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Young Marx and Alienation in western debate

a
Lars Roar Langslet
a
University of Oslo ,
Published online: 29 Aug 2008.

To cite this article: Lars Roar Langslet (1963) Young Marx and Alienation in western debate, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary
Journal of Philosophy, 6:1-4, 3-17, DOI: 10.1080/00201746308601364

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 YOUNG MARX AND ALIENATION IN WESTERN DEBATE

by
Lars Roar Langslet
University of Oslo

The publication of Marx's early writings has given us a perspective on the early
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development of socialistic thought that provides a clearer view of its connection

with current discussion in philosophy and sociology. The link is the phenomenon
of alienation, with which the early Marx was much concerned. In this article the
author marks the distinctiveness of the two main current approaches to the aliena-
tion phenomenon, the ontological and the sociological, and suggests that the
tension between Hegelian ontology and empirical sociology in. the early Marx's
analysis of the phenomenon reflects the strength rather than the weakness of this
analysis as a contribution to the understanding of the human position.

Young Marx is a comparatively recent discovery. The work around

which discussion of the early writings centres, the so-called and un-
completed ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (1844) was first p u b -
lished as late as 1932. It appeared in Volume 3 of the MEGA edition
of Marx and Engels's collected works, a collection instigated by the
Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow and containing several of Marx's
youthful works, including Kritik des Hegelsehen Staatsrechts and Die
deutsche Ideologie.1
The publication of these unknown manuscripts had far-reaching
consequences. They shed light not only on Marx's own development
as a thinker, but indirectly on the development of socialist thought
itself. The problems Marx deals with go to the very roots of socialism
and involve questions with which the present age is still very much
concerned. It is thus as a contribution to the understanding of the
human position that the works of the young Marx have been discussed,
a perspective that often makes him appear in conscious opposition
to the form of Marxism professed in the socialistic countries.

•Man in the Grip of the System

The central concept of these manuscripts is that of an 'Entfremdung'
(alienation, estrangement). In Marx's work 'alienation' is the actual

3
 key to an understanding of the situation occupied by human beings
in the modern industrialized world. The special role the notion plays
in Marx's thought can be clarified by first recalling the characteristic
structural features of his way of thinking.
Marx's philosophy does not operate with the 'static' categories
beloved by rationalistic thinkers. The reality he describes is a dynamic,
historical reality — undergoing an uninterrupted dialectical move-
ment. Within this movement Marx's view of man cannot be com-
prised in any set of absolute or static definitions. Man has no immutable
nature, he changes with the historical development of the world. In
the feudal age he exhibits different features from those found in him
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in the capitalist phase of history. But, unlike his teacher Hegel, Marx
refuses to attribute any transcendental function to historical develop-
ment. He postulates no 'Weltgeist' as the real driving force in history.
His world picture includes no divine principle that makes use of men
like pieces on a chess-board. Instead, man 'creates his own history',
and in this way 'creates himself. We can then speak of one fundamen-
tal quality that is common to men at all times and in all historical
phases, a quality that constitutes precisely the 'humanity' of man: his
creative ability or force. Man is a creative or productive being; and
he differs, from the animal by remaining in conscious relationship to
his own creative activity, his own production:

The animal is one with its life activity. It does not distinguish the
! activity from itself. It is its activity. But man makes his life activity
itself an object of his will and consciousness. He has a conscious
life activity. It is not a determination with which he is completely
identified. Conscious life activity distinguishes man from the life
activity of animals. Only for this reason is he a species-being
(Gattungswesen). Or, rather, he is only a self-conscious being, i.e.
his own life is an object for him, because he is 2a species-being.
Only for this reason is his activity free activity.

Thus the essence of man's being is to create, to form unformed

nature. History is the account of his uninterrupted activity, his shap-
ing of unshaped, dead nature. In his own products, in the results
of his creative work, man sees a confirmation of his own being. In
what Marx calls 'man-made nature', that is, the world of objects
which man has created through his work, man sees his own reflec-
tion. An existence worthy of human dignity requires that man should
possess freedom in his relationship to this world of objects, because in
the truest sense he recognizes it as his own work, and feels at home in it.

