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Marx & Weber Compared

Alienation is a concept that was examined by Karl Marx and Max Weber, both important foundational thinkers in the field of sociology.

According to Marx’s theory of alienation or estrangement revolves around the laborer and the object of his labor. According to Marx the modern capitalist society has alienated the laborer from the object, as opposed to previous systems such as the guild system. In the capitalist system, he argues, the laborer does not own the raw material from which the object is made, nor does he own the tools through which he fashions the object of his labor, nor even does he any longer own his own labor, for he has sold it to the capitalist. Labor thus becomes forced. The only reason he continues to work is, as Ritzer says, the work has become “a means to an end – earning money.” (50) Labor no longer leads to self-actualization.
Further, “The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces. The devaluation of the human world grows in direct proportion to the increase in value of the world of things. Labour not only produces commodities; it also produces itself and the workers as a commodity and it does so in the same proportion in which it produces commodities in general.” (Estranged Labour) The laborer is reduced from a human to a machine, leaving him unfulfilled.
Although production was his main focus, Marx also specifies other types of alienation caused by religion, economy and the state. "Objectification is the practice of alienation. Just as man, so long as he is engrossed in religion, can only objectify his essence by an alien and fantastic being; so under the sway of egoistic need, he can only affirm himself and produce objects in practice by subordinating his products and his own activity to the domination of an alien entity, and by attributing to them the significance of an alien entity, namely money."
Marx's theory of alienation is seen primarily in his early works, but...