Tradition
Marxist humanism
Overview
Marxist humanism is a philosophical and political movement that interprets Karl Marx's works through a humanist lens, focusing on human nature and the social conditions that best support human flourishing. Marxist humanists argue that Marx himself was concerned with investigating similar questions.
Marxist humanism emerged in 1932 with the publication of Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and reached a degree of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Marxist humanists contend that there is continuity between the early philosophical writings of Marx, in which he develops his theory of alienation, and the structural description of capitalist society found in his later works such as Capital. They hold that it is necessary to grasp Marx's philosophical foundations to understand his later works properly.
Contrary to the official dialectical materialism of the Soviet Union and to the structural Marxism of Louis Althusser, Marxist humanists argue that Marx's work was an extension or transcendence of enlightenment humanism. Where other Marxist philosophies see Marxism as a natural science, Marxist humanism believes that humans are fundamentally distinct from the rest of the natural order, and should be treated so by Marxist theory. Marxist humanism emphasizes human agency, subjectivity and ethics, reaffirming the doctrine of "man is the measure of all things".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer. In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is…
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
States what Marxist humanism is; the author is tied to Marxist humanism in the knowledge graph.
I must call attention to the fact, by the way, that the views here set out were, for by far the most part, developed and established by Marx, and only to a very slight degree by myself, so that it is understood that I have not represented them without his knowledge. I read the entire manuscript to him before sending it to press and the tenth chapter of the section on Political Economy was written by Marx and…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
States what Marxist humanism is; the author is tied to Marxist humanism in the knowledge graph.
The materialistic conception of history, as it is called, is due to Marx, and underlies the whole Communist philosophy. I do not mean, of course, that a man could not be a Communist without accepting it, but that in fact it is accepted by the Communist Party, and that it profoundly influences their views as to politics and tactics.
Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
States what Marxist humanism is.
Philosophers who discussed Marxist humanism
- Leszek Kołakowski
- Georg Henrik von Wright
- Young Marx
- Cornelius Castoriadis
- Herbert Marcuse
- György Lukács
- Erich Fromm
- Louis Althusser
- Raya Dunayevskaya
- André Gorz
- Karel Kosík
- Mihailo Marković
- Gajo Petrović
- Ivan Sviták
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- Family
- Leszek Kołakowski
- History
- University of Warsaw
- French Revolution
- One-Dimensional Man
- Feudalism
- Productive forces
- Perry Anderson
- Germany
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Polis
- Hungary
- Philosophy
- Great Purge
- Creativity
- Historicism
- Immanuel Kant
- Cult of personality
- Private property
- Individualism
- Atheism
- Idealism
Place in the tradition
Part of Chinese philosophy.