Metaphilosophy

by Henri Lefebvre, David Fernbach (Translator), Stuart Elden (Editor)

Leading French thinker with his key work on philosophical thought

In Metaphilosophy , Henri Lefebvre works through the implications of Marx’s revolutionary thought to consider philosophy’s engagement with the world. Lefebvre takes Marx’s notion of the “world becoming philosophical and philosophy becoming worldly” as a leitmotif, examining the relation between Hegelian–Marxist supersession and Nietzschean overcoming. Metaphilosophy is conceived of as a transformation of philosophy, developing it into a programme of radical worldwide change. The book demonstrates Lefebvre’s threefold debt to Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, but it also brings a number of other figures into the conversation, including Sartre, Heidegger and Axelos. A key text in Lefebvre’s oeuvre, Metaphilosophy is also a milestone in contemporary thinking about philosophy’s relation to the world.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Academic

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 2, 2016

About the author

Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space, and for his work on dialectics, alienation, and criticism of Stalinism, existentialism, and structuralism.

In his prolific career, Lefebvre wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. He founded or took part in the founding of several intellectual and academic journals such as Philosophies, La Revue Marxiste, Arguments, Socialisme et Barbarie, Espaces et Sociétés.

Lefebvre died in 1991. In his obituary, Radical Philosophy magazine honored his long and complex career and influence:
the most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals, died during the night of 28–29 June 1991, less than a fortnight after his ninetieth birthday. During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism.

Reviews

[Nat Baldino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appreciate his ability to give a history of ideas alongside a philosophy of philosophy---the other metaphilosophy I've immersed myself in over the past two months has been far more analytic and procedural, and this definitely rounds it out into the ideas I've been grappling with on ideology and method.

[Amy]

Had to read for the study program 🥲

[Stephen]

i'm not going to rate this. a lot of it went right by me. i think i get the basic idea, but it sure did seem to go on for awhile. some great passages though; like the ones on Cyberanthropes and on Castro being part of the bourgeois pantheon.