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MARX ON INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY

Kissel, Eric Scott
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin976026836

Abstract Details

2000, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences : Philosophy.
Marx maintained that individuals realize their distinctive potential as humans through consciously directed productive activity. At the same time he also championed the value of the communist community through his belief that an individual’s potential is most fully “realized” or “expressed” when her activity is carried out within and for a community. Recent philosophical work has been sharply divided as to whether or not the principles that underpin these two values, as Marx sets them up, would complement or contradict each other when taken together. Considering the diversity among individuals in their capabilities and the freedom Marx appears to grant in choosing how one best feels they can realize their abilities, the potential for a conflict among individuals within a community is obviously high. The objective of Section I will be to understand what Marx has in mind when he speaks of individuals ‘expressing’, “realizing”, or “confirming” their distinctive human potential through consciously directed productive activity. It will be shown that Marx understood individuality as the development of an individual’s unique needs and capacities, and their subsequent realization through active engagement in conscious, purposive, productive activity. Section II examines the importance he ascribes to social productive activity and why this should be understood as activity that occurs within and for a community. The social relations that develop under communist organization will be explicated and it will be shown that individuating productive activity “expresses” and “confirms” an individual’s social nature. From here we will be in a better position to judge his comments concerning the emergence of the communist individual who realizes her potential through activity that Marx characterizes as both self-activity and social activity. The scholarship for and against this puzzling description will be examined in Section III. It will be argued that the alleged tension, which critics argue is irreconcilable in this synthesis, arises from a misunderstanding regarding what Marx meant by individuality and community. Lastly, it will be shown that this confusion is the result of a larger mistake. To wit, a failure to appreciate the changes that occur in the social relations between communist individuals and in individuals themselves.
Lawrence Jost (Advisor)
Marxism; Labor; Realization

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kissel, E. S. (2000). MARX ON INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin976026836

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kissel, Eric. MARX ON INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY. 2000. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin976026836.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kissel, Eric. "MARX ON INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2000. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin976026836

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin976026836
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.