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Summary

Socialism is a political and economic order in which the means of production (e.g. land, factories, machinery, communication and transportation infrastructure, etc.) are subject to public control and the traditionally gendered and often unpaid labor of reproduction (e.g. child rearing, domestic labor, etc.) is compensated or socialized. While the structure of governance, use of markets, degree of cooperative labor, and kinds welfare guarantees may vary, socialism seeks to prioritize the satisfaction of human needs, while mitigating material inequality and social oppression. Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) argued that the objective possibility of socialism was immanent to capitalism. (Socialism supported by moral principles or human will alone, was critically referred to as utopian.) Immanent to socialism, in turn, is the objective possibility of communism, which entails the complete dissolution of the state, division of labor, and the value form associated with commodity production. Marxist socialism is thus a stage in the historical development of communism, whose defining characteristic is the overcoming of all internal contradictions and radical otherness (a characteristic it shares with Hegel’s notion of absolute spirit). Marxism, however, also refers to a systematic, dialectical, and historical analysis of capitalism; a reflexive form of critical social theory with an emancipatory intent; a historical materialist methodology; theories of class formation, conflict, and ideology; as well as to critiques of alienation, reification, and commodity fetishism. There are now several different schools of Marxist thought, from Humanist, Structuralist, and Autonomist Marxism, to Analytical, Feminist, and Cultural Marxism, among others.

Key works Major early works in socialist thought include Charles Fourier,

The Theory of the Four Movements

(1808), Robert Owen,

New View of Society

(1813), and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What Is Property? (1840). Major works by Marx and Engels include Karl Marx's Capital, Volumes 1-3, the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, “On the Jewish Question,” and The Eighteenth Brumaire; Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844) and The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884); as well as 

The Communist Manifesto

(1848) and the German Ideology (1845), which Marx and Engels authored together. The collected works of Marx and Engels in German are here (MEGA) and in English here (MECW). Other key texts in the Marxist tradition include Lenin, State and Revolution (1917); Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks; Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital (1913), Georg (György) Lukács,

History and Class Consciousness (1923); Louis Althusser, For Marx (1965); and Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique of Dialectical Reason, 2 Volumes (1960, 1985).

