Alienation in the Contemporary United States

This study places human relationships at the core of its analysis. It contrasts human relatedness to self, others, and the environment, with the experience of estrangement or alienation. This has sometimes been defined as the human condition. The contrast between these two experiences of life has been a theme of our earliest authors and remains a mainstay of contemporary political, social, and philosophical thought. This work discusses alienation through an understanding of the major categories of human existence. For example, how does alienation affect the human body as it seeks to maintain health? Similarly, the book asks important questions and provides deep analyses of our experience of temporality and culture. How have contemporary marketing strategies contributed to feelings of alienation and loneliness? The book uses everyday vignettes to introduce readers to some of our most pressing difficulties. As more citizens become comfortable with AI and the fabricated creations of digital culture, this book asks how this has influenced not only our relationship to nature but our very self-image as natural beings. It argues that there is a link between our environmental crises and the loss of awareness of the self as part of nature. The book answers many of the questions that citizens raise today, but that often go unanswered. It draws on the deepest thinkers of our philosophical and social-scientific tradition while placing them in the context of today. The result is a work that encourages discussion and provides insights into issues often examined piecemeal.

Dr John Carney was born in Brooklyn, New York. After a tour of duty in the US Navy, he attended Brooklyn College (USA), where he studied Political Science and Philosophy. He then chose the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research for his MA and PhD. Much of his scholarship focuses on liberation and alienation. He produced two book chapters for The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. One was "The Religious Foundations of Solidarity." In this work, he sought to explicate the historical liberation evident in the Solidarity Movement in Poland through the contributions of the Philosophy of Praxis. Another area where liberation and alienation are thematized in an accessible way is in the History of Philosophy. At the time, the author found it interesting that religion was emerging as a major force in global social movements. For example, the Solidarity Movement in Poland was part of an often-overlooked Catholic worker movement. This analysis led to his other study for the Council for Research in Values in Philosophy, On the Solidarity of Praxis. More recently, he has focused on a trend in American political culture that is increasingly nationalistic and intolerant of Others. One result of this has been his study of the rise of extremist ideology and a growing acceptance of fascist rhetoric.