THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE ALIENATION CONCEPT
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE ALIENATION CONCEPT

Summary/Abstract: This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspective,Althusser’s critique being its offset, which, according to, this concept stems from an abstract,metaphysical view of history and human agents’ activities. According to Althusser, alienation is indeedthe humanistic expression of a back-to-origins philosophy and of lost human essence retrieval. Hence, thephilosophy of contractual alienation (as a foundation of political community as per Rousseau), theinterrogation of historical positivity from young Hegel’s writings and, last but not least, the alienatedwork critique elaborated by young Marx in Manuscripts of 1844 can be interpreted as variations aroundthe same essential concepts of human history. In the attempt of overcoming such an undifferentiatedapproach, the study tries to highlight the original and particular reflection that each of these authorsdevelop on the subject and highlights, at the same time, what they have in common, despite theirdifferences on this theme. When we talk about alienation we always relate to a mutilated loss in therelationship with the self, with others and with the social world. Moreover, we also talk about thepossibility of overcoming some of the conditions that are considered degrading for humans. In otherwords, this study aims to prove that not only it is not possible to reduce the alienation to an abstract andnaïve humanistic notion, but that it also represents an essential landmark for understanding theimpossibility of some social groups of classes to develop on the merits of long-lasting deprivation of thebenefits the relationship with the self, the others and the social world can bring.

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