4
 But in the modern world this relationship, according to Marx,
has been perverted. Men no longer recognize the world of objects
as their own work, and they no longer feel at home in that world. On
the contrary, the society which they have created in the course of
history appears to them as a strange and hostile world and they feel
out of place in it. This is what Marx calls man's 'Entfremdung', or
— as he also puts it — his 'Selbstentfremdung' (self-alienation). Man
has thus become a stranger to himself.
This alienation has become more marked with the increased distri-
bution of labour.3 Thus, although it also existed in pre-capitalist types
Í of community, in the modern capitalist community alienation has
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assumed its most extreme form; and it is on this community that

Marx concentrates his analysis. •
The prototype of this modern, alienated man is the worker. And the
dilemma: of the worker is as follows : The more he works, the more of
himself he puts into his work, the more powerful the supra-personal
'thing-structure' with which he is faced will become. He creates his
own chains; he is in the grip of the system..
Or, to quote Marx himself: -.
The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more goods
he creates. The devaluation of the human world increases in direct
relation with the increase in value of the world of things. Labour
does not only create goods ; it also produces itself and the worker
as a commodity, and indeed in the same proportion as it produces
goods.4
Marx deals in detail with the various aspects of this alienation.
He depicts it in part as an 'Entfremdung der Sache' — an alienation of
things. That is to say, the worker does not own the things he himself
produces; they belong to someone else, and they pile up until they
become an ever more powerful 'thing-structure' outside himself, and
estranged from him. And he depicts it partly as an 'Entfremdung der
Arbeit' — an alienation of man's creative activity. The worker no
longer sees himself confirmed through his work; he has been reduced
to the status of a commodity, like the commodities he himself produces.
He does not feel at home in his work, the slight feeling of identity he
still retains is associated 'with the few hours when he is not forced to
work. His work has become 'forced labour'. In this way man has
become a stranger to his own being (since man's true being is pre-
cisely his creative activity). He has become a stranger to his fellow
human beings — and to himself.

5
 Diametrically opposed to the worker is the 'non-worker', the man
who owns labour and runs the economic system. Though he is not
to the same marked extent a victim of alienation — he does not feel
its effects so acutely — nevertheless, he also is imprisoned by the
system. He is an instrument promoting the demands of the system,
solely concerned that the system should continue running, that pro-
duction should increase and competition become keener.
But Marx contends that this state of affairs will not continue in-
definitely. On the contrary, it is doomed to speedy destruction. And
its destruction will be completed by the proletariat, who are growing
more numerous and more impoverished, as soon as they are conscious
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of their own position. Conditions will not be improved by reforms;

a revolution is necessary, a revolution which will finally put an end
to the type of community in which man is a debased and enslaved
creature. And this revolution will come 'when the lightning of thought
has struck in the naive soil of the people1.5 We can already notice
the birth-pangs of this revolution. The task of the philosopher is to
transform thought into a tool for revolutionary action. So far philo-
sophers have been content to interpret the world; now their task
must be to change it — we are told in the Theses on Feuerback. The
philosopher who recognizes these problems cannot remain a mere
spectator; he is a participant, and he can make thought into a con-
crete force. The two preconditions for revolution are the unveiling
of the social situation through thought and the extreme intensification
of the situation itself.
Then after the revolution everything will be different. No forms of
alienation will be possible any longer; man will be one with his
own species-being (Gattungswesen). He will be able to realize himself
completely in his activity. 'Total Man' will emerge. He will not be
— as men are today — filled with possessiveness; he will have his
wealth in his own self, in his own creative abilities ; and this new-won
humanity will abo radically extend his emotional register and his
capacity for cognition. This is the future Utopia which Marx presents,
and which we may take as the normative background for his later
thinking as well.

