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If Hegel was Marx's detour on the way to the foundation of the scientific
study of social formations, Rakesh and the rest of us have the option of
moving forward, or going back over old intellectual history. Sure, one
can spend time with all this Hegel stuff and there surely would be some
payoff, but is it the more productive use of our time and energy? Won't
working for a demo for Mumia, for workers on strike, for a demo against
the IMF/World Bank, for minority/gay rights be time better spent? Or
wouldn't work moving Marx's political economy FORWARD be time better
spent? (For all the time I have spent on this list, namely since the
beginning, very rarely does a citation from Hegel himself pop up, and even
rarer in Marx from 1865 on--I just checked Vol. 24 of C.W. for 1874-1883
and well as letters from 1870-79.)
For myself, I don't have the time or interest to retrace steps Althusser
did for us (unless I will arrive at the point that Hegel's influence seems
so damaging that a direct confrontation would be needed).
Condemning "those who have attacked Marx without bothering to read Marx
seriously" is too vague in its lack class content. There is no reason why
we should ask the latest, publicized attacker of Marx -- Mayor Guiliani of
NYC -- to read Marx, nor any of those on the streets in front of Lazaro
Gonzalez's home in Miami.
Paul Z.
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Paul Zarembka, supporting RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
******************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka
Gerald Levy <glevy@PRATT.EDU> said, on 04/09/00 at 07:31 PM, replying to
Rakesh:
>You mention perspectives from many *secondary* sources, but until you
>have actually *read Hegel* you rely on the judgment of other authors, or
>what "seems convincing to me", rather than *your own* judgment.
>Marxists have rightly condemned those who have attacked Marx without
>bothering to read Marx seriously and basing their information on
>secondary sources. Aren't you, and many others, doing the same with
>Hegel?
...
>btw, I recommended back in the Spring of 1995 (if my memory is correct)
>on the long since defunct "marxism" list that you read Hegel. Evidently,
>you have read numerous books *about* Hegel & Marx since. If you could
>find time for that reading, why weren't you able to find time to read
>some of the primary sources *by* Hegel?
>In solidarity, Jerry
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