The concept of happiness on Karl Marx

As one of the basic concepts of ethics happiness is the final aim which all people regardless worldview whether secular or religious attempt to reach. Happiness which is based on practically oriented theoretical explanations seems generally to be reduced to or consists merely of individual conditions. What is aimed at with this thesis is to present from Marx's point of view the possibility of transforming the aims of individuals into improvement and realization of their human potentials. These aims are however hindered by economic relationships in civil society and they are reduced to accummulating activity of money and eventually capital. This dissertation investigating the concept of happiness in philosophical and economic work of Karl Marx consists of two main parts: The theories of happiness as the origin of Marx and the theory of happiness in Marx. In the first part in which the theories of happiness before Marx are adressed, after having presented Demokritos's appraoch briefly, the ideas of Aristotle, Aquinas and Hegel about happiness are dealt with broadly by including political and economic perspectives. No doubt, these philosophers do not represent all of the philosophical sources of Marx about happiness; however, it presents the most important ones. In the second part, Marx's own ideas are presented. Within this context, the ideas of philosophers in the first part are both criticised and indicated to their continuation in Marx. Marx constitutes the continuation of Hegelian legacy which forms the synthesis of the principle regarding to development of human capacities basen on Aristotelian concept of "well-being" and Kantian principle of the human's aiming at other humans. Marx's two major works are adressed in this dissertation. The first of these is Communist Manifestation written together with Friedrich Engels and the second one is Capital aiming at critique of political economy. Capital is dealt with as developing historical and logical arguments for the claims presented in Communist Manifestation. Once these two works are taken together, it may be seen that these two works present the external conditions for the realization of happiness in this world. Keywords: Human Nature, Labour, Happiness, Alienation, Commodity, Surplus-Value.