Editing Marx's theory of alienation (section)

== Philosophical significance and influences ==
The concept of alienation does not originate with Marx. Marx's two main influences in his use of the term are [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] and [[Ludwig Feuerbach]].{{sfn|Wood|2004|p=10}}

=== Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ===
[[File:G.W.F. Hegel (by Sichling, after Sebbers).jpg|thumb|125px|right|Philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] (1770–1831) postulated the [[idealism]] that Marx countered with [[dialectical materialism]].]]

For Hegel, alienation consists in an "unhappy consciousness". By this term, Hegel means a misunderstood form of [[Christianity]], or a Christianity that hasn't been interpreted according to Hegel's own [[pantheism]].{{sfn|Wood|2004|p=10}}
<!-- more to be added -->

In ''[[The Phenomenology of Spirit]]'' (1807), Hegel described the stages in the development of the human ''[[Geist]]'' ('spirit'), by which men and women progress from ignorance to knowledge of the self and of the world. Developing Hegel's human-spirit proposition, Marx said that those poles of [[idealism]]— "spiritual ignorance" and "self-understanding"— are replaced with [[materialism|material categories]], whereby "spiritual ignorance" becomes "alienation" and "self-understanding" becomes man's realisation of his ''Gattungswesen'' (species-essence).

<!--
In [[Marxist theory]], ''Entfremdung'' ('[[social alienation|alienation]]') is a foundational proposition about man's progress towards [[self-actualisation]]. In the ''[[Oxford Companion to Philosophy]]'' (2005), [[Ted Honderich]] described the influences of [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] and [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] upon Karl Marx:<ref name=":1" /> <blockquote>For Hegel, the unhappy consciousness is divided against itself, separated from its "essence", which it has placed in a "beyond".</blockquote>

As used by philosophers Hegel and Marx, the reflexive German verbs ''entäussern'' ('to divest one's self of') and ''entfremden'' ('to become estranged') indicate that the term ''alienation'' denotes self-alienation: to be estranged from one's essential nature.<ref>''Langenscheidt New College Dictionary''. German–English/English–German. 1973. pp. 166–67.</ref> Therefore, alienation is a lack of self-worth, the absence of meaning in one's life, consequent to being coerced to lead a life without opportunity for self-fulfillment, without the opportunity to become actualised, to become one's [[self]].<ref name=":1">Honderich, Ted. 2005. ''[[Oxford Companion to Philosophy]]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>
-->
=== Ludwig Feuerbach ===
[[File:Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach.jpg|thumb|left|125px|Philosopher [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] (1804–1872) analysed religion from a psychological perspective in ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841) and according to him divinity is humanity's projection of their human nature.]]
The middle-period writings of Ludwig Feuerbach, where he critiques [[Christianity]] and [[philosophy]], are pre-occupied with the problem of alienation.{{sfn|Leopold|2007|pp=205-206}} In these works, Feuerbach argues that an inappropriate separation of individuals from their essential human nature is at the heart of Christianity.{{sfn|Leopold|2007|p=206}} 

Feuerbach believes the alienation of modern individuals consists in their holding false beliefs about God. God is not an objective being, but is instead a projection of man's own essential predicates.{{sfn|Leopold|2007|p=206}} Christian belief entails the sacrifice, the practical denial or repression, of essential human characteristics. Feuerbach characterises his own work as having a therapeutic goal – healing the painful separation at the heart of alienation.{{sfn|Leopold|2007|pp=207-208}}

===''Entfremdung'' and the theory of history ===
{{see also|Marx's theory of history|Dialectical materialism}}
In Part I: "Feuerbach – Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook" of ''[[The German Ideology]]'' (1846), Karl Marx said the following:<blockquote>Things have now come to such a pass that the individuals must appropriate the existing totality of productive forces, not only to achieve self-activity, but also, merely, to safeguard their very existence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marx|first=Karl|title=The German Ideology|date=1846|chapter=Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook|chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01d.htm}}</ref></blockquote>

That humans psychologically require the life activities that lead to their self-actualisation as persons remains a consideration of secondary historical relevance because the [[capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]] eventually will [[Exploitation of labour|exploit]] and impoverish the [[proletariat]] until compelling them to [[social revolution]] for survival. Yet, social alienation remains a practical concern, especially among the contemporary philosophers of [[Marxist humanism]]. In ''The Marxist-Humanist Theory of State-Capitalism'' (1992), [[Raya Dunayevskaya]] discusses and describes the existence of the desire for self-activity and self-actualisation among wage-labour workers struggling to achieve the elementary goals of material life in a capitalist economy.

===''Entfremdung'' and social class ===

In Chapter 4 of ''[[The Holy Family (book)|The Holy Family]]'' (1845), Marx said that capitalists and proletarians are equally alienated, but that each [[social class]] experiences alienation in a different form: <blockquote>The propertied class and the class of the proletariat present the same human self-estrangement. But the former class feels at ease and strengthened in this self-estrangement, it recognises estrangement as its own power, and has in it the semblance of a human existence. The class of the proletariat feels annihilated, this means that they cease to exist in estrangement; it sees in it its own powerlessness and in the reality of an inhuman existence. It is, to use an expression of Hegel, in its abasement, the indignation at that abasement, an indignation to which it is necessarily driven by the contradiction between its human nature and its condition of life, which is the outright, resolute and comprehensive negation of that nature. Within this antithesis, the private property-owner is therefore the conservative side, and the proletarian the destructive side. From the former arises the action of preserving the antithesis, from the latter the action of annihilating it.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/holy-family/ch04.htm Chapter 4 of ''The Holy Family'']- see under Critical Comment No. 2</ref></blockquote>