Karl Marx's concept of alienation describes the estrangement workers feel in a capitalist society due to four types: alienation from their product, the production process, their species-essence, and from other workers. This theory is influenced by historical events and economic forces such as the rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution. Ultimately, Marx argues that capitalism reduces workers to mere commodities, stripping them of control and self-identity.

1. KARL MARX’S
ALIENATION

2. ALIENATION
A Philosophical Term
adopted by Marx from
Hegel.

3. ALIENATION
In social sciences, the state of
feeling estranged or
separated from one’s milieu,
work, products of work, or
self.

4. ALIENATION
In social sciences, the state of
feeling estranged or
separated from one’s milieu,
work, products of work, or
self.

5. 4 TYPES OF
ALIENATION
1) Alienation of the worker from their product
2) Alienation of the worker from the act of
production
3) Alienation of the worker from their species-
essence
4) Alienation of the worker from other workers

6. ALIENATION OF
THE WORKER
FROM THEIR
PRODUCT
The design and development of a
production rest not in the hands of a
worker but within the decisions of the
capitalists. A worker does not have
control over what he or she intends to
produce or the specifications of his or
her product.

7. ALIENATION OF
THE WORKER
FROM THE ACT OF
PRODUCTION
The production of goods and services
within a capitalist society is repetitive
and mechanical that offers little to no
psychological satisfaction to the worker.
Labor seems coerced because a worker
undertakes this as a means of survival.

8. ALIENATION OF
THE WORKER
FROM THEIR
SPECIES-
ESSENCE
The species-essence or “Gattungswesen” of
an individual comprises all of his or her innate
potentials. Under a capitalist mode of
production, an individual losses identity and
the opportunity for self-development as he or
she is forced to sell his or her labor-power as a
market commodity.

9. ALIENATION OF
THE WORKER
FROM OTHER
WORKERS
The reduction of labor to a mere market
commodity creates the so-called labor market
in which a worker competes against another
worker. Labor is traded in a competitive labor
market instead of considering it as a
constructive socioeconomic activity
characterized by collective common effort.

10. HISTORICAL
FORCES BEHIND
THE ALIENATION
THEORY
7 Main Historical Events of the 19th Century:
1) Napoleonic War (1802-1815)
2) The US expands with the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
3) Slavery abolished in the West (1807-1888)
4) The Opium Wars and fall of the Qing Dynasty (1839-
1860)
5) Widespread European Revolution (1848)
6) Japan opens its borders (1854)
7) Asiatic Flu wipes out one million people globally
(1889-1890)

11. ECONOMIC
FORCES BEHIND
THE ALIENATION
THEORY
*The rise of Capitalism
*The Industrial Revolution

12. CONCLUSION
From the perspective of Karl Marx and within
the context of capitalism, alienation is the
surrender of control and the separation of an
essential aspect of the self. A society based on
a capitalist economic system promotes norms
and standards that reduces an individual
worker to a mere commodity or instrument of
production who lacks control over his or her
vocation. Simply put. for Marx and his
adherents, capitalism involves the
objectification and commodification of the
experiences and activities of workers.