DOCSLIB.ORG

Karl Marx (1938) – by Karl Korsch

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Karl Marx (1938) – by Karl Korsch Karl Marx Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen (Paris) Steve Edwards (London) Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam) Peter Thomas (London) volume 85 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm Karl Marx By Karl Korsch With a Foreword by Michael Buckmiller LEIDEN | BOSTON First published in 1938 by Chapman & Hall, Ltd. London. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Korsch, Karl, 1886-1961. Karl Marx / by Karl Korsch ; with a foreword by Michael Buckmiller. pages cm. — (Historical materialism book series ; volume 85) Originally published in 1938 in London by Chapman & Hall. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-19395-6 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-27220-0 (e-book) 1. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. 2. Communism. 3. Socialism. I. Title. HX39.5.K6 2015 335.4092—dc23 2014048586 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1570-1522 isbn 978-90-04-19395-6 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-27220-0 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands for this revised edition of the original 1938 Offizin Verlag Hannover edition. Foreword by Michael Buckmiller. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Foreword vii Michael Buckmiller Introduction 1 part 1 Society 1 Marxism and Sociology 7 2 The Principle of Historical Specification 12 3 The Principle of Historical Specification (continued) 22 4 The Principle of Change 27 5 The Principle of Criticism 35 6 A New Type of Generalisation 47 7 Practical Implications 54 Part 2 Political Economy 1 Marxism and Political Economy 61 2 From Political Economy to ‘Economics’ 65 3 From Political Economy to the Marxian Critique of Political Economy 70 4 Scientific versus Philosophical Criticism of Political Economy 76 5 Two Aspects of Revolutionary Materialism in Marx’s Economic Theory 80 vi contents 6 The Economic Theory of Capital 84 7 The Fetishism of Commodities 91 8 The ‘Social Contract’ 98 9 The Law of Value 102 10 Common Misunderstandings of the Marxian Doctrine of Value and Surplus-Value 108 11 The Ultimate Aims of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy 112 Part 3 History 1 The Materialist Conception of History 121 2 The Genesis of Historical Materialism 125 3 The Materialist Scheme of Society 133 4 Nature and Society 138 5 Productive Forces and Production-Relations 145 6 Base and Superstructure 157 7 Conclusions 169 Bibliography 175 Index of Names 183 Foreword Karl Korsch’s study of Karl Marx appeared barely two years after it was intended to be published, on 14 November 1938. It was published in London by Chapman & Hall as the fifth and last volume in the series ‘Modern Sociologists’, edited by the English sociologists Morris Ginsberg and Alexander Farquharson. The version republished here is the third unrevised edition. By 1936 the series already contained volumes on Comte, Pareto, Veblen and Tylor.1 In New York, Wiley & Sons brought out a near-simultaneous American edition of all the volumes in the series. The series was part of an attempt to expand the intellectual horizons of English sociology in international directions and to create an academic shift in the discipline, which had entered a period of stagnation with the death of Herbert Spencer early in the century and with the gaze of anthropologists still fixated on the Empire. The labour-movement social research of the founders of the London School of Economics, Sidney and Beatrice Webbs, was of course an exception. So too was the intellectual impact that radiated from Morris Ginsberg, Professor of Sociology at the LSE, or the organisational skill of the General Secretary of the Sociological Society, editor of the Sociological Review and founder of the Institute of Sociology in London, Alexander Farquharson, who, in the early 1930s, succeeded in establishing sociology as a scientific subject in Great Britain. For some years the Institute had retained close links with the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt, which acquired an exter- nal base in London between 1934 and 1936. The organisational work of the Institut für Sozialforschung fell to Jay Rumney, a student of Morris Ginsberg and Harold Laski and a co-worker in the Institute’s famed project on ‘Authority and Family’.2 Rumney would later take over the work of editing the ‘Modern Sociologists’ series.3 Karl Korsch was one of the founders of the Frankfurt Institute, a close and lifelong friend of Felix Weil, the Institute’s generous patron, and remained a free collaborator of the critical theorists even during Max Horkheimer’s direc- torship, with regular contributions to their journals. For that, the Institute paid Korsch a monthly stipend when he was in exile, at least down to the time it was refounded after the Second World War. Korsch had left Nazi Germany in 1 Marvin 1936; Marett 1936; Hobson 1936. 