Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory

Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory PDF

Author: Andrew Feenberg

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13:

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Feenberg offers a new interpretation of the theories of alienation and reification as the basis of a Marxist approach to the cultural contradictions of contemporary society.

The Philosophy Of Praxis

The Philosophy Of Praxis PDF

Author: Andrew Feenberg

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2014-08-12

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1781682194

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Philosophy of Praxis examines the work of four Marxist thinkers, the early Marx and Lukács, and the Frankfurt School philosophers Adorno and Marcuse. The book holds that fundamental philosophical problems are in reality social problems, abstractly conceived. This argument has two implications: on the one hand, philosophical problems are significant insofar as they reflect real social contradictions; on the other hand, philosophy cannot resolve the problems it identifies because only social revolution can eliminate their social causes. Feenberg’s Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory was an intellectual history of these discussions. Philosophy of Praxis is an update of that classic theoretical work, which details how the discussion has been taken up by contemporary schools of thought, including Marxist political theory and continental philosophy.

Against Nature

Against Nature PDF

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780791430453

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Against Nature examines the history of the concept of nature in the tradition of Critical Theory, with chapters on Lukacs, Horkheimer and Adorno, Marcuse, and Habermas. It argues that the tradition has been marked by significant difficulties with respect to that concept; that these problems are relevant to contemporary environmental philosophy as well; and that a solution to them requires taking seriously--and literally--the idea of nature as socially constructed.

Confronting Reification

Confronting Reification PDF

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-07-27

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9004430083

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In Confronting Reification, an international team of scholars examines the work of the Hungarian philosopher, Georg Lukács, and the relevance of his concept of reification.

Transforming Technology

Transforming Technology PDF

Author: Andrew Feenberg

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-02-06

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0190208341

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Thoroughly revised, this new edition of Critical Theory of Technology rethinks the relationships between technology, rationality, and democracy, arguing that the degradation of labor--as well as of many environmental, educational, and political systems--is rooted in the social values that preside over technological development. It contains materials on political theory, but the emphasis has shifted to reflect a growing interest in the fields of technology and cultural studies.

Lukács: Praxis and the Absolute

Lukács: Praxis and the Absolute PDF

Author: Daniel Andrés López

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-10-14

Total Pages: 632

ISBN-13: 9004417680

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Georg Lukács’s philosophy of praxis, penned between 1918 and 1928, remains a revolutionary and apocryphal presence within Marxism. His History and Class Consciousness has inspired a century of rapture and reprobation, perhaps, as Gillian Rose suggested, because of its ‘invitation to hermeneutic anarchy’. In Lukács: Praxis and the Absolute, Daniel Andrés López radicalises Lukács’s famous return to Hegel by reassembling his 1920s philosophy as a conceptual-historical totality. This speculative reading defends Lukács while proposing an unprecedented, immanent critique. While Lukács’s concept of praxis approaches the shape of Hegel’s Absolute, it tragically fails to bear its weight. However, as López argues, Lukács’s failure was productive: it raises crucial political, methodological and philosophical questions for Marxism, offering to redeem a lost century.

Marx and Critical Theory

Marx and Critical Theory PDF

Author: Emmanuel Renault

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-08-13

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 9004374949

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Marx and Critical Theory examines Marx’s main philosophical, political and social theoretical ideas. Its purpose is twofold: making sense of the concepts and theses of Marx, and showing that they remain relevant for contemporary critical theory.

History and Class Consciousness

History and Class Consciousness PDF

Author: Georg Lukacs

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1972-11-15

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780262620208

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This is the first time one of the most important of Lukács' early theoretical writings, published in Germany in 1923, has been made available in English. The book consists of a series of essays treating, among other topics, the definition of orthodox Marxism, the question of legality and illegality, Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist, the changing function of Historic Marxism, class consciousness, and the substantiation and consciousness of the Proletariat. Writing in 1968, on the occasion of the appearance of his collected works, Lukács evaluated the influence of this book as follows: "For the historical effect of History and Class Consciousness and also for the actuality of the present time one problem is of decisive importance: alienation, which is here treated for the first time since Marx as the central question of a revolutionary critique of capitalism, and whose historical as well as methodological origins are deeply rooted in Hegelian dialectic. It goes without saying that the problem was omnipresent. A few years after History and Class Consciousness was published, it was moved into the focus of philosophical discussion by Heidegger in his Being and Time, a place which it maintains to this day largely as a result of the position occupied by Sartre and his followers. The philologic question raised by L. Goldmann, who considered Heidegger's work partly as a polemic reply to my (admittedly unnamed) work, need not be discussed here. It suffices today to say that the problem was in the air, particularly if we analyze its background in detail in order to clarify its effect, the mixture of Marxist and Existentialist thought processes, which prevailed especially in France immediately after the Second World War. In this connection priorities, influences, and so on are not particularly significant. What is important is that the alienation of man was recognized and appreciated as the central problem of the time in which we live, by bourgeois as well as proletarian, by politically rightist and leftist thinkers. Thus, History and Class Consciousness exerted a profound effect in the circles of the youthful intelligentsia."

The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing

The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing PDF

Author: Andrew Feenberg

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2023-02-28

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1804290831

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How Marcuse helps us understand the ecological crisis of the 21st century For several years after 1968, Herbert Marcuse was one of the most famous philosophers in the world. He became the face of Frankfurt School Critical Theory for a generation in turmoil. His fame rested on two remarkable books, Eros and Civilization and One-Dimensional Man. These two books represent the utopian hopes and dystopian fears of the time. In the 1960s and 70s, young people seeking a theoretical basis for their revolution found it in his work. Marcuse not only supported their struggles against imperialism and race and gender discrimination, he foresaw the far-reaching implications of the destruction of the natural environment. Marcuse’s Marxism was influenced by Husserl and Heidegger, Hegel and Freud. These eclectic sources grounded an original critique of advanced capitalism focused on the social construction of subjectivity and technology. Marcuse contrasted the “one-dimensionality” of conformist experience with the “new sensibility” of the New Left. The movement challenged a society that “delivered the goods” but devastated the planet with its destructive science and technology. A socialist revolution would fail if it did not transform these instruments into means of liberation, both of nature and human beings. This aspiration is alive today in the radical struggle over climate change. Marcuse offers theoretical resources for understanding that struggle.