Running head: K. MARX AND G.

SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

Karl Marx "Alientation theory"

vs Georg Simmel, "Stranger ideas"
Students Name
Institution of Learning
Word Count 6205

Karl Marx "Alientation theory" vs Georg Simmel, "Stranger ideas"

Introduction
The problem of alienation is one of the most relevant in the current social and
philosophical thought. Alienation as a process encompasses all human activities; it is manifested
in the contradictions of human nature and the nature of social relations in a loss of control over
the products of their own rights and at variance with nature. An enduring interest as to the
problem of alienation increases in connection with the entry into the era of post-industrial
society, in which there are new forms of exclusion giving the problem global nature. In today's
society, there is a great tendency of adverse alienating effects. These include a variety of
deviance spreading mainly among young people, the inability of people to realize their creative
abilities, a complex of various social influences, overwhelming personality, etc.
It should be particularly emphasized that the consequences of the entry of humanity in the
modern information world are associated with the emergence of new media activities, in which
the integrity of human existence becomes more and more problematic. It is necessary not to
convince humanity that alienation can be overcome, but vice versa to compel and justify its
inexistence of human existence, and the existence of a meaningful understanding of the problem,
in which the need for mechanisms to overcome its forms is the urgent task of social philosophy.
Humankind has sought and will strive to live a more dignified, more arranged life, it will "draw"
a utopia, an ideal model of a social organization. However, it also understands that this ideal is
feasible. In the meantime, people function according to social and biological laws, and in fact,
overcome obstacles and difficulties. Therefore, the analysis of the phenomenon of alienation is
important to many researchers in social and philosophical issues. Certainly, Karl Marx and Georg
Simmel take a worthy place among researchers of this problematic issue.

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

The object of this study is to study the idea of "Alienation" by Karl Marx and what Georg
Simmel means by "stranger." The subject of the research is to evaluate and discuss what Marx
and Simmel say about Alienation, the Stranger; use real life examples from today with what he
says in the book about alienation and how it relates to workers; use current events that are
relatable to what he describes. Finally, we are to compare and contrast the two ideas of
Alienation and the Stranger concept. To achieve this objective, the proposed thesis research is:
to introduce the idea of Alienation by Karl Marx;
to analyze the existing types of alienation: the alienation of labor result;
the alienation of the labor process; alienation from the individuals essence; alienation
from the outside world (people, nature); alienation and private property; alienation and
communist ideas;
to give real life examples of alienation and ways how it relates to workers
using an example of alienation of labor in the Media;
to evaluate and discuss what Karl Marx critiques and says about
Alienation, and what Georg Simmel means by Stranger;
to study the influence of Marx's concept of alienation under capitalism on
the Simmels idea of a stranger;
to discuss the philosophy of money, the problem of freedom and
alienation; the category of a social distance in the work by Georg Simmel, The
Stranger, and social relationship of The Stranger" with the category of social distance;
the problem of cultural alienation; political marginality: the Stranger phenomenon in
terms of the political theory;
to give an example of current events that relate to what Simmel is
describing;
to make a conclusion and compare the two ideas of Alienation vs. the
Stranger concept.
ALIENATION FOR MARX
Introduction of the Concept
Marx discusses the problem of alienation in his work Philosophical and Economic
Manuscripts in detail, written in 1844 but published only in the 1930s of the 20th century. In his
work, Marx focuses on the problem of "alienated labor" as the main form of alienation, and
shows that the vital necessity of participation in a free, creative work is the most important part
of the human nature ("species-being"). On this basis, he makes a conclusion that capitalism
systematically destroys this human need as alien to its specificity (Mszros 1970, p. 41)
Types of Alienation.
One can distinguish various types of alienation that Marks determines.
The first is the alienation of labor result. The product (result) of labor is a work enshrined
in a subject (practiced, embodied therein), i.e., materialized. This allows accessing to the
objectification of labor as a commodity. During this process, an owner of production masters this
subject, while workers lose the object of labor. Thus, it appears that the subject produced by the
labor of the worker confronts him/her as an alien entity. The essence of this conflict lies in the
diminution of a worker: a worker puts his/her life into the subject, but now enclosed life is not
his/hers. It belongs to the owner of the object, and the worker is not the holder. The larger the
product is, the less remains to the worker because he/she spends much time and effort to create a
thing, so when it is ready, what was embedded in the work product is given away. In other words,
a worker in the course of labor, at least in part is devastated at the expense of force directed to

