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Ques.1: According to Karl Marx, how human beings get alienated from their human
potential and what can be done to change this?
‘Alienation’ was one of the most important & widely debated themes of the 20th century,
and Karl Marx’s theorization played a key role in the discussions. In theological
discussion, the term ‘alienation’ refers to the distance between man and the god.
However, for Marx, the history of mankind is not only the history of class antagonism,
but also the increasing alienation of man.
Marx’s theory on alienation is based upon his theory of human nature. The essential
features of human nature includes—
i. Man is social by nature: It is a natural requirement of human being to be in
company with others.
ii. Man is creative by nature: Man feels pleasure in the process of creation and by
the product of his creation.
According to Karl Marx, capitalism has resulted into alienation of man. He argues that
capitalism isolates man. It doesn’t allow human beings to realize their true nature and
thus, leads to alienation.
According to Marx, alienation can be seen as having for basic forms—
i. Alienation from the object produced : The estrangement occurs because the
workers relates to the product of his work as an object alien to him. The product
of worker’s labour strengthen the capitalist order because capitalists control the
profit of the firms they own and are enriched by it. Workers doesn’t determine
what is to be produced.
ii. Alienation of workers from the act of labour or activity of production : In a
capitalist system, the work that workers perform doesn’t belong to the workers,
but is a means of survival that the workers are forced to perform for capitalists.
As such, his working activity doesn’t spring simultaneously from within as a
natural ‘act of credibility’ but rather exists outside of him and signifies a loss of
his self. According to Marx the activity of workers is degraded to a necessity for
self-survival.
iii. Alienation from society : Being alienated from and antagonistic towards the
entire capitalist system, though which the capitalist appropriates the objects of
production for his own enrichment at workers’ expanse, the proletariats see
other human beings as competitor who can deprive him from his work. This
produces a sense of alienation and estrangement from the whole society.

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iv. Alienation from himself or human identity: The cumulate effect of all forms of
alienation is that man gets alienated from essential nature of human identity or
‘species being’ and wholeness as a human being. Thus he gets alienated from
himself. The means recommended for overcoming alienation or reaching the
stage of de-alienation depends on the core theme of economic determinism,
interlinking situation of alienation with the problem of social transformation.
For economic determinist, individuals are the products of social organization,
which in itself determined by the organization of economic life. This
interpretation logically leads to the conclusion that de-alienation of the
individual and reorganization of society are closely connected. In order to end
alienation and reach a stage where individual fulfills himself as a free, conscious
and creative being of praxis a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system
replaced by a socialist society in which the means of production would be
controlled by the community.
As Marx diagnosed faults in the economic system and class society to be the sense of
every social evils including alienation, he presented communism as a classless society
in which people work according to their ability and gain according to their needs. On
one hand, this leads to satisfaction of individuals creative urge and on the other, it
provides social remedy to estrangement or alienation of an individual by ensuring
freedom from necessities in order to achieve essential source of human identity or
‘species-essence’.

Ques. 3: ‘It’s not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the
contrary, their social being that determine their consciousness (Marx).’ Comment.
The above statement was given by Karl Marx in which be repudiates the dialectical
idealism of Hegel, which regards ideas as the principal cause of historical processes
Hegel, being an idealist held that history moves in the form of dialectics of ideas to reach
a stage of absolute ideas in which all contradictions are resolved. This understanding
of history is called ‘idealist interpretation’ of history.
Marx was greatly inspired by this Hegelian conception but he was repelled by Hegelian
idealism, which he considered as misleading. Marx in his analysis of history, mentioned
the important role of ideas in perpetuating false consciousness among people.

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Marx adopted the method of dialectics to explain the nature of process of development,
but applied it in a very different way than that of Hegel. Marx abandoned the Hegelian
idealism and adopted the materialistic view interpretation of history.
Marx conceived of history as moving under the pressure of economic rather than
ideational forces. According to Marx, the thesis, antithesis and synthesis of dialectics
are economic classes and not ideas. It is based on Marxist conception that ideas are
nothing but false consciousness rather than ultimate reality.
According to Marx, his dialectical method was not only different from the Hegelian but
is its direct opposite. By asserting that ideas, instead of being basis of history, are a part
of superstructure grounded on material base, Marx turned Hegel’s dialectic ‘upside
down’.
Since the dialectical method regards conflict as the moving force behind all the
development processes. Marxism proposes the contradictions present in capitalism such
as alienation. According to Marxism, capitalism carries with itself the seeds of its own
destruction. Out of conflict between the capitalist & proletariat class, there would be a
change in mode of production leading to a communist society where there shall be no
classes. Thus, Marx’s faith in the final triumph of the proletariat and the liquidation of
capitalist order was rooted in his dialectical materialism.

Ques. 4: Examine Hannah Arendt’s view on the role of power in society explain her
strategy to defend human freedom against the use of ‘violence’.
Hannah Arendt is regarded as a heterodox thinker in the sense that her political
philosophy doesn’t belong to a systematic philosophy and is described as ‘thinking
without barrier’. Although she has given her own meaning to the conventional concepts,
the common idea connecting her work and conception is the concern for participation
in the civil affairs.
In the realm of political theory the idea of power assumes a great importance. It has
been a highly contested concept as it has been interpreted differently by different schools
of thought.
Conception of power, according to Hannah Arendt, is very different from the
conventional view about power. Conventionally, power is regarded as the exercise of
control of one person over another i.e. power as domination. However, according to
Hannah Arendt, reduction of power to domination is suffering from limitations on
following grounds —

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i. Domination relationship do not derive from the public sphere, but from a pre-
political or private sphere such as household & family.
ii. Power as domination erases the distinction between power & violence
According to Arendt, power corresponds to the human ability not just to act, but act in
concert. It can never be a property of the individual, She argues that power is sui-genesis
i.e. it emerges on its own when people come together and disappears when people go
back to their private sphere. In other words, power belong to group and remains in
existence only so long as the group keeps together.
Arendt proposes power as ‘potentiality in togetherness i.e. power springs up between
humans when they act together and vanishes when they disperse. Thus for Arendt, power
as an entity that can only be actualized but never fully materialized. The only material
factor that is required for the emergence of power is the coexistence and concerted
action of people.
Hannah Arendt has compared the concept of power with other closely related concepts
of force violence and strength on the basis of the actors involved. According to Arendt,
strength corresponds to individual or is personal entity’s while power is a political entity
and is a feature of community or plurality. Force belongs to the nature whereas power
belongs to the world of human beings. Arendt consider violence to be represented by
state whereas power belongs to the realm of civil society.
Thus, Arendt’s conception of power as acting in concert with one another is considered
as the constructive view of power. According to Hannah Arendt, political theorists have
been confused between power and violence. Thus Arendt’s conception of power is non-
hierarchical and non-instrumental.
In the same manner, her conception of freedom is inseparable from political action and
public realm. According to Arendt, one experiences freedom not with one self, but in
public outside of oneself and with others. Men can be free only in relation to each other.
She compares freedom with capability, capacity to do something new. Hence it is
experienced in the state of plurality.
In her book, ‘Between past and future’, Arendt proposed her conception of freedom as
related to the political world. According to her, the field where freedom has been known
as a fact of everyday life is the public realm. She held that action and politics, among
all the capabilities and potentialities of human life, are the only things of which one
cannot conceive without assuming that freedom exists. The political world, which is
sustained only by continual action, is crucial to freedom because, she understood

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realization of freedom as action in the presence of others. Politics could be practiced by

those who freed themselves from the economics aspects of life as they could participate
in the realm of political affairs.
Arendt’s conception of freedom is influenced by Augustine’s ideas on man, in his work
‘city of god’, which Arendt incorporates into her idea of freedom in public sphere. She
held that freedom is conceived not as an inner human disposition but as a character of
human existence is the world.
The ideas of plurality is critical to Arendt’s conception of freedom in the sense that for
a man to be free to (act to express himself through his worlds & deals), he must exist in
a public realm.
Although she proposed the notion of interdependence of freedom and political action as
two sides of the same matter, she held that not every form of human intercourse and
community is characterized by freedom. She argued that where men live together but do
not form a body politic such as tribal societies or privacy of household, the factors ruling
their action and conduct are not freedom but the necessities of life and concern for its
preservation.