2 Rumney 1936, pp. 784–96. 3 Jay Rumney (1905–57) joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1938 and became Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in 1940. viii foreword October 1933 and found a warm and productive reception (as he always would) in Bertolt Brecht’s home in Denmark, ‘Danish Siberia’.4 From there he moved repeatedly between Denmark, Sweden, where his wife Hedda Korsch had found employment in a reform-school in Stockholm, and London, where he himself found a more propitious climate for scientific work, lived on and off from March 1934 and was keen to settle down on a longer-term basis. Down to the middle of 1934 Korsch was engaged in completing and publishing the two book projects he had started – one on Revolution and Counterrevolution, the other the critical lectures on Marx and Scientific Socialism that he had given in Berlin between 1928 and 1933. Clearly, Jay Rumney’s suggestion that the Marx monograph could be included in the ‘Modern Sociologists’ series modified these projects in the sense that he would now combine the essential ideas of both projected works in a single book, as the first draft of a synopsis dated 28 September 1934 clearly shows.5 That the choice for a volume on Marx should fall on Korsch seemed almost obvious. He was one of the few internationally renowned independent Marx scholars who saw themselves as actively involved in the Marxist workers’ movement but who, despite (or possibly because of) their political involve- ment, transcended the party-political divisions of the 1920s and 1930s. As late as 1932 he edited a new edition of Marx’s Capital Volume I for Kiepenheuer & Witsch. This earned him reproaches from both Social Democrats like Kautsky and Orthodox Communists like Hermann Duncker. At the beginning of October Korsch went to the LSE to discuss the Marx book with the series-editor and got the impression that Ginsberg’s interest in Marx himself barely exceeded a ‘certain vague goodwill’.6 But on 3 December 1934 a contract was signed, and already by the middle of 1935 Korsch could hand over a manuscript of some 60,000 words to make the scheduled publication-date of Autumn 1935 or Spring 1936. He was far from happy about the word-limit and would much rather have written a book ‘of 500,000 to 600,000 words’, telling Paul Mattick: ‘I’ve already written up most of the mate- rial for this in my manuscript, to a greater or lesser degree of perfection!’7 In other words, for him it was a matter of an ongoing transition, a formal change of emphasis in a much longer series of researches on the ‘Marx’ ques- tion. Before writing up the book, he had sifted through ‘the more recent 4 That was how Brecht often referred to his lodgings at Skovsbostrand in Svendborg in Denmark in 1934. 5 Korsch 2001a, pp. 496–500. First published in Korsch 1967, pp. 211–14. On this see the notes for Korsch’s lectures in Berlin. Korsch 1996, pp. 729–50. 6 Korsch to Hook, letter dated 2 October 1934, Korsch 2001a, p. 503. 7 Korsch to Mattick, letter dated 4 April 1935, Korsch 2001a, p. 543. foreword ix biographical work on Marx’ and built up a picture of ‘Marxism as real- ity’, including the official positions and their relation to politics and social struggles, as these emerged in the literature.8 For his part he made a point of explaining why he remained a Marxist. One can also see this as Korsch’s ticket to the active entry he hoped to make to an American labour-movement that was rather less dominated by dogma than it was in Europe. During the New Deal the American labour-movement was seeing expansion of a new kind. Initially, however, Korsch’s plans were messed up by his involvement in an affair that roused considerable public attention thanks to its political back- ground, and eventually led, as far as Korsch was concerned, to political intrigue, which in turn meant that his English visa was no longer renewed.9 From the start of August 1935 to the Autumn of 1936 Korsch lived in the immediate vicin- ity of Bertolt Brecht’s house in Skovsbostrand and resumed intensive work on the Marx book, the final draft of which he completed in June 1936, while com- pletely reworking crucial parts of the book in the second half of August.10 At the end of August Jay Rumney travelled to Svendborg and worked with Korsch ‘from morning to evening’ to produce a manuscript that could be ready for publication.11 The result was satisfactory to both of them and came, not sur- prisingly, to be called ‘the Svendborg Marx’.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Right to the Whole Produce of Labour
