Research On Marx’s Thought On The Alienation Of Science And Technology

Alienation of science and technology is a societal phenomenon in which scientific and technical activities and achievements violate the objective of science and technology to serve people,transform into a force that is difficult for people to manage,and thus control,govern,and imperil people.Global science and technology advancements are causing subversive alterations in human production and living.Nobody can deny the strength of science and technology nowadays.However,the use of science and technology has had negative consequences for humanity,including a labor shortage,environmental contamination,the threat of war,and the proliferation of electronic products.In the era in which Marx lived,the active use of science and technology for large-scale production of machines has become the main mode of production,and Marx always paid attention to the role of science and technology,fully affirmed the positive role played by science and technology,but also paid attention to the negative effects brought by science and technology to people and made relevant theoretical expositions.Capitalist production relations,according to Marx,are the major source of science and technology’s alienation.However,Marx’s conception of alienation of science and technology evolved over time,from initial exploration to final maturity,and because of his in-depth study of capitalist production relations,his vision of alienation of science and technology evolved as well.This article is primarily based on Marx’s text,with time serving as the primary clue and the transformation node of Marx’s research path,and divides Marx’s thought on science and technology alienation into three stages,namely the stage under the humanistic vision,the stage under the historical materialism vision,and the stage from the perspective of political economics,with the hope of forming a comprehensive understanding of Marx’s thought on science and technology’s alienation.The first chapter examines the historical and theoretical settings of Marx’s theory of alienation of science and technology.As technology and science advance,as well as the formation of the capitalist production system,provide an objective context for the occurrence of scientific and technological alienation,as well as the social context for Marx’s study of scientific and technological alienation.Additionally,classical political economy and German classical philosophy provide the contextual context for Marx’s study of scientific and technological alienation.The second chapter’s primary topic is a transformation of Marx’s viewpoint on alienation and Marx’s idea on science and technology’s alienation from a humanist standpoint.Marx’s interaction with real material life increased when he earned his Ph.D.,and he saw the mismatch between pure philosophical theory and reality.He became increasingly aware of the relevance of economics as he researched historical issues.Thus,Marx’s initial philosophical,political,and religious viewpoints on alienation gradually found their way into the field of economics.Marx criticized capitalism society from a practical humanistic philosophical standpoint,saying that work and production practice(industry,science,and technology)are inherent in human beings.However,in a private property society,the tangible prosperity generated by science and technology enslaves workers,and if one wishes to resolve the issue of alienation of science and technology completely,it is necessary to relinquish private assets.The main content of the third chapter is the formation of Marx’s historical materialist world view and the thought of alienation of science and technology from this perspective.Marx argued that the mode of production is the foundation for the formation of communication and consciousness,and that as production capacity increases,the mode of communication and consciousness will alter accordingly.Throughout human history,science and technology have both met human needs and altered the social structure.The division of labor resulting from the expansion of production capacity is a critical theoretical clue from Marx’s period,and the development of science and technology has resulted in enormous material wealth,but the capitalist relationship of production contains the antagonistic contradiction resulting from the division of labor,and thus the increase in productivity brought about by science and technology is a disaster for the workers.The primary means of overcoming the alienation of science and technology is the eradication of capitalism antagonistic production relations through the communist revolution.The fourth chapter’s primary topic is Marx’s political economics viewpoint on alienation of science and technology,which is also the most comprehensive articulation of Marx’s scientific and technological alienation thinking.Marx’s description of political economics’ objects and techniques establishes the theoretical framework and historical context for the study of scientific and technical alienation.Marx chronicled the history of machine development in Capital,and the use of machines and machine systems altered the traditional way of production in capitalist production,signaling the beginning of human beings actively utilizing science and technology for production.However,the use of technology has had disastrous effects,most notably the total subjection of humans to machines,the reduction in workers’ living standards,the widespread exploitation of child labor,and the degradation of the natural environment.Along with intuitive expressions,the advancement of science and technology has introduced explosive conflicts into capitalist production relations,resulting in a succession of economic crises and the plight of workers.However,the growth of productive capacity will finally surpass capital’s restrictive production bounds,abolish capitalist production relations,and overcome technical alienation.The fifth chapter summarizes Marx’s views on the alienation of science and technology from various viewpoints and periods.It highlights not only the logical migration process of Marx’s thought on scientific and technological alienation through time,but also the common theoretical aspects of Marx’s thought on scientific and technological alienation over time.On the one hand,as Marx’s study of political economics progressed,so did his grasp of the underlying causes of scientific and technical alienation,progressing from an early critique of private property to a full critique of capitalist production relations.Simultaneously,Marx’s ideological method to overcoming science and technology’s alienation has shifted away from the initial fixed value return toward the evolution of starting with society’s real problems and suggesting future society’s growth potential.Marx,on the other hand,always approached the problem of scientific and technical alienation pragmatically,retaining his concern for the proletariat’s survival and saw communism as the final solution to technological alienation.The sixth chapter of this article discusses the new characteristics of contemporary scientific and technological alienation,specifically the intensification of fetishism brought about by digital technology,the increasing degree of labor exploitation brought about by scientific and technological development,and the crisis of human existence brought about by weapons technology.Second,the theoretical relevance of Marx’s concept of scientific and technical alienation is examined,as is the distinction between it and the criticism of instrumental rationality,as well as the inheritance and exploration with ecological Marxism.Finally,this study provides a practical route to prevent scientific and technological alienation by evaluating the peculiarities of present scientific and technological growth in conjunction with Marx’s theory of scientific and technological alienation.