Structure of Marx's World-View

Structure of Marx's World-View
Author: John McMurtry
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-03-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400868939

This book sets forth a clear and systematic approach to Marx's thought that finally makes possible a coherent interpretation of all of his published works. Although Marx's philosophy is usually regarded as one of the most influential ever written, its seeming ambiguities and contradictions have long puzzled readers. By uncovering the framework that unifies the writings of Karl Marx, John McMurtry has made an advance of signal importance for all areas of Marxian studies. The many valuable features of Professor McMurtry's analysis include clear, coordinated definitions of all concepts central to Marx's thought. Closely reasoned explanations illuminate such controversial theories and positions as economic determinism, ideology, and the laws of society and history. Here, too, are definitive formulations of Marx's generally neglected or denied theories of human nature, technological determinism, and mind, plus precise delineations of his stands on traditional political and philosophical questions. The author contrasts Marx's ideas with those of other important thinkers and provides a systematic survey of standard objections that refutes many of Marx's best-known critics and disciples. In addition, Professor McMurtry offers a precise critique of the historical genesis and economic and political structures of "Marxist" societies. Throughout, direct reference to the texts and concrete illustrations explain all relevant concepts, positions, and issues. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The New Materialism

The New Materialism
Author: Geoff Pfeifer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131760587X

Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek have become two of the dominant voices in contemporary philosophy and critical theory. In this book, Geoff Pfeifer offers an in-depth look at their respective views. Using Louis Althusser’s materialism as a starting point—which, as Pfeifer shows, was built partially as a response to the Marxism of the Parti Communiste Français and partially in dialogue with other philosophical movements and intellectual currents of its times—the book looks at the differing ways in which both Badiou’s and Žižek’s work attempt to respond to issues that arise within the Althusserian edifice. Pfeifer argues here that, ultimately, Žižek’s materialism succeeds in responding to these issues in ways that Badiou’s does not. In building this argument, Pfeifer engages not only with the work of Althusser, Badiou, and Žižek and their intellectual backgrounds, but also with much of the contemporary scholarship surrounding these thinkers. As such, Pfeifer’s book is an important addition to the ongoing debates within contemporary critical theory.

An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital

An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital
Author: Michael Heinrich
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2012-06-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1583672915

The global economic crisis and recession that began in 2008 had at least one unexpected outcome: a surge in sales of Karl Marx's Capital. Although mainstream economists and commentators once dismissed Marx's work as outmoded and flawed, some are begrudgingly acknowledging an analysis that sees capitalism as inherently unstable. And of course, there are those, like Michael Heinrich, who have seen the value of Marx all along, and are in a unique position to explain the intricacies of Marx's thought. Heinrich's modern interpretation of Capital is now available to English-speaking readers for the first time. It has gone through nine editions in Germany, is the standard work for Marxist study groups, and is used widely in German universities. The author systematically covers all three volumes of Capital and explains all the basic aspects of Marx's critique of capitalism in a way that is clear and concise. He provides background information on the intellectual and political milieu in which Marx worked, and looks at crucial issues beyond the scope of Capital, such as class struggle, the relationship between capital and the state, accusations of historical determinism, and Marx's understanding of communism. Uniquely, Heinrich emphasizes the monetary character of Marx's work, in addition to the traditional emphasis on the labor theory of value, this highlighting the relevance of Capital to the age of financial explosions and implosions.

Marx’s Ecology

Marx’s Ecology
Author: John Bellamy Foster
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2000-03-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1583673806

Progress requires the conquest of nature. Or does it? This startling new account overturns conventional interpretations of Marx and in the process outlines a more rational approach to the current environmental crisis. Marx, it is often assumed, cared only about industrial growth and the development of economic forces. John Bellamy Foster examines Marx's neglected writings on capitalist agriculture and soil ecology, philosophical naturalism, and evolutionary theory. He shows that Marx, known as a powerful critic of capitalist society, was also deeply concerned with the changing human relationship to nature. Marx's Ecology covers many other thinkers, including Epicurus, Charles Darwin, Thomas Malthus, Ludwig Feuerbach, P. J. Proudhon, and William Paley. By reconstructing a materialist conception of nature and society, Marx's Ecology challenges the spiritualism prevalent in the modern Green movement, pointing toward a method that offers more lasting and sustainable solutions to the ecological crisis.

The Schema of the Theory of Reification

The Schema of the Theory of Reification
Author: Wataru Hiromatsu
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2022-05-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004515348

Placing the concept of reification at the centre of Marx’s thought, Hiromatsu demonstrates across a number of areas — history, the understanding of society, and the understanding of philosophy — the philosophical and practical change in worldview which this concept brings about.

How to Read Marx's Capital

How to Read Marx's Capital
Author: Michael Heinrich
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2021-08-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1583678964

An accessible companion to Karl Marx's essential Capital With the recent revival of Karl Marx's theory, a general interest in reading Capital has also increased. But Capital—Marx’s foundational nineteenth-century work on political economy—is by no means considered an easily understood text. Central concepts, such as abstract labor, the value-form, or the fetishism of commodities, can seem opaque to us as first-time readers, and the prospect of comprehending Marx’s thought can be truly daunting. Until, that is, we pick up Michael Heinrich’s How to Read Marx's Capital. Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx’s original text. Suddenly, such seemingly gnarly chapters as “The Labor Process and the Valorization Process” and “Money or the Circulation of Capital” become refreshingly clear, as Heinrich explains just what we need to keep in mind when reading such a complex text. Deploying multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich reveals what is relevant about Capital, and why we need to engage with it today. How to Read Marx's Capital provides an illuminating and indispensable guide to sorting through cultural detritus of a world whose political and economic systems are simultaneously imploding and exploding.

Worldview

Worldview
Author: David K. Naugle
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2002-07-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780802847614

Conceiving of Christianity as a "worldview" has been one of the most significant events in the church in the last 150 years. In this new book David Naugle provides the best discussion yet of the history and contemporary use of worldview as a totalizing approach to faith and life. This informative volume first locates the origin of worldview in the writings of Immanuel Kant and surveys the rapid proliferation of its use throughout the English-speaking world. Naugle then provides the first study ever undertaken of the insights of major Western philosophers on the subject of worldview and offers an original examination of the role this concept has played in the natural and social sciences. Finally, Naugle gives the concept biblical and theological grounding, exploring the unique ways that worldview has been used in the Evangelical, Orthodox, and Catholic traditions. This clear presentation of the concept of worldview will be valuable to a wide range of readers.

Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society

Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society
Author: Michael Heinrich
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2019-07-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1583677364

A new, comprehensive biography of the life and work of Karl Marx For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents. This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.

The Philosophy Of Praxis

The Philosophy Of Praxis
Author: Andrew Feenberg
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1781681724

The early Marx called for the “realization of philosophy” through revolution. Revolution thus became a critical concept for Marxism, a view elaborated in the later praxis perspectives of Lukács and the Frankfurt School. These thinkers argue that fundamental philosophical problems are, in reality, social problems abstractly conceived. Originally published as Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory, The Philosophy of Praxis traces the evolution of this argument in the writings of Marx, Lukács, Adorno and Marcuse. This reinterpretation of the philosophy of praxis shows its continuing relevance to contemporary discussions in Marxist political theory, continental philosophy and science and technology studies.