In this paper I argue that Marxist Buddhism may provide a novel approach to envy in society. It has been argued that envy arises in response to socio-political inequality, which is considered a problem given the social and moral harms associated with envy. Thus, achieving equality is expected to solve the problem of envy. However, anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that is not the case, and that, in particular, societies inspired by Marxist ideals are not envy-free—if anything, the (...) opposite seems true. Buddhism has traditionally condemned envy. It shares with Marxism the idea that individual wellbeing can be obtained, paradoxically, only through lessening emphasis on individuality—Marxism by means of economic collectivism, Buddhism by means of a spiritual transformation. Both aim at shrinking the self and are keenly aware of how quickly an emphasis on one’s own desires leads to greed and exploitation of others. However, Marxist ideals have failed to yield successful large-scale flourishing communities, while Buddhism is a religion practiced by millions of people but has not advanced a politically progressive agenda in particular. Marxist Buddhism—argue—may perhaps bring together the best of the respective traditions to solve the problem of envy. However, I end by cautioning against such a radical reshaping of our psychological makeup, especially given the evidence that shows that there are morally and prudentially good types of envy, and sketch the profile of a Buddhist-friendly type of envy as an alternative to total eradication. (shrink)

The book follows on the heels of the acclaimed Criticism of Heaven, being the second volume of a five volume series called Criticism of Heaven and Earth.

Sartre, Camus, and a Marxism for the 21st Century.

This paper explores a contrast between the Marxist and feminist traditions of emancipatory social theory: whereas in the Marxist tradition theorists have spent considerable time and energy discussing the problem of the viability of classlessness as an emancipatory project, feminists have spent relatively little time defending the viability of a society without male domination. The paper argues that this difference in preoccupations reflects, at least to some extent, differences in the relationship between prefigurative egalitarian micro experiences and macro (...) institutional change with respect to gender oppression and class oppression. The paper also explores the implications of this contrast for the kinds of explanatory theory developed within the two traditions. Marxists' greater tendency than feminists to seek relatively deterministic accounts of the demise of the form of oppression on which they focus is viewed as at least partially a way of contending with the difficulty in establishing the viability of the emancipatory project of classlessness. (shrink)

This review-essay explores approaches to the thought of the creative Soviet Marxist thinker Evald Ilyenkov as discussed in a recent book edited by Alex Levant and Vesa Oittinen, Dialectics of the Ideal: Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism. The book consists of a series of commentaries and contextual essays which centre on the translated text of Ilyenkov’s Dialectics of the Ideal. The approach the authors take to Ilyenkov’s work differs from previous ones of exploring the totality of Ilyenkov’s thought (...) or eclectic aspects of it. By commenting on and contextualising Ilyenkov’s major text on the Ideal they locate the contribution of Ilyenkov in dialogue with traditions of classical European philosophy, and Western and Soviet Marxism, and in his importance to contemporary issues in philosophy and other disciplines. A deep analysis of Ilyenkov’s dense and often complex text is also given. By doing so the authors highlight the immense contribution of Ilyenkov to contemporary thought. (shrink)

Intense interest has long been shown in the nature of humankind. Are we the products of genes? Are we the products of culture? Or are we something in between? The Marxist position, stressing the dominant significance of social methods for studying humans, is sketched. Then, a number of Western, biologically influenced views are discussed and criticised. Although there are important insights in the writings of the holders of these views, ultimately they produce only a semiscience.

The aim of the study is to assess current trends, regularities and contradictions in the Marxist critique of neoliberal capitalism. The methodology of the study is built on a comparative analysis of the latest scientific works, an approach based on quantitative analysis of the global neoliberal development in the period 1980–2020. For the analysis this authors used the data of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) on the group of ‘Big Seven’ countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, (...) Japan, United Kingdom, the United States and China. A comparative analysis shows a significant lag in the countries with a neoliberal model of global economic growth. It can be argued that the neoliberal model of economic development proved effective at the initial stage of its practical application in overcoming the inflationary shock caused by the oil crisis of the 1970s, as well as in the conditions of highly competitive industrial production. At the same time, in the context of the post-industrial formation of the digital economy, neoliberal ideology no longer meets the challenges of the times and is no longer able to support sustainable economic growth as well as prosperity. (shrink)

