Kelvin Knight

Paul Blackledge

The essays in this collection explore the implications of Alasdair MacIntyre's critique of liberalism, capitalism, and the modern state, his early Marxism, and the complex influences of Marxist ideas on his thought. A central idea is that MacIntyre's political and social theory is a form of revolutionary--not reactionary--Aristotelianism. The contributors aim, in varying degrees, both to engage with the theoretical issues of MacIntyre's critique and to extend and deepen his insights. The book features a new introductory essay by MacIntyre, "How Aristotelianism Can Become Revolutionary," and ends with an essay in which MacIntyre comments on the other authors' contributions. It also includes Kelvin Knight's 1996 essay, "Revolutionary Aristotelianism," which first challenged conservative appropriations of MacIntyre's critique of liberalism by reinterpreting his Aristotelianism through the lens of his earlier engagement with Marx. "This is an excellent collection. Its particular strength is its sustained focus on Alasdair MacIntyre's political thought, in particular MacIntyre's complicated relation and indebtedness to Marxism. In their introduction, the co-editors say that the reception of MacIntyre within political philosophy has largely been reductive and one-sided, namely, that he is simply viewed as a conservative communitarian. In focusing on MacIntyre's radical heritage, this volume helps correct that simplistic misperception." --Keith Breen, Queen's University Belfast

Alasdair MacIntyre's Revolutionary Aristotelianism

Virtue and Politics

Fukuyama’nın “tarihin sonu”nu ilan etmesinin üzerinden henüz on yıl bile geçmeden kapitalizm karşıtları, “Başka bir dünya mümkün” diyerek ayağa kalktı. “İşgal et” eylemleri, “Biz % 99’uz” diyen kitleler, Tahrir, Gezi ve daha nicesi “tarihin sonu” tartışmalarını sona erdirirken solu da canlandırdı. Bu türden slogan ve eylemlerin hiç de ütopik kuruntular olmadığını; kapitalizmin, tıpkı kendinden önceki köleci ve feodal üretim tarzları gibi tarihsel bir üretim tarzı olduğunu ve zamanla tarih sahnesinden çekilebileceğini gösteren isimlerin başında bizzat Marx gelir. Onun ardından Marksist tarihçi ve düşünürler, yeni siyasal ve toplumsal gelişmeleri de değerlendirerek, bu tarihsel bakış açısını sürdürdüler. Marksist tarih kuramının güçlü, gelişkin ve hayat dolu olduğunu savunan Paul Blackledge de bu isimlerden biri. Kitabına, geleneksel tarihçilerin ampirizmi ve postmodernistlerin rölativizmi karşışında, tarihin incelenmesine yönelik Marksist yaklaşımı savunarak başlıyor. Daha sonra, Marx ile Engels’in ölümlerini izleyen yarım yüzyıl boyunca Lenin, Troçki, Lukács gibi teorisyenlerin ürettiği çalışmaları inceleyerek 1950’lerdeki Büyük Britanya Komünist Partisi Tarihçiler Grubuna kadar uzanıyor. Köleci, feodal ve Asya Tipi Üretim Tarzı da dahil olmak üzere farklı üretim tarzlarının içeriğine ve aralarındaki geçişlere dair tartışmalara da giren yazar, tarihin hareketinde yapı ve öznenin etkinliği sorununa dair daha yakın tarihli (Sartre ile Althusser arasında geçen) tartışmaları da ele alıyor. Kitabın son bölümlerinde, günümüzde postmodern konjonktürün dönemleştirilmesi konusunda geliştirilen birbirinden farklı Marksist yaklaşımları inceleyen Blackledge, bu önemli tartışmaların siyasal uzanımlarını da ortaya koyuyor. Tarihçilerin, kültür, toplum ve siyaset kuramı araştırmacılarının, kapitalizm karşıtlarının ve tarih meraklılarının ilgi ve merakla okuyacağı bir kitap.

Marksist Tarih Kuramı Üzerine

Accessible introduction to key thinkers of Marxist theory and the debate on the nature of Marxist ethics.

