Describe Karl Marx's theory and discuss how his Economic theorys affected others.

people.          Although the manuscripts are part of the early development of Marxist thought, they are not Marxist theory.  They are instead, written by Marx when he considered himself to be a Young Hegelian philosopher, however it is in these Manuscripts that he begins to break from some of Hegel’s philosophies.  In Marx’s earlier text  For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing  for example, he advocates the position of a Young Hegelian who believes that through criticism, the mind and reason can be elevated towards freedom and a utopian society.  Throughout this text, Marx advocates criticizing all aspects of society such as science and religion, and any other institution which makes us unfree, in order to allow us to reach a state of utopia.  By the time Marx writes the Manuscripts however, he is still a Hegalian but he begins to disagree with some of Hegel’s key assertions, namely that his theory of history begins with the mind, rather than with the materialistic conditions of society.  Marx retains Hegel’s idea of the dialectic, and with this constructs his theory ‘historical materialism’ in The German Ideology.  In this text Marx is more scientific, and is no longer a Hegelian philosopher, as he even ridicules and lampoons their idealistic beliefs.          The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 was Marx’s first break from Hegelian Philosophy, and its main purpose was to critique Hegel’s theory of history.  Hegel believed that human history began with the mind, and through the use of labour to create objects we could satisfy our bodily needs.  He believed that our reason allowed for criticism to improve upon the objects, which allowed the mind to evolve toward pure reason and ultimately freedom.  Hegel also noted that freedom was the essence of reason, and that history was shaped by dialectical forces, as opposing objects always influence each other. Marx however, believed that Hegel was wrong for placing primary emphasis on the mind as the starting point for the history of society.  In the Manuscripts, Marx argues that we think as a result of our society, and so the starting point of history should be a real society and its material basis.  Marx also felt that Hegel’s theory was too abstract and ignored important concepts of social organization for production when he explained reason as the driving force in history.          In the chapter ‘Estranged Labour’ Marx argues from the view point of political economy, and notes that to examine society we must start with its material basis rather than the mind.  Through Marx’s emphasis on material facts in history, he is able to prove that in capitalistic societies we are not working towards freedom, nor constantly improving because were are not free from our material needs.  Due to objective alienation, or alienation from the product of labour, the worker estranges themselves from the objective world through the act of production, while at the same time their employer enriches themselves.  Marx notes that “the worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range.  The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates.” (p.71)  For workers to become poorer through capitalistic production is in direct contradiction to Hegel’s vision of labour and reason moving the worker towards a perfect society.  Marx also speaks of objective alienation effecting the worker’s view of nature by noting that “this relation is at the same time the relation to the sensuous external world, to the objects of nature as an alien world antagonistically opposed to him.” (p.74)          Marx accepts Hegel’s idea of the dialectic nature of phenomenon, however he extends this idea to humanity by explaining that we have an animal nature and a human nature.  Our human nature involves reasoning and imagining improvements, then producing and criticizing to improve once again.  Due to the worker’s subjective estrangement from the labour process however, Marx explains that the worker becomes alienated from their human nature and creativity, leaving only their basic animal desires.  “As a result, therefore, man (the worker) no longer feels himself to be freely active in any but his animal functions - eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling and in dressing-up ...” (p.74)  Marx explains this as alienation from self because “labour is external to the worker, i.e.: it does not belong to his essential being ... The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. (p.74) The capitalist worker who is estranged from themselves, creativity and the work process will not have any reason or creativity to imagine a better world, and therefore would not be evolving toward Hegel’s perfect society.          Marx’s discussion of estranged labour contained a third element which explained that as a consequence of the worker’s alienation from the objective world and alienation from the themselves they would also be subjectively alienated from their species.  He notes that “in estranging from man (1) nature and (2) himself, his own active functions, his life activity, estranged labour estranges the species from man.” (p.75)  Due to the capitalistic nature of society the worker thinks of his fellow man in terms of competition, and shows concern only for his own being and his individual needs.  Marx argues that “an immediate consequence of the fact that man is estranged from the product of his labour, from his life-activity, from his species being is the estrangement of man from man.” (p.77)  Hegel argued that man would need to develop a consciousness for all humanity in order to evolve towards a free society, but as Marx explains the capitalist worker is not progressing toward a free society, only further estranging themselves from the objective world, the work process and their fellow man.          In this paper, the chapter “Estranged Labour” in Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 was analyzed.  In particular, it was noted that it was an early text by a Young Hegalian Marx, in which he critiqued and synthesized British Political Economy, German Idealism, and French Socialism.  Also discussed was the relationship of this text to the other Marxist works of this time.  It was noted that the Manuscripts contained Marx’s first break from Hegel, although he still considered himself to be a Hegalian philosopher.  Finally the main problem and arguments of the Manuscripts were identified as Marx’s critique of Hegel’s theory of history of being too abstract, and having the mind as his starting point, instead of the material conditions of society.  The key elements of estranged labour, namely objective alienation, alienation from self and alienation from species, were also explained in terms of Marx’s belief in a material basis of society.