Marxism and Phenomenology: The Dialectical Horizons of Critique (Continental Philosophy and the History of Thought)

Marxism and Phenomenology: The Dialectical Horizons of Critique , edited by Bryan Smyth and Richard Westerman, offers new perspectives on the possibility of a philosophical outlook that combines Marxism and phenomenology in the critique of capitalism. Although Marxism’s focus on impersonal social structures and phenomenology’s concern with lived experience can make these traditions appear conceptually incompatible, the potential critical force of a theoretical reconciliation inspired several attempts in the twentieth century to articulate a phenomenological Marxism. Updating and extending this approach, the contributors to this volume identify and develop new and previously overlooked connections between the traditions, offering new perspectives on Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger; exploring themes such as alienation, reification, and ecology; and examining the intersection of Marxism and phenomenology in figures such as Michel Henry, Walter Benjamin, and Frantz Fanon. These glimpses of a productive reconciliation of the respective strengths of phenomenology and Marxism offer promising possibilities for illuminating and resolving the increasingly intense social crises of capitalism in the twenty-first century. Cover 1 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 10 The Problem of Form 40 Catalyzing Convergence of Marx’s Body of Ideas with Phenomenology 62 Marxism, Phenomenology, and the Mythico-Political 84 Meaning and Being 118 The Phenomenology of Societal Interaction in the Thought of Max Adler, Edmund Husserl, and Their Antecedents 140 Capital as Enframing 160 Toward a Social Paradigm of Left-Heideggerianism 180 The Dawning Ethics of Aleatory Materialism 202 Benjamin’s Critical Marxist Phenomenology 222 Contradictory Colonial Locations 246 Index 268 About the Contributors 274 "This volume examines various points of contact between Marxism and phenomenology. Although these traditions can appear conceptually incompatible, the contributors reveal productive complementarities on themes such as alienation, reification, and ecology, which illuminate and can help to resolve the crises of contemporary capitalism"-- Provided by publisher