Marxist Transhumanism or Transhumanist Marxism?

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

For a Special Issue of: New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Guest editors: James Steinhoff and Atle Mikkola Kjøsen

In this special issue call, New Proposals asks authors to explore how Marxism and Transhumanism might be brought into conjunction. Could there be a transhumanist Marxism or a Marxist transhumanism?

Transhumanism is defined by its proponents as an “intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities” (Humanity+ n.d.). While this description says nothing about politics, transhumanism has been deeply pro-capital due to its popularization in the 1990s via techno-libertarian “extropianism” (More 1990). Because of this, the promethean project of improving the human condition by technological means tends to be joined with, and confused for, capital accumulation. Some of the most radical transhumanist thinkers have tended to assume to continued functioning of capital amid cataclysmic socio-technological change. For example, although transhumanist luminary Ray Kurzweil argues that the coming technological singularity (the moment when machines exceed human capacities in all respects) will irreversibly transform every aspect of human life, and even “death itself,” he still expects there to be a need for “business models” (2005, 7). Today, transhumanism is tacitly represented in the operations of venture capitalists and the giant tech capitals. DeepMind, acquired by Google in 2014, seeks to “solve intelligence” by creating AI with generalized learning abilities and Elon Musk’s Neuralink aims to provide a seamless machine connection to the human brain.

However, transhumanism is not inherently incompatible with Marxist thought and communism. While transhumanism today appears to be a capitalist project, its historical lineage can be traced back to early twentieth century socialist thinkers such as Alexander Bogdanov, J. B. S Haldane, and J. D. Bernal (Bostrom 2005; Stambler 2010; Hughes 2012). Marx himself has many, what we might call “high modernist” moments in which he argues for overcoming human and natural limits, and advocates the socialized use of technology to achieve freedom from necessity for all humans. This high modernist Marx can be read as expressing a transhumanist impulse toward technologically augmenting the human condition (Steinhoff 2014). With a few exceptions (Armesilla Conde 2018), Marxists have shown little interest in transhumanism, other than as an object of critique (Rechtenwald 2013; Noonan 2016). One exception to this are the left accelerationists/postcapitalism theorists, who draw on transhumanist motifs, such as cyborg augmentation, terraforming and full automation (Srnicek and Williams 2015; Mason 2016; Bastani 2019). Left accelerationism has, however, picked up transhumanist motifs while dropping the capital/labour antagonism central to Marxist thought, glossing over much of the difficult question of how exactly capital is supposed to come to an end. We suggest that left accelerationism forgets its Marxist roots as it is blinded by transhumanist futures.

We argue that the issues central to transhumanism should not be the purview solely of representatives of capital like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, nor of the left accelerationists. Instead, Marxist thought should seriously engage with transhumanism in order to “decouple it from its blindly capitalist trajectory, reflect on Marx’s own high modernist tendencies, and delineate a social project to embrace or escape” (Dyer-Witheford, Kjosen & Steinhoff, 2019, 161). Therefore we ask how a Marxist transhumanism or a transhumanist Marxism might be possible.

For this special issue of New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry we are interested in contributions that engage transhumanism and Marxism with one another. We are not interested in Marxist dismissals of transhumanism. That is not to say that we do not welcome Marxist critiques of transhumanism. We are, however, seeking critiques which take at least some elements of the theory and/or practice of transhumanism seriously from within a Marxist framework.

Possible topics include:

• Syntheses of transhumanism and Marxism
• Transhumanism and value theory (e.g. engagement with core concepts like social form, labour-power, the working day, surplus-value etc.)
• Critically engaging with and/or embracing the high modernist moments in Marx’s thought
• Staking out a communist approach to transhumanism and/or the singularity (e.g. a communist version of Kurzweil’s intelligence explosion)
• Engaging with the transhumanist kernel in left-accelerationist thought from a Marxist perspective
• Engaging with transhumanist projects or technologies from a Marxist perspective (e.g. radical life extension, terraforming, morphological freedom, space exploration, genetic modification, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, intelligence augmentation, brain emulation)
• Connecting transhumanism to the history of Marxist thought and socialist societies (e.g. Soviet space endeavours, central planning)

 

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words in length, plus a short biography, to Dr. James Steinhoff (jsteinh@uw.edu) and Dr. Atle Mikkola Kjøsen (atlemk@gmail.com) by February 29th, 2020. Please put “New Proposals special issue” in the subject line. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by March 31st, 2020. Full-length papers are 5,000 – 10,000 words.

Timeline:

29 February – deadline for submitting abstract and biography.

31 March – notifications of acceptance

1 August – deadline for submission of full-length (5,000 to 10,000 words) paper for peer review

15 November – submission of final revised paper

Early 2021 – papers published.

Please note that acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication. All submissions will be peer reviewed once papers are submitted.

 

References

Armesilla Conde, Santiago Javier. 2018. Is a Marxist Transhumanism possible? Eikasía – Revista de Filosofía 82, 47-86.

Bastani, Aaron. 2019. Fully automated luxury communism. Verso Books.

Bostrom, Nick. 2005. “A history of transhumanist thought”. Journal of Evolution & Technology 14:1.

Dyer-Witheford, Nick, Kjosen, Atle Mikkola and Steinhoff, James. 2019. Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press.

Hughes, James J. 2012. “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno‐Millennial Imagination, 1626–2030”. Zygon 47:4, 757-776.

Humanity+. n.d.. “What is transhumanism?” https://whatistranshumanism.org/

Kurzweil, Ray. 2005. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Penguin.

Mason, Paul. 2016. Postcapitalism: A guide to our future. Macmillan.

More, Max. 1990. “Transhumanism: Towards a futurist philosophy.” Extropy 6:6, 11.

Noonan, Jeff. 2016. “The Debate on Immortality: Posthumanist Science vs. Critical Philosophy”. The European Legacy 21:1, 38-51.

Rechtanwald, Michael. 2013. “The Singularity and Socialism.” Insurgent Notes. http://insurgentnotes.com/2013/10/the-singularity-and-socialism/

Srnicek, Nick, and Alex Williams. 2015. Inventing the future: Postcapitalism and a world without work. Verso Books.

Stambler, Ilia. 2010. “Life extension – a conservative enterprise? Some fin-de-siècle and early twentieth-century precursors of transhumanism. ” Journal of Evolution & Technology 21:1, 13-26.

Steinhoff, James. 2014. “Transhumanism and Marxism: Philosophical Connections”. Journal of Evolution & Technology 24:2, 1-16.

New Proposals : Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry represents an attempt to explore issues, ideas, and problems that lie at the intersection between the academic disciplines of social science and the body of thought and political practice that has constituted Marxism over the last 150 years. New Proposals is a journal of Marxism and interdisciplinary Inquiry that is dedicated to the radical transformation of the contemporary world order. We see our role as providing a platform for research, commentary, and debate of the highest scholarly quality that contributes to the struggle to create a more just and humane world, in which the systematic and continuous exploitation, oppression, and fratricidal struggles that characterize the contemporary sociopolitical order no longer exist.

New Proposals is a fully open access journal. We do not charge publication or user fees as a condition of publication. However, if your institution provides funding to support open access publications we ask authors of accepted papers to apply for open access funding support from their institution. For authors at open access funded institutions the production fee is $350 for articles. There are no production fees for student feature articles, or for book reviews, commentaries or reflections of 5,000 words or less. If you have any questions please contact us. We fundamentally support the principles of full open access in academic publishing. It does cost money to do this, even as we rely upon a lot of good will, volunteer labour, and self-exploitation to get the publication out the door. Any support or assistance is always appreciated!

Special issue editors:

Dr. James Steinhoff is a UW Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington. He researches the artificial intelligence industry, data science labour, Marxist theory and automation. He is author of the forthcoming book Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and co-author of Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism (Pluto Press 2019). .

Dr. Atle Mikkola Kjøsen is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. He researches Marxist value theory, media theory, logistics, artificial intelligence, androids, and post-singularity capitalism. With Nick Dyer-Witheford and James Steinhoff, he is co-author of Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism (Pluto Press 2019).

