Comparison of Sartre and Marx on question of human freedom

Question of human freedom has always been an intriguing one. We can find scriptures
,related to this topic , that are old thousands of years. Till this day, that question is still
asked. Are human really completely free? Or are we influenced by some external forces,
that are incorporated so deep that we are not even aware of their existence? Do we have
genuine freedom, or are we tied to things that are imposed to us?

Karl Marx is considered to be one of the greatest sociologist so far. His viewpoint to
human freedom was not so specific. It is that kind of question that is not fully elaborated.
Marx thought of freedom is based on critical analysis , and his view of freedom is
philosophical . He believed that some kind of freedom does exist, but human kind is not
entirely free. We are determined with one thing- material conditions of existence. Also,
we have human alienation of his work, various ideologies that are making us believe that
we are free. Human freedom is partial.

Jean- Paul Sartre believed otherwise. His opinion about freedom was very specific-
human are absolutely free. There is nothing that is controlling us, and there is no external
force that can impose to us. Sartre doctrine is called existentialism. This Sartres
philosophy is called existentialism. Main line of this philosophy is existention proceded
essencion. Precisely from this line we can see that human have absolute freedom and
narrowness Man is thrown into this world, and inside of it, he is like in a cage without
bars. In that world, everything is accidental. Man is not slave of needs. We are not
infuenced by some other force, or ideologies: we make our own choises and we create
our own future.

Comparing these two authors, we see a great difference in opinions. Marx believed that
one of the biggest threat to human freedom is alianation from work. That means that man
is working for someone else, and does not have a right to that product. Products are taken
away by capitalist, and in that way, man is alianated from process of production, for
which he feels that is externaly imposed on him. On the other hand, Sartre believed that
there is nothing on the other side ( God does not exist) , and there is nothing on this side.
In that sense, there can’t be anything that takes away our freedom. Marx said that we are
influenced by various number of ideologies which are making us to believe that that state
and conditions are right and good for us. Sartre thoughts went into different direction: no
one can make us believe in something, and we are creators of our lives and our future.

On this topic, I must agree with Marx. Why? First of all, Sartre overlooked some things,
and he did not fully understood Marx theory about alienation. Also, he did not
acknowledge the importance of work.
We can see verity of Marxes claimings even today. We need material conditions in order
to survive, and fulfill our basic and upper needs. In fact, some of his theories are very
noticable in contemporary times, like theory of ideology. Everyday we are influenced
with ideologies that are assuring us that we are doing the right thing by buying many,
many stuff, and working even harder to earn for them. And quite number of those things
we don’t actually need- they are artificial needs, and they grow bigger from day to day.
One other reason why I believe in Marx theory is that human lost their freedom, because
they are taught not to revolt.We feel comfortable and cozy in everyday life that we lost
will to confront . And that is done exactly by external source- culture. Culture is forming
our desires, our needs, our longings, it’s even forming the way we think. And the worst of
all, we often do not even notice that. It is so incorporated in our lives that we don’t even
question it. That is one example of force for whome Sartre claimed to be impossible.
There is also number of other processes that are making us lose our freedom , such as
conforming, consumerism, globalism. In some manner, all of that is making us to lose our
freedom to chose what we want and what we need.

In conclusion, we can go back and try to answer this big question that we asked at the
beginng. Human freedom does exist. We saw one author that believes that freedom is
absolute, and other author that believes that freedome exist, but it is partial. Who knows,
maybe we do have freedom of choice, but we simply choose for ourselves to (not) be
completely free.