Friday, May 11, 2012


WHO ARE WE? Karl Marx-- best known for his Communist Manifesto, argued that human beings are definable only in relation to other realities. That statement alone may bring about some more perennial questions. For example, "What does he mean by saying 'other realities?'" Well, there might be no answer to that but a response that leads human beings to a deeper reflection. Probably at the clonclusion of such reflection human beings may realize that there is a Cause and humans can only find answers from the Cause. However, Marx believes that there is no individual human being. That means that a society forms an individual. When ever one person tries to think about his or her identity he of she ends up perplexed because the only way to find answers about who a person is, a person has to know who or what the society is all about.
For example, if it is only in a society where human beings learn to know who they are then why do human beings constantly complain that they are not enjoying or sharing in all of the fruits of social collaboration? Why there are aliens and immigrants among us? As a politician and sociologist, Karl Marx focuses on the division of labour and laissez-faire. The philosophers also reflect on how human beings are free, what is the measure of truth, what does happiness consist of, and what is justice. To answer these questions humans need the power of revelation. Human beings cannot rely on reason alone. In order to define "truth" human beings need to base their definition on the "Truth" itself. For Plato, "existence" is a distant second to "essence" as a way of being [Republic].

Copyright@Richard P. McBrien:



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