    1RNIA SAN DIEGO THE EIGHT TO THE WHOLE PRODUCE OF LABOUR THE EIGHT TO THE WHOLE PBODUCE OF LABOUK THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEORY OF LABOUR'S CLAIM TO THE WHOLE PRODUCT OF INDUSTRY BY DK. ANTON MENGEK PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA TRANSLATED BY M. E. TANNER WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY BY H. S. FOXWELL, M.A. PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON ; LECTURER AND LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE Hontion MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1899 A II rights reserved INTRODUCTION DR. ANTON MENGER'S remarkable study of the cardinal Dr doctrine of revolutionary socialism, now for the first W time published in English, has long enjoyed a wide reputation on the Continent; and English students of social philosophy, whether or not they are familiar with the original, will welcome its appearance in this trans- lation. The interest and importance of the subject will not be disputed, either by the opponents or the advocates of socialism ; and those who know how exceptionally Dr. Menger is qualified for work of this kind, by his juristic eminence, and his profound know- ledge of socialistic literature, will not need to be told that it has been executed with singular vigour and ability. Hitherto, perhaps because it was not generally accessible to English readers, the book has not received in this country the notice that it has met with elsewhere. Yet there are reasons why it should be of peculiar interest to English economists. The particular method of criticism adopted by Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Kautsky: Early Assumptions, Preconceptions, and Prejudices
    Karl Kautsky: Early Assumptions, Preconceptions, and Prejudices GARY P. STEENSON Washington, D. C., U.S.A. ABSTRACT Analysis of one of Karl Kautsky's earliest articles, "Der Kampf um's Dasein in der Menschenwelt" (1877a), reveals a relatively subtle and sophisticated understanding of biology and Darwinian theory, but also shows many of the problematical assumptions which colored Kautsky's early work. Even more importantly, this article makes it clear that far from disregar- ding the subjective element of human behavior, Kautsky made such behavior central to his efforts to link Darwinian thought to the workers' socialist movement. FROM 1875, WHEN AT THE AGE of twenty-one he published his first contributions to the socialist presses of Germany and Austria, until shortly before his death in 1938, Karl Kautsky was one of the most prolific and eclectic writers of the international socialist movement. He wrote about medieval England and Germany, ancient Greece, modern industry, philosophy, educa- tion, economics, history, modern society, imperialism, the natural and social sciences, contemporary affairs, party politics, Russia, France, the United States, anything, in fact, which struck his fancy and seemed important to him. For over half a century he devoted himself to advancing the cause of the workers' socialist movement and, more specifically, to the advancement of Marxism. Because of his close affiliation with the German Social Democratic Party and his responsibility for Die Neue Zeit, the leading intellectual journal of socialism and Marxism from its founding in 1883 until the outbreak of the First World War, Kautsky was, after Engels, the most important Marxian theorist in the world for the thirty years from the death of Marx to the war.
    [Show full text]
  • Monthly Review Press Catalog, 2011
    PAID PAID Social Structure RIPON, WI and Forms of NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE U.S. POSTAGE Consciousness ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION PERMIT NO. 100 volume ii The Dialectic of Structure and History István Mészáros Class Dismissed WHY WE CANNOT TEACH OR LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF INEQUALITY John Marsh JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI an anthology MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker editors and translators the story of the center for constitutional rights How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care the people’s RevolutionaRy lawyer DOCTORS 2011 Albert Ruben Steve Brouwer WHAT EVERY ENVIRONMENTALIST NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CAPITALISM JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER FRED MAGDOFF monthly review press review monthly #6W 29th Street, 146 West NY 10001 New York, www.monthlyreview.org 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 1/4/2011 3:49 PM Page 1 THE DEVIL’S MILK A Social History of Rubber JOHN TULLY From the early stages of primitivehistory accu- mulation“ to the heights of the industrial revolution and beyond, rubber is one of a handful of commodities that has played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, and yet, as John Tully shows in this remarkable book, laboring people around the globe have every reason to THE DEVIL’S MILK regard it as “the devil’s milk.” All the A S O C I A L H I S T O R Y O F R U B B E R advancements made possible by rubber have occurred against a backdrop of seemingly endless exploitation, con- quest, slavery, and war.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Korsch: a Review Essay
