Human development and alienation in the thought of Karl Marx
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885115613735 |
| Date | 01 July 2018 |
| Published date | 01 July 2018 |
| Author | Paul Raekstad |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Political Theory
2018, Vol. 17(3) 300–323
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1474885115613735
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Article
Human development and
alienation in the thought
of Karl Marx
Paul Raekstad
University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Marx’s theory of alienation is of great importance to contemporary political develop-
ments, due both to the re-emergence of anti-capitalist struggle in Zapatismo, 21st
Century Socialism, and the New Democracy Movement, and to the fact that the
most important theorists of these movements single out Marx’s theory of alienation
as critical to their concerns. Despite this renewed practical and theoretical interest,
however, these and other writers have been sparing in their accounts of the normative
components which the theory of alienation incorporates. Along with many recent
commentators, I argue that the normative components of the theory of alienation
are to be found in a notion of human development, and that a conception of the
particular importance of the human species-essence plays a critical role in this respect.
However, I take a different, and somewhat more detailed, tack than these previous
authors in presenting a more detailed conception of human development and flourishing
on the basis of Marx’s conceptions of powers and needs and comparing it to the most
prominent non-Marxist theory of human development: the capabilities approach. I then
show that this understanding of powers and needs, along with a notion of the particu-
larly important human power of conscious self-directed activity, underpins the critique
of capitalism Marx presents in his theory of alienation. This will allow us a better
understanding of the normative components of Marx’s theory of alienation and its
potential relevance and plausibility to the theorists and movements it is influencing.
Keywords
Human development, alienation, capabilities approach, Karl Marx, Amartya Sen, freedom,
power, need
Everybody knows that Marx was a trenchant critic of capitalism, but there is less
agreement about the precise nature of this critique – a debate which, over the years,
Corresponding author:
Paul Raekstad, Darwin College, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EU, UK.
Email: paul.raekstad@cantab.net
has produced a voluminous literature. I favour the approach which sees a norma-
tive core of Marx’s thought in his theory of alienation. I will not defend that
particular thesis here; for the purposes of this article, I shall take its accuracy for
granted. Marx’s theory of alienation is of great importance to contemporary pol-
itical developments, due both to the re-emergence of anti-capitalist struggle in
Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, and the New Democracy Movement, and to
the fact that the most important theorists of these movements – e.g. John
Holloway, Michael Lebowitz, and David Graeber – single out Marx’s theory of
alienation as critical to their concerns.
1
Despite this renewed practical and theor-
etical interest, however, these and other writers have been sparing in their accounts
of the normative components which the theory of alienation incorporates. In this
article, I draw on and deepen an analysis of Marx’s conception of human devel-
opment and flourishing, showing how this conception underlies his theory of alien-
ation. Along with many recent commentators, I argue that the normative
components of the theory of alienation are to be found in a notion of human
development, and that a conception of the particular importance of human
nature or the human species-essence
2
plays a critical role in this respect.
3
However, I take a different, and somewhat more detailed, tack than these previous
authors in presenting a more detailed conception of human development and flour-
ishing on the basis of Marx’s conceptions of powers and needs and comparing it to
the most prominent non-Marxist theory of human development: the capabilities
approach pioneered by Amartya Sen. I then show that this understanding of
powers and needs, along with a notion of the importance of conscious self-directed
activity, underpins the critique of capitalism Marx presents in his theory of alien-
ation. This will allow us a better understanding of the normative components of
Marx’s theory of alienation and its plausibility and potential relevance to the the-
orists and movements it is influencing.
This article proceeds as follows: The first section shows how we can analyse
Marx’s conception of human development as the development of human powers,
and how close this comes to Sen’s conception of capabilities. Despite its indeter-
minacy, I argue that such a conception of human development is not inherently
useless for practical politics. The next three sections bring out the distinctive
sophistication of Marx’s approach compared to Sen’s. ‘The second section dis-
cusses how Marx thinks of the processual and relational nature of the acquisition
of human powers. The third section argues, against alternative interpretations, for
reading Marx’s conception of needs in terms of drives. The fourth section shows
how powers and needs interrelate and interact, and how this can make sense of
Marx’s understanding of the human senses and activity in general. The ongoing
interaction between human powers and needs can, on Marx’s account, take place in
better or worse ways; inter alia, it can take place in ways that either prevent or
facilitate the exercise of the power of conscious self-direction in which the human
species-essence consists. The final two sections show how the conceptual apparatus
of the capabilities approach can help reconstruct the normative components of
Marx’s theory of alienation. The fifth section argues that the human species-essence
consists in an ‘internal ability’ (see Section 1) of consciousness, which implies an
Raekstad 301
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