Theories of Alienation: From Rousseau to the Present

Theories of alienation had a long history, burgeoned since the 1960s, yet almost disappeared in recent decades - but in his book, Christoph Henning brings these theories back on the agenda, to better account for contemporary social pathologies. Feelings of estrangement, of not feeling at home in the world, in one’s own body or surroundings, are widespread in contemporary societies. They go hand in hand with loneliness, with a burnout, with depression or with anger and hatred. But where do they come from, what do they signify?

Henning tracks theories of alienation from three different traditions: first, a conservative approach from Rousseau to Hartmut Rosa explains alienation with change and is based on nostalgia; second, a liberal approach from Simmel to Rahel Jaeggi relies on individual autonomy and explains it as a loss of control; and third, an Aristotelian approach from Humboldt to Marx or British idealism, based on theories of flourishing, relies on a perfectionist anthropology and critical social theory. In doing so, Henning vividly reconstructs these traditions with contemporary examples and excursions into the movies. Theories of Alienation: From Rousseau to the Present shines important new light on this important field of contemporary social philosophy and is very approachable to the general reader.

Christoph Henning is Chair for Philosophy and Humanism at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and associated Fellow at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany. He has published widely on social, political and economic philosophy, on Marxism, and the history of critical theory.