Existential Perspectives on Alienation

Alienation is commonly viewed within the sociological tradition as symptomatic of specific negative historical and social conditions, and it may thus be possible to overcome it through societal reform or development. In the existentialist tradition, on the other hand, alienation is regarded as symptomatic of the human condition as such—the estrangement from ourselves as individuals felt in our everyday social existence that can be temporarily overcome in authenticity, but never completely revoked. However, the distinction between these differing traditions concerning interpretations of the concept of alienation is less clear-cut than stated above. This session nevertheless seeks to explore these two ideas of alienation as complementary and investigate the potential of this complementarity for the concept and theory of alienation. For example, applying these two notions of alienation allows us both to see social and historical conditions as alienating and individuals under these conditions as complicit in their own alienation. Alternatively, this may lead us to consider how certain alienating historical or social conditions might allow individuals to become more authentic, but it may also force us to reconsider pointing at others as being alienated and instead include ourselves as human beings among those who are alienated.