Background for the Debate on Marx

Although the social and economic development in the so-called 'capi-
talist' countries has removed most of the material poverty and pri-
vation which provided the concrete social background for Marx's
 analysis, removing them, in fact, with the very reformative means
that Marx rejected so scornfully, nevertheless an essential item in
Marx's thinking remains. The cult of things and the 'reification' of
man's existence is a problem in the affluent society too, and one which
philosophers, theologians, writers and social critics have drawn
attention to. In fact, man's alienation or estrangement has become
a central .theme in contemporary debate.
The way in which this concept is used, however, is often far
removed from Marx's way of thinking. And this fact, to be dealt
with in greater detail below, is one aspect of a larger problem:
Can we, from an analytical point of view, discover any interest-
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ing notion common to the many interpretations of the alienation

motive in use today? 6 A satisfactory answer to this question would
involve an extensive investigation. Here I can only suggest that in
all probability such a thing would be possible, but that all we would
discover would no doubt be some vague social-psychological entity,
which, would be of no great interest in itself, and would in no way
do justice to a more profound analysis of the alienation phenomenon
as found in the works of some contemporary philosophers and theolo-
gians. Yet even this much would be sufficient to justify the assertion
that the many divergent interpretations of alienation do, after all,
relate to a common basis for discussion. And our task here is to de-
scribe certain aspects of the alienation debate, with special reference
to the importance Marx's youthful writings have exercised in this
connection.
It is beyond the scope of this article to describe the various factors
which have helped to call attention to man's alienation in our time.
The publication of Marx's youthful writings and the discussion they
provoked are factors which came into play comparatively iate.
Several influential thinkers had already raised similar problems to
those which, it was now discovered, young Marx had also discussed.
I shall mention two of them in particular: the Hungarian Marxist
György Lukács and the German sociologist and philosopher Max
Weber.
In his collection of essays Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (History
and Class-consciousness) (1923) Lukács published a broad analysis
of what he calls 'die Verdinglichung' — 'reification'. For this purpose
he takes his starting-point in Marx's analysis of the commodity
phenomenon in the first chapter of Das Kapital. The fetish cult of
commodities, as Marx describes it, is in Lukács's opinion a precise

7
 expression of the 'reification' so typical of the capitalist community,
and one which moulds man's consciousness in this community. In
the course of the development of capitalism 'die Verdinglichungs-
struktur' (reification structure) sinks more deeply, more fatally and
more conclusively into the human consciousness, he writes. In the
modern community the products of man's activity have become a
rigid, 'reified' system, which has gained control of man. Reality haSr
been split up, 'particularized'. The most typical feature of the system
is a tendency to arrange all individual phenomena in rational, regular
patterns; but in its entirety this system is markedly irrational.
When Marx's youthful writings were published some ten years after
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Lukács's book, Lukács's analysis necessarily acquired a prophetic

quality: By using as a point of departure a somewhat special inter-
pretation of certain themes in the works of the older Marx, Lukács
had elaborated a philosophical structure which revealed a striking
resemblance with the thinking of the young Marx. But Lukács had
also received decisive influences from another thinker — Max
Weber. •. '
According to Weber the most conspicuous feature of modern indus-
trialized society is the fatal and all-compelling process which he calls
'rationalization'. For a capitalistic economic structure presupposes
that society is arranged according to a rational pattern, with every-
thing functioning in a calculable manner. For this reason capitalism
tends as far as possible to eliminate all that is incalculable, making the
world more and more 'sobre' (entzaubert). This rationalization takes
the form of a 'Verapparatisierung', that is to say the community
becomes a complicated and elaborate piece of machinery in which
power is in the hands of a constantly growing bureaucracy. According
to Max Weber rationalization is the basic feature of the Western
way of life; under its pressure the community has been transformed
into a hard shell, 'ein stahlhartes Gehäuse', round man's existence.
The similarity with the thematics of young Marx is striking: Ac-
cording to Weber's analysis, too, man is in the grip of the system. But
there are, of course, in addition crucial differences. One of the most
important, in my opinion, is the fact that Marx looks forward to a
revolution which will renew everything, whereas M;ix Weber — on
the basis of a Kantian idea of freedom — regards rationalization as
the only possible basis for freedom under the given circumstances.
Weber believes in the human 'hero' who succeeds in living within
the petrified system and yet maintaining his integrity as a man.T

tí
 Both Lukács and Weber are exponents of ideas which consider
human existence in the technicalized community problematical. In
the intellectual climate which these tendencies created, the thinking
in Marx's youthful works was bound to appear astonishingly 'con-
temporary', and in many interpretations of young Marx in the post-
war years, echoes of Max Weber and György Lukács can undoubtedly
be heard.
The essential pre-condition for the debate on young Marx is
nevertheless the philosophy of existence. A recurrent theme in modern
. existentialist philosophy is precisely the reduction of the human
elements in the technicalized community — man's 'homélessness'
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in a divided, 'alien' reality. In this respect it would be right to speak

