Introduction

pp. 79-81

in: Peter Archibald, Marx and the missing link, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1989

Abstract

We have already seen not only that it is legitimate to look for psychic processes common to all human individuals in Marx's theorizing, but that it is probably necessary to do so if one wants to fully understand his theorizing. For example, it has been shown that Marx regarded the relative independence of capitalist relations of production from the conscious control of individuals to itself depend upon these individuals' indifference toward each other and their own labour. This indifference must be explained psycho-logically — at least in good part — and presumably such an explanation must in turn rely heavily upon assumptions about human nature in general.