    Karl Korsch: A Review Essay Cyril Levitt Michael Buckmiller, ed., Karl Korsch Recht, Geist una* Kultur. Schriften 1908-1918 Gesamtausgabe Band I. (Frankfurt-am-Main: Europaische Verlag- san stall 1980). Michael Buckmiller, ed., Karl Korsch: Rdtebewegung und Klassenkampf. Schriften zur Praxis der Arbeiterbewegung 1919-1923. Gesamtausgabe Band 2. (Frankfurt-am-Main: Europaische Verlagsanstalt 1980). Douglas Keller, ed., Karl Korsch: Revolutionary Theory (Austin: University of Texas Press 1977). "All attempts to restore the Marxist doctrine as a whole and in its original function as theory of the social revolution of the working class are today reactionary Utopias." — Karl Korsch, 1950 FEW NORTH AMERICAN STUDENTS of the history of the labour movement and socialism know very much about the life and work of Karl Korsch. Of course, many know of him — as the 'poor cousin' of George Lukacs in the school of 'Western Marxism' popularized by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, as a Frankfurt School tag-a-long, or as Bert Brecht's close friend and teacher. For historical and linguis­ tic reasons Korsch's work is better known in Germany (more accurately in the Federal Republic of Germany, for Korsch is reviled in the German Democratic Republic), yet even in his native land the general unavailability of many of his writings has prevented even his most enthusiastic readers from grasping the totality of his practical and theoretical contribution to the working-class movement. This is lamentable for Korsch was perhaps the most sensitive student of Marx in the twentieth century. (Franz Borkenau, in a review of Korsch's intellectual biography Karl Marx, wrote: "Korsch possesses a model knowledge of every imaginable literature connected with Marxism I have little doubt that his is the Marx-study most solidly close to the actual teaching of Marx.
    [Show full text]
  • Marx's Concept of Labor
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1990 Marx's concept of labor. Christopher J. Mulvaney University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Mulvaney, Christopher J., "Marx's concept of labor." (1990). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1800. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1800 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MARX'S CONCEPT OF LABOR A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER J. MULVANEY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SEPTEMBER 1990 Department of Political Science (c) Copyright by Christopher J. Mulvaney 199 0 All Rights Reserved MARX'S CONCEPT OF LABOR A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER J. MULVANEY Approved as to style and content by: Department of Political Science ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I dedicate this work to Shirley J. Gedeon, Ph.D., in thanks for her love and support, and in memory of my father, John F. Mulvaney, Ph.D., and my mother, Gertrude M. Mulvaney ABSTRACT MARX'S CONCEPT OF LABOR SEPTEMBER, 1990 CHRISTOPHER J. MULVANEY, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Jean B. Elshtain This work examines Habermas' claim that Marx's theory is latently obj ectivistic due to a restrictive, instrumental understanding of the concept of labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Elgar Online at 09/26/2021 10:10:51PM Via Free Access
    JOBNAME: EE3 Hodgson PAGE: 2 SESS: 3 OUTPUT: Thu Jun 27 12:00:07 2019 1. What does socialism mean? Under capitalism, man exploits his fellow man. Under socialism it is precisely the opposite. Eastern European joke from the Communist era1 The word socialism is modern, but the impulse behind it is ancient. The idea of holding property in common goes back to Ancient Greece and is found in the Bible.2 It has been harboured by some religions and it has been the call of radicals for centuries. In his 1516 book Utopia, Sir Thomas More imagined a system where everything was held in common ownership and internal trade was abolished. Unlike most other proposals for common ownership before the 1840s, More’s Utopia envisioned cities of between 60 000 and 100 000 adults. It is the first known proposal for what I call big socialism. Before the rise of Marxism, the predominant vision of common ownership was small-scale, rural and agricultural. It was often motivated by religious doctrine. In Germany in the 1520s the radical Protestant Thomas Müntzer proposed a Christian communism. From 1649 to 1650, during the English Civil War, the Diggers set up religious communes whose members worked together on the soil and shared its produce. There are other examples of socialism before the word was coined.3 This chapter is about the origins, meaning and evolution of the words socialism and communism. They are virtual synonyms, both largely referring to common ownership of the means of production and to the abolition of private property.
