ABSTRACT
The texts presented in this chapter cover what may be thought of as two distinct periods in the intellectual development of Karl Marx (1818-1883): the preceding and following periods of the European-wide popular revolts of 1848. It was during this period that he developed his notion of alienation that he would carry into his later analysis of surplus value and the exploitation of the proletariat. The tradition of alienation goes back most directly to the German philosopher Hegel (1770-1831), who argued that one could perceive one's true relation to the world, and thereby advance history. He argued that this alienation was surplus value, or the profit of the capitalist-something that was rightfully the possession of the worker. His notion of alienation offers the moral guidance for his detailed analysis of the functioning of industrial capitalism.
