The End of Utility: Marx, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Human Flourishing
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2025
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| author | Revista, Zen PHILOSOPHY, 10 |
| author_facet | Revista, Zen PHILOSOPHY, 10 |
| contents | This paper critically examines the concept of utility as the foundational metric for human well-being within economic and ethical thought, arguing for its fundamental inadequacy from a Marxist materialist perspective. By delving into Karl Marx's extensive critique of political economy, we demonstrate how the notion of utility, far from being a universal and objective measure of satisfaction, is deeply embedded in the reified social relations and alienated production processes characteristic of capitalism. Marx's materialism offers a profound alternative, grounding human needs and flourishing not in subjective preferences or quantitative aggregates, but in the concrete, historical development of human capacities and the social organization of production. We contend that true human flourishing, or "rich individuality," as conceptualized by Marx, necessitates a transcendence of utility-driven calculations and the alienated conditions that produce them. The paper elaborates on how Marx envisions a society where the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all, moving beyond the narrow confines of consumer satisfaction to embrace a holistic, qualitative understanding of human fulfillment. This exploration reveals that for Marx, the pursuit of genuine human flourishing marks "the end of utility" as a meaningful ethical or economic criterion, advocating instead for a revolutionary transformation of society that prioritizes human emancipation and the collective realization of species-being. |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_17757925 |
| institution | Zenodo |
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| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | The End of Utility: Marx, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Human Flourishing Revista, Zen PHILOSOPHY, 10 This paper critically examines the concept of utility as the foundational metric for human well-being within economic and ethical thought, arguing for its fundamental inadequacy from a Marxist materialist perspective. By delving into Karl Marx's extensive critique of political economy, we demonstrate how the notion of utility, far from being a universal and objective measure of satisfaction, is deeply embedded in the reified social relations and alienated production processes characteristic of capitalism. Marx's materialism offers a profound alternative, grounding human needs and flourishing not in subjective preferences or quantitative aggregates, but in the concrete, historical development of human capacities and the social organization of production. We contend that true human flourishing, or "rich individuality," as conceptualized by Marx, necessitates a transcendence of utility-driven calculations and the alienated conditions that produce them. The paper elaborates on how Marx envisions a society where the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all, moving beyond the narrow confines of consumer satisfaction to embrace a holistic, qualitative understanding of human fulfillment. This exploration reveals that for Marx, the pursuit of genuine human flourishing marks "the end of utility" as a meaningful ethical or economic criterion, advocating instead for a revolutionary transformation of society that prioritizes human emancipation and the collective realization of species-being. |
| title | The End of Utility: Marx, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Human Flourishing |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17757925 |