ALIENATION:
an English word originating in the fourteen century to describe an
action of estranging or state of estrangement. In modern usage it means: (1) a cutting-off
or being cut off from GOD; (2) a breakdown of relations between a person or a GROUP; (3)
the action of transferring the ownership of anything to another; (4) loss of connection
with one's own deepest feelings and needs. HEGEL and MARX argued that what is alienated is
an essential part of human nature and that the process of alienation must be seen
historically. FEUERBACH described God as the product of human alienation in the sense of
His being a projection of the highest human ATTRIBUTES from people to a divine BEING. Marx
said man creates himself by creating his world, but in class-society is alienated from his
essential NATURE.
