Editing Marx's theory of alienation (section)

{{Short description|Social theory claiming that capitalism alienates workers from their humanity}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2023}}
[[File:Karl Marx 001.jpg|thumb|261px|19th-century German intellectual [[Karl Marx]] (1818–1883) identified and described ''Entfremdung'' (alienation of labour) as Labourers not owning the products they labour to create.]]
{{Marxism|Sociology}}

[[Karl Marx]]'s '''theory of alienation''' describes the separation and [[Self-estrangement|estrangement]] of people from  their work, their wider world, their [[Marx's theory of human nature|human nature]], and their selves. Alienation is a consequence of the [[division of labour]] in a [[capitalist]] society, wherein a human being's life is lived as a mechanistic part of a [[social class]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2009|title=Karl Marx on alienated labour|url=https://libcom.org/library/karl-marx-alienated-labour}}</ref>

The theoretical basis of alienation is that a worker invariably loses the ability to determine life and destiny when deprived of the right to think (conceive) of themselves as the director of their own actions; to determine the character of these actions; to define relationships with other people; and to own those items of value from goods and services, produced by their own labour. Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realised human being, as an economic entity this worker is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the [[bourgeoisie]]—who own the [[means of production]]—in order to extract from the worker the maximum amount of [[surplus value]] in the course of business competition among industrialists.

The theory, while found throughout Marx's writings, is explored most extensively in his early works, particularly the ''[[Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844]]'', and in his later working notes for ''[[Das Kapital|Capital]]'', the ''[[Grundrisse]]''.{{sfn|Ollman|1983|p=271}} Marx's theory draws heavily from  [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], and from  ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'' (1841) by [[Ludwig Feuerbach]].{{sfn|Schacht|1970|pp=67-68}} [[Max Stirner]] extended Feuerbach's analysis in ''[[The Ego and its Own]]'' (1845), claiming that even the idea of 'humanity' is itself an alienating concept. Marx and [[Friedrich Engels]] responded to these philosophical propositions in ''[[The German Ideology]]'' (1845).