Historical materialism and aesthetic praxis

15Dec10

First, a belated link to a new Junge Link text in English: Historical Materialism – an anti-revolutionary theory of revolution

Historical materialism is an essential feature not only of the Marxism of the traditional workers movement but also of Marxist-Leninist ideas. A critique of historical materialism explains some of the dreadful aspects of the practice of Marxism-Leninism in power (“actually existing socialism”) and thus is part of the answer to the question of how their project turned out to be such a failure from the perspective of the abolition of exploitation and domination.Read the rest of this entry »

Their next London meeting is a Capital reading session 12-13 March.

Moving on, the current issue of Social and Political Thought features a number of texts on Adorno, including Aesthetic Praxis [pdf] by Josh Robinson. The opening quote relates to something noted in my last Critique and Theory post:

Contemporary actionism also represses the fact that the longing for freedomis closely related to the aversion to praxis. Praxis was a reflex in response tomortal danger; it still misrepresents this, where it wants to abolish mortaldanger. It is to this extent that art is the critique of praxis as unfreedom; inthis way its truth increases (Adorno, 1977a: 762)

Chris O’Kane ‘Theses Against Occultism Today: Towards Capitalism as Occultism?’ [pdf]  is also interesting.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Critical theory, Historical materialism, marxism, Marxism–Leninism, Political philosophy, praxis, Theodor Adorno