of an 'anti-technic' tendency in existentialist thought, a tendency of
which traces can also be seen in young Marx, Human existence is
threatened by 'technicalization' and 'reification'. Man, who should
be the supreme master of things, has made himself a slave to them,
he has himself become a thing. 'There exists a feeling of estrangement
in modern man which has considerably increased during the last
hundred years', writes F. H. Heinemann in his book Existentialism
and the Modern Predicament. He maintains that the existentialist philo-
sophers have in fact taken their starting-point in this alienation of
man; 'Their point of departure is the fact and problem of alienation,
their aim the liberation from estrangement'.8
In one of his works {Brief über den Humanismus) Martin Heidegger
makes an important allusion to Karl Marx:

Die Heimatlosigkeit wird ein Weltschicksal. Darum ist es nötig,

dieses Geschick seinsgeschichtlich zu denken. Was Marx in einem
wesentlichen und bedeutenden Sinne von Hegel her als die Ent-
fremdung des Menschen erkannt hat, reicht mit seinen Wurzeln
in die Heimatlosigkeit des neuzeitlichen Menschen zurück...
Weil Marx, indem er die Entfremdung erfährt, in eine wesent- -
liehe Dimension der Geschichte hineinreicht, deshalb ist die
marxistische Anschauung von der Geschichte der übrigen Historie
überlegen. (Homelessncss becomes the universal predicament.
For this reason it is necessary to consider this from the point of'
view of the history of Being. What Marx, taking Hegel as his
starting-point, has recognized in an essential and significant
manner, as the alienation of Man, has its roots in the homeless-
ness of contemporary m a n . . . Because Marx, recognizing this
alienation, opens up an important historical dimension, the
Marxist conception of history is superior to the conventional
science of History.)9

9
 Certain Marxian scholars today are so dazzled by Heidegger that
they are inclined to believe that these two thinkers represent essen-
tially the same views on man's predicament. I believe this is based on
a misunderstanding. After all, Heidegger's aim is to investigate man's
fate, his 'homelessness', in what he caUs a 'seinsgeschichtlich' perspec-
tive (a perspective based on the history of Being). Man's alienation
is the result of his erroneous relationship to Being (das Sein).
He no longer enjoys frank relations with the Truth (and Truth in
Heidegger's work is not the sum of all demonstrable single truths,
whose proof content consists in their 'lightness' (Richtigkeit), but the
Unverborgenheit (Gr. : aletheia, openness) in which Being appears). Modern
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man only knows single truths, which he imagines he is master of. He

has acquired a technical, manipulative attitude to reality. He has
become alien to Being. According to Heidegger, ever since the time
of Socrates Western thinking has been marked by this growing,
'Seinsvergessenheit', or forgetfulness of Being: The incomprehensible
mystery of Being has been lost sight of behind the. multitude of calcul-
able, comprehensible particular truths. Thus, as far as Heidegger is
concerned, man's alienation is an ontological phenomenon. It mani-
, fests itself above all in the history of philosophy — man's destiny
through the ages; and the only hope of overcoming this 'forgetfulness
of Being', lies in a radical change of thought, a new approach to the
way of thinking (that is to say, one's attitude to reality)'which has
permeated the philosophical tradition of the West.10
In Marx's view, on the other hand, alienation is an anthropological
or sociological problem, which must be interpreted in concrete social
categories, and must be overcome through concrete social action
(with philosophy evaporated (aufgehoben) into a purely intellectual
phenomenon, and itself contributing to the concrete forces which
will transform the world). Any attempt to interpret Marx differently
will result in a failure to understand him at all.

