Marx and Arendt could not be further apart on the question of freedom’s relationship to economics. Marx sees the two as integrally linked, while Arendt thinks freedom occurs only in a realm transcendent of economics. Compare and contrast Marx’s and Arendt’s conceptions of freedom’s relationship to economics. Whose conception is more convincing, and why?
No longer than five (5) double-spaced pages
Read the following before answering:
1. Karl Marx, Selected Writings, ed. Lawrence H. Simon (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Selected-Works.pdf
Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” (pp. 54-55, 58-79)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) (pp. 157-176, plus last four paragraphs on p. 186)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology (1845-46), (Middle paragraph on p. 119, third paragraph on p. 129 through second paragraph on p. 131)
2. Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (1963), Introduction and Chapter 1, 2
https://monoskop.org/images/b/bf/Arendt_Hannah_On_Revolution_1990.pdf
3. Hannah Arendt, “What is Freedom?” (1961)*
4. Karl Marx, Fragment on association from “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”*
Karl Marx, Fragment on association from “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of
1844,” translated by Martin Mulligan.
“When communist artisans associate with one another, theory, propaganda, etc., is their first end.
But at the same time, as a result of this association, they acquire a new need – the need for
society – and what appears as a means becomes an end. In this practical process the most
splendid results are to be observed whenever French socialist workers are seen together. Such
things as smoking, drinking, eating, etc., are no longer means of contact or means that bring
them together. Association, society and conversation, which again has association as its end, are
enough for them; the brotherhood of man is no mere phrase with them, but a fact of life, and the
nobility of man shines upon us from their work-hardened bodies.”
