Abstract
The alienation theory was sketched briefly in the account of the main concepts of Marxism above. As was indicated there, considerable controversy surrounds the theory The largest controversy concerns the role of the theory in the work of Marx from 1845 onwards, and I indicated my agreement with the view that it is basically dropped. However, there is also some debate as to whether the young Marx adopted the theory from Feuerbach or where he subscribes to a more historical version of the concept taken from Hegel. In what follows I shall simply assume that any version of the theory has some link with Marx. My focus will be on the possible usefulness of the theory for explaining crime.
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Notes
Charles Fourier, Le nouveau monde amoureux, Oeuvres complètes de Charles Fourier, VII, Paris: Anthropos, 1967.
See, for example, Sheila Jeffreys, The Idea of Prostitution, North Melbourne, Victoria: Spinifex, 1997;
Kathleen Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality, New York: New York University Press, 1995.
For an interesting version of this argument see Jonathan Hughes, Ecology and Historical Materialism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, ch. 3.
This pastiche of radical feminism is put together from: Andrea Dworkin, Intercourse, London: Secker & Warburg, 1987 and Pornography: Men Possessing Women, London: Women’s Press, 1981;
Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her, London: Women’s Press, 1984;
Mary Daly, Gyn/ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, London: Women’s Press, 1979;
Adrienne Rich, Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence, London: Onlywomen Press, 1981.
Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own, (trans. Steven T. Byington), New York: Benjamin R. Tucker, 1907.
For an account which claims to show Marx does have a theory of human nature, but actually demonstrates that the account in the older Marx is a thin one on the lines of that which is put forward here, see Norman Geras, Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend, London: Verso, 1983, pp. 72–82.
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© 2008 Mark Cowling
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Cowling, M. (2008). Alienation. In: Marxism and Criminological Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234710_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234710_8
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