 

***END***

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

Transhumanist Education, Politics, and Design

TRANSHUMANIST EDUCATION, POLITICS, AND DESIGN

Call for Papers

“Transhumanist Education, Politics, and Design”

Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics

For this special issue on ‘Transhumanist Education, Politics, and Design’, we welcome contributions from scholars with various disciplinary backgrounds to debate transhumanistic issues in relation to education, politics, and design.

In the soon to come future, technological revolutions are likely to change future societies, bodies and minds in more far-reaching ways than ever before history.

Transhumanism can be described as ‘a new paradigm for thinking about humankind’s future’ (World Transhumanist Association). Transhumanism is a philosophy, a cultural movement and a growing field of study. More specifically, transhumanism is the belief in morphological freedom and the aspiration to enhance human abilities and attributes and thereby transcend human biological limits.

This special issue of Confero encourages contributions that approach and analyse transhumanism transhumanism in relation to education, politics, and design.

 

Topics suitable for this special issue could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transhumanism, corporeality and (un)learning
• Transhumanism and disease(s)
• Transhumanism and monstrosity
• Transhumanism and citizenship
• Transhumanism and surveillance
• Transhumanism and cognitive science
• Transhumanism and values (social, economical, ethical, juridical, environmental, moral, instrumental, utilitarian, hedonic etc.)
• Transhumanism and intersectionality (e.g. race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, able-bodied, crip)
• Human enhancement, prosthesis and extension
• Morphological freedom
• Educating the transhuman
• Queering transhumanism
• Transhumanism and speed
• Transhumanist design
• Definitions, practices and consequences of transhumanism (e.g. bio-hacking and DIY citizenship)
• A battle for/of the anthropocene? Posthumanism vs. transhumanism
• Transhumanism as subversive power

 

Notes for Contributors

We encourage authors to use the Oxford referencing system. To give the essay form and improve its readability, we ask that the essay has a clearly defined topic or theme that is laid out in the introduction of the piece. We also encourage the writer to divide the text into sections, using headings to promote its readability. Authors are encouraged to refrain from selfreferences. The text should be proofread before submission. The journal applies double-blind peer review. Authors will also be invited to review papers for this special issue. Guest editors for this special issue are Mattias Arvola (Linköping University), Lina Rahm (Linköping University), and Jörgen Skågeby (Stockholm university).

The editorial group can be reached at confero@liu.se. A first full draft of the essay should be sent toconfero@liu.se on or before 1 April 2016. The subject line of the submission should read “Submission for SI on transhumanism”.

For further information and instructions, please visit our homepage: http://www.confero.ep.liu.se

***END***

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

 

The Raya Dunayevskaya Collection

Raya Dunayevskaya

THE RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA COLLECTION

The Raya Dunayevskaya Collection — Marxist-Humanist Archives is now online.

At: http://rayadunayevskaya.org/

News and Letters Committees is proud to announce that the Archives of the Marxist-Humanist philosopher/revolutionary, Raya Dunayevskaya (1910-1987), are now available online.

The Collection encompasses the body of ideas of Marxist-Humanism developed by Dunayevskaya during a lifetime in the revolutionary movement. Its over 17,000 pages are a resource for students, researchers and activists in fields as diverse as philosophy, women’s studies, social theory, intellectual history and Black studies.

Among the writings, many unavailable in printed form, are pioneering studies on the theory of state-capitalism, English-language translations of the young Marx and Lenin’s Hegel Notebooks, extensive notes on Hegel’s major philosophic works, writings on Black struggles in the U.S. from the 1940s to the 1980s, Political-Philosophic Letters on events spanning the world as they were occurring—from the Cuban Missile Crisis through the Iranian Revolution to the coup in Grenada. A far-reaching Battle of Ideas with other Marxists is found in the comprehensive collection of her columns, which first appeared in the newspaper she founded, News & Letters.

The vast preparatory materials for her three major books Marxism and Freedom, Philosophy and Revolution, and Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution are included, as are her extensive preliminary writings for her unfinished book on “Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy.”

