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Title:: Rethinking the Concept of Alienation in Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

Keywords:: Marx; alienation; Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844; Exerpts from James Mill's “Elements of Political Economy”

Abstract:: “Alienation” is a central theme in Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. However, the concept of alienation differs between the “First Notebook” and the “Third Notebook” within the Manuscripts. The Comments on James Mill serve as an intermediary for the transition in Marx's views on alienation between these notebooks. In the “First Notebook”, Marx's critical approach to alienated labor adheres to a subject-object dichotomy of self-alienation logic, rather than applying Feuerbach's notion of passive alienation. In the Comments on James Mill, Marx uncovers communicative alienation hidden within economic relationships, attempting to transcend the subject-object dichotomy of self-alienation logic present in the “First Notebook”. In the “Third Notebook”, Marx regards the individual with personal sensation and feeling as a social being, constructing a practical logic for the return from alienation through “objective relations” within the social field. He refines the theoretical logic of returning from alienation by revisiting Hegel's philosophy, achieving a theoretical continuation and practical transcendence of the alienation logic discussed in his Comments on James Mill.