Idle Talk 14 07 13 Email and the alienation of the worker

Nicola @nicola_patten joins @rhodders for another week of #philosophical talk and odd silly side track

This week we talked about Carl Marx' idea of #alienation. Defined in the simple terms as a feeling of being our of sorts with ones self and the world. Carl #Marx wrote that under a capitalist economic system society divides itself into two classes: the property owners and the property-less workers. In this arrangement, the workers not only suffer impoverishment but also experience an estrangement or alienation from the world. Fast forward a few years and the world of work has become even stranger. It is quite normal now to send an e-mail to somebody you are sitting opposite instead of talking to them face-to-face. We asked is there any truth in Marx’ theory of alienation and if so has technology and the way work now made the problem worse?

The Reading

Wolff, Jonathan, "Karl Marx", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/#2.2

KARL MARX- Spark Noates -http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/marx/section1.rhtml

Brave new work: Making the 9-5 somewhere you want to be By Fiona Graham BBC new website- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23260286

#business #email #office #philosophy #economics #technology