Az elidegenedés dicsérete
In Praise of Alienation

Summary/Abstract: The paper seeks to open up the radical revision of one of Marxism’s fundamental aims, the elimination of alienation. It is argued that the idea of alienation functions as a dogma and its existence cannot be falsified. However, the idea has entirely become a cliché by now. This is not only evident in the work of popular Marxists, but also in the intellectual and cultural life as a whole. The fact that the idea of eliminating alienation has not been forcefully embraced in post-communist countries suggests that the related critique of capitalism is linked to the persistence of an idea characteristic of German idealism, namely to the communitarian ideal of freedom. Lau claims that this can also be observed in Habermas’ famous theory on the colonizing system and the lifeworld. Meanwhile to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of alienation through the works of Hegel, Simmel, Joachim Ritter and Helmut Plessner, he reviews the attempts to associate positive meanings with alienation in the German philosophical tradition.

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