Abstract: For as natural as terms like "alienation" and "estrangement" are to characterizing certain features of modern life, there is surprisingly little discussion of what, exactly, they mean. Here I will suggest a hypothesis. Estrangement from an object of value is not just a separation from that value, but an uneasy state in which you are simultaneously sensitive to--and so bound by--that value and yet unable to treat it in the way it deserves. I then offer some preliminary reasons for why we may be permanently estranged in this sense from other people. Finally, I speculate that certain human interests, including in the making of art, represent attempts to cope with this estrangement.