There is a wide-ranging collection of correspondence, including with: Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Leon Trotsky, Natalia Trotsky, Adrienne Rich, Grace Lee Boggs, C.L.R. James, Cornelius Castoriadis, Meridel LeSueur, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tadayuki Tsushima, Zagorka Golubovic, Louis Dupré, Sekou Toure and Maria Barreno.

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/the-raya-dunayevskaya-collection2014marxist-humanist-archives-is-now-online

***END***

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Alien Life: Marx and the Future of the Human

ALIEN LIFE: MARX AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN

My article, Alien Life: Marx and the Future of the Human, is now available at Academia.

It was published as:

Rikowski, G. (2003) Alien Life: Marx and the Future of the Human, Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory, Volume 11 Issue 2, pp.121-164.

The article can be viewed on Academia at: http://www.academia.edu/10986589/Alien_Life_Marx_and_the_Future_of_the_Human

It was a polished and heavily edited version of a paper I presented a few years earlier at one of the Birkbeck College Seminars on Marx, Individuals & Society, run by the late Cyril Smith: Marx and the Future of the Human (2000).

This paper is also on Academia, at: http://www.academia.edu/6043714/Marx_and_the_Future_of_the_Human

For those interested in the interface of Marxism and Post/Trans-humanism, my article Education, Capital and the Transhuman may also be of value.

This article is also at Academia, at:

http://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

Also of interest on this theme is Planet of the Capitorg

This can also be found at Academia:

https://www.academia.edu/6921390/Planet_of_the_Capitorg

Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski

@ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Posthumanism & Society

Posthuman

POSTHUMANISM & SOCIETY

Call For Papers

Glocal Symposium

“POSTHUMANISM & SOCIETY”

NYU, New York City, May 8th 2015

In collaboration with the New York Posthuman Research Group we are delighted to announce the first Glocal Symposium, to be held at the Program of Liberal Studies, New York University (NYC)

In contemporary scholarship, “posthuman” has emerged as a key term in the effort to redefine the human in light of multiple and profound impacts of twentieth and twentyfirst century social, philosophical and technological trends.

On one hand, the biotechnological possibility of human enhancement, the growing significance of virtuality as an extension of the self, the scientific and cultural expectations of space migration have raised crucial questions which require the input of society as a whole.

On the other hand, the cumulative impact of anthropocentrism has become so massive that geologists have dubbed the present era the “Anthropocene” since human actions have had a profound systemic affect, leading to an ecological point of no return.

Capitorg

The New York Posthuman Research Group invites multiple perspectives to converge on these and related questions.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Rosi Braidotti

Connecting live from the University of Utrecht (Holland)

There will be parallel events in different International Universities around the world.

*Glocal: The survival of local specificities in a globalized world.

 

SUBMISSIONS & DEADLINES

We invite abstracts of up to 150 words and a short bio, to be sent to:

NYposthuman@gmail.com

Abstracts should be received by February 28th 2015.

*Presentations should be no longer than 10 minutes. Each presentation will be given 10 additional minutes each for questions and discussions with the audience, for a total of 20 minutes.

 

The Academic Committee:

Francesca Ferrando

Farzad Mahootian

Yunus Tuncel

Posthuman

**END**

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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Approaching Posthumanism and the Posthuman

Capitorg

APPROACHING POSTHUMANISM AND THE POSTHUMAN

Conference and Doctoral Workshop

June 4-6, 2015 – St. Maurice, Switzerland

 

Keynote Speakers:

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, George Washington University

Stefan Herbrechter, Coventry University

Margrit Shildrick, Linköping University

Cary Wolfe, Rice University

 

Organizers: Deborah Madsen, Manuela Rossini, Kimberly Frohreich, and Bryn Skibo-Birney

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/57765

 

A highly topical and sometimes contentious notion, posthumanism continues to spark debates as to how it is

and should be defined, particularly in relation to humanism. One might ask whether the posthuman is merely

an imaginative, literary, and/or theoretical figure or if we are already posthuman. Is posthumanism simply

“after the human” or does it speak to a being beyond, above, within, encompassing, and surpassing what we

currently know as “the human”? Moreover, even if we recognize that posthumanism is inextricably bound to

and wound up in humanist discourse, does the posthuman figure effectively open up alternative perspectives

and positions from which to question, to destabilize, and to decenter the human?

