Marx (& Engels), The German Ideology (1845-46) Moves from critique of “idealism” in Young Hegelians, etc. to a conception of “materialism” “The premises from which we begin . . .” (113) What constitutes “material”? not just consciousness, but production,
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Marx (& Engels), The German Ideology (1845-46)
Moves from critique of “idealism” in Young Hegelians, etc.
to a conception of “materialism”
“The premises from which we begin . . .” (113)
What constitutes “material”?
not just consciousness, but production,
human practice & activity (114)
Examples in text?
History then becomes history of modes of production
Division and specialization of labor becomes motor of
a) tribal (land, family, barter)
b) ancient communal/State (private property,
commerce, slavery, town)
c) feudal (country, guilds, industry vs. commerce)
Marx 1839 & 1875,
The camera obscura metaphor for epistemology (118)
ideology not transparent in relation to material conditions
emphasis on the phantasmal series of historical contingencies
which produce the sense of lack of will, the sense of “accidental” historical conditions as “fate” or “destiny
lack of correspondence the motive for change
Philosophy dies as a metaphysical, theological, religious inquiry,
true “universally” & under “all conditions” (119)
Philosophy reborn as an inquiry into changing conditions of history
Notion of Alienation, estrangement (adapted from Hegel) (124)
an historical self-division of man from labor, not a permanent
psychological one as with Freud
Existence/essence debate (132)
“The existence of a thing or a man . . “
History becomes history of class struggle (125)
(124) “In communist society . . .”
only possible with global conditions of capital production
To what degree is Marx’s formulation of future communist utopia a remnant, a palimpsest of Christian thinking (within a “Jewish” thinker’s program), that is a projection of the apocalyptic, post- historic unity of humanity in Christianity onto the history of modes of production?
How conceive of change?
Neo as parable of change, saltology, paralogy
While revolutionary in discourse, Marx sometimes more evolutionary in practice: see his (somewhat failed) attempt to ally with the bourgeoisie when he returned to Rhineland during 1848 Revolution
Effects of unequal distribution of wealth
40 acres & a mule
Science not objective (135)
Critique of universalism (137-38)
Law not objective (151)
justice vs. law
U.S. immigration laws regarding “Asians”
See Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore : a History of Asian Americans
Is revolution always against State? (157)
is it now against “global capitalism”?
Cornell West, how imagine values so not reduced to market values?
For next time: Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
How do Freud’s theories attempt to explain how self-division operates?
How, practically, are his writings an explanation of the activities of the multiple parts of consciousness?
If Marx was trying to explain discrepancies, contradictions, non- transparencies between historical modes of production and historical forms of class consciousness (which discrepancies then produce the consciousness of a need for historical change & revolution), how is Freud trying to explain similar non- correspondences within the psyche?
Is therapy an evolutionary or revolutionary paradigm of change?