Ques. 5: ‘Hannah Arendt reviewed the prevailing notion of politics and sought to
introduce the notion of a new, sublime from of politics’. Elucidate and comment.
The term ‘political’ has following prevailing notions—
i. In the context of classical Greek political philosophy it pertains to whatever is
done within or by community. More specifically, it refers to decision making
within and about the community.
ii. With the advent of modernity, the term ‘political’ refers to the collective power
of the entire community t make decisions i.e, collective capacity to decide about
the affairs of community.
iii. With the concentration of power in few hands, the term refers to power of some
group to control or subordinate other in order to realize their narrow interests
rather than good of entire community in this context, political is used to relate
power, subordination to, and self-interest.
iv. After emergence of concentration of power in a separate institutional apparatus,
the term is used synonymously with the term ‘state’ that exercises power to
realize the ‘common goods’.

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However, Hannah Arendt’s notion of political is different from the conventional concept
of ‘politics’ that consider it as a relational concept in terms of ‘power over’ or ‘power
to dominate’. Arendt refuses this element of coercion and proposes a constructivist view
of power as an element of cooperation rather than coercion she considers that to be
political means participation in civic affairs and everything to be though words and
persuasion and not through force & violence.
Based on her theory of human action her notion of ‘politics’ is inscribed as zoom
politikon’, which means participating in political life. Thus according to Arendt, concept
of ‘politics’ is essentially tied to ‘power’ which itself is a product of action that arises
out of concerted action in public realm.
Therefore, while in conventional sense, political belong to the state, Arendt, on the other
hand, it belongs to the civil society. In conventional sense, power is exercised by elite,
but in Arendt’s conception, it is with people acting in concert as it results into mutual
empowerment.
Our political life revolves around conflicts, negotiations and compelling interests. No
other thinker argued more passionately than Hannah Arendt that politics should
transcend the play of mere instrumental concerns, go beyond domination and embody
some of the higher and most distinctive potential of human life. She insists how to take
plurality more seriously, understand the importance of collective life to fight against
totalitarianism. Politics is not just a matter of class struggle but a realm of self-creation,
consciousness, undertaken by free person, voluntarily in concert with others. Hannah
Arendt did not want politics to be seen as just a instrumental act to gain advantages. It
is active engagement of citizen in all spheres.

Ques. 6: ‘For Gramsci, it is important that the new can only be created when what
happens to the subjects in the process is grasped as something essentially new. Discuss
Classical Marxist theory, as propounded by Karl Marx has been created around the
relationship between the, two parts of human society – ‘base’ and superstructure. For
Marx, the forces of production, that constitutes the base, is the sole relevant component
of human society and the superstructure, which consists of socio-political institutions
do not have autonomous existence. Therefore, for Marx, the ultimate case of social
change is the change in the mode of production through revolution.
However, on the other hand, Gramsci contend this position as a defective strategy that
failed to put on end to exploitation of working class by the capitalist class. On the

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contrary to the orthodox Marxist position, Gramsci theorized that the dominant class
maintains its position of domination through a mix of coercive force (though political
society or state) and consent with the active participation of the civil society though the
instrument of ideological and cultural domination (hegemony). Therefore, in Gramscian
conception, civil society plays an important role in manufacturing consent to domination
of particular set of ideas & values, which tends to become ‘common-sense’. Thus,
according to Gramsci, it is difficult to bring about revolution, as defined by Marx, in
countries where civil society is developed. In this context, Gramsci redefined the Marxist
strategy to establish the leadership of working class by producing ‘counter-hegemony’.
Depending upon the relation between state and civil society, Gramsci proposed two
different strategies for challenging hegemony viz ‘war of maneuver’ and ‘war of
position’. The ‘war of maneuver is direct conflict between revolutionaries and the state.
It involves physically over whelming the coercive power of the state. This strategy is
efficient where state is everything and the civil society is primordial. In such a situation
a direct conflict with the state is sufficient to achieve victory.
However, when there’s a proper complementary relation between state and civil society
working together to maintain the domination of capitalist order, Gramsci proposed ‘war
of position’ as the strategy to resist ideological domination to create counter-hegemony.
It is basically an attempt to control the civil society with the help of intellectual class.
Gramsci suggests the working class to form an alliance with depressed or subaltern
classes (organic intellectuals) to create counter-hegemony in order to challenge the
existing ‘historic bloc’.
Critical theorist Robert Cox has described ‘war of position’ as the process which slowly
build up the strength of the social foundations of new order by creating alternative
institutions & intellectual resources for subversion of hegemony.
The Gramscian war of position was employed in the Indian National Movement to carry
at the hegemonic struggle against the mighty British rule. It involved exposing the real
character of the rule and promoting nationalist ideas through different phases and
stages of the national movement.