 

These questions permeate contemporary literature, film and television, comic books, video games, social

media, philosophical and theoretical essays in which posthuman figures abound. From avatars and cyborgs to

clones and zombies, the posthuman appears continually to challenge the line dividing the human from the

nonhuman. Whether blurring the distinction between human and machine, human and animal, organic and

inorganic, or the living from the dead, whether destabilizing gender, sexuality, race, class, age, the

mind/body dichotomy, or species categorization, posthumanism points to the ways in which (the exclusion

of) the Other is necessary to the self-bounded identity of the human(ist) subject. More than a contemporary

issue, posthumanism appears whenever “humanness” or anthropocentrism is in crisis, and critics have

accordingly noted the presence of posthumanist thought, themes, and figures not only in postmodern

literature but in much earlier literary periods as well.

 

The aim of this conference is both to explore the multiple ways in which posthumanism in its various

configurations questions, complicates, destabilizes, and “haunts” humanism and the human, as well as to

discuss theoretical approaches to posthumanism and/or the posthuman. In addition to inhabiting a wide range

of literary periods, genres, and media, posthumanism can also be said to blur the seemingly well-defined

borders between humanities disciplines, lending itself to interdisciplinary approaches involving literary and

cultural studies, media studies, animal studies, and fields like the digital, medical, and environmental

humanities, as well as drawing from multiple theoretical frameworks such as feminism, gender studies, queer

theory, race theory, disability studies, postcolonial studies, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction.

 

Please send 300 word abstracts to Kimberly Frohreich (kimberly.frohreich@unige.ch) and Bryn Skibo-

Birney (bryn.skibo@unige.ch) by September 15, 2014.

 

Paper topics can address (but are not limited to) any of the above areas and themes across disciplines, periods, genres, and media.

An additional list of potential paper topics is below:

• Posthumanist discourse and/or figures in medieval, early modern, modern or contemporary literature
• Posthuman figures in film and television
• Posthuman figures in comic books and graphic novels
• Posthuman figures in contemporary media forms, e.g. video games, social media, etc.
• Posthumanism and critical animal studies
• Digital humanities and posthumanism
• Medical humanities and posthumanism
• Environmental humanities and posthumanism
• Postcolonial posthumanism
• Posthumanism and the Gothic (then and now)
• Posthumanism and fantasy, science fiction and/or speculative fiction
• Virtual versus embodied reality
• Monsters, ..freaks,.. and/or superheroes
• Metamorphoses and interspecies being/becoming
• Posthuman(ist) subjectivities
• Embodying posthumanism or the posthuman body
• The posthumous
• Language and the posthuman
• Posthumanism and gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and/or class
• Anthropomorphism
• Posthuman politics and ethics

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

 

Recent Articles and Features in the International Marxist-Humanist Webzine (March 2014)

Heather Brown

RECENT ARTICLES AND FEATURES IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST WEBZINE (March 2014)
See: http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/

MARX AND THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM: A REVIEW SYMPOSIUM – by Karel Ludenhoff, Marija Krtolica, and Dale Parsons
Three reviews of Peter Hudis’s new book, MARX’S CONCEPT OF THE 
ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM.

[DISCUSSION ARTICLE] UKRAINE, COUP OR REVOLUTION? — by Richard Greeman
The Ukrainian uprising raises questions concerning different kinds of democracy, nationalism and internationalism, types of imperialism and capitalism, and the dangers of ethnic conflict and neoliberal 
capitalism.

MARXISM AND HUMANISM: SELECTIONS FROM A SINO-BRITISH FORUM — by Wang Jie, Zhu Liyuan, David Alderson, Mike Sanders, and Kevin Anderson
These articles are selected from the proceedings of the Second Sino-British Marxist Aesthetics Forum, held at the University of Manchester, April 2012, which was dedicated to the topic, “Marxism and Humanism.” They offer a window into contemporary philosophical discussions on humanism in China and internationally.

ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SOCIALIST HUMANISM – by Barbara Epstein
Socialist humanism emerged out of discussions of Marx’s 1844 MANUSCRIPTS in the late fifties and early sixties due to hopes for the  democratization of the Soviet bloc, but it lost traction within the 
left in the late sixties and early seventies due to the Vietnam War and the resulting rising influence of Maoism. There is still a great deal to be learned from the socialist humanist tradition.

CLASS IN MODERN CAPITALISM: THE BRITISH EXAMPLE — by Richard Abernethy
Class is once again in the news and political debate. While some claim that it is no longer relevant at all, the BBC’s Great British Class Survey claimed to identify no fewer than seven different classes. What does it mean to belong to a class? Is it an objective situation, or does it involve subjectivity and consciousness? How best to understand the class structure of modern capitalism?

MARX’S CAPITAL AND TODAY’S GLOBAL CRISIS – by Raya Dunayevskaya
We repost here the hard-to-find 1978 pamphlet by Raya Dunayevskaya, which has been uploaded onto the Internet by unknown parties.  We call attention to the fact that it includes three items: (1) main text containing the chapters of Dunayevskaya’s Marxism and Freedom devoted to Marx’s Capital, Vols. I-III; (2) introduction critiquing Ernest Mandel, “Today’s Epigones Who Try to Truncate Marx’s Capital”; (3) appendix, “Tony Cliff Reduces Lenin’s Theory to ‘Uncanny Intuition’,” the latter particularly relevant given the recent controversies in the UK over Cliff’s organizational legacy.

See our LANGUAGES PAGES for recent Marxist-Humanist articles and books in Spanish, Persian, French, Romanian, Turkish, and other languages.

*** RECENT BOOKS OF INTEREST:

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF ANTI-CAPITALISM: ESSAYS ON HISTORY, CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL THOUGHT — by David Black, Studies in Marxism Humanism Series, Lexington Books, hardcover, with subsequent paperback

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ROSA LUXEMBURG, VOL. I: ECONOMIC WRITINGS 1 — edited by Peter Hudis, Verso Books, paperback

MARX’S CONCEPT OF THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM – by Peter Hudis, Historical Materialism Series, now in paperback with Haymarket Books

MARX ON GENDER AND THE FAMILY: A CRITICAL STUDY – by Heather Brown, Historical Materialism Series, now in paperback with Haymarket Books

THE DUNAYEVSKAYA-MARCUSE-FROMM CORRESPONDENCE, 1954-1978: DIALOGUES ON 
HEGEL, MARX, AND CRITICAL THEORY — edited by Kevin B. Anderson and Russell Rockwell, Lexington Books

THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST is the webzine of the INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST ORGANIZATION (IMHO): 
http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/
Contact: arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org

We would love to hear your thoughts on our website or our organization, either through the “arise” email account above or as a comment in our (moderated) comments pages.

Join our new Facebook page: “International Marxist-Humanist Organization” https://www.facebook.com/groups/imhorg/

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: http://independent.academic.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskpoint.blogspot.com

Revolutionary Dialectics After Marx: C.L.R James and Raya Dunayevskaya

CLR James

REVOLUTIONARY DIALECTICS AFTER MARX: C.L.R. JAMES AND RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2013 

6:00-8:00 PM

WestsidePeaceCenter

3916 Sepulveda Blvd., near Venice Blvd. (free parking in rear)

Suite 101-102, press #22 at door to get into building

Culver City (LA area)

 

Speaker:

Brian Lovato, author of a book in progress on James and Dunayevskaya

C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya both emerged out of the radical wing of the anti-Stalinist left during the 1940s. Before their break in 1955, they worked together in the “Johnson-Forest Tendency,” which elaborated new perspectives on race and class, on state-capitalism, on non-vanguardist forms of organization, and on dialectics. This meeting will concentrate on the latter point.  In 1948, James wrote “Notes on Dialectics,” an exploration of the dialectic in Hegel, Marx, and Lenin.  During this period, Dunayevskaya translated and commented upon Lenin’s “Philosophical Notebooks” and composed her “1953 Letters on Hegel’s Absolutes.”  Later, Dunayevskaya developed her version of the dialectic further, in works like “Philosophy and Revolution” (1973). We will explore this rich dialectical heritage as a crucial resource for today’s left.

