Questions tagged [marxism]
102
questions
-2
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3answers
82 views
Is basing the political spectrum on economics actually meaningful?
In my view, the left doesnt support equality. It is a coalition of interest groups, which vaguely relate to each other.
The meaningful definition i have seen is that the left represents progress, or ...
-4
votes
1answer
77 views
Is equality meaningless as a political goal, especially economic equality? [closed]
Since equality is defined in so many different ways - for example, giving everyone the same land area ignores differences in value - is it irrelevant as a political goal? Especially economic equality.
2
votes
1answer
48 views
Does Marx make a metaphysical/ontological argument for Materialism anywhere?
As I understand it currently, I read Marx as more of a historian, economist and sociologist and I am finding it hard to locate any metaphysical argument against Hegel's 'idealism'.
All I know is this ...
0
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0answers
48 views
Questions about Marx's second, third, and fourth thesis in ''Theses on Feuerbach''
The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question.
a. What does Marx mean here by ”objective truth,” what is he alluding ...
0
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0answers
39 views
What's the importance that Marx gives to the Class Struggle for the devolopment of societies?
I've reading The Communist Manifesto and I could understand that all changes in the human history societies have been because the struggle of class.
but what is his argument? I can't understands his ...
0
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1answer
50 views
Question about Marx´s book (German Ideology)
In 'The German Ideology' Marx claims that in his materialist conception of history 'ascends from earth to heaven', unlike the German philosophy of the time that 'descends from heaven to earth'. What ...
0
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1answer
75 views
Under what conditions is work alienated?
Why, for Marx, is alienation a condition of work under capitalism? I´ve been reading Marx's texts and I don't understand why.
1
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0answers
26 views
Dialectics and Machiavelli
What is the relation between Marxist dialectics and Machiavelli's philosophy? I have read Lefort, and he seems good, but I was unsure if he was an academic playing games.
0
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1answer
68 views
Are social crises good for the bourgeoisie, according to Marx?
Are social crises good for the bourgeoisie, according to Marx?
Clearly social crises can be bad for the working class. For example, the world wars were bad and count as 'social crises', but they may ...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
Translation of Lenin's “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism”
What is the best translation of Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-criticism (Материализм и эмпириокритицизм) into English (or perhaps other wide-spread languages)? I would like to have the closest there ...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
Would Marx have seen Socialism as a stage in a historical process towards Communism?
I have the impression from my (limited, autodidactic) reading of Marx that he was antagonistic towards various forms of Socialism, criticizing Socialists for being (among other things) piecemeal ...
1
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0answers
44 views
Can anyone explain the meaning of “Hegelian Essence”
I've been reading Terry Eagleton's Marxist critique of the bronte's and Eagleton writes that Catherine "reifies Heathcliff to a Hegelian essence, sublimely untainted by empirical fact".
I can't seem ...
1
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3answers
83 views
Does anyone claim that all alienation is fetishism for Marx?
rather than equating alienation and fetishism, fetishism is better
thought of as a particular form that alienation might take. (To be
clear, there looks to be no reason to think that Marx would, ...
1
vote
0answers
40 views
Does Jameson define “narrative” anywhere?
Does Jameson define "narrative" anywhere? I've read the political unconscious, and just ordered a study of him, and I would probably agree that narratives embody social reality, but am unclear what ...
2
votes
1answer
119 views
Meaning of a diagram by Althusser
A diagram by Althusser captioned “The future lasts a long time” (the title of his memoirs) appears on several of his book covers. Below is my own reproduction, based on a sketched version found here.
...
5
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1answer
268 views
Henry George vs. Karl Marx
I recently came across some of Marx's critique of Georgism, and was wondering where else the theories of these two thinkers conflict. Georgism to me certainly seems to have a slight materialist bent ...
2
votes
1answer
135 views
Is there any new concept in Marxism that didn't exist in classical economics?
Surplus value is just economic profit. The organic composition of capital is just the investment rate. Capitalist mode of production is just a verbose way of saying capitalism. Exchange value is price....