The ' Ontologizing" and 'Sociologizing' of Marx

There seems to be a noticeable difference between the main emphasis
to be found in continental Marxian literature and that of more recent
American Marx-influenced social philosophers. The main influence
for German and French commentaries on young Marx is to be found
in essentially philosophical documents, their most important back-
ground being provided by existentialist philosophy and the renewed

10
 interest in Hegel. This applies to a German scholar such as Karl
Löwith, who deals extensively with Marx in his large work Von- Hegel
zu Nietzsche, where he traces the 'Wendung zur Existenz' of thinking
in the philosophy of the nineteenth century, with Kierkegaard and
Marx as the most important figures involved. And it applies to the
majority of the scholars who have contributed to the three volume
Marxismus-Studien (Studies in Marxism) of the German Evangelical
academics. Here Hegel and Heidegger are important premises for
the interpretations submitted, which assume a markedly philosophical
character, and which tend in the direction of a more or less expressed
.'ontologizing' of the problem posed in the work of the young Marx.
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Erich Thier and Ludwig Landgrebe are cited here as outstanding

examples. And, to mention a third important example, Heinrich
Popitz's interesting thesis m Der entfremdete Mensch (the alienated man)
also places the main emphasb in his analysis on the specifically philo-
sophical, minimizing the importance of the 'sociological turn' which
' distinguishes Marx from Hegel. In all of them can be noted a tendency
to trace Marx back to Hegel, on existentialist premises.11
At the risk of oversimplification and over-generalization I believe
that similar tendencies are also at work in important sectors of modern
French Marxian literature. I am thinking, for example, of Merleau-
Ponty, who appears to equate the 'concrete thinking' which Marx
calls 'Kritik' (critique) and existentialist philosophy. According to
Merleau-Ponty Hegel is the source of all that is great in the philosophy
of the last century, both Marxism and German existential philosophy:
and 'there is no more urgent task than linking up with their Hegelian
origin the ungrateful doctrines which endeavour to forget Hegel'.
The same premises — as far as I can understand — are noticeable
in Jean-Paul Sartre's attitude to Marxism. In both of them can be
noted the tendency to what I called an 'ontologizing' of Marx's manner
of posing the problem; the concretely sociological aspects of Marx's
thinking are watered down, and elements of his thinking are assimi-
lated in an existentialist dialectic. Revolution is not a concrete libera-
tion of a concrete community, but an existential act, whereby man's
transcendence is manifested.12
In the Anglo-American world the discussion of the problematics
of Marx's youthful works has not shown the same scope as on the
Continent. This may be because Marxism is a more 'extant' political
problem in the continental countries ; and because trends such as exis-
tentialist philosophy and neo-Hegelianism have played no special role

11
 in contemporary British and American literature. But in more recent
years interest in the young Marx has clearly been on the increase,
particularly in the United States. Authors such as Erich Fromm,
Fritz Pappenheim and Daniel Bell have made interesting contributions
to the discussion; another important Marxian study is Robert Tucker's
Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx.13 Here, too, many reservations
must be made against generalizations: These authors differ both in
their intentions and in their conclusions. Yet the American discussion
of Marx reveals one notable feature which distinguishes it from the
continental one: It is devoid of the specifically philosophical ballast
which is a feature of the German and French Marx-discussion. Its
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perspectives are concerned more with the history of ideas than with
philosophy. Furthermore it tends to place the emphasis of its inter-
pretation on sociology. This applies of course more especially to
Erich Fromm: For him the alienation problem is primarily, we might
almost say exclusively, a social-psychological problem. He has, as
a result, drawn a number of fruitful conclusions from Marx's posing
of the problem in his own sociological work, such as The Sane Society.
Generally speaking, in fact, the alienation problem plays a central
role in contemporary American cultural criticism.14 The ideas used to
express man's loneliness and insubstantiality, the cult of things in
the modern community and the 'other-directed man', who is guided
by 'hidden persuaders' to a much greater extent than he realizes —
all these are cognitions closely related to Marx's analysis of the ali-
enation phenomenon, with one great difference however: Whereas
Marx's analysis is directly based on the division between extreme
riches and extreme poverty, American social criticism takes as its
field of operation 'the affluent society'. The phenomenon exists,
however, and the characteristically sociological framework in which
the American discussion is conducted can be seen to bear notable
resemblances to what we have called Marx's anthropological-sociolo-
gical posing of the problem.
Yet this is only partly true, for this characterization of Marx's
posing of the problem undoubtedly requires a further qualification
if we arc to arrive at the correct conclusion. Marx's aim is clearly a
'distortion' (Umsliilpwig) of Hegel — a break-away from speculative
philosophy, and a recognition of the concrete, material forces which
keep the historical process in motion. As he says himself, he wishes
to 'Aufheben' philosophy. Yet in his youthful works he is still so
essentially in debt to Hegelian philosophy and its onlological perspec-