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

work alienation. According to Marx, the alienation of the result sums up the assignment of the
labor process. In other words, the result of the alienation of labor is secondary to the exclusion
from the labor process (Tucker 1978, p. 145).
The second type of isolation is the alienation of the labor process.
Marx argues that alienation is manifested not only in the result, but also in the course of
employment. So as a result of labor is alienation, the labor process itself is nothing but the
activity of alienation, which only summarizes the results of the alienation of labor. This
alienation means that such work is a desktop something external not belonging to a workers
essence.
Therefore, workers do not claim themselves in their work, but deny, do not deploy their
spiritual and physical energy, but exhaust and destroy their spirit. In addition, they do not
implement themselves and their aspirations. In the course of work, a worker feels detached from
him/herself, and only outside of the labor process, he/she feels himself. So alienated labor is not
voluntary but forced one. It is not an expression of the need for labor but the means to meet the
needs somewhere outside the work, where a person can belong to himself. However, it is also
clear, that outside the work people are engaged in the activities of the animal's nature to life
support: food, drink, sleep, sexual intercourse, bringing homes in order, the decoration (Tucker
1978, pp. 836-837). Thus, alienated labor is the relegation of the worker to the level of an
animal.
The first two types of alienation (from the process and the outcome of labor) together
constitute the phenomenon of exploitation.
Alienation from the humans essence can be explained as follows. According to Marx, the
man is a generic nature in the sense that it creates and builds him/herself (race) and the world
(nature an inorganic body) as a universal and free spirit. Alienated labor does not say "speciesbeing" of a person, that is, the fact that it presents and needs to be implemented. Alienated labor
cuts from a person the transcendental nature, which can be expressed for the most parts in a free
creative work. Thus, a person engaged in alienated labor, is separated from his/her creative
essence of what makes him/her an individual. As a result, this being is reduced to the level of the
means of individual existence (Tucker 1978, pp. 838-841). In other words, it is the loss of
individual subjectivity.
Alienation from the outside world (people, nature) is a serious problem of modern people.
The physical and spiritual life is inextricably linked with nature, as people are its part. Alienated
labor, alienating a person from the creative essence, alienates from him/her the desire to do
something that all the above mentioned must be applied - the nature. A direct consequence of
man's alienation from the labor results, the process of labor and of its essence is alienation from
other people. Furthermore, any disposition alone can be identified only as man's relation to other
people. Under the conditions of alienated labor each person sees the other, guided by the position
(attitude) in which he/she is stored as an employee (Tucker 1978, pp. 841-843) This leads to such
a phenomenon in a society as the atomization.
Alienation and private property is a key definition of the Marks position as to capitalism.
If the result of a work does not belong to a worker, there must be something to which he/she
belongs. Similarly, if the activity (the labor process) does not belong to a worker, then there must
be something to which he/she belongs. According to Marx, this alien creature can be only
another person (the exploiter), and not God or nature itself. The ratio of workers to the alienated
labor generates an attitude of an exploiter to the same work. Thus, private property is the result,
and necessary consequence of alienated labor, external relation of the worker to his/her essence