Author discusses the specifics of the orthodox Marxist-Leninist philosophical principles in the context of ideological pressure in 1970–1980 s. He analyzes the concepts and approaches that have given rise to some new Post-Marxist ideas. He shows that the revision of the orthodox Marxism was possible exclusively due do the delicate usage of Marxist-Leninist conceptual background. He claims that it was necessary to in order to avoid accusations in revisionism and popularization of ideologically alien views. The author pays (...) special attention to activity approach, which was represented in the works by I.S. Alexeev and M.A. Rozov. He argues that the development of this approach was one of the most significant achievements of non-orthodox Marxism in the Soviet era. (shrink)

루카치의 ‘물화(Verdinglichung)’ 개념이 마르크스주의적 성격으로 충분히 분석될 수 있으며, 그렇게 해명될 때 물화 개념을 토대로 한 비판사회이론(Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie)을 더욱 더 풍부하게 재활성화 될 수 있다. 하버마스는 의식철학의 패러다임을 비판하면서 루카치의 물화 개념에 대해 범주오류의 문제가 있음을 제기하였고, 최근 호네트는 규범론적 차원에서 루카치의 물화 개념을 재활성화하고자 하는 시도를 전개하였다. 그런데, 이러한 규범론적 토대를 루카치의 물화개념에서 찾고자 하는 시도가 보여준 일면적인 이론적 경향은 최근의 물화 개념 및 비판 이론의 논의를 협소하게 만들고 있다. 논자는 물화 개념에 기초한 초기 비판이론의 성격과 이론적 과제를 더욱 (...) 더 풍부하게 하기 위해 루카치 텍스트의 고유한 맥락으로 되돌아가서, 마르크스주의적 성격을 분석해 내고자 한다. ‘기만당하는 의식’에서 루카치의 물화 개념의 본래적인 의미를 도출될 수 있다. 이것은 ‘의식철학의 문제 영역으로 회기’ 필요성의 단서를 제공한다. (shrink)

Shows how Simone Weil developed a penetrating critique of Marxism and a powerful political philosophy which serves as an alternative to liberalism and Marxism.

A detailed examination of post-Marxist political theory, focusing especially on the work of Laclau, Habermas, and Derrida. Devenney identifies common concerns between these theorists and demostrates how the respective strenghts of each compliment the weaknesses of the other.

During the twentieth century a number of competing accounts of Lenin’s theory and practice have sought to reclaim its true meaning from ossification under Stalinism. One account popular today is the Hegelian-Marxist interpretation of Lenin’s Philosophical Notebooks written in 1914 and 1915. According to thinkers such as Raya Dunayevskaya and Kevin Anderson, Lenin’s notebooks on Hegel’s Science of Logic represent a radical break from classical dialectical materialism. For these Hegelian-Marxists, Lenin’s acerbic remarks on Engels’s and Plekhanov’s dialectics reveal him (...) as the forerunner of Georg Lukács and Herbert Marcuse and represent a thoroughgoing reconceptualization of the dialectics of revolution. In this article I submit these arguments to the test of a fine grained textual analysis. I conclude, opposite to the Hegelian-Marxist narrative, that Lenin neither intended to nor accomplished a refoundation of Marxist dialectics in 1914. The notion of quantity-quality leaps Lenin adds to his works.. (shrink)

Placing the work of key figures in context and addressing such issues as aesthetics, linguistics and the category of literature, form and function or literary ...

