Concrete Critical Theory: Althusser's Marxism (Historical Materialism Book, 249)

Departing from Althusserian premises, this book rigorously develops a critical theoretic method focused on the analysis of particular, concrete situations of unfreedom and defends it as the correct one for effective socio-political analysis and transformation. ‎Contents 5 ‎Acknowledgements 7 ‎Chapter 1. Introduction 9 ‎1. Concrete Analysis and Frankfurt School Critical Theory 9 ‎2. Methodology 19 ‎3. Structure of the Book 19 ‎Chapter 2. ‘But Didn’t He Kill His Wife?’ 22 ‎1. The Duty to Cite 23 ‎2. Countervailing Harms 25 ‎2.1. Direct Harms 26 ‎2.2. Indirect Harms 27 ‎3. External and Internal Approaches 28 ‎3.1. Externalism 28 ‎3.2. Internalism 31 ‎4. A Duty to Speak and to Respond 32 ‎Chapter 3. Althusser’s Scientism 34 ‎1. Definition of Althusser’s Scientism 36 ‎2. Althusser’s (Mostly) Consistent Scientism: 1960–1980 38 ‎2.1. Althusser’s Scientism 1960–1965 39 ‎2.2. Althusser’s Scientism 1966–1972 42 ‎2.3. Althusser’s Scientism 1972–1980 44 ‎3. Althusser 1982–1987: Marxist Philosophy without Marxist Science? 52 ‎3.1. Althusser’s Scientism Abandoned? 53 ‎3.2. Internalist Explanation of the Abandonment Thesis 57 ‎4. An Aleatory Materialism Consistent with Marxist Science? 61 ‎4.1. An Alternative to the Abandonment Thesis 62 ‎4.2. The Explicit Endorsement of Scientism in Althusser’s Later Works 66 ‎4.3. Aleatory Materialism and Marxist Science: Theory for Marxism 69 ‎4.4. The Relation between Aleatory Materialism and Marxist Science 72 ‎4.5. Making Sense of Late Anti-Scientistic Statements 76 ‎5. Conclusion 79 ‎Chapter 4. Historical Materialism and Concrete Analysis 81 ‎1. The Theoretical and Political Context for Concrete Analysis 83 ‎2. Althusser’s Original Formulation of Concrete Analysis 87 ‎3. Critique of Concrete Analysis 89 ‎4. Reconstructing Concrete Analysis 92 ‎5. Historical Materialism and Critical Theory 97 ‎Chapter 5. Class as Concrete and Normative 106 ‎Introduction 106 ‎1. Gender Theories 110 ‎1.1. The Classical Theory of Gender 110 ‎1.2. The Conventionalist Understanding of Gender 111 ‎1.3. The Trait/Norm Covariance Model 113 ‎2. Marxian Class Theories 117 ‎2.1. Classical Marxist Theory 118 ‎2.2. Post-Marxism 124 ‎3. Trait/Norm Covariant Class Model 131 ‎Chapter 6. Separating Racist Science from Racial Science 139 ‎1. Separating Science from Ideology 142 ‎2. Critical Technique Defined 147 ‎3. Critical Technique Applied 150 ‎Chapter 7. Manipulation of Consent and Deliberative Democracy 154 ‎1. Deliberation from Procedural to Feasible 155 ‎2. Obstacles to Deliberation 157 ‎3. Overcoming Obstacles 161 ‎4. Insurmountable Obstacles? 163 ‎4.1. Ideology as Insurmountable 165 ‎Chapter 8. Cosmopolitanism and Class Erasure 167 ‎1. Against a ‘Cosmopolitanism of Fear’ 169 ‎2. Reconstruction of Althusser’s Anti-Cosmopolitan Argument 172 ‎3. Contemporary Cosmopolitanisms 173 ‎3.1. Nussbaum’s Moral Cosmopolitanism 174 ‎3.2. Appiah’s Cultural Cosmopolitanism 176 ‎4. Critique of Moral and Cultural Cosmopolitanisms 179 ‎Works Cited 184 ‎Index 211 "Taking an analytic and historical approach, this work develops and defends Althusserian critical theory. This theory, it is argued, produces knowledge of how a particular class of people, in a particular time, in a particular place, is dominated, oppressed, or exploited. Moreover, without relying on a general notion of human emancipation, concrete critical theory can suggest political means for the alleviation of these conditions. Because it puts Althusser's ideas in dialogue with contemporary social science and philosophy, the book as a whole makes contributions to Althusser studies, to Anglo-American political philosophy, and to current debates in the philosophy of the social sciences"-- Provided by publisher