Date: Tue, 19 Jul 1994 18:24:41 -0400 (EDT) From: James Patrick Herron <jherron-AT-umich.edu> Subject: Re: Introduction On Sat, 16 Jul 1994, Jonathan Beasley Murray wrote: > Hey Jim: > > Can you tell us (me, I guess) what is "analytical marxism" and who would > you describe as analytical marxist of note? > > Jon > > Jon Beasley-Murray > Department of English and Comp. Lit. > U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee > jbmurray-AT-alpha1.csd.uwm.edu Apologies for this belated response. 'Analytical Marxism' may be characterized on several fronts. It is of course in the first place a loose group of scholars (and it's a purely academic movement) who envision their work as in certain ways different from most traditions strands of Marxist thought. Some of the people associated with this group, in approximate order of grandness are: Jon Elster (Making Sense of Marx and much more), G.A. Cohen (Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense), Erik Olin Wright (Classes), John Roemer (A General Theory of Exploitation and Class), Andrew Levine (The End of the State, Arguing for Socialism), and also Goran Therborn, Philip Van Parijs, and Alan Carling, to name a few of the more prominent theorists. Oh, and Adam Przeworksi, too The theoretical distinction of this sort of work is the use of a wide range of analytical tools borrowed from 'bourgeois' philosophy and social science. There tends to be a lot of borrowing from mainstream economics--equilibrium theory, rational and social choice,--and from Anglo-American analytic philosophy, as opposed to the continental sources Marxists have typically drawn on for inspiration. They tend to see much of Marxism, especially Western Marxism (in Perry Anderson's sense) as beset by a tendency for obscurantism and an unhealthy obsession with methodological issues. They believe that the vital core of Marxism is substantive, consists in real claims about the word (like the theory of history) and is not merely methodological. Contrast this for instance with Lukacs, for whom the *only* distincitive feature of Marxism was its method. In short, the program of analytical Marxism is to bring Marxism as an emancipatory science into the 20th century, to make it rigorous and explanatorily powerful. On this view, Marxism supports a series of claims about historical change, the determination of social relations, the nature of the state, politics, etc. In defending and improving these claims, Marxists ought to use the full repertoire of analytical tools available in contemporary social theory. They ought not to mire themselves in the sort of theoretical provincialism that comes from asking of every claim: 'is it dialectical?' (whatever that means and nobody seems to know) 'is it a properly Marxist notion?' If I sound like an enthusiast of 'analytical Marxism', that's not quite right. I read this work because, in my view, it tends to be better and more explanatorily powerful that most other Marxisms I can think of (Laclau and Mouffe are a good example) while retaining a commitment to the core of Marxist theory. However, I dislike some trends in this body of work: I think methodological individualism is false (Elster and Przeworksi advocate it), although I don't think this out of some allegiance to 'holism' or 'totality' as many Marxists might. And although I think that rational choice theories are powerful and interesting, I think their utility is mainly heuristic, not explanatory, and this is not widely recognized in AM. RE Laclau and Mouffe: if my secondhand understanding is right, they have presumably given up the claim for the centraly of class and of class struggle in the determination of social relations. I suggest that you can't give THAT up and be a Marxist in any recognizable way. If you think class is important but is one determination among many (ethnic relations, gender relations) then you probably owe some debt to Marx, but you are not a Marxist. If you relax the requirement, then EVERYBODY is a Marxist. If this is a Marxism list, then I think we should be minimally orthodox in our reading selections. Regards, Jim
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