Suggested readings:

“Review and Leninist Interlude,” from James, “Notes on Dialectics”: http://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/dialecti/james4.htm

1963 Dunayevskaya letter to Erich Fromm on Hegel’s “Phenomenology,” from Dunayevskaya, “Power of Negativity,” ed. Hudis and Anderson: http://newsandletters.org/issues/2008/Feb-March/FTA_Feb-Mar_08.htm

 

Sponsored by the West Coast Chapter, International Marxist-Humanist Organization

More information: arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org

http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org

Raya Dunayevskaya

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Toward A Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization – by Eugene Gogol

Dialectics

TOWARD A DIALECTIC OF PHILOSOPHY AND ORGANIZATION – BY EUGENE GOGOL

Just off the press from Brill — Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization, by Eugene Gogol 

Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization is an exploration of Hegel’s dialectic and its radical re-creation in Marx’s thought within the context of revolutions and revolutionary organizations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Does a dialectic in philosophy itself bring forth a dialectic in revolutionary organization? This question is explored via organizational practices in the Paris Commune, the 2nd International, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-37 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, as well as the theoretical-organizational concepts of such thinkers as Lassalle, Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Pannekoek.

“What Philosophic-Organizational Vantage Point Is Needed for Revolutionary Transformation Today?” is examined by engaging the theoretical arguments of a number of thinkers. Among them: Adorno, Dunayevskaya, Hardt and Negri, Holloway, Lebowitz, Lukcás, Mészáros and Postone.

Table of contents

Introduction: Philosophy, Organization, and the Work of Raya Dunayevskaya
Prologue: The Dialectic in Philosophy Itself

PART I: ON SPONTANEOUS FORMS OF ORGANIZATION VS. VANGUARD PARTIES
1: Marx’s Concept of Organization: From the Silesian Weavers’ Uprising to the First Years of the International Workingmen’s Association
2: The Commune of Paris, 1871: Mass Spontaneity in Action and Thought; Responsibility of the Revolutionary Intellectual: The Two-War Road Between Marx and the Commune
3: The Second International, The German Social Democracy, and Engels after Marx—Organization without Marx’s Organization of Thought
4: The 1905 Russian Revolution: Mass Proletarian Self-Activity and Its Relation to the Organizational Thought of Marxist Revolutionaries
5: The Russian Revolution of 1917 and Beyond
6: Out of the Russia Revolution: Legacy and Critique—Luxemburg, Pannekoek, Trotsky
7: Organizational Forms from the Spanish Revolution
8: The Hungarian Workers’ Councils in the Revolution: A Movement from Practice that Is a Form of Theory 

PART II: HEGEL AND MARX
9: Can “Absolute Knowing” in Hegel’s Phenomenology Speak to a Dialectic of Organization and Philosophy?
10: Rereading Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program Today

PART III: HEGEL AND LENIN
11: Lenin and Hegel—The Profound Philosophic Breakthrough that Failed to Encompass Revolutionary Organization
12: Hegel’s Critique of the Third Attitude to Objectivity—Its Relation to Organization

PART IV: DIALECTICS OF ORGANIZATION AND PHILOSOPHY IN POST-WORLD WAR II WORLD: THE WORK OF RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA
13: Moments in the Development of Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism

PART V: CONCLUSION
14: What Philosophic-Organizational Vantage Point Is Needed?

