Talk:Marxist philosophy

Kołakowski should be quoted

Xx236 (talk) 07:04, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory has an RFC

Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory has an RFC for possible consensus. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 20:06, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Anti-Engels bias and bad writing

First red flag, the extremely broad and vague claim that Soviet Union "enforced a rigid reading of Marx"... Okay, the reader already knows there are going to be weird anti-Communist stereotypes in here.

Strange writing: "Marxism's philosophical roots were thus commonly explained [by whom? none other than Lenin, of course] as derived from three sources: English political economy, French republicanism and radicalism, and German idealist philosophy. Although this "three sources" model is an oversimplification [according to whom?], it still has some measure of truth." [Doesn't everything have "some" measure of truth?]

Also strange: ""Vulgar Marxism" (or codified dialectical materialism) was seen [by whom...] as little other than a variety of economic determinism, with the alleged determination of the ideological superstructure by the economical infrastructure. This positivist reading, which mostly based itself on Engels' latter writings in an attempt to theorize "scientific socialism" (an expression coined by Engels) has been challenged by Marxist theorists..." [no, dialectical materialism opposes positivism - Engels specifically criticized positivism and empiricism by way of his critique of agnosticism in a preface to Socialism: Utopian and Scientific]

^ this weirdness seems to be copy-and-pasted under Historical Materialism section...

Some weird editorializing, at the end of the Historical Materialism section: "Marx...does not fit into any pre-existing ideological straitjacket." Who says ideology is a straitjacket? This makes it sound like Marx opposed all ideology and philosophy, or was becoming eclectic late in life. No, he rigorously opposed idealism, but his late work in Capital, for example, sees further, deeper than most *because* of his liberatory dialectical materialism.

Lastly, Mao is only cited once, in a list at the end... There's only one mention of Plekhanov, no mention of Ilyenkov, one of the most important Soviet philosophers... No Ai Siqi, no real treatment of Marxism-Leninism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as developments of Marxist philosophy. No mention of the philosophical debates in the USSR and China under the "Differences within Marxist philosophy," it's all just Western professorial b.s. There's a rather dismissive picture of "vulgar Marxism" as nothing but cold, Soviet dogma, while the real fiery, creative life of Marxism in the 20th century extends through the West. I'm not even sure how to start, but the article should not misconstrue the ideas of Marx (or Engels, or Lenin, or Mao - "codified dialectical materialists" all), and should more fairly describe how Marxist philosophy has been developed by actual revolutionaries, not just how it has been debated about in Western and Continental academies.

Replace the content of "Notable theorists and works"

should the content of this section simply be replaced with "Main Article:List of contributors to Marxist theory"? i think it should, given that its essentially just a list of Marxist theorists, just like that article. Comradeka (talk) 22:41, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

"Hegel on his Head"

If you Google the well-known (among the sort of people who would edit the talk section of this article) phrase "Hegel on his head", as in Marx turned Hegel on his head, the Google-highlighted result is this page.

However, that is not what Marx said. Marx said "with him it is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again". (Source: Afterward to the 2nd edition of Capital)

This is especially concerning because previously this article (mis)quoted Marx as saying "turned Hegel on his head". The fact that the phrase "Marx stood Hegel on his head" is frequently said does not mean that Karl Marx said it, anymore than Rick Blaine said "play it again, Sam", or Sherlock Holmes said "elementary, my dear Watson".

Marx is saying Hegel is standing on his head, a metaphor for idealism, and must be turned "right side up" on his feet, a metaphor for materialism.

I have changed all references to "on his head" to "on his feet", removed the quotes to indicate paraphrasing, and provided a source.

Shama From MySpace (talk) 23:07, 19 June 2024 (UTC)