Marx's Concept of Human Nature and the Labor Theory of Value

Abstract

It is shown that Marx's concept of human nature underlies not only his analysis of alienation but also his broad outlines of the nature of social evolution; his basic concepts of capital, wage labor, and money. It is argued that all of these diverse strands of his theory are intellectually integrated by means of the labor theory of value. It is the author's opinion that this makes the labor theory of value the heart of Marx's entire analysis; with it Marx has a powerful, comprehensive, integrated system; without it he has merely a series of separate, unconnected insights.