The Philosophy Of Praxis
Marx, Lukács And The Frankfurt School
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Philosophy of Praxis examines the work of four Marxist thinkers, the early Marx and Lukács, and the Frankfurt School philosophers Adorno and Marcuse. The book holds that fundamental philosophical problems are in reality social problems, abstractly conceived. This argument has two implications: on the one hand, philosophical problems are significant insofar as they reflect real social contradictions; on the other hand, philosophy cannot resolve the problems it identifies because only social revolution can eliminate their social causes. Feenberg’s Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory was an intellectual history of these discussions. Philosophy of Praxis is an update of that classic theoretical work, which details how the discussion has been taken up by contemporary schools of thought, including Marxist political theory and continental philosophy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this book of elucidating scholarship, seasoned author Feenberg revises the assertions of his first book, Luk cs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory (1981). The book's insight derives from the fruit of over three decades of rumination on these ideas. Feenberg traces a history of praxis from the early work of Marx through Luk cs to its later formulation by the Frankfurt School. Broadly speaking, "philosophy of praxis" designates these theorists' accounts of the intertwining of theory and concrete cultural, historical, and lived reality. Feenberg reads this in Marx's and Luk cs avowal that philosophy is grounded in the concrete and historical and that philosophy should aim to transform the world through political reform and revolutionary action. In the aftermath of failed political resistance, the Frankfurt School reappraised the possibility and telos of a philosophy of praxis. Here, Feenberg focuses on the work of Adorno and Marcuse, and he closes with reflections on the contemporary applicability of a philosophy of praxis especially as it pertains to the political potential of the internet. Feenberg's clear, nuanced, and exceptionally useful exegesis, fleshes out complex ideas with a measured analysis and is a critical resource for understanding the historical shift in the relationship between theory and practice from Marx to Marcuse.