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

and nature. Later this relation of alienated labor and private property becomes a relationship of
mutual influence. That is, in the climactic stage of development of private property it becomes
the product of alienation, and a means of exclusion (Mszros 1970, pp. 843-844)
Alienation and communist ideas can be regarded as a proclamation of the new era of a
new society. Socialists argued that economic development cannot be stopped, but one can save
society from the alienation, subjugation and dehumanization. The only sure way to do it si to
move forward the creation of a new society, free from selfishness and greed (Tucker 1978, pp.
235). Socialism remained secular and atheistic, but the process of liberation could not fit with the
psychological and anthropological categories (in fact, the fundamental "religious" categories).
These appeals Marx, speaking on alienation: "Private property made us so stupid and one-sided
that an object is ours only when we possess it, that is, when it exists for us as a capital or when
we directly own, eat, drink, wear it, we live in it and so on - in short, when we consume it.
Therefore, simple alienation of all these senses, the sense of possessing replaces all physical and
spiritual senses" (Mszros 1970, p. 120).
For Marx, "communism was not an end but only a certain stage of historical development
of a society, designed to free the people from those socio -economic and political conditions in
which they lose their human form and become the slaves of things, machines and their own
greed" (Mszros 1970, p. 256).
Thus, socialism, as a synthesis of religious traditions and spirituality and meaningful
scientific and political action, offers a comprehensive way of escape from alienation, which,
according to Marx, was to take place in four phases (Tucker 1978, pp. 256-257):
- to help workers (as representatives of the class, most suffering from alienation) to
realize the depth of their plight;
- to show the causes of their suffering, which are rooted in the nature of capitalism.
- To explain that the suffering (alienation) can be eliminated only by destroying their
generating conditions;
- to open a new lifestyle, a new social system, liberating society and the individual.
Real Life Examples of Alienation and Ways How it Relate to Workers. Alienation of
Labor in the Media
The results of labor alienates, the production itself, according to Marx, is the alienation of
Labor activity. The alienation of the worker from the process of labor is expressed in the fact that
work for him/her is something external that does not belong to the human essence. At this work,
a person does not feel happy; on the contrary, he/she is unhappy, does not develop his/her
spiritual energy freely, and destroys spiritual powers (Computers & Technology 2011). Nonalienated labor, according to Marx, is the essence of free activity, performing, expressing and
developing the generic nature of man. Free activity is when a person performs it in terms of
understanding the need for a universal pattern. Individual consciousness in this case finds "one
point in the other, its purpose and Going it - the fate and destiny - in soy goals and of acting in
his, his own essence - that it is necessary.
Today, the profession of a journalist presupposes some awareness of and ability to
comply with various requirements, and defines the boundaries of a persons inner freedom.
However, real journalism ethics is possible only based on personal freedom. This freedom
becomes impossible because in most cases labor appears not as an end in itself, but as a servant
of the pay. It sounds completely unbelievable that the responsibility of a journalist or program
presenter to the audience is more important than a workers dependence on wages or engagement
channel. One begins to use money to measure all that was before "noble impulses of the soul",

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

and journalists become cynics justifying comparison of this occupation with the second oldest
profession. Creativity as a means of strengthening a persons nature now is replaced by
technology. In hard-coded graphical models of newspapers, in the waste width of rows per
second, calculated length of phrases, less than half of the content that was embedded in the
journalistic materials by their creators remains.
Evaluation and Discussion What Karl Marx Says and Critique About Alienation
The concept of alienation is not a theoretical concept. Alienation is not visibility that
stands for the analysis of true, real relationships, behind them. Therefore, it is insufficient to
reproduce the dichotomy between objectification and alienation, between appearance and
essence. Alienation is a phenomenon of practice, it is a phenomenon of relations between capital
and labor, in which the wealth of human labor in all its forms becomes a wealth of capital in the
form of dead labor (capital goods), goods, money, luxury, in one word - in the form of things.
Although the concept of alienation touches the problem of the possibility of freedom, equality,
human relations opportunity outside the general utility, only a theoretical analysis of alienation
will claim moral justification of capitalism. The concept of alienation captures not a state, but the
dynamics of the real relationships in a society of political economy. On the one hand, these are
strategies, the stock of capital to transform the non-labor in labor, capital and labor: on the other
hand, the tactics of the struggle of labor against capital, the moments of transition, wages in nonlabor. Alienation is never a total, but a local, unfolding process of struggle. Hence, the
impossibility of manipulation concepts of "ideology ", "media", "pop culture."
Karl Marx warned that the concept of capital included its civilizing influence. Thus, we
can say that the concept of alienation is seen as the experience of the oscillations between the
strategies and tactics of the capital of the working class, between the struggle for capitalism and
against it. Therefore, a study of alienation takes a form of a local analysis that works out the
forms, methods and techniques, investigates the slightest collision, the intersection of power and
resistance, and sometimes does not have a rigid centralization manifested differently in the
circumstances of time and space. Alienation is not total, so cannot take the network structure, it
is not a universal umbrella of capital, not passing directly incident atoms of struggle, especially
because the latter can endlessly contort their direction. In a study of alienation, it is always very
important to keep geography and temporality in mind. Marx studied capitalism in England and
never considered their version of capitalism, comprehensive and easily applicable to any other
capitalism. Alienation is not integrity, but a set of techniques of power, working non-linearly, not
according to a plan, but according to the situations encountered immediate resistance that turns
into techniques themselves. These strategies do not have the power of the unique nature of the
operation, but produce not only "society" (political economy), but also subjectivity.
Alienation is productive not only in terms of economic results, but also in the aspect of
creating subjectivity. Marx, stating the historical mission of the capital, makes it clear that capital
produces a hard-working man who wants to work outside of what he/she needs to meet
individual needs. Only after the discovery of public works and communications all through the
universal diligence, capital as the external discipline of surplus labor will be overcome.
The concept of alienation does not include teleology, domestic goals of its movement,
and the final result of the society. The result of the alienation is caused by the achievement of the
objectives of capital, labor and non-labor. Hence, the possibility of communism is not expedient
to remove the alienation of movement, but in a series of local victories. Alienation is not revived,
does not restore the innocence lost of labor, human nature, as the work is essentially a design of
capital. Capital denies the reality of relationships that do not produce surplus value and gives