12
 tives, that it is impossible to understand Marx's way oí thinking
without considering it in this context. Marx's terminology in the 1844
manuscripts is Hegelian; and his terminology undoubtedly owes
something to Hegelian 'substance', however much Marx endeavours
to purge himself of it. His own attitude to Hegel may well be compared
with Jacob's wrestling with the Angel; the intensity of his struggle
shows us how closely related Marx was to Hegel, despite his criticism.
I may by now appear to have taken refuge in dialectics in order
to lend consistency to my views, since I stated above that, if we fail
to accept Marx's posing of the problem as an anthropological-socio-
logical one, then we shall not understand him at all; and I have now
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said that this perspective is insufficient» Nevertheless, I believe that

the contradiction is only an apparent one. We might put it like this:
Marx's analysis of the alienation phenomenon exists in the field of
tension between philosophy and sociology. His posing of the problem
is already to be found within the historical-sociological sphere; for
this reason it would be unwise to make Marx more Hegelian than he
was, interpreting his alienation analysis as a piece of ontology. Yet
it is equally unwise to ignore the philosophical background against
which his analysis must be seen, and from which his terminology
derives. If we do this, we shall alienate ourselves from the thinking
of the young Marx.
In my opinion the tension between Hegelian ontology and empirical
sociology, to which Marx's analysis bears witness, is not a sign of
weakness, but rather of strength. It offers in fact an opportunity for
a fruitful interplay between the sociological and the ontological
interpretation of the alienation phenomenon.

Two Concepts of Alienation

Roughly speaking I believe that we can distinguish between two
conceptions of alienation in contemporary discussion. One is to be
found for example in the works of American social critics, such as
Erich Fromm, David Riesman, William H. Whyte and Vance Packard.
They consider alienation to be a psychological-sociological phenomenon.
It is the result of special social conditions; there are certain social
laws operating and finding expression in the individual's feeling of
alienation. It is therefore important to investigate these laws scienti-
fically, as this will also make it possible to decide what counter-meas-
ures can be taken. The problem is in fact as follows: 'How can we

13
 so order society and integrate people that they do not merely exchange
their unbearable sense of powerlessness and isolation for spurious
"togetherness" or for new forms of coercion?'15
The other interpretation of alienation is to be found among those
philosophers, theologians and writers who in alienation see primarily
an ethical-ontological problem, for example Heidegger, Paul Tillich, etc.
These, too, will sometimes emphasize the importance of supra-per-
sonal social forces: it is sufficient to mention the importance which
for example Heidegger attaches to technicalization. But in their
work the problematics acquire a much greater depth than in the works
of the purely sociologically orientated social critics. As far as they are
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concerned, the tragedy of existence possesses dimensions which cannot

be reduced to questions of right or wrong political measures (cf.
remarks above on Heidegger).
Naturally no sharp dividing-line can be drawn between these two
views on the nature of alienation. Nevertheless, it may be useful to
consider these two fundamental types. On the one hand we shall then
find sociologically orientated thinkers such as Fromm and Riesman;
on the other, the philosopher Martin Heidegger's recognition of
man's predicament as 'homelessness', and the theologian Paul Tillich's
understanding of man's sinfulness as estrangement or separation from
God; to mention two central examples.
The psychological-sociological view tends to consider the solution
of the problem of alienation in a consistent application of political
measures. In other words, it is considered essential to manipulate
social conditions in such a way that the conditions for alienation —
and consequently alienation itself — are eliminated as far as possible.
The ethical-ontological view will tend to emphasize the fact that poli-
tical measures of this kind will fail to cope with the problems involved.
In fact, a political approach to the problem may be characterized
as a new form of alienation; since the politician is to a certain extent
forced to regard men as objects to be manipulated by political means,
thus setting himself up as a power in authority over his fellow human
beings. On the basis of an ethical-ontological view, the solution must
lie in the moral transformation which man can only realize through a
fundamental choice; or in man entrusting himself to an 'outside force'.
The Christian would say, surrendering himself to God; Heidegger
would call it 'being open for Being'. That is if there is any solution
at all: A great many people would express the opinion, in common
with the French Marxian expert Father Calvez, that there are forms of

