Marxist humanism

Marxist humanism is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on Marx's earlier writings, especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which Marx exposes his theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural conception of capitalist society. It was opposed by Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's "antihumanism", who qualified it as a revisionist movement. The Praxis School, which called for radical social change in Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia in the 1960s, was one such Marxist humanist movement.

1 The underlying theory of "Marxist Humanism"
2 Criticism
3 Marxist humanists
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] The underlying theory of "Marxist Humanism"

The term "Marxist humanism" has as its foundation Marx's conception of the "alienation of the labourer" as he advances it in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844—an alienation that is born of a capitalist system in which the worker no longer functions as (what Marx terms) a "Free Productive" being. And although many scholars consider late Marx less of a humanist than the Marx who wrote pre-Das Kapital, as his later works are rather bereft of references to this alienation, others argue that the notion of alienation remains a part of Marx's philosophy.

There is, as is assumed under the very notion of alienation, a human who, when disenfranchised by his own labour, becomes less human—in fact, Marx says he becomes objectified. (this could be disputed: many interpretations of Marx hold that alienation entails objectification, while objectification does not entail alienation. In fact, man, in producing, always objectifies himself.)

According to Marx, man naturally produces for his own benefit—and, furthermore, he freely produces—however, under a capitalist society in which the means of production give rise to "fettering" productive relations—i.e. there is a single capitalist employing an army of workers at wages just sufficient to provide for their mere subsistence—the worker becomes a slave. He is no longer a free productive being, but instead he absolutely must produce to simply meet his most basic needs.

However, there is more to this. In his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Marx writes: "A forcing-up of wages (disregarding all other difficulties, including the fact that it would only be by force, too, that the higher-wages, being an anomaly, could be maintained) would therefore be nothing but better payment for the slave, and would not conquer either for the worker or for labour their human status and dignity." It is here that Marx as a humanist is well evinced.

This quote is intended to convey that it is not the 12-hour work-day alone that enslaves man, forcing him to give his entire productive being—his natural skills, or that which constitutes his essence as a man—over to another. Rather, it is the very (philosophic) condition behind the capitalist structure that enslaves man—basically, capitalism is not conducive to democracy on Marx's conception. On his conception, capitalism inherently gives rise to an elite bourgeoisie for whom the rest of society—the proletariat—must work. Insofar as this is the case, the proletarian himself will never be able to dictate the conditions of his work, they will always be determined by the capitalist himself. So even if the capitalist pays the worker higher wages than he himself incurs (from his profits made off the labourer's efforts), he still controls the terms of the worker's production.

Marx held that insofar as man only has his liberty to produce, and produce according to his own conceived ideas (e.g. he designs a very fancy shoe and wants to see this shoe materialize), capitalism, as a system, will be an eternal stymie to man's natural freedom. This is Marx's humanism. Marxist Humanism is the political, or philosophic, association that assumes this as its premise.

[edit] Criticism

The most potent criticism of Marxist Humanism has come from within the Marxist movement. Louis Althusser, the French Structuralist Marxist, criticises Marxist Humanists for not recognising the dichotomy between 'Young Marx' and 'Mature Marx'. Of the Humanist reliance's on the 1844 Economic and Philosophic manuscripts Althusser wrote "we do not publish our own drafts, that is, our own mistakes, but we do sometimes publish other people's" (cited in Gregory Elliot’s “introduction: In the Mirror of Machiavelli” an introduction for Althusser’s “Machiavelli and us”, p. xi). The Humanists contend that ‘Marxism’ developed lopsided because Marx’s early works were unknown until after the orthodox ideas were in vogue — the Manuscripts of 1844 were published only in 1932 — and it is necessary to understand Marx’s philosophical foundations to understand his latter works properly. Althusser, however, did not defend orthodox Marxism’s economic reductionism and determinism; instead, he developed his own theories regarding ideological hegemony and conditioning within class societies, through the concept of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and interpellation which constitutes the subject.