Over the last several decades there has been a regression in the comprehensiveness and materiality of critical philosophy. A comprehensive critical social theory must stress the centrality of labor in the economy. It must help us to apprehend the dialectic of the historical and material world and the changing social condition of humanity within it. It must theorize the origins and outcomes of economic and cultural oppression and be engaged politically with the labor force to end them. Real structured interconnection exists ...
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Over the last several decades there has been a regression in the comprehensiveness and materiality of critical philosophy. A comprehensive critical social theory must stress the centrality of labor in the economy. It must help us to apprehend the dialectic of the historical and material world and the changing social condition of humanity within it. It must theorize the origins and outcomes of economic and cultural oppression and be engaged politically with the labor force to end them. Real structured interconnection exists in our social and political, as well as our physical lives. Theory can be called critical only if it penetrates beneath empirical facts and discerns generative structures that are neither obvious nor apparent. The clear-cut contribution of epistemology from Plato to Kant has been the recognition that one sees not only with one's eyes, but also with one's "mind's eye." Marx later concluded that this insight does not necessarily entail idealism, but rather more strictly, an appreciation of dialectics: mind and humankind are integral parts of nature. Consciousness is rooted in the body and in society. The Renaissance marked the modern beginning of a unified theory of the material world. Science was attempting to eliminate the "meta" from metaphysics, and stress the "uni" in universe. Mind and humankind were starting to be understood as integral parts of nature. Scientific explanation was requiring a dialectification of the study of nature, society, and our capacity to know. In "Democracy and Education" John Dewey wrote: "Philosophy is thinking what the known demands of us. . . . It is an idea of what is possible, not a record of accomplished fact. . . it is hypothetical like all thinking. It presents us an assignment of something to be done, something to be tried." Current controversies about the nature of dialectics within the Marxist frame, highlighting problems of epistemological reductionism and the theory of reflection, are examined at the start of this study in order to make a critical assessment of the nature of dialectical methodology today. Contemporary philosophical contributions of Aldo Leopold, Ernest Manheim, and Herbert Marcuse are elaborated here in terms of their dialectical and materialist understanding of science and society today. A labor theory of ethics is presented which develops commonwealth criteria of judgment regarding the real and enduring material possibilities that concretely encompass all of our engagement and action. Two historiographical postscripts are offered. The first illumines the Socialist Turner Movement in New York City and its inluence on late 19th century American socialism. The second documents the participation of 1848-er German Marxists, including the writings of Karl Marx himself, on the Kansas Free State struggle, 1852-62.
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