14
 'alienation', which are what he calls 'déterminations constitutives',
conditioning human existence.16
If after this rough outline of the alternatives involved I were to
express a personal view, I should not be able to give my whole-hearted
and unreserved support to either. In my opinion — as the reader may
already have realized — the purely sociological approach to the prob-
lem of alienation is too shallow, involving the danger of an uncritical
manipulative attitude — a tendency to treat human beings merely
as means, and not as ends in themselves (to borrow Kant's expres-
sion). Nevertheless, the various versions of the ethical-ontological
approach are apt to acquire a somewhat esoteric, unreal touch: The
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complex phenomenon which the contemporary age calls alienation

undoubtedly presents important social and psychological aspects,
which it would be wrong to overlook. I therefore believe that the
most fruitful approach to the problem of alienation is to accept the
truthful elements in both the basic views I have outlined: To realize
that the problem has political relevancy, while at the same time ac-
cepting the limitation of political measures; to seek to understand
thé deeper aspects which the problem involves. . . .
It would of course be possible to raise many critical objections to
the analysis of the alienation phenomenon which we find in Marx, and
especially to the way in which this analysis has been exploited by a
great many people in the present-day situation. These objections have
certainly been voiced in the discussion on Marx in recent years, and
with greater perspicuity than I could muster. It is at any rate possible
to establish that many aspects of Marx's analysis are hardly valid to-
day. On the whole his revolutionary utopianism is probably only ac-
cepted by believing Marxists. The same applies in all probability to
his interpretation of the fundamental significance of economic pheno-
mena. It is moreover an indisputable fact that the alienation problem
today cannot be raised in relation to any social distress and poverty
such as Karl Marx had in mind. These, however, are merely attempts
to suggest arguments which I cannot develop in greater detail in an
article of this size. However, I should like to add a few words to explain
how Marx's analysis of alienation must be placed in relation to the
two attitudes to alienation — the psychological-sociological and the
ethical-ontological.
At first sight this might appear comparatively simple. Marx be-
longs to the first-mentioned category: In his opinion man's alienation
is primarily a consequence of social conditions; and it will be over-

15
 come by means of a social revolution.. But a closer investigation will
soon show that the problem is not quite so simple, since these "social
conditions are, according to Marx, the result of human activity. Thus
the most basic cause of alienation must be found in man himself. But
in what way ? Is man's 'desire for things' (Habsucht) a product of the
system, or is it the other way about? Is there in man's urge to 'realize
himself a form of kubris? Marx does not clarify this, in my opinion,
fundamental problem. In one passage in the Economic-philosophical
Manuscripts he gets close to formulating the problem, but his exposition
breaks off before we get an answer.17 Some people may insist that this
unwillingness to answer reveals a lack of depth in Marx's thinking.
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But I believe we should be equally right in considering it a sign of

depth that the problem should have arisen within the framework of
Marx's thinking. This fact alone sets young Marx apart from super-
ficial forms of sociological criticism of the commumty. And the many
unanswered questions in Marx's works may perhaps to some extent
explain why his youthful writings have become such a fruitful subject
for discussion in the present age.18

NOTES
1
In 1932 there also appeared another edition of Ökonomisch-philosophische Manu-
skripte, edited by S. Landshut. Marx's handwritten manuscript, which is very
difficult to decipher, is here read and arranged differently from the text of the
MEGA edition, which is the more reliable. In the Landshut edition of Marx's
Frühschriften (Kröner-Ausgabe, Stuttgart 1953) reading mistakes are corrected.
2
From T. B. Bottomore's English translation, in Erich Fromm: Marx's Concept
of Man, New York 1961, p. 101.
3
In The German Ideology {Die deutsche Ideologie) Marx abandons the Hegelian termi-
nology such as Entfremdung, which b now quoted in quotation marks, with a touch
of irony. Now he speaks about 'division of labour' (Arbeitsteilung).
4
Bottomore's translation p. 95.
5
The original text: ' . . .sobald der Blitz des Gedankens gründlich in diesen naiven
Volksboden eingeschlagen ist', MEGA I, 1/1, p. 620.
6
From a Hegelian or existentialist point of view this analytical way of posing
the problem would probably be interpreted as a symptom of alienation. Lukács
is of the opinion that the character of 'bourgeois philosophy' reveals itself in a
particularizing, analysing way of thinking, thus depriving itself of the possibility
of grasping reality as a totality (als Ganzes); this philosophy is defined as 'die
logisch-nuclhoxlologische Formulierung des modernen Gescllschaftzustarides'
(the logico-nietlhodolngical formulation of modern community) : cf. Georg Lukács :
Geschichte und Klassenbewsstsein, Berlin 1923, p. 123 and p. 142.

