WEEK 2
Commodification & Alienation
Key thinkers: Karl Marx & Antonio Gramsci
Lecturer: Olivera Tesnohlidkova
o.tesnohlidkova@mail.muni.cz
Office hours: contact via e-mail beforehand

Karl Marx (1818 –1 883)
uMajor work:
uEconomic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
uThe German Ideology (1845–1846) - with Friedrich Engels
uThe Communist Manifesto (1848) - with Friedrich Engels
uCapital (1867)
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uTheoretical system: historical materialism
u(influenced by and breaking from Hegel’s dialectic idealism)
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uHistory as a dialectical process, a progress culminating in freedom and self-realization, a utopia
free of conflict and exploitation
uHistorical change is sparked by material existence
uSocial change is driven by class struggle
uThe dominant economic class controls the means of material production as well as the production of
ideas
uForces and relations of production are predetermined
u

Class and capitalism
uClass is determined in relation to forces of production
uProletariat vs bourgeoisie; working class (propertyless wage earners) vs capitalist class (private
property owners)
uGoal is to achieve class consciousness
uCapitalism carries a potential for self-destruction, ultimately leading to communism

Alienation
uBasic premises:
uHumans are creative beings in nature
uWork is essential expression of human nature
uCapitalism, based on the principles of private ownership, leads to alienation
u4 types of alienation:
1.Alienation in the object of production
2.Alienation in the process of production
3.Alienation from species-being
4.Alienation between humans
5.

Commodification
uCommodity as something that fulfills human needs
uUse-value and exchange-value of commodities
uLabor power as commodity
uSurplus value – the source of profit for the capitalist, and of exploitation for the worker
uCommodification of social relations – social relations are defined by commodities in capitalism
uFetishism of commodities – commodities appear to contain magical powers; conceals social reality
of the object (the process and conditions of its creation)

Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)
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uMember and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party
uPolitical activist – imprisoned in 1926
uCo-founder of The New Order: A Weekly Review of Socialist Culture uPrison Notebooks – 29 notebooks
of political and philosophical analysis (almost 3000 hand-written pages); published posthumously

Cultural hegemony and intellectuals
uGramsci highlighted the role of ideas in establishing “hegemony”
uCultural norms and ideas as a way of controlling and subordinating people
uHegemony established through “consent” rather than coercion
uCultural norms are dictated by dominant social classes, and they are being reinforced as people
are born into those cultural norms
uTraditional (i.e., professional) intellectuals vs organic intellectuals
uOrganic intellectuals should question the ‘status quo’ and the existing social order for change to
happen