Ever since the discovery of Marx's Early Writings, most of the literature concerned with Marx's intellectual development has centred around the so-called gap between the 'young' Marx, who was considered to be a humanist thinker, and the 'older' Marx, who was held to be a determinist with little concern for anything outside his narrow theory of historical materialism. Dr Avineri claims that such a gap between the 'young' and 'older' Marx did not exist. He supports his claim by a detailed (...) study of the whole corpus of Marx's writing on social and political thought. (shrink)

This study in English of Hegel's political philosophy presents an overall view of the development of Hegel's political thinking. The author has drawn on Hegel's philosophical works, his political tracts and his personal correspondence. Professor Avineri shows that although Hegel is primarily thought of as a philosopher of the state, he was much concerned with social problems and his concept of the state must be understood in this context.

A new exploration of Karl Marx's life through his intellectual contributions to modern thought Karl Marx —philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, current affairs journalist, and editor—was one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of modern history, but he is rarely thought of as a Jewish thinker, and his Jewish background is either overlooked or misrepresented. Here, distinguished scholar Shlomo Avineri argues that Marx’s Jewish origins did leave a significant impression on his work. Marx was born in Trier, then part of (...) Prussia, and his family had enjoyed equal rights and emancipation under earlier French control of the area. But then its annexation to Prussia deprived the Jewish population of its equal rights. These developments led to the reluctant conversion of Marx’s father, and similar tribulations radicalized many young intellectuals of that time who came from a Jewish background. Avineri puts Marx’s Jewish background in its proper and balanced perspective, and traces Marx’s intellectual development in light of the historical, intellectual, and political contexts in which he lived. (shrink)

The essays collected in this volume reflect the many facets of the debate between communitarianism and individualism and examine its implications for the political arena. They cover a wide spectrum of thought and opinion and include work by Ronald Dworkin, Marilyn Friedman, David Gauthier, Amy Gutmann, Will Kymlicka, Alasdair MacIntyre, David Miller, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer.

Yet until recently very little attention has been devoted to the fact that Marx's first major theoretical work, written in 1843 at the age of twenty-five, is a detailed critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Most of the literature which relates Marx to Hegel draws its evidence either from the two essays in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher or from the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts: yet Marx's views in these writings are an outcome of his earlier confrontation with Hegel in his Critique of Hegel's (...) Philosophy of Right. This critique of §§ 261-313 of the Rechtsphilosophie had never been published in Marx's lifetime and was printed for the first time by David Riazanov in 1927. While the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 have achieved widespread recognition, this Critique remains relatively unknown, has as yet not been translated into English and remains generally neglected. My argument in this paper will be that a close look at the Critique is indispensible for an understanding of Marx's intellectual development, that most of the elements of Marx's later, "mature" social philosophy are already in existence in 1843 and that consequently some of the traditional views about the stages Marx's thought went through have to be radically revised. (shrink)

The way in which much of the conventional interpretation has tried to describe the structure of Hegel’s civil society is inaccurate and one-dimensional. To Hegel civil society is not just the economic marketplace, where every individual tries to maximize his or her enlightened self-interest: side by side with the elements of universal strife and unending clash which are of the nature of civil society, there is another element which strongly limits and inhibits self-interest and transcendswhat would otherwise be a universal (...) atomism into a sphere of solidarity and mutuality. The principle of civil society itself is dual. Hegel’s communitas grows organically within civil society itself, and is not imposed on it from outside by the state. (shrink)

This paper first traces the historical activity of the Hebrew University of Jerusalam and academic life in Israel. It then goes on to discuss pluralism and showhow the current financial and economic crisis may present us with an opportunity for academic renewal.

This paper first traces the historical activity of the Hebrew University of Jerusalam and academic life in Israel. It then goes on to discuss pluralism and showhow the current financial and economic crisis may present us with an opportunity for academic renewal.