Response Paper 4: Marx

22100728, Ji Sheng Chun (천지성)

1. Marx argues that "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the

contrary, their social being determines their consciousness". Please explain how this argument

can be related to his idea on the relationship between the mode of economic production and

cultural superstructure (pp43-46)

According to Marx, in the social production which men carry on they enter into definite

relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production

correspond to a definite stage of development of their material powers of products. The totality

of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society – the real

foundation, on which legal and political (cultural) superstructures arise and to which definite

forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of production of material life determines

the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. And this relates to

Marx’s argument mentioned above.

2. According to Marx, what is the concept of "alienation"? and what is a fourfold aspect of

alienation in the domain of work under capitalism? (pp50~53)

Marx described alienation as a condition in which men are dominated by forces of their

own creation, which confront them as alien powers. The fourfold aspect of alienation includes

man being alienated from the object he produces, from the process of production, from himself,

and from the community of his fellows.