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Far from neglecting the question of human nature in general, Marx criticized those who did not consider it. He also took exception to the definition of man as a being forever the same as he appears at one point in history or in a given system. The objection of mutatis mutandis has a bearing on those socialistic theories Marx discussed critically because, presupposing man forever fixed and isolated, these theories proposed an ideal society that would, in the opinion of their expounders, best correspond to man so determined. Marx, however, considered that man had the potential to achieve self-realization through the process of self-creation. Where other socialistic theories failed to examine the causes underlying man's alienation from man and from human society, Marx's theory, based on a new concept of man, proposed to investigate the phenomenon of contemporary class society as the basic condition of praxis. | | |
Establishing through critical analysis man's alienation from man, from the product of his labor, even from his own human activity, Marx raised the question of abolishing all these forms of dehumanization, and the possibility of restoring human society. This is his basic problem. As critics of the existing society, other socialists also knew that the society of private property was nothing more than a society of merciless exploitation, dehumanization, and the deformation of man, but they never analyzed deeply the reasons for such a state of affairs. They believed that society could be transformed by an ideal plan of a more perfect form of social relationships which would be realized by the triumph of reason as soon as people comprehended what such a plan held out to them. The real liberating forces within society remained unknown to them, as did the real methods for overcoming existing dehumanization and inhumanity. For this reason all attempts to realize such projects very soon came to nothing. | | |
Nevertheless, the idea of socialism was not compromised. Marx was completely aware of this when he confronted various communistic and socialistic doctrines. He criticized them from first to last, even rejecting some for their egalitarian dogmatism, illusionism, and other biases. | | |
