Assignment #5: Readings from Marx

Begin reading: (from the Marx-Engels Archive):

1845: Theses on Feuerbach

1848: The Communist Manifesto

Assignment #5: Anarchism

 1. Begin reading the SEP article on philosophical (theoretical) anarchism.  Begin composing an S&R on this chapter.

Several brief intros to anarchism:

https://youtu.be/rUINFJrBziY?is=TEubOwMTy8sorg6q

Crash Course

Prof Wolff

Anarchism Essay

I. Varieties

a. Political: rejection of Arche (first principle, foundation, ruling power). Q: can "rule by all be an instance of "non-ruling" consistent with anarchism?  That is, could there be a state, forms of political power, that preserved autonomy?

b. Religious: consider the Christian anarchism of Tolstoy, eg. (anti-clerical + anti-political power of state).

c. Theoretical: postmodern/post-structuralist/continental strains in epistemology and literary theory and science (Feyerabend); critique of truth, epistemic foundationalism, moral authority. Problem: critiques often appear to rest on the foundations they criticize (truth claims, liberty, solidarity, autonomy, eg.).

d. Applied: applications to social problems in order to undermine hierarchies/domination/oppression (hence black, indigenous, and decolonizing anarchisms). Q: nihilistic or "deeply ethical" and committed to various forms of liberty, etc.?

e. As a way of life: Emma Goldman: "...freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Often connected to emphasizing the arts.

Video (on anarchism as a way of life)

II. Political philosophy: "there is no legitimate political or governmental authority." No necessary connection to political activism: "illegitimacy does not entail a strong moral imperative to oppose or eliminate the state" (there remain other ethical, psychological, practical considerations in deciding proper course of action).

1. History. Ancient advocates (epicureanism, cynicism). Contract theorists (17th, 18th centuries) used fear of anarchy to justify political power (Hobbes: (life in the state of nature absent political authority would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short") Locke, Rousseau (idyllic state of nature; political power a necessary evil), and in the 20th century, Nozick (Lockean provisos) and Rawls (original position)). "Classical" anarchism ("libertarian socialism"): Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman offer communistic alternatives to the two-stage communism of Marxism-Leninism ("authoritarian socialism")

2. Absolute, deontological, and known a priori (known prior to experience/observation) anarchism: All states are categorically illegitimate and violate basic human rights. (Wolff quote, p. 9). No de jure (legal, grounded in Kantian (deontological) moral duty) legitimate state; only de facto (conventional, coercive, manufactured by actual persons). Christian anarchists fall into this camp.

Robert Wolff's defense of anarchism (a summary)

3. Contingent, consequentialist, and known a posteriori (known after experience/observation) anarchism: state authority needs to be justified on utilitarian grounds; may (or may not) be a necessary, if temporary, evil.

(Chomsky quote; p. 10)

4. Individual vs. group emphasis: Individualistic anarchism: focus on liberty; individual retains rights against any state or social organization. Actual character of individualistic anarchism dependent on position re negative and positive liberty. Socialist/communist anarchism: focus on sharing community/economy, but decentralized (in contrast to Marxist communism, grounded, at first, in state power).

 5. International relations/global justice: Conventional approach favors international agreements (eg., UN) to counter (the anarchy of ) colonialism, war, and imperialism. Anarchists, in rejecting nation states, reconceptualize the problem of international governments as cosmopolitan governance. (Fiala quote, p. 14).

III. Political Activity

Anarchists question the legitimacy of the liberal assumption that we have a prima facie obligation to obey the law. Q: Should we disengage, submit reluctantly, or fight? Anarchists typically claim that any direct action ought to exemplify a unity of means and ends, since coercive imposition of anarchist ideals would be self-contradictory.

1. Nonviolence

a. Anarcho-pacifist tradition (unity of means and ends): Tolstoy, Gandhi, King; nonviolent resistance.

b. Violence a reaction to state violence, a form of self-defense; a necessary evil (Goldman quote, p. 15).

2. Disobedience, Revolution, Reform

The problem of civil disobedience (Thoreau, eg.), reduces to the problem of revolution or reform/gradualism; a concern that besets all revolutionary/radical agendas.

3. Utopian communities/non-revolutionary anarchism

Basically, opting out of political life. Long history: Epicureans, Cynics, Christian anarchists, Mennonites, Quakers, New England transcendentalists, hippy communes, etc.

Objections (and replies)

1. Anarchism is nihilistic

2. Anarchism will always evolve back to the state

3. Anarchism is utopian

4. Anarchism is incoherent

5. Philosophical anarchism is toothless

 

Assignment #4: Socialism

 1. Read: " Socialism" from the SEP. Begin another S&R.

Just for fun: follow Paul Street's column, "This week in Fascism."

https://substack.com/@paulstreet/note/p-217467847?r=6qhhyz

Outline of points to consider (in order of their exposition):

1. How the "relations of production" control the "forces of production" (labor + means of production/resources)

2. 5 features of capitalism.

