No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Philosophy, Science and Myth in Marxism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
Extract
‘Feuerbach resolves the religious essence into the human essence. But the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations.’
It is a common belief, shared both by Marxists and by critics of Marxism, that differences in the interpretation of this statement have important implications for the assessment of Marx's system of ideas. How we read it will affect our view of the unity of Marx's thought and of the continuity of its development over his lifetime, and it will bear crucially on our appraisal of the epistemological status—metaphysical, scientific or mythopoeic—of the various elements of the Marxian system. Among Marxists, members of the Frankfurt School have emphasized the paternity of Marxian metaphysical humanism in Hegel's conception of man as a self-creating being, while Althusser and his disciples have seen in the extrusion from Marx's later work of any such ‘anthropomorphic’ notion a guarantee of the scientific character of his historical materialism. Among Marx's liberal critics, it is widely agreed that he espoused an essentialist view of man and, often enough, it is thought that this alone is sufficient to disqualify his system from scientific status. No consensus exists, however, as to the cognitive standing of the several components of Marx's thought. That agreement should be lacking as to the place in it of a conception of human nature is hardly surprising. Different construals of the role of a view of man will reflect divergent commitments, not only in the philosophy and methodology of social and historical inquiry, but in moral and political thought as well.
- Type
- Papers
- Information
- Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 14: Marx and Marxisms , September 1982 , pp. 71 - 95
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1982
References
1 ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, VI, in Marx and Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, Feuer, Lewis S. (ed.) (London: Collins, Fontana Library, 1969), 285.Google Scholar
2 In Karl Marx: Early Writings, Introduced by Colletti, L. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975), 328–329.Google Scholar
3 The German Ideology, Ryazanskaya, S. (ed.) (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964), 31.Google Scholar
4 Capital, I, trans. Moore, Samuel and Aveling, Edward, Engels, F. (ed.) (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1965), 179.Google Scholar
5 Economic-Philosophic Manuscripts, in Karl Marx: Early Writings, 328.Google Scholar
6 Kolakowski, L., Main Currents of Marxism, III, The Breakdown (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 277.Google Scholar
7 Capital, I, 79–80.Google Scholar
8 On this and other points in my analysis I have learnt much from Marx's Theory of Exchange, Alienation and Crisis by Roberts, Paul Craig and Stephenson, Matthew A. (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1973).Google Scholar
9 The term ‘catallaxy’ I borrow from F. A. Hayek's recent use of it. See his Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (London: Routledge, 1967), 164.Google Scholar
10 ‘The Obsolescence of Marxism’, in Marx and the Western World, Lobkowicz, N. (ed.) (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967), 411.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 411.
12 Ibid., 411.
13 Ibid., 411.
14 Ibid., 411.
15 ‘Repressive Tolerance’ in A Critique of Pure Tolerance (with Moore, Barrington and Wolff, R. P.) (London: Cape, 1969), 93.Google Scholar
16 One-Dimensional Man (London: Sphere Books, 1968), 200.Google Scholar
17 Essay on Liberation (London: Allen Lane, 1969), 85.Google Scholar
18 One-Dimensional Man, 201Google Scholar. See also Marcuse, 's Counter-Revolution and Revolt (London: Allen Lane, 1972).Google Scholar
19 Kamenka, E., Marxism and Ethics (London: Macmillan, 1969), 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20 Kolakowski, L., The Socialist Idea (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1974)Google Scholar, Chap. 2, ‘The Myth of Human Self-Identity’.
21 Cohen, G. A., Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 151.Google Scholar
22 Op. cit., 151.
23 Op. cit., 134.
24 Op. cit., 134.
25 Op. cit., 135.
26 Op. cit., 156, 155 respectively.
27 Op. cit, 153.
28 Op. cit., 152.
29 Op. cit., 153.
30 Op. cit., 153.
31 Op. cit., 151.
32 See on this Rhees, R., Without Answers (London: Routledge, 1969), 23–49Google Scholar, for a critique of Marxism from which I have learnt much.
33 I owe this example to Philipps, D. Z. and Mounce, H. O., Moral Practices (London: Routledge, 1970).Google Scholar
34 I a indebted to the writings of Anderson, John, and especially to his Marxist Ethics, in Studies in Empirical Philosophy (Sydney, 1962), for these points.Google Scholar
35 Cohen, , 24.Google Scholar
36 All of the preceding quotations occur on p. 60 of Cohen.
37 On p. 353 Cohen asserts that the theses of the labour theory of value are not presupposed or entailed by any of the arguments he advances in the book. The productivity criterion may presuppose some elements of the labour theory of value; but I am not concerned to argue this here.
38 Cohen, , 248.Google Scholar
39 Cohen, , 155.Google Scholar
40 Cohen, , 169.Google Scholar
41 Cohen.
42 Cohen, , 223Google Scholar
43 Cohen, , 160–166.Google Scholar
44 Singer, , New York Review of Books, 20 12 1979, 46–47Google Scholar. In reply to Singer, Cohen has insisted that Darwinian theory has a functionalist aspect. I am not persuaded by his claims, but their cogency would not affect the main line of my argument.
45 Cohen, , 159.Google Scholar
46 In Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (London: Hogarth Press, 1979), 296–322.Google Scholar
47 A Short History of Ethics by MacIntyre, Alasdair (London: Routledge, 1968), 268–269.Google Scholar
48 I have not forgotten those neo-Kantian Marxian thinkers who treat Marxist social theory as purely explanatory. I would contend that their writings sacrifice that unity of theory and practice which is distinctive of the Marxian standpoint.
49 I am particularly grateful to Gerry Cohen, David Miller, Bhikhu Parekh and Bill Weinstein for their comments on previous versions of this paper.