    [Show full text]
  • O 76 Aniversario Del Fallecimiento De José Marlátegul Ola Muerte Prematura Elnoporfuna • Conferencias • Videos • Homenaj
    o76 aniversario del fallecimiento de José Marlátegul ola muerte prematura elnoporfuna • Conferencias • VIdeos • Homenajes • Seminarios peruano más vendido de todos los tiempos. En 1972, la Casa fue salvada de la demolición y declarada Monumento Histórico Republicano. Veinte años después se inició su restauración, que terminó con la entrega en el Centenario del nacimiento de José Carlos Mariátegui, el 14deJuniode 1994. Actualmente, bajo la responsabilidad del instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC), se desarrollan exposiciones, conferencias, seminarios y ta lleres. Además, el público tienen acceso libre a la CASA MUSEO JOS E CARLOS biblioteca, donde se encuentran MARIATEGUI numerosas obras sobre Mariátegui. Presentación Misión Somos una Casa Museo que se La Casa Museo José Carlos Mariátegui propone difundir la vida, obra y fué escenario de los cinco últimos y más pensamiento de José Cartos Mariátegui proouctivos años del Amauta , desde al Perú y al mundo, realizando y 1925 hasta su muerte, el 16 de abril de motivando diversas investigaciones 1930. Este ambiente, en el cual sobre ello y difundiéndolas, a través de destaca el representativo "Rincón sus actividades : con fe ren cias, Rojo", fue testigo de la preparación y exposiciones, seminarios, etc., Ylo las edición de la revista "Amauta" cuyo más auténticas expresones cultura les contenido organizaba José Cartos de nuestro pals. mariátegui hasta el menos detalle, además de darle el elegante y Visión vanguardista diseno de su composi­ Converlimos en el Centro Cultural y de ción gráfica. En esta casa editó Investigación más importante a nivel también sus dos primeros libros " La nacional e internacional. Ser el foco de escena contemporánea" (1925) y "7 luz que irradia el pensamiento ensayos de interpretación de la maria teguiano, educación, desarrollo y realidad peruana" (1928), el libro cultura.
    [Show full text]
  • David Craven's Future Perfect
    THIRD TEXT Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture May 2013 David Craven’s Future Perfect: Tensions between Political Engagement and Art History Brian Winkenweder The fact that a work of art has a politically radical content therefore does not assure its revolutionary value. Nor does a non-political content necessarily imply its irrelevance to revolutionary action. It is in the larger context of the social movement and its positive historical results that the practical significance of partisan art has to be judged. Meyer Schapiro1 I. Against the Grain: The Education of a Progressive Art Historian Art, however, is social not only because of its mode of production, in which the dialectic of the forces and relations of production is concentrated, not simply because of the social derivation of its thematic material. Much more importantly, art becomes social by its opposition to society, and it occupies this position only as autonomous art. By crystallizing in itself as something unique to itself, rather than complying with existing social norms and qualifying as ‘socially useful,’ it criticizes society by merely existing, for which puritans of all stripes condemn it… Art’s asociality is the determinate negation of a determinate society. Theodor Adorno2 David Craven, a subtle and deeply nuanced scholar, engaged in a sustained critique of socio-political structures during an epoch characterized by a pernicious form of late capitalism and aggressive imperialist motives in the name of globalism. For the past three decades Craven characterized the potential and power of the role played by art in the ongoing formation of socially just communities.
    [Show full text]
  • MARX's LEGACY REINTERPRETED Karl Heinrich Marx and Political
    MARX’S LEGACY REINTERPRETED Karl Heinrich Marx and Political Philosophy Bora Erdağı (Kocaeli University) Abstract Karl Heinrich Marx (1818–1881) is one of the most important refer- ence thinkers for contemporary political theory, contemporary political phi- losophy and contemporary political history. The bases for this view are manifold. The ideas and criticisms presented by Marx are inclined to create friends and foes from the aspect of political praxis; and the most profound elements of his critique on capitalism are, I wish to argue, still valid. These also reflect the potentiality of Marx’s ideas to create alternative perspectives for study of the contemporary world. This ensures the recall and the discus- sion of Marx’s political ideas by alternative political agents in terms of both scientific concern and the contemporary world. Another reason for Marx be- ing a reference thinker of the history of political philosophy—depending on the first two reasons—is that his ideas have been perceptibly “realized” in political practices albeit partially. Thus, whenever the Marxist tradition and its political practices are remembered, the agents of the political arena are obliged to reconsider Marx. In this article, the fact that Marx is considered as a reference thinker in the history of political philosophy will be analyzed in more detail. The basic concepts of his theory will be presented, related to each other with regard to philosophical, real and concrete moments. As con- clusion, a short commentary on Marx’s political theory will be provided.