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8305 found
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  1. Ethical Life.Liam Kofi Bright - manuscript
    A sketch of my ethical views, or secular moral philosophy. Emphasis is on stating how it all hangs together.
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  2. Marxism as a Learning Process: The Epistemic Rationality of Precedential Reasoning.Stephen D'Arcy - manuscript
    My aim in this paper is fairly modest. I obviously do not claim that there has never been or could never be an instance of irrational or fallacious appeals to quotations from canonical sources in the marxist tradition. Instead, I claim that the practice of using quotations from canonical sources is not, as such, irrational. If we understand the epistemological infrastructure of the practice -- the rational underpinnings of it -- we can grasp how these citations appeal to the presumptive (...)
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  3. Heideggerian Marxism, Dasein, and the Nature of Revolution.Jarryd Louw - manuscript
    This present paper is concerned with clarifying the relationship between the specifics of revolution and historical Dasein as elaborated by Herbert Marcuse in his early work concerning Heideggerian Marxism. In this early work, Marcuse identifies the industrial proletariat as constituting an expression of historical Dasein and in which the eventual proletarian revolution not only brings about the liberation of the proletariat from the effects of capitalism but also allows for the authentic expression of historical Dasein. While Marcuse holds that this (...)
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  4. AI as Ideology: A Marxist Reading (Crawford, Marx/Engels, Debord, Althusser).Jeffrey Reid - manuscript
    Kate Crawford presents AI as “both reflecting and producing social relations and understandings of the world”; or again, as “a form of exercising power, and a way of seeing… as a manifestation of highly organized capital backed by vast systems of extraction and logistics, with supply chains that wrap around the entire planet”. I interpret these material insights through a Marxist understanding of ideology, with reference to Marx/Engels, Guy Debord and Louis Althusser. In the German Ideology, Marx and Engels present (...)
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  5. The Economics of Diversity.Ryan Wasser - manuscript
    At first blush values such as diversity appear to be worth striving for. The question is whether or not such values—which have become increasingly prevalent the institutional credos of academia—are values as such, that being that they are things of moral worth (Value, n.d.), or if they are something else altogether. My unpopular suspicion leans toward the latter. Personal opinions, of course, can hardly be said to be good justification for a withering critique, however, these opinions of mine mirror similar (...)
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  6. To Question is the Answer: Questioning Capitalism and 20th Century Communism for Communist Freedom.William Aguilar -
    Global capitalism is the politico-economic structure that subjects everything to its interests. It creates unimaginable poverty, ecological crisis, the ongoing pandemic, wars without end, and other horrors that humans can inflict against each other. Within this capitalist configuration, an idea and a political movement emerged that seeks to destroy the foundation of this system. Communism is this idea and political movement. The foundation of capitalism that they wanted to dismantle is private bourgeois property. In general, the Bolshevik revolution did destroy (...)
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  7. A ‘Grooming Chamber’ For Antisemitism.Jan M. Van der Molen - Jan 28, 2020 - University of Groningen.
    If Jewish Bolsheviks could put an end to the imperial rule of the Romanovs, could they pose a threat to the vision of a Third Reigh? A question the German National Socialists are likely to have asked themselves before and on the eve of plotting the rise of the Nazi regime. After all, Europe had had a long-standing relationship with blaming the Jews for the world’s miseries. A relationship Germany was ready to refuel, as indicated by German Field Marshal Walter (...)
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  8. Mark Neocleous, Fascism.T. Abse - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  9. Lenin reads Hegel.Andreas Arndt - forthcoming - Hegel-Studien.
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  10. The End/s of Socialism.Ronald Aronson - forthcoming - Theoria.
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  11. Aimé Césaire’s “Tropical Marxism” and the Problem of Alienation.Arwa Awan - forthcoming - Political Theory.
    This article traces Aimé Césaire’s engagement with Marxism through the concept of alienation, which is central to the Marxist-Hegelian tradition. The idea of restoring human creative powers, which take on an alien character under particular historical conditions, deeply shaped Césaire’s analysis of French colonial assimilation, which compelled the Black colonized subjects to identify with French bourgeois culture instead of taking revolutionary action against capitalism. Situating Césaire within the intellectual milieu of interwar Paris, this piece draws out his links with the (...)
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  12. Has the Soviet Union Taken a Step Toward Communism?Alexander S. Balinky - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  13. The Proclaimed Emergence of Communism in the USSR.Alexander S. Balinky - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  14. Marxism-Leninism and Christianity: Continuation of I. Vostorgov's Research.Nikolai Nikolaevich Barinov - forthcoming - Philosophy and Culture (Russian Journal).
    This article is a study of the compatibility of the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism and Orthodox Christianity. The great importance of this topic is due to its direct connection with the improvement of society and the ongoing controversy on this issue with attempts to integrate communism with Christianity. The work provides a historical and theological analysis based on a critical study of the works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, their associates, historical and theological works, as well as historical documents (...)