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

substantial reality just to the relationships that bring benefit. However, these relationships are not
natural, substance, primary, but are the result of history, as well as labor relations under
capitalism that Marx convincingly demonstrates in the chapter about the primal accumulation in
"Capital".
The trick of alienation is that the resistance power of capital can become a reservoir of
unpaid labor, and labor can be made as a non-labor, i.e., without external constraints and direct
quantification. Alienation is the unity of opposites of labor and non-labor. Non-labor is a
constantly pushed the boundary with non-discourse. For example, Marx states that for the
capital, which he describes, non- productive, non- able-bodied field of culture and spirituality in
their implementation of quality, innovation, heuristic are completely uninteresting. At the same
time, Marx reminds us that the capitalist mode of production makes progress at the expense of
the conversion activities and objects in the goods, that is non- productive potential can become
productive, non- labor can become labor.
Today, we can discover the Marks explanation of alienation in a society of producers.
External, real relations, buying and selling goods, mediate their relationship. Money, as a
universal form of value and a general equivalent, becomes corporeal denominator of public
communication of individuals alienated from them. Having money one may establish
public/proprietary relationship with the person/thing. That is why the money prostituting all the
moral, intellectual and other values that relegate them to the facility, as the money itself are an
expression of the prostitution of real social relations (all is bought, everything is for sale)
WHAT GEORG SIMMEL MEANS BY STRANGER
The Influence of Marx's Concept of Alienation Under Capitalism on the Simmels Idea of
a Stranger
Developed methods of obtaining formal knowledge German sociologist Simmel applied
to the analysis of a capitalist society. In this respect, he was in some cases close to the ideas of
Marx. Simmel was influenced by Marxs concept of alienation under capitalism. He also proves
the existence of universal alienation in society using the concept of money. His ideas on this
subject he developed in the book "The Philosophy of Money, which is considered to be his most
"sociological" work. Despite the fact that the theme of the division of labor for Simmel takes a
critical place, the problem of socialization, alienation of labor, as in Marx's works, is a major
topic of his observation. Simmel repeats the idea of Marks about the division of labor. In
addition, he underlines that this process occurred in not only production, but also consumption.
Here we can observe an alienation of the worker from the labor and workforce from the man. In
general, Simmel comes to the same conclusions as Marx - the man ultimately loses its self, goes
into a "one-dimensional." The differentiation of the economic sphere led to the emergence of
money, which, in turn, to an even greater extent reproduced the universal alienation. According
to Kravchenko, despite the fact that the title of the discoverer of the theory of alienation belongs
to Marx, Simmel, like Weber spelled this theory deeper, more interesting and more powerful
(Levine 1979, pp. 129-142).
The Philosophy of Money, the Problem of Freedom and Alienation
"The Philosophy of Money is an attempt of interpretation of the concept of alienation,
largely repeating the criticism of Marx, the capitalist system and bourgeois lifestyle. Simmel,
showing the existence of universal alienation in society, sought to prove that it was accompanied
by the growth of individual freedom. His main idea in this analysis is to convince the reader in
close and indissoluble connection of alienation and freedom that act, in his opinion, as the two
sides of the same coin called the society. In the Philosophy of money," he wrote, "If freedom is

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

the freedom of the will of the other at all, first of all, it implies a certain independence from the
will of another. Unaffected not a lonely hermit German or American Forests - independent in the
positive sense of the word is a person of a modern city, which although requires countless
manufacturers, deliverymen, associates, connected with them only with money" (Kurt 1950, p.
402).
The formation and development of capitalism is associated with the presence of two main
characteristics: intelligence and money. Sociologist sees them as being among the major forms of
socialization, which are closely linked to the growth of freedom and the increasing trend of
individualization of society. These forms allow Simmel to analyze in detail the development of
money economy and intellectualism as a social phenomenon. In connection with the analysis of
the social function of money scientist discovers that their domination defines a set of social
phenomena of contemporary capitalism. In fact, everything is just the opposite: money fulfills
the role that appropriate public relations prescribe them. Talking about the power of money that
leads to alienation, a German sociologist, points out that in the process of universal alienation
people lose their individual, specific quality, transform into the one-dimensional state. In such
conditions, prostitution becomes a symbol of inter-human relations. Simmel believes that the
nature of money and the nature of prostitution are similar. Money, as well as women of easy
virtue, is not related to any subject. Money leaves a person with the same enviable ease with
which women of certain behaviors, excluding any cardiac motion, move away from their
customers. As do the women of appropriate behavior money also easily transfers to their new
temporary owners. The above comparison has become a textbook in the sociological literature
and allows understanding not only the social role and function of money, especially their use in a
capitalist society, but also the specificity of social relations (McLemore 1970, p. 321).
Current Events that Relate to What Simmel Describes. Political Marginality: The
Stranger Phenomenon in Terms of the Political Theory
In political science, there are a number of difficulties in the matter of describing such
political agents that are non-systemic, but at the same time are seeking to take root in the
political system. Here we can give an example of the current members of the European
Parliament, leftist politician D.Kon-Bendit and right N.Griffin before becoming a part of the
political system. Being only extra-systemic political agents, they desire or seek to become a part
of the political system. Without involving the analysis of specific political events, we can explain
this dilemma taking into account a key: who are political agents at the time of the transition from
off-system to the system? To address this issue, we turn to the ideas of the classical sociologist
Simmel, writing about social marginality and relevance of the concept of a stranger to this
concept. German sociologist Simmel is one of the first authors who spoke about the Other as of a
stranger, that is, of the Other as a borderline personality (Driedger and Peters 1977, p. 165).
In his paper about the stranger Simmel writes about the concept of the journey that is cut
off from any given point in space, and it is opposed to the concept of tightness as such (Driedger
and Peters 1977, p. 205) But the stranger is not a wanderer, as the lack of his tightness is in the
exclusion from the social space, in which he comes in that surrounds him. A Stranger is the one
we saw today, and the next day he left our community. A stranger is the one "who comes today
and stays tomorrow - so to speak, the potential wanderer, who, although he does not pull on, still
does not completely overcome the isolation of comings and goings "(McLemore 1970, p. 373).
This potential "strangeness" is due to the position taken by a stranger to the group. The position
is pre-given by the band, and a stranger cannot be included there, where the other, primordial
members of the group are. There is no place for him, or it is not yet prepared.

