Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5, 1499-1507 2025 Publisher: Learning Gate DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate History: Received: 18 February 2025; Revised: 23 April 2025; Accepted: 28 April 2025; Published: 14 May 2025 * Correspondence: nguyenanhquoc@hcmussh.edu.vn Individuals, work, and coercion: A philosophical critique of freedom, creativity, and property in a commodity economy Dinh Van Chien1, Nguyen Thanh Minh2, Nguyen Anh Quoc3* 1,3University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; nguyenanhquoc@hcmussh.edu.vn (N.A.Q.). 2University of Education, Hue University, Vietnam Abstract: This article aims to systematically criticize forced individual work in the modern commodity economy, thereby re-discussing the nature of free work, creativity, and ownership in human life. The author raises the question: When work is no longer a manifestation of human nature but becomes a tool to serve money, fame, and social norms, can individuals still live as free, creative, and responsible subjects? Using the method of systemic philosophy combined with sociological criticism, the article examines the relationship between individuals, work, means of production, products, and spiritual life— thereby pointing out the mechanism of "ownership of others" as a typical form of coercion in modern society. The analysis is deployed in an interdisciplinary framework that includes human philosophy, existentialism, sociology, political economy, and sociobiology, helping to clarify the forms of coercion from material to spiritual. The research results show that coercion is no longer limited to industrial work but has penetrated emotional, sexual, moral, and linguistic relationships. Individuals are turned into tools in the exchange system, where the value of life is replaced by price. From there, the article emphasizes that work—if not associated with freedom and creativity—will lead to the loss of human identity. In conclusion, the article affirms that only by restoring the creative nature and intrinsic value of work can individuals overcome coercion and realize freedom as an actual condition of life in modern society. Keywords: “Owning others”, Coercion, Creativity, Freedom, Work. 1. Introduction The relationship between individuals, work, and coercion is becoming increasingly complex and alarming in the modern commodity economy. Developing productive forces and the comprehensive monetization process expand human creativity and choice and pose profound philosophical challenges about human nature, freedom, and the meaning of individual life. The central question is: How can individuals in a system dominated by money, institutions, and norms retain their self-mastery, maintain their creative capacity, and realize freedom humanely? This article raises the question: When work – the core expression of human nature – is forced into a means of earning a living, can human dignity still be affirmed through its products? When external norms and mass consumption mechanisms shape individual lifestyles, can freedom still be an expression of individual creativity or just an unconscious imitation of artificial values? Moreover, when "owning others" – that is, living off the products and labor of others – becomes a common way of life, where is the boundary between freedom and dependence, humanity and inhumanity? Through systematic and critical philosophical analysis, the article not only clarifies the forms of coercion operating in modern society but also aims at a humanistic possibility: restoring the meaning of freedom and creativity of work as a foundation for humans to be themselves – not as tools, but as a complete subject of needs, abilities, and love. https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8454-2681 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6387-2653 1500 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate 2. Overview of the Research Situation of the Topic The issue of coercion in work was raised very early in the history of Western philosophy, especially since [1] time with his theory of human coercion in work (Entfremdung). In his 1844 economic- philosophical manuscripts, Marx criticized the division of labor and private property as alienating people from the product, the production process, themselves, and their fellow human beings. This concept laid the foundation for later studies on the relationship between the individual, work, and social structure – from the Marxist tradition to the postmodern schools. In existential philosophy, Heidegger [2] and Sartre [3] focused on the "falling into the world" of human beings, where individuals easily lose their identity through unconscious actions guided by the technocratic system, the market, and hypocrisy. From the existential perspective, coercion is linked to work and losing inner freedom when people live as "things-to-be-arranged" rather than as creative subjects. In sociology, [4] spoke of "anomie" – a state of confusion in which individuals find no direction in modern social life, where moral norms are fragmented. Weber [5] meanwhile, argued that the rationalization of modern life leads to an "iron cage" of instrumental reason, where procedures, processes, and systems stifle individuals. In contemporary studies, the issue of coercion is extended from the material work space to the immaterial realms: intellectual, emotional, creative, and digital work. The Frankfurt School, with scholars such as Marcuse [6] and Adorno and Horkheimer [7] emphasizes manipulating the individual's spirit in consumer society, where needs are artificially manufactured to maintain the system of domination. In Hochschild [8] "emotional labor" studies, individuals sell their labor and emotions, leading to a contradiction between social expression and inner self. In the context of the modern knowledge economy and technology, studies of work in the age of AI, digitization, and the sharing economy (gig economy) reveal a new form of coercion—where individuals are content creators and objects are analyzed, consumed, and labeled by algorithmic systems. Zuboff [9] studies on "surveillance capitalism" have exposed how individuals are turned into data and how life is regulated