Theories of Ideology


Book Description

How to explain the hegemonic stability of neoliberal capitalism even in the midst of its crises? The emergence of ideology theories marked a re-foundation of Marxist research into the functioning of alienation and subjection. Going beyond traditional concepts of ‘manipulation’ and ‘false consciousness’, they turned to the material existence of hegemonic apparatuses and focused on the mostly unconscious effects of ideological practices, rituals and discourses. Jan Rehmann reconstructs the different strands of ideology theories ranging from Marx to Adorno/Horkheimer, from Lenin to Gramsci, from Althusser to Stuart Hall, from Bourdieu to W.F. Haug, from Foucault to Butler. He compares them in a way that a genuine dialogue becomes possible and applies the different methods to the ‘market totalitarianism’ of today’s high-tech-capitalism.




Marx's Theory of Ideology (RLE Marxism)


Book Description

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.




The German Ideology


Book Description

2011 Reprint of 1939 Edition. Parts I & III of "The German Ideology." Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Originally published by the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow in 1939. "The German Ideology" was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels circa 1846, but published later. The original edition was divided into three parts. Part I, the most significant, is perhaps the classic statement of the Marxist theory of history and his much cited "materialist conception of history." Since its first publication, Marxist scholars have found Part I "The German Ideology" particularly valuable since it is perhaps the most comprehensive statement of Marx's theory of history stated at such length and detail. Part II consisted of many satirically written polemics against Bruno Bauer, other Young Hegelians, and Max Stirner. These polemical and highly partisan sections of the "German Ideology" have not been reproduced in this edition. We reprint Parts I & Parts III only. Part III treats Marx & Engels' conception of true socialism and is reprinted in its entirety. Part II has not been reprinted in this edition in order to produce a small and inexpensive book which contains the gist of the "German Ideology." Appendix contains the "Theses on Feuerbach." Index of authors, with scholarly citations and footnotes.




The Marx Machine


Book Description

Karl Marx has rarely, if ever, been treated as a writer. Charles Barbour argues not only that we can examine the literary and rhetorical aspects of Marx's texts, but also that, as soon as we begin to do so, those texts begin to take on new and entirely unexpected political implications. In the past, Marx scholars have characterized his literary remains as either a relatively coherent body of work, or a structure cut in half by a single, all-important "epistemological break." Neither metaphor really captures the incredible proliferation of documents that we retroactively label Karl Marx. Barbour proposes that we characterize them, instead, as a machine, or an assemblage of fragments and components that can be put together and taken apart in any number of different ways for any number of different purposes. Focusing primarily on Marx's early polemical writings, and especially the debates with Bruno Bauer and Max Stirner that make up most of the voluminous manuscript now called "The German Ideology," The Marx Machine endeavors to show how some of Marx's most consistently denigrated and ignored works can in fact be approached as responses to Marx's contemporary critics.




The Philosophy Of Marx


Book Description

In The Philosophy of Marx, Etienne Balibar provides an accessible introduction to Marx and his key followers, complete with pedagogical information for the student to make the most challenging areas of theory easy to understand. Examining all the key areas of Marx’s writings in their wider historical and theoretical context—including the concepts of class struggle, ideology, humanism, progress, determinism, commodity fetishism, and the state—The Philosophy of Marx is a gateway into the thought of one of history’s great minds.







Philosophy of Nonsense


Book Description

'Jean-Jacques Lecercle's remarkable Philosophy of Nonsense offers a sustained and important account of an area that is usually hastily dismissed. Using the resources of contemporary philosophy - notably Deleuze and Lyotard - he manages to bring out the importance of nonsense' - Andrew Benjamin, University of Warwick Why are we, and in particular why are philosophers and linguists, so fascinated with nonsense? Why do Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear appear in so many otherwise dull and dry academic books? This amusing, yet rigorous new book by Jean-Jacques Lecercle shows how the genre of nonsense was constructed and why it has proved so enduring and enlightening for linguistics and philosophy.




On Ideology


Book Description

This major voice in French philosophy presents a classic study of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society. Spanning the years 1964 to 1973, On Ideology contains the seminal text, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus” (1970), which revolutionized the concept of subject formation. In “Reply to John Lewis” (1972–73), Althusser addressed the criticisms of the English Marxist toward On Marx and Reading Capital. Also included are “Freud and Lacan” (1964) and “A Letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre” (1966).




Austro-Marxism: The Ideology of Unity


Book Description

This volume offers the essential theoretical thought of the Austro-Marxist thinkers Otto Bauer, Max Adler, Karl Renner, Friedrich Adler, Rudolf Hilferding, and Otto Neurath over the span of their Austrian Social-Democratic careers, from the decades before World War I until the mid-1930s. Austro-Marxist theoretical perspectives were conceived as social scientific tools for the issues that faced the development of socialism in their time. The relevance of their thought for the contemporary world inheres in this understanding.




A Marxist Theory of Ideology


Book Description

This work explores the question of defining ideology from a Marxist perspective. Advancing beyond the schemas of discussion presented in current Marxist literature, the author offers an account of how the concept of ideology should be defined and what role it plays within historical materialism. Through a close reading of Karl Marx’s relevant writings, this volume demonstrates that while there is no coherent, single account of ideology in Marx’s work, his materialist framework can be reconstructed in a defensible and ‘non-deterministic’ way. The definition of ideology presented is then articulated through a close reading of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. Efforts are also made to demonstrate that Gramsci’s interpretation of historical materialism is indeed consistent and compatible with Marx’s. A systematic articulation of a theory of ideology that combines the works of Marx and Gramsci, as well as adding elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory and William James’s psychology, this volume will appeal to scholars of social and political theory with interests in political economy and Marxist thought.