Mechanization, Capitalism, Socialism

The charge that Capitalism is inherently exploitative, and, hence, is essentially unjust, constitutes one facet of Marx's Moral justification of Socialism.  Another is that, by classifying workers as commodities, Capitalism dehumanizes them.  Now, while that judgment can be associated with Kant's prohibition of treating others as mere means, it originates in Marx's most fundamental Philosophical orientation.  For, while Dialectical Materialism is often recognized as a counter to Hegelian Dialectical Idealism, it is also an alternative to Mechanistic Materialism, which, in turn, presupposes Atomism, the target of his earliest project, concerning Democritus.  In other words, his most fundamental Philosophical objection to Capitalism is that it is a species of Mechanistic Materialism, a system that is perhaps best exemplified by its treatment of a worker as a piece of machinery.  But, the mechanization of society is pervasive, since the system also entails a general Mechanistic Psychology, in which even the exploiters of the Proletariat are conceived as mere machines.  So, one defense of Socialism is that it is more vital than is Capitalism, entailing that the beneficiaries of the latter would, as much as their victims, benefit from a transition to the former.