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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

According to Marx, how are human beings alienated from their human potential and what does he suggest to change this?

  • UPSC 2018
  • Sociological Thinkers

For Karl Marx, what makes us human is labour as free, conscious and creative activity: we shape nature by design and, in doing so, develop ourselves. He called this potential species-being (Gattungswesen). The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844) argue that capitalism turns this defining capacity against the person who has it.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Human potential in Marx
  • How capitalism alienates people from that potential
  • What Marx suggests to change this
  • Assessment
  • Conclusion

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