Although neither Marx nor Engels attempted a systematic analysis of the development of merchant capitalism in 17th-century Holland, both did mention this "model capitalist nation" in their writings. Their analysis stressed that Dutch capitalism was based on the exploitation of non-capitalist forms of production, and that the decline of the Dutch Republic in the 18th century was the history of the subordination of commercial capital to industrial capital. Since the turn of the century Dutch Marxists have contributed substantially to this (...) classical analysis, paying much attention to the Dutch Revolt against Spain, which they considered as an early bourgeois revolution led by aristocrats. Nowadays Marxist historians seem to be divided as to the nature of the Dutch Republic: was it a "feudal business economy" or the first appearance of a full-fledged capitalism? A necessary conclusion seems to be that the realities of Dutch history call for a non-unilinear Marxist interpretation. (shrink)

After an extended period in which Marxism received relatively little attention, many of its tenets are now playing a more important role within the left. This essay argues for the relevance today of a number of Marx’s major themes. The Marx I offer here is a conservative Marx. I base this view on his insistence that socialism is needed not to makes us perfect but to save society, in a general sense, from the threats of destruction that it encounters under (...) capitalism. His criticism of utopianism requires that change be anchored in steps humanity has prepared itself to take, rather than in steps that it has no reason to believe will be effective. The importance of class has survived attacks on it as a relic of industrialism and the dominance of the male proletariat. But the working class is more extensive than it ever was. It now encompasses diverse races, genders, and cultures in what can become a front against capitalism. Finally, Marx’s politics posits an inversion of the power relation in capitalist society with capitalism’s subordination of citizens to the state. The global ferment against the failures of capitalism opens new possibilities for the growth of anti-capitalist currents. (shrink)

Martin Empson draws on a Marxist understanding of history to grapple with the contradictory potential of our relationship with our environment. In so doing he shows that human action is key, both to the destruction of nature and to the possibility of a sustainable solution to the ecological crises of the 21st century.

In the economic debate, power is defined and studied mainly as an interpersonal relation occurring out of perfect competition. This is a consequence of the combination of methodological individualism and the assumption of competition as a natural and everlasting coordinating mechanism, operating without any sort of coercion. This methodology, however, is not adequate to analyze the forms of social coercion that characterize capitalism. " Economics and Power" criticizes the main theories of power developed in economic literature, analyzing ultraliberal contractualism to (...) radical political economics, and ultimately suggesting a Marxist conception of power and coercion in capitalism. Palermo s ontological argument is rooted in the philosophy of critical realism.This unique volume presents his main finding as being that the essential coercive mechanism of capitalism is competition. Capitalist power is not caused by a lack of competition, but by the central role it plays in this mode of production. Following this, the chapters reconstruct a Marxian conception of power where it is analyzed as a social relation and argues that perfect competition does in fact exist under the disguise of capitalist power. This book criticizes the construct of power and the underlying ideas surrounding perfect competition. This book is of interest to those who study political economy, as well as economic theory and philosophy. ". (shrink)

A comprehensive and systematic account of the ways in which Marx and Engels and their immediate followers made use of the conception of ideology.

Commented Article: ZHANG, Fengrong; XIAO, Qianwen. Marxist view on global political economy and new market trends. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 79- 106, 2023.

A translation of a Japanese text written by philosopher Tosaka Jun in 1935, at the moment the country had begun to embark upon a course of fascist authoritarianism that led to war and total destruction. Titled The Japan Ideology, the text purposely recalls its derivation and kinship with Marx and Engels's The German Ideology and expands on the role played by philosophic idealism in preparing the population for both the new politics of fascism and the demands of the eventual war (...) it brought. In its penetrating analysis of the relationship between philosophy and the formation of ideology in a politically critical and crucial historical time, this foundational work in the Japanese Marxist tradition remains accessible and timely, speaking forcibly to conditions that continue to persist in Japan and everywhere in today's world. (shrink)

This edited volume takes a close look at Nicos Poulantzas’s thought as a means of understanding the dynamics of the capitalist, neoliberal state in the 21st century. Nicos Poulantzas has left us with one of the most sophisticated theories of the state in the second half of the 20th century. Poulantzas’s influential theory draws inspiration from Marx, Lenin, Weber, and Foucault, among other thinkers, conceiving of the relationship between capitalism and the state as particularly original. This book aims to use (...) Poulantzas’s theory of the capitalist state in order to understand important political and economic trends that have taken place since Poulantzas’s death in 1979. By entering into a dialogue with current Marxist and critical research in diverse fields such as political science, philosophy, sociology, history, and geography, this volume purports to evaluate the actuality of Poulantzas’s thought. (shrink)