by systems that manipulate behavior. In addition, philosophical studies on work are still mainly within the traditional Marxist theoretical framework, focusing on the relationship between workers, means of production, and issues of inequality in value distribution. However, few studies have extended this issue to personal life, creativity, lifestyle, or the reification of moral and emotional values in consumer society. This article, therefore, has the novelty of combining systematic philosophical analysis with sociological criticism to deeply examine coercion not only in material work but also in forms of spiritual work, sexuality, language, and personal relationships – aspects that are increasingly dominated by norms, money, and inhuman institutions. The overview shows that coercion is no longer a problem of industrial work but a universal condition in modern life. In a society dominated by goods, markets, and standardization, individuals risk losing themselves – from the freedom of creativity to the ability to perceive humanity. This is the reason for the need for a new philosophical approach – not only to identify the manifestations of coercion but also to trace the nature, mechanism, and possibility of liberating individuals from dependence on external values. 3. Research Method The article uses the method of systematic and critical philosophy as the basis for approaching the problem. Systemic philosophy allows for analyzing the relationship between individuals, work, ownership, creativity, and standards in a dialectical whole, where the elements do not exist separately but interact, bind, and determine each other. On that basis, the critical method is applied to deconstruct concepts such as "freedom", "creativity", "property", and "norms" when they are commodified or manipulated by social institutions, money, and external values. In addition, the article integrates interdisciplinary analysis – including biology, sociology, economics, and existentialism, especially human philosophy and social philosophy – to clarify the operation of forms of work and coercion in modern life, not only at the level of material production but also in behavior, lifestyle, and spiritual life. 1501 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Using qualitative methods to analyze, compare, synthesize, and contrast classical philosophical sources with contemporary social theories allows us to expand the analytical framework, re-questioning human nature, life values , and the possibility of individual liberation in a commodity economy. With the inversion method, pointing out the transformation between "necessity and freedom, "ability and need", "means and purpose", "subject and product" in pointing out "ownership of others" makes standard life and money become popular, become instinctive. 4. Discussion 4.1. Individual, Means of Production, and Work Individual life and means of production are inherently unified entities, and no absolute boundary exists between them. However, when individuals separate themselves from purely biological functions through work and social division of labor, they express human nature through their abilities and needs - factors that create individual differences. This diversity of abilities and needs not only reflects biological characteristics but is also the result of individualization and social creation. In realizing needs, individuals are no longer passive results of living conditions but become active subjects who design and re-create themselves. Personal life results from individual creative action – each person becomes a unique entity with distinct potential. Work – especially when separating manual work from oral work – is a means for individuals to demonstrate their ability to master their lives. The ability to produce, own, organize, and choose a career is a manifestation of "owning oneself" in the most profound sense: the right to shape oneself and the means of production. From basic survival needs such as food and shelter to the ability to adapt and create, individuals assert themselves as subjects of evolution. Each creative subject is a unique, characteristic lifestyle. Therefore, each lifestyle is a way of adapting to circumstances. When lifestyle becomes a habit and a life goal, the individual's right to life is realized through diverse activities, from instinctive activities to work, sex, communication, and creativity. Individuals must adapt creatively to changing conditions – from moderation and asceticism to building reasonable, effective lifestyles. Work is not simply a condition for survival but also an expression of human nature. When carried out with passion and diligence, work becomes a joy, an end in itself, and an expression of freedom. Freedom in work – the ability to choose work, profession, and social position – is a clear sign of personal development in a market economy. These are "features of the labor process" [10]. However, when the mere goal of making money determines work, it loses creativity and becomes a compulsion. Work is no longer a passion when life becomes a compulsion. However, passion, discipline, and diligence in work have made humanity's evolution: the division of work, the diversity of occupations, the development of individual abilities, and the differentiation of living standards. However, lifestyles and social positions are always governed by the relationship between abilities and needs. The imbalance – between needs and conditions to meet them, between individual abilities and social demands – is the source of unhappiness, powerlessness, and injustice. When individual abilities are no longer enough to satisfy their needs but are exploited to serve social needs, individuals become means. However, abilities can still be developed through tools, devices, and creative achievements – from microscopes to artificial intelligence (AI). The means of production are no longer the absolute dominant factor; they have become creativity. The more difficult the circumstances, the more creative individuals can be. On the contrary, when living conditions are too perfect, individuals may risk losing their motivation to develop; therefore, in the effort to survive and innovate, humans always seek to