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  15. Editor’s Introduction: Socialist Solidarity and East-East Relations in the 20th Century.Dalia Báthory - forthcoming - History of Communism in Europe:11-12.
    The current section of issues 12/2021-13/2022 of History of Communism in Europe deals with East-East and East-South relations among socialist countries and countries of the Global South. Exploring local specificities and global ambitions, the papers bring to light the beginnings of the socialist developmental projects, and bilateral relations that overcome the strict framework of the monolithic socialist bloc.
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  16. The crisis in Marxist sociology.Norman Birnbaum - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  17. Un martor al realimului socialist.Radu Bogdan - forthcoming - Dilema.
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  18. Market Socialism: A Subjectivist Perspective.R. Bradley - forthcoming - Journal of Libertarian Studies.
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  19. Still Primus Inter Pares for Understanding and Opposing the Capitalist System.Richard A. Brosio - forthcoming - Journal of Thought.
  20. Marxism and the Multitude '.Alex Callinicos - forthcoming - Multitudes: Revue Politique, Artistique, Philosophique.
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  21. Beating the Untrodden Paths: Computers, Artificial Intelligence and Quanta in Marxist Theory.Guglielmo Carchedi - forthcoming - Historical Materialism:1-31.
    The fulcrum of this work is knowledge: what it is and how it is generated within the context of a capitalist society. First, Marx’s analysis of the objective labour process is extended to the mental labour process. Then, objective and mental labour processes are defined in terms of objective and mental transformations, with consideration paid to which of the two types of transformation is determinant. This requires a discussion of dialectical logic and formal logic. Within dialectical logic, two types of (...)
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  22. Early British socialism and the ‘religion of the new moral world’.Matilde Cazzola - forthcoming - History of European Ideas.
    When a political movement is named after its founder, as is the case with Owenism, new studies investigating the founder’s works and ideas come as no surprise. Notably, the latest book by Edward Lu...
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  23. To Study Marxism with Marx's Academic Spirit.Xu Chang-fu - forthcoming - Modern Philosophy.
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  24. The Dialectics of Standing One's Ground.George Ciccariello-Maher - forthcoming - Theory and Event 15 (3).
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  25. Philippe Van Parijs, Marxism Recycled.A. Collier - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  26. La "civilización ecológica" (shengtai wénmíng). Una lectura desde la filosofía.Montserrat Crespin Perales - forthcoming - In Lecturas contemporáneas sobre filosofía china. Valencia: Tirant Lo Blanch. pp. 1-15.
    Las políticas estatales e internacionales que se derivan de la concepción china de “civilización ecológica” (shengtai wénmíng) representan una variante filosófico-política que, en nuestro momento posindustrial, resurge como vía para intentar “corregir” la relación de extrañamiento entre el ser humano y la naturaleza. La noción se entiende, pues, como una alternativa –filosófica y gubernamental– que aboga por la coexistencia armónica entre la humanidad y la naturaleza, estableciendo su visión en una perspectiva más amplia que la de la mera “protección medioambiental” (...)
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  27. From Cultural Marxism to Critical Literacy: Rethinking Douglas Kellner’s Media Theory.Otávio Daros - forthcoming - Sage Publications Ltd: Philosophy and Social Criticism.
    Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. Douglas Kellner emerged in the late 1980s as a media theorist. This article reconstructs his intellectual trajectory, analyzing the developments and problems of his media theory. His path was influenced by so-called Western Marxism, notably by the Frankfurt School and, later, by British cultural studies. Kellner made both currents of European thought dialogue and incorporated them into French postmodernism, in a context configured by the ‘culture wars’ in the United States. All of this (...)
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  28. From Cultural Marxism to Critical Literacy: Rethinking Douglas Kellner’s Media Theory.Otávio Daros - forthcoming - Philosophy and Social Criticism.
    Douglas Kellner emerged in the late 1980s as a media theorist. This article reconstructs his intellectual trajectory, analyzing the developments and problems of his media theory. His path was influ...
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  29. From Cultural Marxism to Critical Literacy: Rethinking Douglas Kellner’s Media Theory.Otávio Daros - forthcoming - Sage Journals.
    Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. Douglas Kellner emerged in the late 1980s as a media theorist. This article reconstructs his intellectual trajectory, analyzing the developments and problems of his media theory. His path was influenced by so-called Western Marxism, notably by the Frankfurt School and, later, by British cultural studies. Kellner made both currents of European thought dialogue and incorporated them into French postmodernism, in a context configured by the ‘culture wars’ in the United States. All of this (...)
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  30. Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR.C. el-Ojeili - forthcoming - Thesis Eleven.
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  31. Antonio Gramsci, Letters from Prison.G. Elliott - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  32. John E. Roemer, A Future for Socialism.G. Elliott - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  33. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.Giorgio Fazio - forthcoming - Philosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche.