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

Simmel gives the following formula, which can be defined as "a stranger in the format of
social relations of their group": "distance in a relationship means that close is far away, while the
strangeness means that far is close" (McLemore 1970, p. 234). We are unlikely to understand the
phrase "far-close", starting from the stranger as a start to be in the group, which sets the rules of
engagement. No wonder then why the stranger is an element of the group, just as poor and
diverse as internal enemies (McLemore 1970, p. 245).
Simmel's stranger is in constant motion. This motion it causes by the fact, that the group
of not his is too close, literally hangs and dominates him. In addition, the pressure does not
reflect connection, most likely, the pressure underlines the will to learn from the alien all
possible benefits and then sever him as unnecessary thing. In our view, this is also due to the
objectivity of an outsider position, which can also be called freedom: an objective person is not
bound by any commitments, which might prejudice to seal his perception, understanding,
assessment of what is happening. It follows that the stranger" and practically and theoretically is
more free, he is able to survey more impartially existing relationships and to evaluate them in
accordance with the more general, more objective ideals in his actions, he is not bound with
habit, reverence, past relationship" (Wolff 1950, pp. 402-408). Excessive freedom of an alien
poses a hazard that is surmountable with the instrumentalization of freedom and
functionalization of an outsider.
It is necessary to draw attention to the functionality of Simmel's stranger. A stranger is
interesting as a person who performs in a group of a special kind of function and is considered by
the group. Performing by a stranger certain functions creates the conditions for a politics of a
group that poses on a stranger. The latter at similar optics becomes dependent and subordinate.
Freedom and objectivity of a stranger are conventions that the group itself gives to him. In
addition, these gifts can be taken away. Among other things, the stranger is by nature deprived of
something, for example, originally a stranger is not a landowner. Here, the land is understood not
only in the physical sense, but also metaphorically, as a vital substance firmly associated with
some space - if not space, the ideal - the social environment" (McLemore 1970, pp. 86-94).
If to increase the group to a society and to equate society to the political system, a
stranger will remain an outsider, but, with a certain nationality of the country in which he resides.
When a citizen of the country is a stranger in his/her motherland, he/she is possibly revolting
against the established political system. The question is for what purpose political system needs
such an alien. Up to a point, as long as an outsider does not go unseen beyond the limits set and
marked by this political system, a system uses a stranger for its own purposes. These goals can
be both political (a stranger is as an indicator of pluralism of a society, which automatically
makes the alien a part of the political system that complements its repressive measure with a
political conflict) and non-political (any stranger is a man who is a potential system servant).
From the standpoint of the political system, a stranger cannot be allowed in the
interpretation of policy positions of power, for he is not entitled to it under his nature. For the
political system this interpretation is that the "long-distance - is near." A political stranger or
political outcast from inside the political space, but outside the political system, puts into a
question the logic of power. A pre-political situation is created in such case, when a dyad starts to
erode the base unit. If resolving this issue from the perspective of a stranger with the transition of
politically permissible framework, the political system will interpret a stranger into the category
of barbarians, who has no right to oppose to the political system.
The Category of a Social Distance in the Work The Stranger by Georg Simmel. Social
Relationship of The Stranger with the Category of Social Distance

