POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Omnipotence, Sigmund Freud, The Communist Manifesto
17 May 2018
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POLI231
Lecture 15 – 27 February 2018
Essay question 1: Modified
• You can posit being a woman in any society, just specific. Choose the society you are
familiar with → there is no right answer
• The point: show that you understand each theorist’s theory of emancipation
• Can also flesh out the woman’s social identity: can choose class, race and/or sexual
orientation
• If you construct an identity, clarify what the theories will mean for the identity → do not
necessarily pick an identity that one of the theories will work perfectly for
• Thesis can be that neither theory is great for this identity
Marx: Alienation
• The potential for human nature is not possible in a capitalist society
• We are creative beings by nature
• Under capitalism, there are 4 types of alienation:
1. Alienated from work: the product is taken away from the laborer once made
2. Work is mindless, drudgery: it does not stimulate our creativity or consciousness
3. We are alienated from the true human powers of productive, creative and conscious
faculties
4. The structure of labor alienates humans from each other: employer/ employee
relationship, exploitation and wages, competition among applicants
- Competition: disrupts mutually supportive community
- In capitalism, if you don’t compete, you die
Marx points out what is wrong, but he does not provide much detail on what the ideal is.
• Non-alienation: labor where we exercise creative, conscious, productive faculties, and are
connected to our species
• Alienation is not necessarily intentional; it is an effect of the structure in place
- Example: recently, there was a movement to prosecute Hedgehund managers, who had
recently made a lot of money, but then got into trouble. Marx would say that society
nurtured them to act in the ways they did through its encouragement of competition →
prosecuting them would mean blaming individuals for a structural problem
Marx’s private property:
• Does not think universalizing private property would emancipate humans from alienation
• Private property: “this is mine; that is yours” → examples included gated communities and
no trespassing laws/ signs
• In the England in which Marx is writing, 9/10 of the population does not have ownership of
the means of production
Exploitation: The worker is not given what the worker is owed, and the capitalist benefits from it
• In the alienation argument, the employer is also alienated from the human community
context for realizing their productive activity
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Essay question 1: modified: you can posit being a woman in any society, just specific. In capitalism, if you don"t compete, you die. Example: recently, there was a movement to prosecute hedgehund managers, who had recently made a lot of money, but then got into trouble. Marx would say that society nurtured them to act in the ways they did through its encouragement of competition prosecuting them would mean blaming individuals for a structural problem. Marx"s private property: does not think universalizing private property would emancipate humans from alienation, private property: this is mine; that is yours examples included gated communities and no trespassing laws/ signs. In the england in which marx is writing, 9/10 of the population does not have ownership of the means of production. Exploitation: the worker is not given what the worker is owed, and the capitalist benefits from it.
