| This thesis first reviews the conceptions and thoughts about alienation which appear before Karl Marx’s theory of alienation by taking the history of philosophical thoughts as background. Then, it points out that Marx’s theory of alienation is based on the fruits obtained by his predecessors, such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Geory Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, etc. He inherits but also criticizes their ideas about alienation and then puts forward his own theory of alienation, which enriches and develops those predecessors’theories, and is used in practical criticism on capitalist system. Combining Marx’s theory of alienation with their own socioeconomic environment, Western Marxism puts forward various characteristic theories about alienation. Among them, Georg Lukacs thinks that alienation is materialization, which can be overcome by the proletariats’practical actions and the wakening of their consciousness; Herbert Marcuse holds that modern capitalist society is diseased. The liberation of sexual desire can help people emancipate from the alienation by the capitalist society; Erich Fromm considers only psychological revolution and social revolution can eradicate people’s humanistic alienation while Jurgen Habermas, according to his famous theory of communication, believes that it is necessary to rationalize people’s communicative behaviors which seems alienated in others’eyes. Besides those, the thesis also discusses the studies on the origin of alienation and the criticism on capitalist alienation by Marx and Western Marxism. The final part is the comparison and analysis of the similarities and differences between Marx’s theory of alienation and Western Marxim’s, which concludes that the former is considered as right and scientific criticism on capitalist society while the latter has many problems though it is also significant in criticizing the society in that period. Anyway, those are all enlightening in knowing and criticizing toady’s capitalist society and its alienation. |
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