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

Simmel 's views on social distance are considered on the basis of the material of
sociological importance of a Stranger. A concept of social distance is used in the scientists
interpretation of the modernization processes: urbanization, the development of a monetary
economy and individualization. In today's globalized society, more and more people can be
attributed to the dedicated social type of a stranger who performs as a kind of personification of
increasing social distance and formalizes the relationship among people in big cities.
According to Simmel, we can identify several key characteristics of a stranger, that allow
to draw parallels between his concept and an analysis of metropolis life on the basis of similar
arguments about the social distance.
The first of these features, mobility, Simmel links with historically conditioned freedom
of movement and freedom from the fixed in space property, primarily from property (Driedger
and Peters 1977, p. 323). Mobility can also be represented as the freedom to change the distance
from any object in the social space.
The second feature is objectivity that is a consequence of the detachment of an outsider
from a group because of the large social distance between them. A stranger is not rooted in the
inter relationships and is weakly associated with the interests of individual members of the
group. Because of this, a stranger can play the role of the objective casual observer, to which
members of the group trust the resolution of internal conflicts. Freedom from conventions is the
third feature of the Simmel's stranger. Convention in this case should be understood as a liability
and rules that were adopted within the group and bind its members, but not a stranger. This
quality is intertwined with the previous one: with the ability to look at the intra-attitude on the
part of, an alien forms a sufficiently objective assessment.
An abstract relationship is the last of the features of the stranger identified by Simmel.
The scientist finds the nature of this quality, those members can compare themselves with a
stranger, only rising to a higher level of generalization. The quality that a group uses to identify
themselves as a single entity, distinct from the others, is not a basis for comparison with the
stranger, as that quality is not inherent in him (Driedger and Peters 1977, p. 325).
If members of groups identify themselves on the basis of national origin, the comparison with a
foreigner outsider, is held at general grounds, such as race, religion, etc. Occupation of the
stranger is more abstract in nature than occupation of the other classes of people, and he is rarely
tied to specific things or practical skills. The value of Simmels analysis of a stranger as a social
type is immense for the current sociology. In a globalized society, more and more people can be
attributed to this social type. This is due to the processes described above, associated with
increasing social distance in big cities and expansion of cross-cultural exchange. Social type of a
stranger is precisely described as a kind of personification of social processes.
CONCLUSION. DIFFERENCES WITH THE MARKS THEORY. THE PROBLEM OF
CULTURAL ALIENATION
For Simmel, in contrast to Marx, alienation is not the socio-economic, but rather a
cultural and psychological process. If Marx's alienation in all cases leads to antagonism, conflict,
transformation of the person in "goods", the loss of personality, Simmel is more reserved in
assessing the implications of the process of alienation. According to Marx, only the elimination
of alienation, "the destruction of labor" restores a person. Simmel says just the opposite, that the
resulting alienation at a certain stage of historical development forms a type of personality that is
adequate to its time, is isomorphic to the central point of the picture of the world. Therefore,
there are different types of individuals that meet the emerging cultural spirit of the historical era.

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

10

Under the process of alienation from Simmel falls considerably more diverse spheres of
social life. Produced in the course of work product, alienating, is only in conjunction with other
products, and is no longer a "reflex of the creative spirit" (McLemore 1970, pp. 86-94).
Simmel gives a very broad explanation of the phenomenon of alienation. The fact of the
sale of workforce is already a process of alienation, overflowing of the subjective substance in an
objective material world. Moreover, the process of labor alienates from a man. Individual
receives for the produced goods some money compensation and therefore objectifies his
potential labor force. As a result, his work is related to the objective of that production
organization that means its further objectification. The processes of objectification acquire larger
scale in the course of historical development. Ultimately, they lead to the alienation of the
individual's culture, create a "between the subject and his creations ever growing estrangement"
(McLemore 1970, pp. 86-94).
For a more complete description of the various sociological spheres of society, Simmel
introduces a special concept, a "pure form". By this term, he refers to most significant free of
empirical fullness universal features in the various social sectors. Life in a continuous pulsating
flows through individuals and creates various forms that are filled in the historical process with a
specific content. These forms of limit life, and are also broken by it (Levine 1979, p. 234).
The phenomenon of our time is the "tragedy of culture." Simmel extends Marxs position
in the political economy that petrified relations dominate over individuals to all areas of culture.
The tragedy of culture, according to Simmel, is, above all, in the fact that life on the stage of the
spirit creates a direct expression of the objective of education, in which it expresses itself, and
which, in turn, tend to absorb its further course - whereas their ideal and historical affirmation,
limitedness sooner or later will lead to a contradiction, and to compete with the ever -changing,
erasing the boundaries of continuous life. Objectified culture, its alienation from their creators individuals acquires features of a certain objective spirit and becomes an obstacle to the flow of
life. A tragedy of this process lies in the fact that emerging conflict is a natural, cyclically
recurring phenomenon. Subjective and objective culture will always be in a conflict.
Furthermore, the contradiction between life and its forms, between the objective and subjective
culture extends to the specific of their creator, on person. Both aspects of culture confront with
the soul of a man, his/her creative nature. The fabricated objects of culture, because of the
division of labor, are not in a position to embody the whole person. However, the flow of life is
embodied in each individual, so is the border between lives and objectified culture is in the soul
of a man. The soul of man becomes an arena of struggle among aspirations in a life that threatens
to break the objective framework of cultural forms.

K. MARX AND G. SIMMEL ABOUT ALIENTATION

11

References
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Mszros, Istvn. 1970. Marxs Theory of Aienation. Retrieved from
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Tucker, Robert C., ed. 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &
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