choose their living environment, make tools, and produce products. Although products are a product of individuals, they only have value when socialized - that is, they become everyday needs. At that time, the scope of individual freedom expanded, and individuals - as creative subjects - became social products. Because it is in social relations that individual products are recognized, exchanged, and developed. From knowledge to machines, from robots to AI - all are the materialization of human capacity. Those tools are extensions of the individual's body and senses, connected to life to form a new unity - individuals are realized through their products. The evolution of humanity is not only a biological evolution but also a process of 1502 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate transformation from instinctive life to free, creative life in the production process of the commodity economy. In the commodity economy, freedom in work becomes the most typical expression of freedom. Farmers, doctors, intellectuals, and business people – all express their personal qualities, abilities, and ethics through the products of their work. Human life's value, meaning, and survival are closely linked to work – not only as a condition of life but also as a means of realizing freedom, dignity, and creativity. Individual evaluation cannot be based solely on moral standards or lifestyle, which can easily lead to metaphysics. It must be done through work products - where productivity, efficiency, and value indicators are clarified. Work is how individuals face their nature truly and concretely. At that time, work is not only inevitable but also becomes the first condition for living an authentic life - where joy, happiness, and freedom begin from the creativity of each individual. Each individual satisfies life not only with abilities but also with needs. However, abilities and needs are not synchronized and unified, making life helpless, unhappy, and unjust. Therefore, a fair society is a society that no longer discriminates between forms of work, where all contributions - from verbal to manual work - are evaluated based on real effectiveness. It is the foundation for cooperation, understanding, and sharing between individuals and communities, regardless of religious or class differences. 4.2. Work, Creativity, and Individual Coercion in the Commodity Economy Creativity is fundamental for individuals to affirm their position and capacity in performing their natural functions and assigned social roles, making "humans effectively identify with a social role" [11]. When creative capacity is liberated, individual strength does not stop at physical or intellectual. However, it is transformed into the product's strength - where personality is expressed, qualities are tempered, and abilities are established. However, when work is forced, individuals lose their role as subjects and become slaves of the products they create. Forced work – no longer arising from internal needs but becoming a tool to serve foreign, inhuman values – leads to alienation from one's products and fellow human beings. In this case, forced living not only deprives people of freedom and creative joy but also creates inhuman products – a manifestation of oppression, artificiality, and insensitivity. In a commodity economy – especially when the market is thoroughly monetized – such products destroy creativity and go against life and humanity. Even language, a tool to maintain community life, can become a manipulation tool, leading to coercion and the destruction of spiritual survival. In the conditions of the modern commodity market, coercion no longer occurs in a brutal form. However, it operates sophisticatedly through the norms, markets, and money mechanisms. When external standards program creativity, work loses its freedom, and the individual loses identity. Each person is a tool for creating goods and an object of consumption - a vicious cycle in which their products determine personal value, and work becomes cheaper than the goods they produce. From there, selling work means selling dreams, aspirations, and joys of life, making work a means to earn money rather than a purpose of life. Work, which is a means of connecting society through the exchange of products, is only significant when workers work with their intelligence and hands in a spirit of freedom, without deception, without fear, without competition. Human qualities are clearly shown through health, intelligence, thrift, a sense of responsibility, and respect for life. By loving oneself and one's product, the individual develops social responsibility and a sense of humanity – even in a market dominated by money. However, "innovation is essential to the expansion of the economy in the modern world" [12]. On the contrary, a life guided by money makes work an instrument of coercion. Work negates creativity when the individual no longer works for joy or freedom but for values beyond himself, such as money, status, or power. In such a state, human functions are degraded to the level of biological functions, and human products are transformed into inhuman instruments of consumption. Even basic needs such as food, rest, and sex – which should be linked to creative life – are isolated and become standardized and manipulated means of consumption. When creative functions are regulated by rigid norms and glorified as ultimate goals, individual life is fundamentally reversed: animal instincts are humanized, while the spirit of creative freedom is rejected. Work and the individual are commodified, becoming means of production and objects of public sale. Buying a job is selling a job, making a job a job 1503 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate market; each individual who wants a job turns himself into a commodity. Competition and division of labor in a commodity society, which is inherently expected to be the foundation of development, becomes the cause of coercion. In that context, money is not only a means of exchange but also a goal of life. Work loses its intrinsic value and becomes a tool to chase money. People who do not work - unless forced - are labeled as lazy and useless, while the problem is not only