Business ethics assignment
Please choose TWO (2) of the following three questions and answer them in a half-page to a page total.
1. What exactly does “estranged labor” mean, for Marx? The concept of “estranged labor” is more often translated as “alienated labor.” What is one important way in which modern industrial work “alienates” workers – and what does it alienate them *from*? Briefly explain, using at least one citation from the Marx reading.
Pg 490, Karl Marx, “Estranged Labor”
2. Dan Swain, in the midst of explaining Marx’s idea of estranged (or “alienated”) labor, spends a brief chapter expounding the Marxist idea of “commodity fetishism.” Briefly explain what this concept is supposed to mean, and provide an example of your own. What, if anything, is the connection between alienated labor and commodity fetishism?
3. In the chapter “Work, Leisure, and Full Engagement” Matthew Crawford criticizes Marx’s conception of alienated labor. What specifically is his point of disagreement with Marx? With whom do you agree more on this point, and why?
