Alienation and representation. Elements for a Marx’s rereading

Abstract

This article problematizes the Marxian concept of alienation (estrangement), interpreting it from the broader problem of the historical process of increasing substitution of the founding relationships of bodies by their represented form In the first place, the philosophy of alienation will be addressed, fundamentally in the conceptions of Hegel and Feuerbach, to show, on the background of this relationship, what is the specific difference in Marx's perspective. Next, the development of Marx's own concept of alienation will be followed step by step, from the conception of estranged labour to the separation of individuals from their species-being as a contradictory existence. These results will be extended in the following section, to show how the contradiction that implies separating the subject from its generic being is only made possible by following the opposite path of its reunification in money, which thus operates as a represented substitution of species-being.