Ques 7 : Discuss the ideas of ideology, hegemony and organic intellectuals in the ideas
of Gramsci.
Gramsci’s concept of ideology was distinctive and for more developed than that of other
Marxists because it overcome both epiphenomenalism and class, reductionism.

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Classical Marxist considered ideology (a part of superstructure) as mere reflection of

economic base and thus, ideology played no role in history. The reductionist
interpretation of ideology argued that ideologies necessarily had a class character.
Gramsci rectified it by redefining ideology in terms of practices, politico-ideological
discourse and source of socio-cultural power.
Ideology constitute individuals, has important function in the realm of production.
Gramscian concept of ideology was instrumental in his attempt to reemphasize the
importance of superstructure in maintenance of domination of capitalist class. Unlike
Marxist conception of primacy of forces of production, Gramsci held that the dominant
class doesn’t rule only by coercion. According to him, perpetuation of dominant class
role is achieved largely through consensual means. There’s a domination of particular
set of ideas and values as they’re a tendency to become common-sense and intuitive.
Thus, a consensual culture developed in which the working class starts identifying its
own good with the good of capitalist class and thus itself maintain the ‘status-quo’.
Gramsci define this form of ideological domination as ‘hegemony’ which is an
internalized form of domination that differs from the external coercive domination. He
argues that hegemony operates through the social institutions of civil society such as
family search educational system. In this context, he recognized the role played by the
civil society as ‘consent to domination’ and is defined as the sphere of hegemony.
Gramsci held that the ruling class establish its hegemony in society with the help of
intellectuals, which form the nexus with the dominant class and perform the role of
making the values of dominant class as common sense values. In this respect, Gramsci
proposed two categories of intellectuals viz traditional and organic intellectuals. The
former category largely refers to those who consider themselves not linked to any class.
In this sense, they’re independent intellectuals. Traditional intellectuals are linked to
the tradition or to the past and are not directly linked to the economic structure of a
particular society, conceive themselves belonging to no particular class or discourse.
Organic intellectuals, unlike traditional intellectuals, are actively and closely related or
associated with the emergence of dominant class. They helps in legitimizing the rule of
one class over the other. According to Gramsci, “Every social group that originates in
the fulfillment of an essential task of economic production, creates its own intellectual
group.” Thus organic intellectuals give class homogeneity and awareness of its own
function in economic, social and political field. Their interests are closely aligned to the
dominant classes rather than traditional intellectuals. For Gramsci, intellectuals are

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deputies, exercising function of creating social hegemony. They elaborate and spread
organic ideology.
For example, in the west, with the growth of capitalism, the intellectual class like
supervisors, managers, doctors etc. came into existence. Hence workers need their own
organic intellectuals so that they can provide leadership to bring about the
revolutionary change in the society, as they emerges from within the exploited class and
have the responsibility to produce ‘war of position’.

