Arguments of the Philosophers KARL MARX _ Allen W Wood

(Arguments of the Philosophers) 
Karl Marx
Allen W. Wood
Routledge (2004)
Pages : 297

PART ONE

Alienation 1

1 The Concept of Alienation 3

1 The young Marx’s ‘theory’ of alienation 3

2 What is ‘alienation’? 7

3 Alienation and false consciousness 10

4 Alienation and practice 13

2 The Human Essence 16

1 The species being 16

2 Species consciousness and alienation 19

3 Self-actualization 22

4 Human essential powers 26

3 Human Production 31

1 Conscious life activity 31

2 Labor as self-affirmation 34

3 Objectification and appropriation 38

4 Alienation and Capitalism 44

1 The capitalist division of labor 44

2 Capitalism and freedom 48

3 Assessing Marx on capitalist alienation 55

PART TWO

Historical Materialism 61

5 Production and Society 63

1 ‘Economic determinism’ 63

2 Productive powers, production relations 66

3 A ‘technological’ theory of history? 71

4 Productive powers and historical development 75

6 Classes 82

1 Social relations, property relations 82

2 History and social classes 87

3 Class interests 92

4 Class struggles 97

7 Materialist Explanations 101

1 Historical materialism as an empirical hypothesis 101

2 Materialist explanations are teleological 104

3 Is Marx a historical teleologist? 108

8 Materialism, Agency and Consciousness 112

1 Is Marx a determinist? 112

2 Three senses of ‘ideology’ 118

3 Ideology and science 122

PART THREE

Marxism and Morality 125

9 Marx on Right and Justice 127

1 Does Marxism have moral foundations? 127

2 Marx’s concept of justice 132

3 Capitalism and commodity exchange 134

4 Capital exploits justly 138

10 Morality as Ideology 143

1 The social function of morality 143

2 Marxism and utilitarianism 147

3 Is Marx an immoralist? 151

4 Why should a Marxist be moral? 155

5 Marx’s attitude toward morality, and our attitude 159

PART FOUR

Philosophical Materialism 163

11 Materialist Naturalism 165

1 What is materialism? 165

2 Marx’s atheism 170

3 The essentiality of humanity and nature 174

12 Materialist Realism 181

1 Knowledge and practice 181

2 The contemplative attitude 184

3 Is Marx an idealist? 189

PART FIVE

The Dialectical Method 195

13 The Hegelian Dialectic 197

1 Hegel’s vision of reality 197

2 Organic development or dialectic 202

3 Dialectic and formal logic 208

14 The Marxian Dialectic 215

1 The ‘rational kernel’ in the ‘mystical shell’ 215

2 ‘Inverting’ Hegel 219

3 Reproducing the concrete in thought 224

15 Dialectic in Capital 227

1 The structure of ‘Capital’ 227

2 Values and production prices 230

3 The law of value 233

4 Value and exploitation 239

16 Capitalist Exploitation 242

1 What is exploitation? 242

2 The vulnerability of labor to capital 246

3 Capitalist apologetics about exploitation 253

4 What is bad about capitalist exploitation? 257

5 How to think about capitalist exploitation 263

Concluding Remark 265

Notes 267

Some Further Reading 294

Index 297