with the individual but with the social structure that has turned work into a tool to serve inhumane values. Both lazy and hard-working people are trapped in a paradoxical cycle. The joy of work is associated with sufficiency, freedom, and respect. On the contrary, the desire for money arises from lack, helplessness, and pressure. When the product of work no longer serves the individual but serves power, war, or domination – from environmentally destructive technology to weapons of mass destruction – work is forced to the extreme. Creativity initially serves the individual but gradually becomes a tool for the individual to serve it: machines, AI, and engineering technology become the dominant center. Individuals consume and are consumed, becoming part of the goods' production and consumption process. Work only truly has human meaning when it expresses freedom, creativity, and dignity. When work is forced by institutions, markets, or social customs, the individual loses his identity, and the product loses its humanistic orientation. Restoring the human meaning of work is, therefore, not only restoring individual freedom but also a fundamental condition for moving toward sustainable development. In the context of population growth and scarce employment, a part still exists by manual work – that is a historical reality. At the same time, another part adapts by changing the form of work, leading to the emergence of new occupations – reflecting the change in the structure of demand and the object of work; it is "being prepared for change, and exhibiting creative work behavior" [13]. When individuals depend on each other, life becomes a dependent relationship – a form we call "laziness"- not directly working to produce but still consuming thanks to others. Laziness manifests in many forms: begging, living on charity, inheritance, theft, or relying on social policies. What they have in common is the appropriation of the products of other people's work in the form of "other ownership" – people living off the work of others through a creative, non-productive lifestyle. When "ownership of others" is legitimized in the division of labor, the antagonism of interests between individuals becomes inevitable. This antagonism creates two poles: on the one hand, creativity helps individuals affirm the nature of work; on the other hand, forced work turns individuals into means of production. While creative work leads to development based on human capacity, forced work leads to product dependence, where individuals are objectified and lose their freedom. Forced work also creates a herd mentality in social life; norms are imposed, money becomes a universal need, and individuals are dominated by their products. Individuals create many life forms from material needs such as food, water, and shelter. However, the whole of life is regulated by work – in which creativity creates civilization, and coercion leads to coercion. When work products become standardized "spiritual food", individuals are no longer free to perceive but must "digest" according to regulations – the loss of creativity in their lives. 4.3. Inhuman Lifestyle in a Commodity Economy In a commodity economy, each individual is not only a subject to be developed but also becomes an object of consumption. Making money can be based on caring for consumers as customers or exploiting workers' talents to the fullest. In any form, this is a process of reproducing abilities and needs – that is, creating new living conditions. Creativity, therefore, is an economic act and a means to realize the right to life. When a lifestyle reaches its perfection, it reflects freedom and happiness and becomes a form of expression of human nature. However, when the individual lives against his or her needs and abilities and when the individual is used as a means to satisfy others – whether through sex, material things, or employment relationships – freedom is distorted into dependence. Inhumane lifestyles appear when behaviors no longer come from human needs but from coercion by money, norms, or herd instincts. At that time, norms were no longer the crystallization of common morality but became tools to control behavior, causing individuals to lose their humanity unconsciously. Deviance in social life often appears as standardizing anti-human values because "norms are rules of conduct" [14]. 1504 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate When norms are identified with instincts - as in animals - humanity is eliminated. On the contrary, when norms are sanctified - for example, sacrifice, asceticism, or self-denial - they become tools to maintain deceptive values, products of powerlessness and oppression. Sex is a typical example. In animals, it is instinct; In the individual, it is associated with freedom, creativity, and responsibility. However, when sex is made into a special commodity – whether under the guise of marriage, love, fidelity, or morality – it easily becomes a source of discrimination, suffering, and prejudice that becomes sexual coercion. The assessment of personal dignity based on sexual ability or need represents a distortion of norms that makes the morality of sexual life a coercion. While rape is a violation of morality and law, impotence is painted as a virtue – a paradoxical permutation of values. When sex is separated from the real needs and abilities of the individual, it becomes just another behavior regulated by money, standards, or animal instincts. Forms such as forced marriage and sacrifice for status or fame are essentially another manifestation of unhappiness – they cannot represent happiness, nor can they express humanity. People who desire freedom, creativity, and happiness do not accept an imposed lifestyle. They want to live honestly with themselves because that is the only way to not lose life – not only in the biological sense but also in the existential sense. The alien way of life – operating not for the individual but for money, standards, or material values – negates human nature. Even with a moral color, every act can become forced in that context. You need help but are forbidden or forced to help even though you are incapable, leading to helplessness, unhappiness, and hypocrisy