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  34. The Point of Change: Marxism/Australia.Carole Ferrier & Rebecca Pelan - forthcoming - History/Theory.
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  35. Editor’s Introduction - Youth in Communism: between Compliance and Deviance.Daniel Filip-Afloarei - forthcoming - History of Communism in Europe:91-96.
    All research agrees that youth was an important social category for the communist regimes. At the beginning of the Cold War, youth was perceived in literature as a subject under the regimes’ total control. Later on, scholars understood that gaining the support of young people was a political priority for the Communists. To follow this complicated relationship between youth and the communist regime, I first looked at the complexity of the concept. Second, I have moved beyond the Manichean perspective of (...)
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  36. Marxism and Homosexual Liberation.Daniel Gaido - forthcoming - Historical Materialism:1-100.
    The decriminalisation of homosexuality was a measure originally adopted by the bourgeois revolutions, which was abandoned by the bourgeois parties as the rise of the labour movement led the bourgeoisie to seek a compromise with landlords, clergy and monarchy in different countries. The demand to decriminalise homosexuality was therefore taken over by the Marxist workers’ parties, such as the Social-Democratic Party of Germany before the First World War and the Bolshevik Party in Russia after the Revolution of October 1917. This (...)
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  37. Intersectionality: A dialogue with Marxism–Leninism.Glenn Gamst - forthcoming - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology.
  38. La funzione del parlamento.Ludovico Geymonat - forthcoming - (l'Unità).
  39. Apriamo un franco dibattito all'interno del Partito.Ludovico Geymonat - forthcoming - (l'Unità).
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  40. Fredric Jameson, Brecht and Method.S. Giles - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  41. ‘The natural leader of the proletariat’: Eduard Bernstein on trade unions and the path to socialist cooperation.Peter Giraudo - forthcoming - History of European Ideas.
    This paper offers a reinterpretation of Eduard Bernstein’s theory of evolutionary socialism. It does so by examining the leading role that he envisioned for unions of skilled workers in the socialist movement. During his time in London in the 1890s, Bernstein’s engagement with English Fabianism led him to emphasize the proletariat’s differentiated nature. He claimed skilled workers most readily organized and became the first proletarians to develop class consciousness. Unskilled workers, on the other hand, remained largely unorganized and estranged from (...)
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  42. Socialisation of children to nurse and nursing images: A Goffman‐inspired thematic analysis of children's picture books in a Swedish context.Stinne Glasdam, Hongxuan Xu & Sigrid Stjernswärd - forthcoming - Nursing Inquiry.
    Picture books are often part of children's socialisation processes, contributing to the children forming images of the world, including ideas about (categories of) people, such as nurses. The study aims to explore how nurses/nursing are portrayed in children's picture books in a Swedish context. Through a systematic search, 44 books were included for analysis using thematic analysis and a theoretical lens inspired by Goffman. The results were presented in three themes: ‘The costume characterised and designated nurses’, ‘Nurses and nursing were (...)
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  43. Democracy’s History of Inegalitarianism: Symposium on Michael Hanchard, The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2018, 272 pgs. [REVIEW]Robert Gooding-Williams, David Theo Goldberg, Juliet Hooker & Michael G. Hanchard - forthcoming - Political Theory:009059172090186.
  44. Contemporary Marxist Sociology.Erich Hahn - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  45. Toward a Salsa Dancing Hegemony: Dancing-with Laclau with-Derrida.Joshua M. Hall - forthcoming - Research in Dance Education.
    In the present article, the first section recapitulates my “figuration” philosophy of dance, the “dancing-with” interpretive method derived therefrom, and my previous application of figuration to salsa dance as a decolonizing gestural discourse. The second section deepens and modifies this analysis through a reinterpretation of Argentinian philosopher Ernesto Laclau’s concept of hegemony and his dance-resonant interpretations of Derrida. And the final section offers a template for this hegemonic dancing-with in the Birmingham, Alabama Latin dance troupe, Corazon de Alabama (Heart of (...)
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  46. Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity.H. Harootunian - forthcoming - Radical Philosophy.
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  47. Gender Dysphoria for Critical Theory.Penelope Haulotte - forthcoming - Feminist Philosophy Quarterly.
    Gender dysphoria is typically construed as a medical concept. This understanding of gender dysphoria reflects how cisgender people interpret trans experience. This essay proposes an alternative concept of gender dysphoria for critical theory: on this account gender dysphoria is alienation from cisgender forms of life. If the medicalized concept of gender dysphoria tacitly takes for granted, identifies with, and thereby reinforces cisgender patriarchal society, a critical theory of gender dysphoria instead approaches the issue from the perspective of trans people, their (...)
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  48. Literature on the Theory of a Socialist Economy.Eduard Heimann - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  49. Marxism and underdeveloped countries.Eduard Heimann - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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  50. The interplay of capitalism and socialism in the american economy.Eduard Heimann - forthcoming - Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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1 — 50 / 8305