19th- and 20th-Century Philosophy: Marx, Nietzsche, Ortega y Gasset and Existentialism
What this domain tests
The contemporary block tests historically situated critiques of modern philosophy. For Marx you need historical materialism, alienation, ideology and surplus value. For Nietzsche, the will to power, genealogy of morals, revaluation, eternal recurrence and perspectivism. For Ortega, vital reason, circumstance, perspectivism and the mass man. Existentialism contributes existence precedes essence, freedom, bad faith, anguish and being-toward-death.
Core rules and concepts
- Marx: the base is the mode of production; the superstructure includes law, politics and culture. Consciousness is shaped by social being, but ideology masks class interests. Alienation has four dimensions: from the product, the labor process, species-being and other persons. Surplus value is extracted when unpaid labor exceeds the value of wages.
- Nietzsche: morality is genealogically examined; master morality values strength and nobility, slave morality revalues weakness as goodness. The death of God exposes the need for revaluation. Will to power is not mere domination but the drive to expand and overcome; eternal recurrence is a test of affirmation; perspectivism denies a God's-eye view without collapsing into relativism.
- Ortega: 'I am myself and my circumstance' makes life the primary reality; vital reason combines biography and history. Perspectivism holds that each perspective is partial but real. Mass man is the uninhibited average person who demands rights without responsibilities.
- Existentialism: for Sartre, existence precedes essence; freedom is radical, and bad faith is the denial of freedom. Heidegger's being-toward-death individualizes existence.
Worked example
Analyze factory labor with Marx's alienation. The worker does not own the product, so it confronts him as an alien power (product). The process is externally controlled, so activity is not self-realization (process). Labor does not express human species-being as conscious, free production (species-being). Competition and exchange estrange persons from one another (others). Then link this to ideology: the wage form appears to pay for all labor, concealing surplus value. A strong answer distinguishes description from normative critique and notes that Marx does not reduce all culture to economics mechanically.
Traps
Nietzsche is not a Nazi prophet; his sister's editing distorted the Nachlass. Ortega's perspectivism is not skepticism: perspectives disclose reality partially. Marx is not a simple economic determinist who denies relative autonomy to politics and culture. Sartrean freedom is situated, not omnipotent. Do not turn existentialism into quietism.