Question

In spite of Marx’s and Freud’s view of religion, their theories add to knowledge. Discuss.

Answer 1

As per Marx the religion purpose is to create fantasy or illusion for the masses; while according to Freud the religion is an expression of underlying neuroses and distress at the individual psychological level. Marx finds religion rooted in the reality of socialism, and Freud examines religion at the psychological level. In spite of their religion view, the theories by Marx’s and Freud’s add to knowledge. Marx’s and Freud’s theories have a common assumption element that man is driven by forces. The awareness and realization will result to liberation, even though only within the boundaries set by human nature and society. For Marx an individual as a complete being who requires the world and whose passions lie in the potential energy to achieve the targets. Freud designed a very different concept of a person, an isolated being that requires other human beings only to satisfy few physiological requirements. The concept of man by Freud is that of a bourgeois indulged in the commodities market.