Philosophers (so far) have limited themselves to interpreting the world in various ways; what it is (now) is to transform it Marx, Thesis on Feuerbach
Like most Hegelians of his time, Marx was convinced that Hegel's philosophy was the most finished expression that philosophy could reach. Undoubtedly, Marx differs from Hegel in many fundamental respects, however, his thought retains the Hegelian basic nucle. When Marx speaks of 'reality' he always refers to the social historical context and the world of man who, having a dialectical structure, moves towards a perfect conscious reality.
Hegel believed that the social and political forms of his time were adequate for the full fulfillment of rational demands, that through a mere gradual development of the existing social political system would lead to the realization of the supreme capacities of man. But then the dialectic was stopped and the facts were consecrated. institute existing spolitics and social as if they were perfectly suited to reason. But in Marx's eyes, this imbued with a remarkable ambiguity: if the dialectical process had reached its final moment, not only had the whole philosophy ended, but also the Prussian monarchy (conservative and reactionary), official Christianity (no less reactionary) were enshrined. Moreover, the dialectics (or the movement of reality itself) could not be stopped without reality itself disappearing, therefore the dialectics must be essentially open and revolutionary. Marx's interpretation will go into this second sense, while from his perspective the contradictions are far from being overcome.
Hegel had said that 'the true is the whole', but the truth, the principles of reason, did not seem to coincide with the existing social and political order. Then Marx will point out that there is in the human world an element irrational, inadequate with regard to the Idea, unadjusted or lacking harmony in relation to the totality, which is nothing but a sign indicating that the totality has not yet been fully achieved, still lacking for full rationality.
The contradiction pointed out by Marx in the Hegelian system is materialized in the existence of the proletariat. The presence of the proletariat contradicts the supposed reality of reason, because the existence of an entire social class represents the negation of reason: Hegel claimed that property is the outward manifestation of the free prsona, but the proletariat is the totally dispossessed class, which lacks all plentiousness (then it is neither free nor free. is a person):
It turns out that man only feels acting freely in his animal functions, in eating, drinking and begetting, and everything else in that which touches the room and the attire, and instead in his human functions he feels only like an animal. The animal becomes the human and the human becomes the animal Marx
In short, Marx will observe that sociopolitical reality is full of contradictions that have not been reconciled, thus denying the same philosophy. Marx postulates the need to carry out the coincidence between facts and reason, but no longer on the abstained plane of theoretical developments but on the social and political plane, that is, sociopolitical practice , in short, revolutionary.
Man produces man, himself and the other man (...) Just as society itself produces man as man, so is it produced by him. (...) All so-called universal history is nothing other than the production of man, human work. Marx, Manuscripts
Marx, in opposition to most of the philosophical tradition (and especially Aristotle, who had seen the essence of man in the theoretical reason where the goal is pure contemplation), will conceive man an entity that produces himself (erezeugend). And this self-generating act of man, is, work
For Marx, what man is cannot be determined from spirit or Idea, but from man himself, from what he is concretely, the real man, corporeal, standing on the land and aspiring and exhaling all natural forces. Man is not an abstract being, outside the world, but man IS in the world, this is the state and society.
This means that, in order to seek the essence of the ombre as inner determination, Marx will seek 'external' relations by virtue of the exchange that each man has with nature and with other men: “The human essence is not something abstract and inherent to each individual, it is actually the whole of social relations.” Marx
For Marx, social relations are not something given or static, but rather the relization of man himself in such a way that from an exchange between man and society, both constitute each other.
But the essence of man, is, work. This is the means from which its possibilities are realized and developed. Through work he achieves his satisfaction and happiness.
But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best bee is that he built the cell on his head until he built it on the wax. At the end of the process of labor arises a result that already at the beginning of the process was in the representation of the worker, that is, it already existed ideally. It is not only that this operates in a change of form of the raw material; he realizes in this at the same time his purpose, which he knows and determines as law the way of his work, and to which he has to subordinate his volutand Marx, Capital
Indeed, Marx differentiates between animal work and human work, since the latter is always directed by an idea or representation (consciousness). The 'purpose' is also a fundamental category of human work.
The process of self-production through work is a dialectical process, it is an exit from the self of man, an exteriorization. Work implies a humanization of nature as man leaves on it his own imprint... his essence. And this, in turn, has an impact on man himself, because the transformation that man introduces into nature modifies the conditions of human life:
Society is thus the full unity of man with nature, the true resurrection of nature, the realized naturalism of man and the realized humanism of nature Marx
The being of man then depends on the concrete conditions of work in each hitorical circumstance. In the society that Marx describes, man is alienated because he does not know his own essence. This alienation is present at all levels of human nature: social, political, religious and philosophical.
And since work is the activity of man, but it ignores it, instead of signifying the spontaneous and joyful realization of humanity, work paralyzes proper human activities and prevents any kind of intrinsic satisfaction.
The worker does not assert himself, but refuses; he does not feel happy, but unhappy; he does not develop a free physical and spiritual energy, but mortifies his body and ruins his spirit. That is why the worker only feels in himself (as in his own home), out of work, and at work out of himself. He's in his business when he doesn't work and when he works he's not in his business. Their work is not, thus, voluntary, but forced, forced labor. That is why it is not the satisfaction of a need, but only a means of satisfying their needs outside work. (...) Thus he relates to his activity as to a non-free activity, he is related to it as to the all-service activity of another, under the orders, compulsion and yoke of the other. Marx
In short, alienation is given by:
Activity The worker feels that the activity he does not belong to him
The product In the product is the worker himself, insofar as this is his objectification, something that his own person has put into, but yet this product does not belong to him either.
Nature Because it instead of becoming the 'inorganic body of man' appears as alien to the worker, as property of another.
Indeed, Marx observes that the worker cannot choose his work the way he wants, he does not choose it freely but as it is prescribed according to his place in the social process of production, a place which, moreover, is determined by the system of production, the form of distribution of wealth and power.
Marx concludes that private property is the consequence (rather the cause) of alienated work. He therefore considers that communism, considered to be the suppression of private property, will allow the elimination of all alienations and humanization of man.
Society is divided into classes and the very existence of these classes contradicts freedom or makes it an abstract concept. The freedom of each is determined by the relevance of class without taking into account individual abilities or needs: Class is the true social and economic unit, not the individual Marx