16
 7
An interesting comparison between Marx and Weber is elaborated by Karl
Löwith in his essay 'Max Weber und Karl Marx', Gesammelte Abhandlungen,
Stuttgart 1960.
8
F. H. Heinemann: Existentialism and the Modern Predicament, New York 1958, p. 9.
9
Martin Heidegger: Über den Humanismus, Frankfurt a.M, 1954, p. 27.
10
Cf. Heidegger: Vom Wesen der Wahrheit, 3. Aufl., Frankfurt a.M. 1954.
11
Karl Löwith: Von Hegel zu Nietzsche, Stuttgart 1950; Marxismus-Studien I—III,
Schriften der Studiengemeinschaft der Evangelischen Akademien, Tübingen
1954-60; Heinrich Popitz: Der entfremdete Mensch, Basel 1953. — A similar
criticism is voiced by Manfred Friedrich in Philosophie und Ökonomie beim jungen
Marx (Berlin 1960), and Jürgen Habermas in 'Zur philosophischen Diskussion
um Marx und den Marxismus', Philosophische Rundschau, 5. Jg., Tübingen 1957,
pp. 165 f. — A general introduction to the German Marx-debate is Iring Fetscher:
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'Germany: Marxismus-Studien', Revisionism (ed. Leo Labedz), London 1962, pp.

337 f. Here East German polemics against West German Marx scholars are also
discussed.
12
The quotation from Merleau-Ponty is taken from Sens et non-sens, Paris 1948, p.
126. Important French Marx studies, as Calvez: La Pensée de Karl Marx (Paris
1956) and. Maximilien Rubel: Karl Marx. Essai de Biographie Intellectuelle (Paris
1957) can perhaps be cited in this connection, but if so, with great reservations,
which cannot be elaborated here. About the French Marx-debate, see-Habermas
op. cit. and Iring Fetscher: 'Der Marxismus im Spiegel der französischen Philo-
sophie', Marxismus-Studien 1954, pp. 173 f.
13
Erich Fromm: Marx's Concept of Man (New York 1961) ; Fritz Pappenheim:
The Alienation of Modern Man (New York 1959); Daniel Bell: The End of Ideology
(Glencoe, 111. 1960); Robert Tucker: Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx (Cam-
bridge 1961).
14
Some important essays from the debate on alienation in modem society are col-
lected in the book Man Alone'(ed. Eric and Mary Josephson), New York 1962,
15
Eric and Mary Josephson : 'Introduction', Man Alone p. 12.
16
Calvez : La Pensée de Karl Marx, p. 54. A similar argument is elaborated by Arnold
Gehlen in 'über die Geburt der Freiheit aus der Entfremdung', Archiv für Rechts-
und Sozialphilosophie, Band XL, Bern 1952/53, p. 352.
17
The end of the manuscript fragment 'Die entfremdete Arbeit', MEGA I, 3, p.
93. Cf. Bottomore's translation: 'How does it happen, we may ask, that man
alienates his labor? How is alienation founded in the nature of human develop-
m e n t . . ? ' etc., — op. cit. p. 108.
18
This article is based on a lecture given during a seminar on Marx and Marxism
Today, held in Oslo 15-18 November 1962, and arranged by the Congress for
Cultural Freedom and the Minerva Quarterly. Marx's youthful writings have provided
the subject of the author's thesis, Karl Marx og menneskets fremmedgjørebe (Karl
Marx and Man's Alienation), which will be published in Oslo in 1953.

17