The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx

Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics

by Shlomo Avineri

Ever since the discovery of Marx's Early Writings, most of the literature concerned with Marx's intellectual development has centred around the so-called gap between the 'young' Marx, who was considered to be a humanist thinker, and the 'older' Marx, who was held to be a determinist with little concern for anything outside his narrow theory of historical materialism. Dr Avineri claims that such a gap between the 'young' and 'older' Marx did not exist. He supports his claim by a detailed study of the whole corpus of Marx's writing on social and political thought.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Theory, Economics

280 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1968

About the author

Shlomo Avineri (Hebrew: שלמה אבינרי;‎ born Jerzy Wiener) was an Israeli political scientist. He was a professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He also served as a recurring visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest, and as a fellow at Munich-based academic think tank Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung, offering advice to politicians.

Reviews

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Lenin's marxism was mechanic".

[David Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this slim book, you can come a long way in understanding the logical and practical essence of Marx's thought, which for me is contained in the idea of 'Praxis,' that there is no nature and no human nature per se, but both are dialectically interdependent, and thus humans shape their social circumstances as much as they are shaped by them. Human beings transform nature and through doing so transform their own nature -- and that is the essence of human nature, that it is plastic.

Avineri takes you step by step through the most fundamental concepts that Marx developed all his life (refuting, along the way, the idea that there is a 'break' between the early and the mature Marx), including alienation, labor, property, capital, praxis, revolution, the state, the abolition (Aufhebung) of the state and of property, and he does this through close and thorough readings of everything Marx ever wrote, including little unpublished notes and letters.

There is more here than can be digested after one reading, so I'm working through it more slowly now. The first couple chapters on Hegel and the idea of the universal class are difficult. The book then opens up in chapters 3-5 and these are the most crucial for me: this is where we get Avineri's treatment of the idea of praxis. Implicit in these chapters is a powerful critique of the foundations of contemporary economics as well as ecology. The last few chapters are solid but not as mind-blowing as the previous, which seem to lay out the living heart of Marx's thought and show how Marx took Hegel's achievements and developed a philosophy whose purpose was to transform the world. And Avineri makes a convincing case, as did Marx, that philosophy can be logically shown to transcend itself and become a revolutionary force. Indeed, this is philosophy's destiny, spurred on by its own inner logic. Damn.

This is one of the best things I've read on dialectics, which Avineri explores through how Hegel and Marx used the term 'Aufhebung,' which is a paradoxical word meaning at one and the same time abolition, transcendence, and preservation. You could study this concept your whole life, it seems, and, naturally, never get to the bottom of it.

Avineri never once allows his own voice to come through in the text, so loyal he is to expounding his subject -- until the epilogue. Then Avineri puts his enormous labor to use and in the span of a few pages develops an immanent critique of Marx that will leave you stunned. Avineri is a master, and shows how Marx enthusiasts can live up to Ashis Nandy's standards by locating an ideology's wrong turns not as impure divergences from the ideology but as internal to the logic itself. Avineri shows, in stark logical form, why Marx's theories were interpreted to create a Stalinist regime. Yet you are left feeling that this is not a shortcoming of Marx's theory -- on the contrary, it is a startling testament to theory's power to affect the real world. It gives the lie, and this whole book gives the lie, to those that would insert a firm boundary between theory and action.

[Nathan Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tightly concentrated in its range of interests, but casually provocative and undeniably formidable.

[Liam Battle]

Good intro into Marx and definitely printed me towards the direction I thought I’d have to head but also deeper into other works of Marx of which I was unfamiliar. It is very clear to me how much we misinterpret Marx’s writing and just how much his work needs to be understood in its historical context.

[Geoff Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding example of the rebirth of academic 'Marxology' from the 1960s that drew on previously unknown works such as Grundrisse. Views Marx's work as coherent whole and emphasizes links to Hegel. At times it verges on: 'what I think Marx really meant to say here' and other side of his emphasis on coherence of Marx's work is that he is dismissive of Engels. Still one of the best books on Marx.

[Naeem · Rating 3 out of 5]

As good an overview of Marx's work as I have found. But Avineri is no longer my favorite interpreter of Marx. There is a bit too much of Michael Walzer in him -- especially his seeming irresponsibility in using Marx to seemingly justify colonialism.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult, but rewarding. By the end, MANY of my misconceptions of Marx's philosophy been revealed to be such. I now understand the failure to translate his thought into political action was not just historical accident - it was due to inherent flaws in his system of analysis. Poor Karl!

[Mollie the Cat]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12870934