This book offers the first realist reconstruction of Marx’s critique of capitalism. Reading Marx through a realist lens enables us to make sense of the connections between (1) Marx’s positive concept of freedom, rooted in a theory of human development, (2) his understanding of alienation as diagnosing capitalist unfreedom, and (3) his conceptions of democracy and socialism, respectively, as the cures for this unfreedom. Along the way, it discusses and responds to some of Marx’s most insightful critics, such as Max Weber and Friedrich Hayek. This clarifies Marx’s ideas for a new generation of political thinkers; explains the challenge they pose to contemporary debates about freedom, democracy, and future economic institutions; and demonstrates that these ideas remain both defensible and compelling.
Author(s): Paul Raekstad
Series: Marx, Engels, And Marxisms
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 287
Tags: Political Theory; Political Sociology; Political Philosophy; Marxist Sociology
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Contents
1 Introduction
References
Part I Human Development and Freedom
2 Human Development
The Basic Structure of Marx’s Critique of Capitalism
Human Development as the Development of Powers
Needs
The Interaction Between Powers and Needs
Human Development and Real Politics
References
3 Freedom
The Idea of a Human Nature
Consciousness, Self-Direction, Freedom
Freedom as Self-Direction
The Value of Freedom
References
Part II Alienation and Democracy
4 The First Theory of Alienation
References
5 Democracy
References
6 From Realisation-Oriented to Agent-Centred Political Theory
References
Part III Alienation: The Unfreedom of Capitalism
7 Alienation and Unfreedom
The Nature of Alienation
Alienation from Product
Alienation from the Labour Process
Alienation from Species-Being
Alienation from Others
References
8 The Socialist Alternative
Socialism as Emancipation
Participatory Planning
The Hierarchical Division of Labour
Distributing According to Need
Weber: Socialism Contra Bureaucratic Domination
Participatory Planning and Hayek’s Challenge
References
9 Radical Theory and Revolutionary Practice
Revolutionary Midwives and the Birth of the Future
Alienation and the Revolutionary Contradictions of Capitalism
The Revolutionary Theorist as Midwife
References
10 Towards a New World
References
Appendix: A Brief Overview of the (Other) Principal Interpretations of Marx’s Normative Commitments
(A) The Amoralist Reading
(B) The Moralist Reading
(C) An Ethical Human Nature
(D) Internal Critique Based on Ethical Principles
Bibliography
Index
