Marxist Humanism Research Articles

Factory Humanisms: Technical Aesthetics, Sino-Soviet Encounters, and the Fashioning of the Postsocialist Factory in Reform-Era China

The reemergence of aesthetics in China’s early reform period witnessed a wide-ranging embrace of the early Marxist vocabulary of species-being, alienation, and unalienated labor, in tandem with a wave of interest in developments in Soviet aesthetics that had arisen over the 1960s and 1970s. Above all, Chinese aestheticians were enthused by the Soviet field of “technical aesthetics,” which marked those currents in Soviet aesthetic thought that extended the possibilities of beauty beyond the delimited space of the artwork or literary creation to envision how factory labor might become an aesthetic process, simultaneously productive and artistic. By tracing the trajectory of these currents of aesthetic thought against the background of Marxist humanism, I show the ways in which Soviet–Chinese aesthetic encounters conditioned the fashioning of the post-Maoist factory as creative space and the postsocialist figure of the human as creative laborer.

Epistemological Foundations of Transmarxism

This article outlines the epistemological foundations of transmarxism through a decolonial Marxist humanism taking up groundwork laid in Transgender Marxism (2021) by Nathaniel Dickson as a starting point. The transmarxist critique of alienated life via the continued subjection of trans people to an arbitrary and finite set of external determinations coincides with hi[r]storical materialism and a decolonial humanist critique of racial capitalism. While there are many debates around various forms of humanism, this article takes the position that a decolonial Marxist humanism does not have to put forward a problematically sexist, racist, or anthropocentric understanding of the human to say that there is nothing proper to the human other than impropriety. As argued in the latter half of the article, the historical and conceptual relations binding revolutionary Marxist humanism to the theory and praxis of autonomous queer, trans, and feminist struggles found in the work of Sylvia Wynter, Wages Due Lesbians, and the concept of hi[r]storical materialism are critical to ending colonial capitalist imperialism, fighting fascism, and revealing the limitations of liberal inclusion as a long-term solution to antitrans violence.

Ecology, Politics, and the Crisis of Marxism

This essay examines the Marxist humanism of two recent essays published in leading Marxist journals, by Sunyoung Ahn and Matthew Flisfeder, who argue that posthumanism within social science and philosophy has produced an apolitical response to the question of ecological crisis, removing the human subject from the center of theoretical enquiry and leaving theory without a political motor, whereas Marxist theoretical responses to ecological catastrophe must contain a political and ethical injunction upon the human subject to act. This essay argues that posthumanism’s apoliticism stems from its ideological structure shared with theoretical humanism, and any insistence on a Marxist humanism will reproduce this very apoliticism. However, the renewal of this discussion realizes what Louis Althusser called a crisis of Marxism, and this gestures toward a theoretical antihumanism, reconstructed through a Spinozist-Marxist political anthropology, for developing an effective knowledge of political intervention in the face of ecological catastrophe.

Parallels and Divergences in Marxist Humanist Approach to Art in Croatia during the 1960s and 1970s

Based on reading and interpreting the key texts on the topic, the article explores the parallels and divergences between Matko Meštrović’s theory of the Neo-Avantgarde art practices of the New Tendencies and the Marxist Humanist intellectuals of the Praxis school of thought, in relation to different Marxist approaches to art in Yugoslavia. Both currents were critical, utopian, and avantgarde in nature, advocating for radical social transformation towards a new society and a new human, which they shared with the Yugoslav experimental model of self-management socialism in its initial phase. Despite these common approaches, the article argues that there was no direct connection between Yugoslav Neo-Marxists and Neo-Avantgarde artists and theoreticians. This assertion is reinforced by their different approaches to art and art history.

Analysis of Aging Issues and Modernization Governance Pathways from the Perspective of Marxist Humanism

Analysis of Aging Issues and Modernization Governance Pathways from the Perspective of Marxist Humanism

She-Marxist Raya Dunayevskaya

The article presents an attempt to answer the following question: why was Raya Dunayevskaya, a prominent Marxist humanist philosopher, forgotten in terms of the general academic landscape of the analysis of Marxism in relation to the USSR? Dunayevskaya corresponded and worked with influential left-wing intellectuals, such as Leo Trotsky and Erich Fromm, she wrote an extensive number of articles and books regarding Marxist humanism and was an activist herself; however, she was not remembered as either philosopher or activist in the same way her colleagues were. In the article, it will be shown that Dunayevskaya's background as an Eastern European woman who criticized the USSR, as well as the peculiarity of the topic she chose to write about — Marxist humanism — prevented her from becoming a well-known left-wing philosopher, despite deserving this status. This is going to be demonstrated via outlining her path, accounting for her intellectual interactions with left-wing activists and philosophers; analyzing her philosophical ideas regarding Marxist humanism; and tracing her influence on contemporary post-colonial and feminist research. In doing so, Dunayevskaya's legacy as a Marxist humanist philosopher might be restored and reexamined, highlighting women's influence over the academic landscape of the twentieth century.

