Editing Karl Marx (section)

==== Human nature ====
{{further|Marx's theory of human nature}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = G.W.F. Hegel (by Sichling, after Sebbers).jpg
| image2 = Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach.jpg
| footer = The philosophers [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|G.W.F. Hegel]] (left) and [[Ludwig Feuerbach]], whose ideas on dialectics heavily influenced Marx
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Like Tocqueville, who described a faceless and bureaucratic [[despotism]] with no identifiable despot,<ref>[[Annelien de Dijn]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=a3SFelqBLw8C ''French Political Thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915142405/https://books.google.com/books?id=a3SFelqBLw8C&dq= |date=15 September 2015 }}, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 152.</ref> Marx also broke with classical thinkers who spoke of a single tyrant and with [[Montesquieu]], who discussed the nature of the single despot. Instead, Marx set out to analyse "the despotism of capital".<ref>Karl Marx. ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'', vol. 1, trans. [[Samuel Moore (translator of Das Kapital)|Samuel Moore]] and Edward Aveling (New York: Modem Library, 1906), 440.</ref> Fundamentally, Marx assumed that [[human history]] involves transforming [[human nature]], which encompasses both human beings and material objects.<ref name="Ollman1973"/> Humans recognise that they possess both actual and potential selves.<ref name = "Marx_labour">Marx K (1999). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch07.htm "The labour-process and the process of producing surplus-value".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018135115/http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch07.htm |date=18 October 2010 }} In K Marx, ''Das Kapital'' (Vol. 1, Ch. 7). Marxists.org. Retrieved 20 October 2010. Original work published 1867.</ref><ref name = "Marx_critique">See Marx K (1997). "Critique of Hegel's dialectic and philosophy in general". In K Marx, ''Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society'' (LD Easton & KH Guddat, Trans.), pp. 314–47. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Original work published 1844.</ref> 

For both Marx and Hegel, self-development begins with an experience of internal [[Marx's theory of alienation|alienation]] stemming from this recognition, followed by a realisation that the actual self, as a [[Subject (philosophy)|subjective]] agent, renders its potential counterpart an [[Object (philosophy)|object]] to be apprehended.<ref name="Marx_critique"/> Marx further argues that by moulding nature<ref name = "Lefever">See also Lefever DM; Lefever JT (1977). "Marxian alienation and economic organisation: An alternate view". ''The American Economist (21)'' 2, pp. 40–48.</ref> in desired ways<ref name = "Holland_desire">See also Holland EW (2005). "Desire". In CJ Stivale (Ed.), ''Gilles Deleuze: Key Concepts'', pp. 53–62. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press.</ref> the subject takes the object as its own and thus permits the individual to be actualised as fully human. For Marx, the [[Marx's theory of human nature|human nature]]&nbsp;– {{lang|de|Gattungswesen}}, or [[species-being]]&nbsp;– exists as a function of human labour.<ref name="Marx_labour"/><ref name="Marx_critique"/><ref name="Holland_desire"/> 

Fundamental to Marx's idea of meaningful labour is the proposition that for a subject to come to terms with its alienated object it must first exert influence upon literal, [[materialism|material objects]] in the subject's world.<ref name = "Marx_objects"/> Marx acknowledges that Hegel "grasps the nature of work and comprehends objective man, authentic because actual, as the result of his {{em|own work}}",<ref name = "Marx_work">Marx (1997), p. 321, emphasis in original.</ref> but characterises Hegelian self-development as unduly "spiritual" and abstract.<ref name = "Marx_spiritual">Marx (1997), p. 324.</ref> 

Marx thus departs from Hegel by insisting that "the fact that man is a corporeal, actual, sentient, objective being with natural capacities means that he has actual, sensuous objects for his nature as objects of his life-expression, or that he can only express his life in actual sensuous objects".<ref name = "Marx_objects">Marx (1997), p. 325, emphasis in original.</ref> Consequently, Marx revises Hegelian "work" into material "[[labour (economics)|labour]]" and in the context of human capacity to transform nature the term "[[labour power]]".<ref name=sep/>