0
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1answer
130 views
What does object oriented philosophy say about commodity fetishism?
What does object oriented philosophy say about commodity fetishism?
I thought the essence of fetishism was how, in his alienation from the means of production, what we are and make seems to become ...
1
vote
1answer
101 views
What do Marxists make of contemporary technophobia?
What would Marxists make of contemporary luddism, technophobia, etc.?
In 1867, Karl Marx wrote that it would be some time before workers
were able to distinguish between the machines and "the ...
0
votes
3answers
94 views
Is the internet a commodity in the Marxist sense?
Is the internet a commodity in the Marxist sense?
It may help to know if it's made, bought and sold. Can people own more or less of the internet, and in what ways?
2
votes
0answers
63 views
Should Bergson be described as an individualist?
It's claimed that Bergson's "intuition of pure duration" is the "highest and most valuable form of human experience": is this an individualist or collectivist good?
I'm asking because I'm interested ...
3
votes
0answers
79 views
The Effects of Marx's Moral Character on Communism
I recently read Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals" which includes a scourging critique of Karl Marx and his work. Surprisingly, it focused on Marx's own personality along with his many vices, which ...
3
votes
1answer
205 views
Was Marx a Marxist?
In his writings, did Marx only seek to explain the social and economic transformation precipitated by the rise of capitalism as well as offer some forecast for the future or did he actively also ...
1
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0answers
52 views
Might Marx's argument in Das Kapital be less about justice and exploitation than it is about disenfranchisment?
Might Marx's argument in Das Kapital be less about justice and exploitation than it is about disenfranchisment? I specifically mean his analysis of work, the falling rate of profit, and movement of '...
1
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0answers
88 views
Are Marx's crises of capitalism essentially crises for the working class?
Are Marx's crises of capitalism essentially crises for the working class?
It is well known that Marx predicted increased immiseration of the working class relative to the bourgeoisie, and that crises,...
3
votes
0answers
64 views
What is the strongest link made in the philosophical literature between privacy and civil liberties?
What is the strongest link made in the philosophical literature between privacy and civil liberties? In particular, an analysis which eschews 'democracy', or separates out democracy from 'civil ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
What does Marx mean by “the real will of the cooperative”?
This is an extract from A Darwinian Left by Peter Singer:
Marx: Under collective property, the so-called will of
the people disappears in order to make way for the real
will of the cooperative.
...
1
vote
1answer
377 views
Would a “Classless society” be better than the present society? [closed]
In today's era many countries have 'Marxist' political parties, and their purpose is a "classless society".
Can a classless society be possible, can it run successfully run?
3
votes
1answer
720 views
What does Machiavelli say about friends of my enemies?
What does Machiavelli say about friends of my enemies? I read the Prince, and some continental stuff relating it to Marxism, such as Specters of Marx. The former mostly seemed like practical, in some ...
1
vote
2answers
250 views
Marxism - primary contradiction of capitalism
After writing a long post, i decided to keep only the summary :
I understand that in the marxist framework a mode of production is constituted by :
the relations of production
the productive forces
...
0
votes
1answer
469 views
What does Marx mean in the quote from the bible?
The social revolution of the nineteenth century cannot take its poetry
from the past but only from the future. It cannot begin with itself
before it has stripped away all superstition about the ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
How does commodity fetishism appear to individuals?
It is nothing but the definite social relation between men themselves
which assumes here, for them, the fantastic form of a relation between
things
Das Kapital.
I remember that fetishism ...
2
votes
3answers
290 views
Marx and teleology : what has happened, what will happen, or what could happen?
In Marxism the idea of history being a process with determinable characteristics is raised. History here being the relations of economic life and social reproduction, and the cultures they give rise ...
23
votes
9answers
9k views
How are workers exploited when they have a choice in working for a boss?
Under Marxist theory, workers are being exploited for their labor and not receiving the full value of their labor. Workers however have a choice in who they work for and how much they earn so how can ...
2
votes
2answers
159 views
Are there philosophers working with the idea of language being ideological?