Ques. 8(a): Discuss the difference between ‘domination’ and ‘intellectuals’ cultural
hegemony in Gramsci.
Concepts of Marxist theory are created around the relationship between two parts of
human society i.e. ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’. According to Karl Marx, the economic
structure form the base and the legal, political and cultural structures such as state,
church, family etc. constitutes the superstructure.
He argued that the superstructure have no autonomous existence and is a mere
reflection of the basic structure. Thus, Marx projected that the state is a part of
superstructure, is employed in the interest of the dominant class. Classical Marxists
considered ideology (a part of superstructure) as mere reflection of economic base and
thus, ideas do not play key role.
However, on the other hand, Gramsci, under the influence of Benedetto Croce, has
realized the importance of cultural and ideological factors. Gramsci divided the
superstructure into two levels i.e, civil society and political society (state), which
corresponds to the two different conceptions of power. According to Gramsci, the civil
society exerted power through social norms, culture, values and ideas in a manner that
there’s a domination of particular set of ideas and values as they have a tendency to
become common-sense and intuitive, thereby restricting the possibilities of emergence
& articulation of alternative ideas and values. Thus, the civil society plays an important
role in manufacturing consent as a ‘structure of legitimation’ Gramsci referred to this
ideological domination as ‘hegemony’ which is an internalized form of domination. On
the other hand, the state represented the second level of power (coercive power) which
becomes operational only when ideological domination (hegemony) fails.
In this way, Gramsci theorized that the dominant class maintain its position through a
mix of sheer force (coercive force through state) and hegemony through the control of
society by cultural means. Gramsci asserted that the ‘consent’ of the ruled is a crucial

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difference between the power exercised as domination and power exercised as

hegemony.
Gramsci realized that economic determinism of Marx overlooks cultural and ideological
domination. He shows the role of consent. He challenges simplistic opposition between
hegemony and subordination. He recasts domination as hegemony. A process of
transaction, negotiation, compromise between dominant and subaltern class.
Bourgeoise power is not a simple domination, imposing their will but show a good
degree of consent. Hegemony is more sensitive and therefore useful critical term than
domination which fails to acknowledge the role of subordinates in their own
exploitation.

Ques. 8(b). Hannah Arendt argues that ‘truly human life must have a public
dimension to it.’
Hannah Arendt’s political though is heterodox & unconventional in the sense that she
has given her own meaning to different political concepts. Though she can’t be linked
with any specific school of thought, yet, the common idea connecting her work is the
concern for participation in the civic affairs. Hence, she has been, sometimes,
categorized as belonging to the school of ‘civic republicanism’.
The question with which Arendt engages most frequently is the nature of politics and
human existence in political life, as distinct from other domains of human activity
Arendt’s work essentially undertakes a reconstruction of the nature of political
existence. In doing so she offers, a stringent critique of traditional political philosophy
for the danger it presents to the political sphere as an autonomous domain of, human
existence. She considers Plato as wrong who subordinated action & appearances to the
external realm of ideas.
On the contrary, Arendt, in her work ‘The Hunna condition, reasserted the politics as a
valuable realm of human action and world of appearances. For her, to be human is to
be among others in the public realm. By systematically elaborating what ‘vita activa’
entails, she hopes to reinstate political action to apex of human actions.
In ‘The Human condition’ Arendt gives three types of actions of Labour, work and
action.
i. LABOR: Humanity as ‘ANIMAL LABORANS’
Labour is that activity which corresponds to the biological processes and
necessities of human existence, the practices which are necessary for the

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maintenance of life, itself. Labour is distinguished by its never ending character

as it creates nothing of performance, and most therefore be perpetually renewed
so as to sustain life. In this aspect of its existence, humanity is closest to the
animals as man has no freedom in this sphere.
ii. WORK: Humanity as ‘HOMO FABER’
Work is that human activity that corresponds to the unnaturalness of human
existence. In Homo FABER, man is more than animal but less them human. Here
man is relatively free but not completely free. Works like that of craftsman,
artists, architects etc. come under this category.
iii. ACTION : Humanity as ‘ZOON POLITIKON’
For Arendt, the quality of freedom in the world of appearances, which is the ‘sine
qua non’ of politics, is to be found with the activity of action. According to Arendt,
the fundamental defining features of ‘action’ is its inalienable freedom, its status
as an end in itself and so as to subordinating to nothing outside itself. This is so
because man is ‘political animal’. Hence, the most important action of all human
activity is the ‘political action’. This is the only action that human performs and
is, thus, the ‘human condition’. She stresses that only when human participates
in political life, they act as human. Therefore, it because ‘sine qua non’ of a true
human existence.
Therefore, for Arendt, ‘action’ is a political activity, a worldly practice that is
experience in one’s public engagement with others. Arendt’s theory holds that as actions
cannot be justified for their own sake, but only in light of their public recognition, it
becomes the most important part of human existence.

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