Bibliograhy
Index

Originally published: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/new-from-brill-toward-a-dialectic-of-philosophy-and-organization-by-eugene-gogol

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowsk

Infinity and Immortality – Adrian Moore

Infinity Pool – Bali

INFINITY AND IMMORTALITY – ADRIAN MOORE

Sunday Lecture – Infinity and Immortality

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

29 July 2012

11.00, £3 on the door / free to members of the South Place Ethical Society

 

Adrian Moore shall consider questions that arise in connection with the desirability or otherwise of immortality. In particular, he will address Bernard William’s argument that a never-ending life would eventually become tedious to the point of unendurability. Moore will suggest that there are two questions that need to be distinguished, even though they can easily appear to be equivalent. First, would immortality be preferable to mortality? And second, is death a bad thing? Distinguishing these questions helps us to understand better the force of Williams’ argument.

“I’ll be exploring fundamental questions about human mortality, beginning with the question of whether it would be preferable never to die” — Adrian Moore, New Statesman, p.38.

See: http://conwayhall.org.uk/talks-lectures

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Alternatives to Capitalism: Theoretical, Practical, Visionary

1839

ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM: THEORETICAL, PRACTICAL, VISIONARY

From the U.S. Marxist Humanists 

Alternatives to Capitalism: Theoretical, Practical, Visionary

Join us for a discussion on the ongoing work of developing a philosophically grounded alternative to capitalism. It is clear that existing society has little to offer except years and even decades of austerity, reduced living standards, increasing social anxiety, and the continued enrichment of an oligarchic elite. The time has come to create new visions of an alternative that is inherent in the present and in the legacy of Karl Marx. 

Friday, July 13th 6:30pm

Corboy Law Center, Loyola University Chicago

25 East Pearson, Room 211

(1 block E of State, 1 block N of Chicago)

Chair:

Lauren Langman, Sociology, Loyola University

Speakers:

“Resistance versus Emancipation: from Foucault to Marx”

 — Kevin Anderson (USA), author of ‘Marx at the Margins:  On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies’

“The Ongoing Relevance of Marxist-Humanism”

— Sandra Rein (Canada), author of ‘Reading Dunayevskaya: Engaging the Emergence of Marxist-Humanism’

Transcending the Opposition Between the Real and the Ideal

— Marilyn Nissim-Sabat (USA), author of ‘Neither Victim nor Survivor: Thinking Toward a New Humanity’

“A Critique of the Situationist Dialectic in the Age of Occupy”

— David Black (Britain), author of ‘1839? The Chartist Insurrection’

“From the Economic Crisis to the Transcendence of Capital”

— Peter Hudis (USA), author of ‘Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism’

Sponsored by Loyola University, Department of Sociology

Co-Sponsored by U.S. Marxist-Humanists, http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org, an affiliate of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization

Email: arise@usmarxisthumanists.org

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/alternatives-to-capitalism-theoretical-practical-visionary-13-july-chicago

**END**

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Raya Dunayevskaya: Biography of an Idea

Raya Dunayevskaya

RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA: BIOGRAPHY OF AN IDEA

Marxist-Humanist Initiative is hosting a screening and discussion of a new documentary on the ideas of Raya Dunayevskaya this Thursday night in NYC. Details are below. 

Film and Discussion:– THURSDAY JUNE 28, 6:30 TO 9:00 P.M.

“RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA: BIOGRAPHY OF AN IDEA”: http://i45.tinypic.com/54d1rs.jpg

Marxist-Humanist Initiative will screen and discuss a new documentary film about the ideas of the philosopher, activist, and feminist who developed Marxist-Humanism over much of the last century.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of her death. The film’s title and content follow from Dunayevskaya’s declaration that her biography ‘is the biography of an idea’. 

Dunayevskaya was the author of Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 to Today; Philosophy and Revolution, from Hegel to Sartre and from Marx to Mao; Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution; American Civilization on Trial, Black Masses as Vanguard, and many other works. The film emphasizes how contemporary her ideas remain today. 

The film-maker will be present for the discussion by Skype.
 
At TRS Inc. Professional Suite, 44 East 32nd Street, 11th floor (bet. Madison and Park Aves.), Manhattan

Contribution requested but not required. 

For more information, visit MHI’s website, www.marxist-humanist-initiative. org

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski