The loss and return of education from the perspective of "Human alienation by things"

Abstract

This study examines the growing phenomenon of human alienation in education, where educational practices increasingly prioritize objects, symbols, and systems over human development. Contemporary educational environments often emphasize formal compliance, instrumental utility, and technological mediation, resulting in the reification of learners and educators. Despite extensive philosophical discourse on alienation, there remains a research gap in critically synthesizing these perspectives to explain how modern educational ideologies and practices diminish human subjectivity. The study aims to analyze the mechanisms through which education contributes to human alienation and to articulate value-oriented directions for restoring a people-centered educational purpose. Employing a theoretical and critical research design, the study uses conceptual and interpretive analysis grounded in Marxist critical theory and contemporary social philosophy. Key concepts such as alienation, reification, symbolic coding, and human subjectivity are examined through systematic analysis of classical and contemporary philosophical and educational texts. The findings reveal that educational formalism, symbolic reproduction, and dependence on media-mediated learning environments reinforce the treatment of humans as tools and objects within educational systems. The study highlights the need to reassert practical reason and humanistic values in education. Its implications emphasize reorienting educational theory and practice toward the holistic and free development of human beings.

Keywords: Alienation; educational philosophy; human development; reification; subjectivity