Routledge Library Editions: Marxism: Marx's Theory Of Ideology (rle Marxism) (volume 16)

Although Marx's concept of ideology has been a subject of considerable discussion, much of the debate has proved to be rather disappointing. There has been no systematic attempt to examine why Marx needed the concept of ideology, why it was an important concept for him and how it related to his views on truth and objectivity. This book, first published in 1982, considers these and other neglected questions. It explains why Marx continued to use the term ideology throughout his life to mean both idealism and apologia and traces the complex ways in which, according to Marx, such talented writers as Hegel became apologists. In conclusion the book outlines the lessons Marx learnt from his investigations into the nature and mechanism of ideology and discusses his theories of objectivity and truth. In this book, first published in 1992, the author examines the polemic fought by German Social-Democratic Party leaders and intellectuals Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein against what they perceived to be misunderstandings of Marxism propagated by members of the Social-Democratic Federation (SDF) in England and by the socialist leader Wilhelm Liebknecht in Germany. The debate raised basic questions of socialist theory, including whether the program of Marx and Engels called for scholarly study, parliamentary democracy, and gradual social evolution, or for Utopian speculation, economic collapse George Orwell wrote in Nineteen Eighty Four that 'If there is hope, it lies in the proles.' A century earlier Marx was unequivocal: the future belonged to the proletariat. Today such confidence might seem misplaced. The proletariat has not yet fulfilled Marx's expectations, and seems unlikely ever to do so. How could Marx have entertained the notion that the proletariat would emancipate humanity from capitalism and from class rule itself? This book, first published in 1988, attempts an explanation by examining the sources and development of Marx's concept of the proletariat. It contends that t Marx's Grundrisse is acknowledged as the vital link between Marx's early and late work. It is also a crucial text in elucidating Marx's debt to the idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. This book, first published in 1988, is the first full-length study of that relationship, in a thorough textual analysis which makes the connections explicit and also the Grundrisse's relations to the works of Adam Smith and Aristotle. This book argues that Marx's critique of political economy, and his critique of Hegel, are double interrelated. Not only did Marx adapt Hegelian logic in order to analyse the economi This book, first published in 1986, presents a radical challenge to socialist orthodoxy, subjecting a key component of that orthodoxy - Marxism - to sustained criticism. Les Johnston argues that Marxism cannot provide the foundations for a rigorous socialist theory or an effective socialist politics. A fundamental element of this criticism is the suggestion that the problem of 'reductionism' which has preoccupied Marxists is a red herring. Marxism's problem is not its reductionism but its theoretical incoherence. Marxism is not 'deterministic', for there is invariably an indeterminate relation 1. Ideology : idealism and apologia -- 2. The concept of apologia -- 3. Base and vulgar writers -- 4. Hegel -- 5. Classical political economy -- 6. The forms of ideological and critical thought -- 7. The proletarian point of view -- 8. Marx's theory of truth -- 9. Some reflections Discusses material in the exhaustive edition of the works of Marx and Engels, the Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe, 1927-1932