Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 19:58:32 -0500 (EST)
From: John Ransom <ransom-AT-dickinson.edu>
Subject: Re: "Materialism" as a Red Badge of Cool? [was Re: Concerns (cont.)]


On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> One of the interesting things in the academic "theory" scene in late
> capitalism is that while almost everybody wants to distance himself/herself
> away from marxism as political theory and project, quite a lot of folks
> love to be in the company of Marx and hate being called "idealist." 

I'm unaware of this new fad, but then I live in central Pennsylvania. It
seems though that someone loving to be in the company of Marx would not
hate being called an idealist too much. Remember his comment in "Theses on
Feuerbach" that "in contradistinction to materialism, the *active* side
[of philosophy] was developed abstractly by idealism." Then of course
there's his comment in _Capital_ where he avows himself Hegel's pupil.

--John Ransom

> What's
> the matter? Is "materialism" in academia a red badge of cool, a sign that
> you are on the cutting edge? Or a sort of aesthetic choice, as in certain
> modernist love affairs with dirt and dirtiness (a la Bataille)? Or a
> risk-free gesture that gives theorists an aura of political relevance?
> 
> Yoshie
> 
> 




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