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Marxism: Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is a system of analysis and critique of capitalism, as well as a political program for its overthrow and the establishment of a socialist society. See also K. Marx, F. Engels, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Andrew Levine on Marxism - Dictionary of Arguments

Gaus I 75
Marxism/Levine, Andrew: [a] creature of late-twentieth-century university culture [was] analytical Marxism. Analytical Marxists genuinely were Marxist. And unlike their postmodernist colleagues, they generally exhibited an intellectual seriousness and rigour equal to the best philosophy and social science of their time.
Gaus I 76
The story of analytical Marxism is a short one – beginning in the decade that spanned the years 1968 to 1978, and then continuing for roughly the next decade and a half. (...) whatever most practitioners of the genre now believe, analytical Marxism uncovered what the living core of the Marxist theoretical tradition is. Thus it would be only slightly facetious to say that this new departure in Marxist theory saved Marxism by destroying it. (...)appearances, the analytical turn in Marxist theory resulted in a very different outcome – it collapsed Marxism into liberalism. This feat was achieved with regret. Analytical Marxism was largely a creature of the Anglo-American university of the 1970s and 1980s. It emerged in consequence of the student movements that came to a head, briefly, in the spring of 1968. To a degree that is unparalleled elsewhere in the West, the English-speaking world and especially the United States never had significant political or intellectual movements identified with Marxism.
Gaus I 77
By the late 1960s, the need for an ideology consonant with prevailing political attitudes was keenly felt by many on the left. Everyone assumed that some version of Marxism must fit that description.
Justice: Orthodox Marxists had always denied that justice was a trans-historical ‘critical’ concept, a standard against which socio-economic structures could be assessed. Their view was that ideas of justice were ‘superstructural’, that what is just or unjust is relative to the mode of production in place. Injustices can arise within capitalism, then, but capitalism itself cannot be unjust.
Analytical Marxism: Among the first analytical Marxist ventures were efforts to prove the orthodox view right or, failing that, to show how a suitable trans-historical concept of justice could be integrated into the larger theoretical structure Marx contrived (see Buchanan, 1982(1); Lukes, 1985(2)).
Liberalism/Rawls/Levine: Rawlsian liberalism breathed new life into egalitarian theory and therefore into a core component, arguably the core component, of socialist ideology.
Gaus I 79
Method/dialectics: The analytical Marxists came to realize that dialectical explanations either restate what can be expressed in unexceptionable ways, or else are unintelligible and therefore not explanatory at all.
Gaus I 80
For an analytical Marxist, to defend a position is to translate it into terms that bear scrutiny according to the most demanding disciplinary standards in philosophy or in an appropriate social science. Marx’s positions have turned out to be remarkably amenable to this kind of treatment (see, for example, Roemer, 1982(3)).
Levine: Before analytical Marxism, Marx’s views were thought to differ qualitatively from mainstream positions, to follow from a different and perhaps incommensurable ‘paradigm’. Marxist theoretical work was also thought to imply conclusions that mainstream theorists would, in many cases, reject – not just because of ideological resistance, but on grounds that depend on their own theoretical commitments. These assumptions can no longer be sustained. In making Marx’s views acceptable in the way that analytical Marxists did, Marxism became a voice among others in ongoing debates.

1. Buchanan, Allen E. (1982) Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism. Totawa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.
2. Lukes, Steven (1985) Marxism and Morality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1. Buchanan, Allen E. (1982) Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism. Totawa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.
3. Roemer, John (1982) Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levine, Andrew 2004. A future for Marxism?“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications.


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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Levine, Andrew
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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