Study On The Relation Between Objectification And Alienation In Economic And Philosophical Manuscripts Of 1844

Karl Marx proposed two important concepts in “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”: objectification and alienation. Objectification means that man projects his natural power onto an object and thereby reflects his essence by transforming the object when man interacts with nature as well as other people. Objectification mainly includes: man as “natural existence”, man as “species-being”, man as “practical existence”, and man as “social existence”. Alienation refers to that the result of man's activities in which he is objectified in the external world alienates the man, and even takes control of him. Marx believed that alienation or the alienation of labour is the reason of private ownership. Workers are alienated with products, behavior, human nature as well as other people in the course of work. Traditional opinions especially Lukacs' s, hold that Marx distinguished objectification and alienation, and criticized Hegel for confusing objectification with alienation. This paper tries to prove that although Marx tries to distinguish between objectification and alienation in this “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”, however, objectification and alienation are the same in Marx's theory or at least bear the same identity in certain ways from the ontological perspective. This identity is mainly manifested in the relationship between subject and object, as well as ways of human existence. Considering this identity, alienated labour is actually the objectified labour in a special status and the degeneration of objectified labour.