3. "minimal socialism" (change to first condition). Q: would that result in replacement of capital accumulation (condition 5) with production for needs?

4. Socialist (normative) principles. Concept of "radical democracy" and Marx's (communistic) dictum: "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs."

DI Ideals

5. Exploitation of labor: technical or normative? 4 accounts of normativity (unequal exchange; labor entitlement; luck-egalitarian; power asymmetry).

6. Capitalist domination and interference in people's freedom ("private property by one person presupposes non-ownership on the part of other persons" Marx). Control over labor, production decisions/processes, media, political parties. Solution: radical democracy again. See Marx quote p. 6.

7. Absent effective/real freedom, self-realization impossible (hence "alienation") See Marx quote, p. 8. Problem of paternalistic imposition if full self-and other-realization is pursued.

Types of alienation:

a. from the products of our labor

b. from the laboring process

c. from our "species-being"

d. from each other

video 

8. Capitalist inefficiency: profit maximization and economic crises; underproduction of public goods; overconsumption of natural resources; negative externalities (pollution); costs of defending private ownership of capital. Alternative account of "efficiency" that takes into account expanding "leisure time"/quality of life/environment. 

9. Liberal (freedom-centered) notions of equality/egalitarianism suffer from lack of concern for solidarity/social goods (eg., freedom of occupational choice could reinforce inequalities or neglect social goods).

DII Institutions (Socialist Institutional Designs)

1. Central planning (eliminate private property in the means of production as well as markets)

Problems: Information shortages; incentive and innovation deficits; concentration of political/economic power

2. Participatory planning

Replaces central planning with democratic/widespread political/economic participation

3. Market Socialism

Video: Richard Wolff on MS

a. Economic democracy model: worker-controlled cooperatives + public banks + government employment. Probs: inequality between competitive enterprises, inefficiency.

b. Carensian model: capitalist markets persist, while after tax income equalized, and system rests on sense of duty (abilities/needs).

c. Coupon market model: single generation shares in stock market equalized and provided to each adult. 

3. Reform model (capitalist markets + welfare state): unemployment benefits, health care, education, pensions, unions. Problems: capital flight; inequality; oligarchic control of the state. Responses: mixed economies, progressive taxation, greater democratic participation, international agreements re capital movement.

DIII. Feasibility of transition to socialism

1. Marx: Contribution Principle, then Abilities/Needs Principle. Dictatorship ("dictatur" in German) along with the state eventually "withering away".

2. Wright: a. smashing, b. taming, c. escaping, d. eroding capitalism

3. Other concerns: a. race, sex, class intersection, b. national or international?

Assignment #3: Capitalism

1. Read: "Capitalism" from the SEP.

2. Begin the process of writing an S&R for this article.

Just for "fun":

End times Tech

Assignment #2: Liberalism (updated)

1. Read 'liberalism" from the SEP. Review (if necessary) handout S&R. Compose a complete "S&R" for this article. We will share elements of our S&Rs in class on Monday. S&Rs can be typed or hand-written. I will collect S&Rs when we have completed our discussions of the article (sometime next week).

Useful summary of Liberalism:

What Was Liberalism? #1 Ideology & Violence | Philosophy Tube

S&P is a normative discipline that presupposes a variety of moral/ethical positions.  Here's a brief discussion of the three basic positions:

Three Moral Theories | Good Food: Ethics and Politics of Food | Linguistics and Philosophy | MIT OpenCourseWare

Assignment #1: Basic Elements of Logic; Syllabus; Handouts, and Liberalism

Welcome to Social and Political Philosophy.

Things to do:

1. Review the basic elements of logic (sections 1-6 will suffice; Note: this brief logical excursion is in preparation for future writing tasks involving critical reasoning):

c01.pdf (umass.edu)

2. Read the syllabus and begin reviewing handouts CPE, S&R, CR1-3; raise any questions in our next class.

3. When the time is right, we'll begin with the review of 'liberalism" from the SEP.

Just for fun: peruse Karl Marx's poetry.

Even more Marxist fun:

11th thesis of "11 theses on Feuerbach:"

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

The critique of religion:

Marx's famous suggestion that religion is the "opium" of the people is no mere condemnation of the impulse to find comfort in otherworldly entities and places. Rather, he both condemns religion (as a condition that requires illusions) and congratulates it (as a protest against and expression of real suffering that can offer a glimpse into the "heart of a heartless world"). In the end, however, religion-qua-opiate simply masks symptoms of -- and hence reinforces -- the underlying social/political/earthly disease. From "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right":

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.

The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.

It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked.

Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics.