From Marx To Marcuse:The Historical Evolution Of The Theory Of Alienation And Its Contemporary Enlightenment

The problem of mankind is the eternal topic of human. Many influential ideologists in history have paid attention to the study of people’s problems. Among them, the alienation of people is one of the focus of the problem. Alienation theory is essentially a theory about human’s free development and full liberation. To explore the nonessential existence of human and the root causes of this states and to discard the alienation so that people get a comprehensive way of development are the basic meaning of alienation theory. Both of Marx and Marcuse are taken the problem of human as the center of their philosopher’s inquiry, both of them take the pursuit of the essence of the liberation, the realization of the overall development of human freedom as the goal. Marx’s alienation theory starts from the standpoint of historical materialism, point out that we should explore the root causes of alienation and the way to discard the alienation in the social production relations. Marcuse, along the direction of Marx’s criticism, combining with the characteristics of the times, has done a new thinking of the alienation theory from the point of view of psychology. Have make some new changes in both of the connotation and the form of the alienation theory. This paper will analyze the connotation and form of the alienation theory, to explore the logical connection of the evolution about the alienation theory in the premise of correct understanding the connotation of it, and then to explore the significance of alienation theory which with the embodies humanism and critical spirit for the modernization no four country.This paper consists of five parts:The first part clarifies the purpose and significance of the topic, the domestic and foreign research review, and the research methods and possible innovations of this paper. The second part mainly starts from three aspects:the origin of alienation, the way of discarding the alienation and the main force, to explore the evolution of the alienation theory in connotation, and tries to understand deeply the ideological connotation of the alienation theory from different perspectives. The third part presents a new change in the form of Marcuse’s alienation theory from Marx, grasp the historical materialism implication of Marx’s alienation theory and Marcuse’s standpoint of humanism. The key point of the fourth part is to explore the possible reasons for the evolution of the alienation theory, excavate the internal relevance of the evolution of the alienation theory, in order to accurately understand the spiritual essence of alienation theory. The fifth part is the contemporary enlightenment of alienation theory. This part aims at exploring the contemporary value of the alienation theory, linking the alienation theory of Marx and Marcuse to the problems existing in Chinese society, point out that to excavate the alienation theory have the theoretical and practical significance to our country’s modernization construction. The last part is conclusion. The essential difference between Marx and Marcuse’s alienation theory is summarized, stressed the importance of adhering to the materialism position when study the alienation theory again, reviewing the main contents of this paper, and the future research is prospected.