Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction

by Schmitt,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780813332833
• ISBN10: 0813332834
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1997-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book steers a middle path between those who argue that the theories of Marx and Engels have been rendered obsolete by historical events and those who reply that these theories emerge untouched from the political changes of the last ten years.Marxism has been a theory of historical change that claimed to be able to predict with considerable accuracy how existing institutions were going to change. Marxism has also been a political program designed to show how these inevitable changes could be hastened. Richard Schmitt argues that Marxian predictions are ambiguous and unreliable, adding that the political program is vitiated by serious ambiguities in the conceptions of class and of political and social transformations. Marxism remains of importance, however, because it is the major source of criticisms of capitalism and its associated social and political institutions. We must understand such criticisms if we are to understand our own world and live in it effectively. While very critical of the failures of Marx and Engels, this book offers a sympathetic account of their criticism of capitalism and their visions of a better world, mentions some interpretive controversies, and connects the questions raised by Marx and Engels to contemporary disputes to show continuity between social thought in the middle of the last century and today.Addressed to undergraduate students, the book is easily accessible. It will be important in introductory or middle-level courses in sociology, political theory, critical theory of literature or law. It will also be useful in graduate courses in political theory, sociology, and economics.

Author Biography

Richard Schmitt is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Brown University. He now teaches at Assumption, Becker and Worcester State Colleges as an adjunct. Born in Germany, of Jewish parentage, he arrived in the United States in 1946. Best known for his introductory texts to Heidegger and to Marx and Engels, he has written widely about existentialism and political philosophy. Alienation—a topic at the intersection of Existentialism and Political Philosophy—has been a lifelong concern of his.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	ix	(2)
Abbreviated References	xi
INTRODUCTION	1	(11)
1 HUMAN NATURE	12	(11)
Marx and Engels on Human Nature	13	(4)
Species Being	17	(4)
For Further Reading	21	(1)
Notes	21	(2)
2 AGAINST INDIVIDUALISM	23	(9)
The Varieties of Individualism	24	(1)
Marx and Engels' Opposition to Individualism	25	(3)
Marx and Engels' Opposition to Collectivism	28	(2)
What Is the Position of Marx and Engels?	30	(1)
For Further Reading	31	(1)
Notes	31	(1)
3 HISTORY	32	(6)
History as the Transformation of Human Nature	32	(4)
Writing History	36	(1)
For Further Reading	37	(1)
Notes	37	(1)
4 THE DIALECTIC	38	(14)
Hegel's Dialectic	38	(3)
The Marxian Dialectic	41	(1)
Historical Explanation	42	(3)
Dialectical Explanations	45	(5)
For Further Reading	50	(1)
Notes	50	(2)
5 HISTORICAL MATERIALISM	52	(11)
Forces and Relations of Production	55	(6)
Why Take Historical Materialism Seriously?	61	(1)
For Further Reading	62	(1)
Notes	62	(1)
6 MATERIALISM AND IDEALISM	63	(8)
Base and Superstructure	64	(3)
The Sources of Self-Evidence	67	(2)
For Further Reading	69	(1)
Notes	69	(2)
7 IDEOLOGY	71	(16)
What Is Ideology?	73	(3)
Ideology and Science	76	(2)
Fetishism	78	(2)
Marx and Ethics	80	(4)
False Consciousness	84	(1)
For Further Reading	84	(1)
Notes	84	(3)
8 CAPITALISM	87	(13)
What Is Modern Capitalism?	91	(2)
Other Characteristics of Capitalism	93	(6)
For Further Reading	99	(1)
Notes	99	(1)
9 CAPITALISM AND EXPLOITATION	100	(14)
Exploitation	102	(2)
The Classical Marxian Theory of Exploitation	104	(3)
Contemporary Versions of Marx's Theory of Exploitation	107	(5)
For Further Reading	112	(1)
Notes	112	(2)
10 ALIENATION	114	(12)
Alienation in Marx's Early Works	114	(1)
Worker Alienation	115	(2)
Alienation in the Later Works	117	(1)
Alienation and Freedom	118	(6)
For Further Reading	124	(1)
Notes	124	(2)
11 THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM AND ITS FAILURES	126	(19)
How Reliable Are the Predictions of Marx and Engels?	128	(4)
The End of Marxism?	132	(1)
What Is Wrong with Capitalism: The Unseen Hand Is Inept	133	(4)
What Is Wrong with Capitalism: The Threat to Freedom and Democracy	137	(6)
For Further Reading	143	(1)
Notes	143	(2)
12 WHAT ARE CLASSES?	145	(15)
Three Meanings of "Class"	145	(6)
Class Consciousness	151	(7)
For Further Reading	158	(1)
Notes	158	(2)
13 CLASS STRUGGLES	160	(14)
What Is Class Struggle?	160	(5)
Class Struggle and Political Action	165	(2)
The Primacy of Class Struggle	167	(5)
For Further Reading	172	(1)
Notes	172	(2)
14 THE STATE	174	(13)
The State as Manager of the Affairs of the Bourgeoisie	174	(1)
The Executive Committee of the Bourgeoisie	175	(2)
The Independent State	177	(3)
The State and Civil Society	180	(3)
Class Struggle in the Democratic State	183	(2)
For Further Reading	185	(1)
Notes	185	(2)
15 UTOPIAN AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM	187	(13)
Utopian Socialism	187	(4)
Scientific Socialism	191	(4)
What We Can Learn from the Critique of Utopianism	195	(4)
Notes	199	(1)
16 SOCIALISM	200	(18)
The Socialist Goals	201	(6)
Socialist Institutions	207	(4)
Revolution	211	(5)
For Further Reading	216	(1)
Notes	216	(2)
Bibliography	218	(5)
About the Book and Author	223	(1)
Index	224