alienated labour exists in all class societies in which there is an antithetical relationship between private property and communal property when it is considered within the framework of social property relations. Therefore, alienated labour is not unique to capitalism; it is found in societies dominated by antagonistic class relations. However, it reaches its most extreme form under capitalism.