    [Show full text]
  • Class Consciousness Or Ethical Hegemony? from Leninism To
    CHAPTER FIVE CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS OR ETHICAL HEGEMONY? From Leninism to “Western Marxism” The historical predicament of Marxist-led mass revolutions was one of the major factors that gave rise to what would come to be known as le marxisme occidental, an intellectual movement within the Comintern that shifted the emphasis of Marxism from economy and politics to culture, ide- ology, and religion.1 Motivating such a radical reorientation of Marxism, as so many analysts have correctly suggested, was the recognition that social- ist authoritarianism was not simply an aberration of the Marxist project. Rather, it was the outcome of the “deep structure” of Marxist categories, with its emphasis on the power of economic-structural constraints over human action and consciousness in modern societies.2 Both Antonio Gramsci and Georg Lukács found the source of authori- tarianism in the irresolvable tensions inherent in Lenin’s notion of class hegemony, and both therefore tended to attribute these tensions to the economic determinism that underlies Marx’s theory of the relationship between class and democracy. However, these two founders of “Western Marxism” differed sharply in their diagnosis of the crisis of Leninism. Their respective accounts of what should be responsible for the authori- tarian turn of Soviet democracy stood diametrically opposed. As Laclau and Mouffe have observed, the central point that divides Gramsci from the anti-economic positions formulated by Lukács and Karl Korsch lies precisely in his blunt rejection of class reductionism: Lukács and Korsch . also reproportioned the terrain classically attributed to the superstructures; but they did this within the parameters of a class- reductionist perspective which identified the revolutionary subject with the working class, such that hegemony in the sense of articulation was strictly unthinkable.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 INTRODUCTION: MARX, ETHICS and ETHICAL MARXISM 1. Karl
    Notes 1 INTRODUCTION: MARX, ETHICS AND ETHICAL MARXISM 1. Karl Marx, 'Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy' in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 1 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1975), p. 506. Further references throughout the book will be to CW followed by the volume number. 2. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Gennan Ideology, in CW 5, p. 247. 3. Ibid., p. 73. 4. This is made clear in section three of the Manifesto of the Communist Party in which Marx and Engels deal with a variety of socialist litera­ ture- CW 6, pp. 507-17. 5. Karl Kautsky, Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History (Chi­ cago: Charles Kerr, 4th edn, n.d.), p. 206. 6. Harry van der Linden, Kantian Ethics and Socialism (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1988); Tom Bottomore and Patrick Goode (eds), Austro­ Marxism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), Introduction and Part One. 7. For a short review of the progress of ethical debate within Marxism see Agnes Heller, 'The Legacy of Marxian Ethics Today', in Praxis International 1 ( 4 ), 1982. Heller's own position is a fusion of Marx and Kant, although she acknowledges that this approach was specifi­ cally rejected by Marx (p. 362); also Steven Lukes, Marxism and Morality (New York: Oxford University Press and Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), pp. 14-26. 8. For example, Lukes, Marxism and Morality, p. 146. I use 'Marxian' to denote that which can be attributed to Marx's own thought, and this does not include Engels; 'Marxist' denotes all those who accept, in one version or another, Marx's critique of capitalism, his production­ oriented theory of historical development, and his goal of a classless society.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism: a Historical Sketch
    University of Central Florida STARS PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements 1-1-1916 Socialism: A historical sketch William J. Ghent Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Book is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Ghent, William J., "Socialism: A historical sketch" (1916). PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements. 218. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/218 APPEAL SOCIALIST CLASSICS EDITED BY W. J. GHENT No. a Socialism: A Historical Sketch Copyright, 1916, by Appeal to Reason APPEAL TO REASON Cirnrd, Kansa THE SERIES The pamphlets in this series are composed, in the main, of selections from the publlshed work of Socialist writers, mostly of the present day. In some of them, particularly "Socialist Documents" and "Socialism and Government," the writings used are mainly of collective, rather than individual autborship; whlle the EUstorical Sketch is the composition of the editor. To the selections given, the editor has added explanatvry and connecting paragraphs weldin~ the fragments into a co­ herent whole. Too aim is the ma mg together in conci e and systematic form, of what has been most clearly and pertinently said, either by individual Socialist writers or by committees speaking Ior the party as a whole, on al1 of the main phases of Socialism. In their finished form bey might, with some appropriate­ ness, be termed mosaics: each pamphlet is an arrangement of parts from many sources according to a unitary design.
    [Show full text]