The Critique of Alienation

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that human dignity grounds a solidaristic requirement of support for positive freedom and develops this normative point by exploring the structure of the critique of alienation in social life, with a focus on the predicament of workers in capitalism. The chapter makes four main moves. First, it offers a novel analytical framework to discuss alienation—distinguishing its various definitional, explanatory, and normative dimensions. Second, it articulates the critique of alienation as an appraisal of situations in which there are problematic limitations on positive freedom such that agents face socially avoidable limitations on their ability to develop a positive sense of self in activities featuring self-determination and self-realization. Third, it identifies four important objections to normative engagement with alienation, which concern the risks of an essentialist view, a mishandling of the distinction between the good and the right, the risk of paternalistic impositions, and ignorance of the significance of democratic authorization. Finally, the chapter responds to these objections by recasting the discussion of positive freedom and alienation in terms of the Dignitarian Approach.