Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 02:46:07 -0800 From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org> Subject: MARKOVIC ON HEGEL, MARX, DIALECTIC Markovic, Mihailo. THE CONTEMPORARY MARX: ESSAYS ON HUMANIST COMMUNISM. Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1974. (European Socialist Thought; no. 3) There are 12 chapters to this book, but I shall report only on the first three, ie: (I) Marx and critical scientific thought, (II) Hegelian and Marxist dialectic, (III) Science and ideology. Before we get to Hegel-Marx, some words are in order about Markovic and about his attitudes to science. Markovic is (was?) a representative of the Yugoslav praxis school of humanistic Marxism persecuted by the Tito regime. As a humanistic Marxist, he is nonetheless an advocate of science, and refuses to draw a dichotomizing line between the two, as becomes quickly evident in chapter I. He eschews both positivism and existentialist irrationalism, which of course are the two schizoid approaches to technocratic capitalist society. Markovic rejects the irrationalist opposition to the Enlightenment: "However, this kind of rebellion against the 'given' and the 'existing' tends to be as _immediate_ as possible and to avoid any mediation by positive knowledge and logic. The basic idea of this obviously anti-rationalist form of criticism is the following: to rely on empirical science already means to be caught up within the framework of the given present reality .... This kind of romantic rebellious criticism is entirely powerless. Postulated absolute freedom is only freedom of thought ...." [p. 4] (Lovers of contemporary irrationalism, or those tempted to think that Cornelius Castoriadis has anything whatever of interest or even minimal competence to say these days, ought to contemplate this passage.) Markovic unifies science and humanistic philosophy into the philosophy of praxis. He outlines the novel features of Marx's conception of science [p. 7ff]. In chapter III, Markovic distinguishes science from extreme positivism, from metaphysics, and above all, from ideology. There is a lengthy discussion of the nature of ideology (Marx's original conception and subsequent conceptions), and whether Marxism itself should be considered an ideology. Markovic discusses the ideological discourse of Stalinism and its interpretation of Marxism itself as an 'ideology', and ultimately he takes a stand for Marxism as a science, against ideology. So far, I think Markovic's outlook is exemplary. Now let's proceed to chapter II, on Hegelian and Marxist dialectic. Markovic starts out by acknowledging the ambiguities of Marx's public statements on the dialectic. He then sets out to answer the following questions: (1) what features distinguish dialectic from other philosophical methods, (2) what are the novelties of Hegel's and Marx's dialectic, (3) what is the relation between Hegel's and Marx's dialectic, (4) what are the basic dialectical categories and how do they differ in Hegel and Marx? I can boil down the treatment of point 1 to totality, self-movement, and critique. Various aspects of dialectic are listed, and Hegel combines all of them into an all-embracing universal system. While Hegel reduces man to self-consciousness, Marx's novelty is its practical-critical orientation. On point 3, Markovic begins by criticizing those, like Marcuse and Bloch, who overstress the identity of Hegelian and Marxian dialectic. Then he criticizes the idealist-materialist inversion metaphor, and Engels' interpretation. Then he scolds Stalinism of cutting off Hegel completely, thus contravening Lenin. Markovic categorically rejects Althusser's view. (I have recently noticed that EVERY decent book I've come across on Marx written in the past quarter century spends some time in opposing and discrediting Althusser, may he burn in hell.) On point 4, Markovic summarizes Hegel's and Marx's notions of the rationality and development of the world. Marx is interested in the question: what is irrational in the world and how can it be changed through _praxis_? The fundamental difference in orientation affects all basic dialectical categories in Hegel and Marx: totality, mediation, self-development and aufhebung (here translated as 'transcendence', but I believe the usual translation is 'sublation') [p. 28]. Markovic claims also that Hegel and Marx differ in their conceptions of the concrete: "For Hegel the concrete is a union of different determinations, which, in distinction from the empty, isolated generalities if understanding, have to be conceived as interrelated and developing universals .... Mediation between universals is still abstract, from Marx's point of view. A concrete mediation is one that takes place in history when an _individual_ event occurs, which has been basically determined by certain _general_ factors and mediated through various _specific_ conditions .... The creative mediating role of the specific that links the individuals and the general in the historical process does not have place either in Hegel's system or in the concept of history of most of Marx's followers." [p. 33] I don't know how to evaluate this assertion. Any takers? Markovic also makes some curious remarks about Aufhebung (transcendence): "The most essential contradictions, both from Hegel's and Marx's point of view is one between a capacity for development and a definite structural property that reduces an entity to its actually given form and thus limits its possibility to change .... Hegel can be interpreted as a conservative thinker only in so far as at a certain point of the dialectical process he renounces the principle." [p. 37] There follows an interesting paragraph stating that Engels among others "completely misinterpreted the triadic form of Hegelian negation of negation", particularly the thesis-antithesis-synthesis formulation. Sorry I have been so sketchy. Time and space permit no better. I would be most grateful if someone more familiar with Markovic's work could comment. Please let's get back to business and drop the subject of my ingratiating personality. --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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