Soviet Marxist Humanism: from the Class Struggle to the Renaissance of Human

The article considers the main ideas of Soviet Marxist humanism. It is shown that, despite ideological control over culture and science, an original version of Marxist humanism has been developing in Soviet philosophy since the mid 1930-s. Unlike other countries, where the publication of Marxs Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts played a key role in the emergence of Marxist humanism, this publication did not have the same impact in the USSR. Soviet Marxist humanism results from the debates about proletarian culture and humanism in 1920–30-s and also evolves as an anti-fascist movement. Studying the subject, we analyze three key narratives: proletarian humanism, socialist humanism and communist humanism. Proletarian humanism (M. Gorky, M. Petrosyan), in our opinion, historically corresponded to the period of irreconcilable ideological struggle with abstract humanism and fascism. Socialist humanism (N. Bukharin, P. Fedoseev, F. Konstantinov) was investigating necessary material and spiritual conditions to bring up a comprehensively developed personality. Communist humanism (I. Frolov) reflected the process of scientific and technological revolution and historically corresponded to de-escalation of international relationships and political course towards democratization and transparency.

A Marxist-Humanist perspective on Stuart Hall’s communication theory

At the end of his life, Stuart Hall called for the reengagement of Cultural Studies and Marxism. This paper contributes to this task. It analyses Stuart Hall’s works on communication and the media.The goal of the paper is to read Stuart Hall in a manner that can inform the renewal of Marxist Humanism and the development of a Marxist-Humanist theory of communication. This involves reconstructing elements of Hall’s approach, criticising certain aspects of his work, and through this engagement developing new theory elements.The article’s analysis of Stuart Hall’s theory of communication and the media is conducted in four steps. First, the paper reengages and re-evaluates what Hall called the two paradigms of Cultural Studies: Structuralism and “Culturalism”/Humanism. It discusses the role of human agency in society. Second, the paper engages with Hall’s and Althusser’s notions of articulation and sets the notion of articulation in relation to the concept of communication. Third, it discusses the relationship between communication and work in the context of Hall’s works. Fourth, the article revisits and engages with Hall’s encoding/decoding-model in the context of digitalisation.This paper grounds a dialectical concept of communication that is based on the dialectic of articulating and articulatedness, the dialectic of work and communication, as well as the dialectic of communication in the public sphere and society’s power forcefields. It shows how a critical, dialectical theory of communication benefits from engagement with Stuart Hall’s works. The present work argues with, for, against, and beyond Stuart Hall in order or productively draw on ideas that emerge from this engagement.

Beyond the Binary of Race and Class: A Marxist Humanist Perspective

Abstract The emergence of a new generation of antiracist activists and theorists seeking to advance an anticapitalist agenda creates a new vantage point for re-examining how racism relates to the logic of capital. This essay explores sources in the work of Marx, twentieth-century Marxists, and Frantz Fanon that can provide direction for overcoming the binary of class and race.

A Self-Indulgent Narcissus: Performing Marxist Humanism as Individualism in the Work of Petr Štembera

Petr Štembera’s first performance Narcissus No. 1 (1974) was staged as a religious ritual of self-acceptance. During the performance, the artist used a combination of Greek mythology and Christian Eucharistic ritual as a basis for the action during which he consumed detritus from his body while looking at a portrait of himself. This method of arguably self-indulgent individualism was at the core of his broader practice as a pioneer of Czech Body Art. Using Czech philosophical writings on Marxist humanism, this article seeks to reframe individualism, selfishness, and self-indulgence not as pejoratives that are used to dismiss performance works but as a productive basis for a theory of performance-making strategy. Štembera used Zen-Buddhism and phenomenological approaches to contest the political aspects relating to the body in Late Socialist Czechoslovakia. His performance was purposefully selfish, self-indulgent, and individualistic and he strategically refused to share the specifics of his experience with his audience. Instead, he used his performance to offer permission to his audience to perform similar acts of self-indulgence, which in the context of the collectivist Socialist regime of the 1970s functioned, I argue, as a politically subversive act.

Sinicization Innovation of Marxist Humanistic Theory in Colleges and Universities Under the Background of Innovative Thinking.

