 My aim here is not to make significant progress in resolving any of these empirical and quasi-empirical issues, but rather to acknowledge their existence and extent. Since the concept of alienation diagnoses a complex range of social ills involving self and other, it is perhaps not surprising that a variety of such issues are implicated in these various accounts of its proper characterisation, its historical scope, and the possibilities for overcoming it. Nonetheless, it remains important to acknowledge the existence and complexity of these empirical and quasi-empirical threads, not least because they are not always adequately recognised or dealt with in the broadly philosophical discussions of alienation which are the focus of the discussion here. 