Freedom, Desire, and Revolution

Marxism and Ethics

"This survey of the political writings of Perry Anderson explores the evolution of an influential current of new leftist thinking that has developed in the last 50 years and reviews its engagement with critical theorists such as Ernst Brenner, Francis Fukuyama, and Federic Jameson. Anderson is the editor of the New Left Review and a professor at University of California at Los Angeles, where he published articles on a range of European Marxist opinions including Deutscher, Gramsci, Sartre, Lukács, Althusser, and Poulantzas. Anderson's contributions to political theory are recorded and illuminated in terms of postmodern and leftist theory."

Perry Anderson, Marxism and the New Left

Neil Davidson

This selection of Alasdair MacIntyrea (TM)s early writings on Marxism and ethics aims both to fill a gap in the academic literature on MacIntyrea (TM)s ethical theory, and to offer a contribution to more recent debates on the ethics of revolution.

Selected Writings 1953-1974

Alasdair MacIntyre's Engagement with Marxism

Offers a powerful new interpretation of Engels’s contributions to modern social and political theory. In this comprehensive overview of Friedrich Engels’s writings, Paul Blackledge critically explores Engels’s contributions to modern social and political theory generally and Marxism specifically. Through a careful examination both of Engels’s role in the forging of Marxism in the 1840s, and his contributions to the further deepening and expansion of this worldview over the next half century, Blackledge offers a closely argued and balanced assessment of his thought. This book challenges the long-standing attempt among academic Marxologists to denigrate Engels as Marx’s greatest mistake, and concludes that Engels was a profound thinker whose ideas continue to resonate to this day. “This is an excellent intellectual and political biography, which provides a highly readable account of its subject and a vigorous defense of his ideas. It is likely to become a standard work on Engels’s ideas and politics.” — Sean Sayers, author of Marx and Alienation: Essays on Hegelian Themes “Paul Blackledge’s new book has no equal as a contemporary assessment of Engels’s political thought. It provides a strong refutation of the ‘divergence thesis,’ whereby Engels is said to have systematically diverged from Marx’s analysis. Appearing on the 200th anniversary of Engels’s birth, it should be widely read.” — John Bellamy Foster, author of Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature “Clear, balanced, and comprehensive, Blackledge’s book is the best introduction to Engels that I know. It does full justice to the many areas in which Engels displayed his prodigious talents.” — David McLellan, author of Karl Marx: A Biography “Paul Blackledge has brought us a remarkable political and intellectual portrait of Friedrich Engels. This book is a masterful tour, taking the reader through Engels’s contributions to philosophy, dialectics, political economy, revolution, reform, strategy and tactics, military theory and history, the origins of women’s oppression and the state, natural science, and more. All of the great controversies are here; you will find all of the rich traditions of classical Marxism compiled together, plus a few surprises even for the most seasoned reader.” — David Laibman, editor, Science & Society

Friedrich Engels and Modern Social and Political Theory

Offers a powerful new interpretation of Engels’s contributions to modern social and political theory. In this comprehensive overview of Friedrich Engels’s writings, Paul Blackledge critically explores Engels’s contributions to modern social and political theory generally and Marxism specifically. Through a careful examination both of Engels’s role in the forging of Marxism in the 1840s, and his contributions to the further deepening and expansion of this worldview over the next half century, Blackledge offers a closely argued and balanced assessment of his thought. This book challenges the long-standing attempt among academic Marxologists to denigrate Engels as Marx’s greatest mistake, and concludes that Engels was a profound thinker whose ideas continue to resonate to this day. Paul Blackledge teaches at Northumbria University and Shanxi University. He is the author of Marxism and Ethics: Freedom, Desire, and Revolution, also published by SUNY Press; Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History; and Perry Anderson, Marxism and the New Left.

This volume offers a defence of the study of history against traditional empiricism and the relativism of postmodern historiography. It discusses the relationship between Marx and Engels' theory of history, their methodology and their politics.

Paul Blackledge

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