It is urgent to explore and solve the problems in China's current Marxist psychological education. The main goal of the research is to promote the sinicization innovation of Marxist humanistic theory in colleges and universities. Combined with Marxist humanist theory, this paper designs a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teaching mode for cultivating innovative thinking in an attempt to change the way college students cultivate innovative thinking. The research method is to discuss the status, problems, causes, and countermeasures of the sinicization innovation of Marxist humanistic theory in colleges and universities through literature research, logical analysis, and empirical research. The progress and existing problems of college students' current psychological education logic are summarized based on empirical research. The research results show that the innovation of Marxist humanistic theory in colleges and universities needs to be innovated in terms of theory, method, content, and form and integrated into the development needs and innovation requirements of contemporary Chinese society. The countermeasures implemented include promoting the intersectionality, interdisciplinarity, and innovation of Marxist humanistic theory research in colleges and universities, strengthening the close integration of Marxist humanistic theory education and practice in colleges and universities, and enhancing the effectiveness and orientation of Marxist humanistic theory education in colleges and universities. In the context of innovative thinking, the effectiveness of psychological logic education should be further improved through innovative research on the sinicization of Marxist humanistic theory in colleges and universities.

Человек в России: контрапункты исторического плавания «Философского парохода»

The author shows the socio-philosophical context of the “Philosopher’s Ships” phenomenon and the contradictions of social existence that brought it to life. The dialectic of the struggle of ideas and socio-political confrontations is re­vealed; in particular, the contradiction between cultural and philosophical mean­ing of the “Philosopher’s Ships” and ideological and political confrontation be­tween religious Russian philosophy and Marxism. The intersection of the ideas of religious philosophy and humanistic Marxism within the framework of the central idea of personality development and their opposite in the socio-historical vision of the role of a human being is emphasized. The “Philosopher’s Ships” as a so­cio-cultural phenomenon today, in the XXIst century, despite the fact that it is an independent cultural space that does not directly intersect with the space of social relations, when turning to the study of the essence of social being and social consciousness, turns out to be closely interwoven into the fabric of social contradictions of the material world and the spiritual world. And the center of this “interweaving” there was and remains a person in his social being and spiritual (self)consciousness. For Russia of the last century, these problems have become especially significant: the historical “voyage” of our society has been and is taking place in the space-time of endless transformations, the philosoph­ical reflections of which are purely contradictory, which in a multifaceted refrac­tion reflected the fate of the “Philosopher’s Ships” in its unfinished voyage.

Based on the new era to explore and analyse the value of Marxist Humanism

As the focus of Marxist philosophy, the liberation of human beings not only bears the heavy responsibility given by history and times, but also shows the value concern of human development. This paper is based on the perspective of Marxist anthropology in the new era. Firstly, it introduces the historical background of its formation and development, and probes into the origin and historical evolution of the development of Marxist anthropology. Secondly, based on dialectical thinking, it comprehensively analyzes the content, and analyzes the essential connotation of humanology from the perspective of Marxism. Finally, the future of the theory is predicted, and the value implication of Marxist anthropology in the new era is summarized, which provides ideological guidance and practical guidance for realizing the Chinese dream in the new era.

Marxist Analysis of Alienation (1973)

Abstract Lucien Sève (1926–2020) was one of the foremost Marxist theoreticians of the Parti Communiste Français. An indomitable opponent of both structural and humanist Marxism, his 1973 article reprinted below represents the core of his conception of alienation. For Sève, whilst the mature Marxism of Das Kapital is fundamentally distinct from the speculative humanism of the 1844 Manuscripts in placing capital, not abstract labour, at the heart of alienation, this reinforces, rather than replaces, the role of alienation at the centre of Marx’s mature thought, and hence of Marxism itself.

Sève and Alienation – A Biographical Preface

Abstract Lucien Sève devoted his life to the development of a Marxist theory of the personality. In so doing, and as part of a theoretical debate with both Marxist humanists and structural Marxists within the Parti Communiste Français, he was inevitably drawn to analyse alienation as a category of Marxist analysis. His conclusion was that although Althusser had been right to argue for the ‘epistemological break’ in Marx’s thought, it was wrong to suggest that Marx abandoned the concept of alienation in his later work. Far from it: a transformed conception of alienation derived from historical materialism remains the key to understanding Marxism.

Phenomenology and existentialism in dialogue with Marxist humanism in Yugoslavia in the 1950s and 1960s

The paper looks at how Marxist humanists around the Yugoslav philosophical journal Praxis engaged with existentialist and phenomenological categories. After presenting the early 1950s critiques of existentialism in Yugoslavia, the paper considers how the categories used by the representatives of existentialism (and phenomenology) were interpreted and incorporated by Yugoslav Marxist humanists in the 1960s.

Marxist Humanism in the USSR: the Creative Development of Marxism-Leninism or reaction?

The article analyzes the features of the formation of Marxist humanism in the Soviet Marxist-Leninist philosophy of the 50s and 60s. The prerequisites for the emergence of Marxist humanism in the USSR, in addition to the material of the "Manuscripts of 1844", should include the widespread spread of social democratic revisionism among representatives of Soviet social science thought. The article pays special attention to the influence of foreign tradition on the content and problems of domestic Marxist humanism (in particular, the French Communist Party and such theorists as R. Garodi and L. Sav). In addition, the study analyzes the conceptual positions of Soviet philosophers regarding the nature of humanism during the period of socialist construction (M. Petrosyan, P. Fedoseeva, G. Smirnova, I. Frolova). In particular, the issues of the correlation of socialist and bourgeois humanism, the correlation of personal and social under the socialist system, the concept of "comprehensive personality development" under communism, discussions about Marxist anthropology are considered. В At the same time, it is emphasized that the solution of these (and some other) issues proposed within the framework of domestic Marxist humanism was idealistic and divorced from the real practice of socialist construction. In conclusion, the article concludes that Marxist humanism in the Soviet Union was not a creative development of the provisions of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, but was, for the most part, a reworked social-democratic and neo-Marxist revisionism. In our opinion, this conceptual and categorical "sabotage" led to the theoretical and ideological substitution of Marx's provisions instead of their development, which became one of the reasons for the "decomposition" of the party and its loss of the status of the "leading force of the proletariat" in the USSR.

A Marxist Humanist Study of Selected Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield

Marxist-humanism is a significant and pertinent theory that critiques the exploitation of lower classes by bourgeois classes and lays emphasis on the value of individuals in present-day class-conscious societies. In the Marxist-humanist vision of human society, the freedom of a human being is the most important aspect of social existence which should not be usurped by elite classes. This research paper scrutinizes the Marxist-Humanist strains delineated in the thematic dimensions of the three selected short stories The Doll’s House, The Garden Party, and Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield. The nature of this paper is qualitative, and the researcher has attempted to unravel the process of dehumanization of the bourgeois sections of society which results in the alienation of the lower classes. Mansfield’s short stories have not been previously explored from a Marxist-humanist perspective and the present research contributes to the available research studies on Katherine Mansfield’s short stories.

V. I. Lenin on Alienation

According to an old legend, Vladimir Lenin, the founder of Soviet Marxism, overlooked Karl Marx’s theory of alienation. For Marxist humanists, this theory underlies the emancipatory thrust of Marx’s thought, and since, in their view, Lenin’s acolytes ignored alienation, communist regimes failed to empower the workers. Considering these claims, this article challenges the legend that Lenin himself neglected Marx’s theory of alienation. It argues that this theory was central to Lenin’s Marxism. In fact, Lenin was among the first to discover the concept in Marx’s work, although he also analysed the concept independently. Like Marx, Lenin criticised capitalist alienation and defined communism as a non-alienated society. After the October Revolution, however, Lenin struggled to realise this goal. Responding to a failed European socialist revolution, a brutal civil war, a deadly famine and widespread cultural backwardness, Lenin made concessions to alienation. Nevertheless, Lenin’s legacy provides an important insight into alienation today.

Social science and Marxist humanism beyond collectivism in Socialist Romania

This article brings together the history of the social sciences and the history of social thought in Socialist Romania. It is concerned with the development of ideas about the social beyond collectivism, especially about the relationship between individual and society under socialism, from the early 1960s to the end of the 1970s. The analysis speaks to three major themes in the current historiography of Cold War social science. First, the article investigates the role of disciplinary specialization in the advancement of new ideas about the social in the postwar period. Specifically, it asks how the debate over the relationship between sociology and Marxism-Leninism has challenged ideas about collectivism from Stalinist social science. Second, the article shows how social practice, individual and collective agency, and people's subjectivities became theoretically relevant in the 1960s, and how they were integrated, via empirical sociological research, into the reworked conceptual apparatus of post-Stalinist Marxism-Leninism. This complicates accounts about the role of quantification and theorization in postwar social science by foregrounding the intense reflection on the role of empirical research in sociology under state socialism. Third, the article shows how the relationship between individual and society became a topic of interest across social sciences in the 1960s and 1970s. The Marxist humanist approach to the social, although it never achieved the institutional status of a distinct discipline, adds an important perspective from East Central Europe to the existing historiography of the ‘thinning’ of the social in social sciences and social thought beginning in the 1950s.