Are there philosophers working with the idea of language being ideological? If so, who, what specifically are their research interests, and what studies into it are available?
By 'ideology' I suppose ...
2
votes
1answer
181 views
Did 20th-century Marxists acknowledge that the “social science” predictions of Marxism were wrong?
In this video, starting at 5:36, Stephen Hicks claims that there are three central "social science" Marxist predictions, which I would sum up as follows:
Over time, in any capitalist society,
The ...
29
votes
4answers
8k views
Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?
The internet is awash with claims that anyone arguing that Stalinist Russia / Maoism wasn't communist is committing the no true Scotsman / ad hoc rescue fallacy. However, I suspect that few of its ...
-1
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2answers
143 views
Is Marxism akin to science fiction or soothsaying prophecy? [closed]
Reading a bit about Marxism (from second hand sources) and it is saying in any society A will happen then B will happen and so on.
So was Marx a futurist much like Asimov. Asimov wrote a lot about ...
1
vote
2answers
109 views
Is the folliowing tu quoque a reasonable argument?
Is the following tu quo que a reasonable argument?
Don't be a communist, you saw what happened in Russia
Reply:
And the slave trade was run by capitalists.
I'm not even sure if the reply is true, ...
2
votes
3answers
239 views
Was early Christianity the Communism of its day? [closed]
I have been watching a lot of documentaries on Vietnam, Russia and Marxism, and Religion debates here and there. I've come to a conclusion but I am not sure if it is true.
It seems to me that ...
3
votes
1answer
767 views
Who Are the Most Prominent Modern Socialist Thinkers?
Who Are The Ten Most Prominent Modern Socialist Thinkers? (Big Tent: Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, etc. are all acceptable).
4
votes
6answers
661 views
How can land and natural resources become “private property”?
I’ve been trying to understand how an anarchic society would be initiated, but the two main ideas- anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism- not only contradict each other, but seem to be riddled with ...
0
votes
1answer
777 views
Why is Slavoj Zizek considered a Marxist?
Not that I have read any of his books but I've watched the documentary and several of his magazine articles and he totally seems like a centrist. On some subjects (like Islam/immigration) maybe even ...
2
votes
1answer
107 views
Do we need principles about every ethical decision / dilemma we have?
Do we need principles about every ethical decision / dilemma we have? I'm interested in an answer from any of the major ethical standpoint.
And even ones inclusive to Marxism, either Marx's wish to ...
12
votes
5answers
509 views
Is there a philosophical basis for the conflation of the cultural left and the economic/fiscal left?
In the U.S and most of the West, the cultural left (used loosely to include movements like feminism, secularism, being pro-diversity and pro minority-rights, the LGBTQ movement, being pro-immigration, ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
Would an universal basic income eliminate exploitation (a la Marx) in capitalism?
Marx's argument in the theory of exploitation is that capitalists do not need to sell their labour power in the market in order to live, whereas workers need to do so. As such, workers are not really "...
1
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1answer
442 views
Adorno and identity politics
People on the political right like to throw around the phrase "cultural Marxism" as a label for identity politics, feminism, intersectionality etc. Evidently its a reference to the Frankfurt school, ...
1
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3answers
236 views
Was Communism meant to be a telos, for Marx, or for Lenin etc.?
Was Communism meant to be a telos, for Marx, or for Lenin etc.? By that, I mean to ask whether Communism is already contained in anything that creates Communism? My apologies if my jargon is off, I ...
2
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0answers
195 views
Can the capitalist class realise they are alienated?
I was taught that even the most self interested bourgeois is alienated, I think due to having to continually invest capital in competition with other capitalists. As so called state capitalism seems ...
5
votes
2answers
938 views
Do Deleuze and Baudrillard really advocate extracting capitalism's “subversive energy”?
I'm reading Forget Foucault by Baudrillard, or starting to, anyway. Still in Sylvere Lotringer's introduction. He claims that, after the failure of the '68 revolution in France, thinkers like Deleuze ...
