This is the final portion of an examination of some principal themes in Bill Martin’s book, Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation. The first two parts of this essay have been published over the past two days and can be found below. Marxism, Politics, and Evil: A Critical Engagement with “Ethical Marxism” John Steele [...]
Posts under ‘John Steele’
Marxism, politics, and evil, part 2
This is the second part of an essay on the book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation, in which Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires morality in order to guide a revolutionary politics. Part I, which was posted yesterday, was principally concerned with exposition. Today’s post takes up the principal line of argument of [...]
Marxism, Politics, and Evil, part 1
Is Marxism, or revolutionary politics generally, sufficient for human emancipation? In Ethical Marxism, Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires ethics as the necessary foundation of any politics which may actually be capable of leading to this goal. Following is the first part of an essay critically examining this book and this thesis. The entire piece [...]
John Steele: Our relation to revolutionary tradition
The following points are stated fairly tersely. I certainly hope to both develop and argue for them (along with some related themes), but I think there’s value to stating and inviting comment, as part of a process. Our relation to revolutionary tradition: some initial theses by John Steele We are communists: not socialists but communists. [...]
Badiou and the politicos
I know that this site seems, so far, to be all Badiou, all the time. This is misleading, in that we will be discussing and featuring other thinkers, and other areas besides the philosophical. (See our list of categories to the right — and that list is by no means final.) On the other hand [...]
John Steele: Is Badiou a Maoist?
This is the paper I presented at the Rethinking Marxism conference last weekend (a little more filled out here). I hope we can get some response and some dialogue going here on the issues raised in the paper. To anticipate my conclusion: Is Badiou’s work Maoist? – the answer, I believe, is certainly, yes. Badiou [...]
Badiou’s Logics of Worlds: notes & reflections, 1
Reading notes and reflections on Logics of Worlds, 1 By John Steele The appearance in English of Alain Badiou’s new book, The Logics of Worlds, barely three years after its French publication, is noteworthy for anyone who cares deeply about the progress of thinking, and of emancipatory politics – and their interrelation – in the [...]
John Steele: Badiou — Another Take on Revolutionary Theory
By John Steele What about Alain Badiou, the contemporary philosopher? Like Zizek, he has attracted much attention among people looking for new avenues both intellectually and politically. A friend in Latin American studies has told me his name is everywhere in Latin American intellectual circles. Badiou’s background is within Marxism and Maoism. He was a [...]
John Steele: When Everything Seems to Change — Badiou and the Event
Both structure and conjuncture deeply impact politics — and the tension between them runs through revolutionary theory and debates. How much is it the very structure of class society that gives rise to a revolutionary people, and how much is it exceptional moments and crisis within particular societies? Why did a great eruption of consciousness [...]
John Steele: Revolutionary Faithfulness and the Radically New
“In many ways this is the crux of Badiou’s thinking and work, over the past 25 years: how to ‘keep the faith’ in a creative way; how to do justice, theoretically, to a greatly changed world while remaining true to the project of a politics of emancipation.” by John Steele Over the past week and [...]
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