in seemingly noble acts. Relationships between people do not need standards if they are based on sincerity. Standards only appear when trust in the individual and the truth is broken. When individuals live as private entities, separate from the community, they operate as irresponsible subjects and turn their needs and abilities into two opposing poles of "voice and accountability" [15]. Moral values and evils are intertwined in the "ownership of others" system and forced labor division. Workers are treated differently not based on human qualities but according to benefits, money, and artificial standards. From there, "help" is no longer love but becomes a tool to serve an inhuman system. "Owning others" are willing to trade their lives, torture themselves in pursuit of money and fame, losing themselves in the process. Creativity – human nature – is demeaned, while standardization becomes a game of power. The creator is pushed away from the center of human life. However pitiful or blameworthy, the individuals who live this despised way of life are not the cause but the victims of a distorted life system. They become deceitful, lazy, and self-deprecating – but the problem is not the individual but the forced way of life that turns individuals against themselves and each other. 4.4. Forced Norms and Money When standards are absolutized and identified with truth, even "hating" others can be justified as a legitimate behavior. A person who cannot live true to himself will easily fall into jealousy, fabrication, and slander and sink deeper into the spiral of lies and pretense. He loses his inner freedom and becomes a tool to serve social standards and exchange values - fame and money- a matter of "financial independence" [16]. Even a creative lifestyle - which contains the potential for personal liberation - becomes weak and powerless when isolated from the material and social conditions for its realization. It can be disguised as tact, sacrifice, or politeness, but it is not strong enough to spread and transform reality. Creativity becomes only a moral symbol imprisoned in loneliness and poverty when it cannot be expressed in concrete actions. Standards and money are only means, but once they are deified, they become life's goals. On the contrary, freedom, creativity, and happiness - which should be the salvation of human life - are degraded into tools to achieve inhuman values. When alien lifestyles dominate, individuals are caught in a vortex of exchange: selling themselves to buy wealth, honor, and social recognition. Every social interaction is turned into a transaction. Self-acceptance becomes a luxury, while selling oneself becomes a daily tragedy. Human values are imprisoned in the framework of norms and currencies. When these become the equivalent of personality, they also shape a "new individual" – inhuman, mass-produced by modern society that has "shifts in the business landscapes" [17]. 1505 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Norms are a form of social need, and like all needs, they can be exploited as a means of profit. As long as qualities such as refinement, politeness, intelligence, or gentleness are still highly valued by society, laziness and hypocrisy can exploit them for profit. Thus, a class always exists that specializes in producing and maintaining norms through preaching morality, calling for conformity, and promoting precepts and rituals – from religious life to mass media. The profit from exploiting individual needs is "saying one thing, doing another". The individual is a unified whole of needs and abilities, but when separated into standards and exchange values - money - those parts operate independently, in opposition to the individual himself. When they become "other people's property" - they turn around and dominate the individual's life. The lie that arises from the desire to get rich and achieve nobility at all costs makes the individual torture himself in an inhumane way of life. Money and standards become products of unhappiness, powerlessness, and hypocrisy. Those who do not realize this will continue to be attracted and dominated by the symbols of that unhappiness. The psychological compensation brought by money and standards only prolongs the state of internal coercion. The individual, in essence, is a free, creative, and happy entity. However, when life values are determined by money and norms - the intermediaries for defining and exchanging values - the individual becomes a tool. Money and norms become the social measure for all relationships, which leads to injustice, discrimination, and coercion. While individual values are universal, "individual prices" are determined by historical circumstances and temporary economic structures. From there, the need to abolish "other ownership" - the inhuman privatization of norms - arises. When "other ownership" is not linked to creative work, it becomes a social burden. Forced work makes the individual a slave to the means of living, while absolutized norms make the individual a slave to stereotypes. Both lead to the same end: poverty and dependence. Even the materially rich but insatiably greedy still live in inner unhappiness, but these are "positive money attitudes" [18]. Money and standards become instinctive needs, but they are expressions of the powerlessness and lies that dominate society. Humanity is eliminated when the entire social structure is organized to serve money and standards, and human life becomes empty. "Owning others" embodies possession, greed, and coercion. Abolishing this form is not extreme but liberating humanity - like fighting corruption or eliminating robbery. When "Owning others" is regulated by progressive taxation and economic transparency, it dissolves itself as an absolute owner. This is the premise for the emergence of standard forms of ownership. However, even in the process, new norms are generated, continuing to reproduce another form of slavery – normative slavery. Only when "owning others" and inhumane ways of life are eliminated can humanity return to its free, creative, and happy self. The deepest pain lies not in material loss but in the act of self-denial, of self-coercion. When money and norms are deified, they become tools for excluding the individual from real life. Regarding the means of production, the individual is a free and creative subject who uses "the latest technologies" [19]. In work, the individual expresses his or her whole nature as a historical product and a history maker. However, discrimination inevitably arises when work is coerced and lifestyles are standardized. Unhappiness is not evil but is conditioned by inhuman norms and rules of exchange. Fame, status, standards, and wealth should not be praised because they express a life of compulsion. Those who hold these values without creative work live on the misfortune of others and themselves. When money and standards become false universal goals, they fragment human values. "Owning others" here is not the object to be destroyed, but the form to be liberated – for the individual to return to himself, that is, "a just and equitable transition exists" [20]. Personal buying and selling become meaningless when work and life are free, creative, and happy. Human nature is freedom. Therefore, the only thing the individual needs to do is be human. When individuals tend to create means of production, it is more necessary to return to their essence – their needs, abilities, and love for their fellow human beings. The comprehensive and practical "possession of others" is to give back to the individual the right to be himself – as a subject of needs, abilities, creativity, and love. Enslaved people or free people, unhappy people or happy people – all are products of the individual himself. Therefore, the individual decides on his happiness, a "distinct need" [21]. 1506 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate 5. Results Through systematic analysis and criticism, the article has shown that individuals in the modern commodity economy face coercion in material work, spiritual life, creativity, sexuality, and social relations. Work—the fundamental expression of human freedom and dignity—has been distorted into a tool to serve external values such as money, fame, or artificial moral standards. From there, individuals lose their right to master themselves, and life becomes a series of behaviors programmed by consumption, division of labor, and competition. The research results also show that coercion is not simply an inevitable consequence of economic development but the consequence of a life structure dominated by "other ownership" – the appropriation of other people's work, products, and standards. The article asserts that only by restoring the meaning of freedom, creativity, and work as intrinsic values of the individual can human liberation from dependence and coercion be truly feasible in modern society. 6. Conclusion The article has made it clear that in the context of the modern commodity economy, the individual is no longer the center of creativity but is increasingly pushed into a position of submission to the institutions of production, consumption, and social norms. Coercion occurs not only in manual work but extends to all forms of mental work - from language and emotions to sex and moral values. When work no longer originates from internal needs but is dominated by money and the market, the individual loses his or her identity, and the product loses its humanistic orientation. The concept of "ownership of others" is introduced as a form of expression of inhuman power, showing that the ownership relationship is no longer purely material but is the appropriation of other people's living and creative abilities. On this critical basis, the article emphasizes that individual liberation cannot be achieved by technical or moral reforms alone but requires a restructuring of the understanding of work, ownership, and freedom. Work needs to be restored as an activity with intrinsic value – where people express their abilities, needs, and dignity in their creativity. Only when the individual returns to his or her true self – as a free, creative, and responsible entity – can society overcome the total coercion that quietly dominates all aspects of life. 7. Value, Limitations and Further Research The article clarifies the nature and mechanism of coercion in modern personal life, not only from the perspective of economics – work but also from the perspective of lifestyle, norms, sexuality, emotions, and social relations. This study's outstanding value lies in combining systematic philosophical analysis with sociological criticism, thereby expanding the concept of "work" as a comprehensive expression of human life. Creativity, needs, abilities, and personal dignity converge in this place. Introducing the concept of "other-ownership" as a coercive living structure is also a new theoretical contribution to analyzing power relations, ownership, and human values in consumer society. However, the article still has some limitations, especially in the empirical and quantitative aspects. The arguments are mainly based on theoretical and critical analysis, so sociological surveys, real data, or specific case studies must supplement them. In the future, the research direction can be expanded to areas such as digital work, platform economy, AI, and the transformation of personal identity in the digital environment – where coercion is taking place in new and more sophisticated forms. Transparency: The authors confirm that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study; that no vital features of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been explained. This study followed all ethical practices during writing. 1507 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 9, No. 5: 1499-1507, 2025 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v9i5.7183 © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. This open-access article is distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). References [1] K. Marx, Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 (M. Milligan, Trans.). United States: International Publishers, 1975. [2] M. Heidegger, Being and Time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). United States: Harper & Row, 1962. [3] J.-P. Sartre, Existentialism Is a humanism (C. Macomber, Trans.). 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