Marx's Critique of Morality and Alienation

p {margin: 0; padding: 0;} .ft00{font-size:21px;font-family:NimbusSansBold;color:#000000;} .ft01{font-size:18px;font-family:NimbusSansBold;color:#000000;} .ft02{font-size:15px;font-family:OpenSymbol;color:#000000;} .ft03{font-size:18px;font-family:NimbusSans;color:#000000;} .ft04{font-size:18px;line-height:23px;font-family:NimbusSans;color:#000000;} MARX'S CRITIQUE OF MORALITY AND ALIENATION Historical Materialism  Views history as eras defined by economic production and class control  Dominant class maintains power and shapes culture to its advantage  Morality merely reflects and reinforces interests of ruling class Rejects Morality as Ideology  Morality interprets and regulates behavior to support social order  Serves interests of dominant class, not universal interests  Workers lack self-transparency about their motives Alienation of Wage Labor  Work should provide identity, recognition, self-realization  But wage labor leads to alienation from:  Product of work  Process of work  Human capacities  Other people Overcoming Alienation  Workers must control means of production  Allows work to fulfill communal aspirations and identity  Differs only in degree from more modest organizational reforms Critique  Observations of importance of meaningful work supported  As is characterization of stultifying industrial work conditions  Recognition of need for political action beyond individual ethics In summary, Marx offered a materialist critique of morality as ideology, andcompelling insights into alienation at work and the need for systemic political change,despite the failures of communism. His analysis remains relevant.