Re: [OPE] Raya Dunayevskaya (1910 - 1987)

From: Alejandro Valle Baeza <valle@servidor.unam.mx>
Date: Tue Apr 06 2010 - 15:26:58 EDT

Jerry and Jurrian, thank you both for this posts.

Alejandro

GERALD LEVY escribió:
>>> Personally I don't care much for Dunayevskaya's economics, her historical
>>> understanding or her theory of state capitalism, and I don't care too much
>>> about her epigones either, but surely her original moral emphasis on the
>>> libertarian and humanist dimension of Marx's thought is welltaken? Let's
>>> face it, Marxist theoretical discussions of human freedom that have any
>>> profundity - in contrast to scribblers simply seeking to extract a "Marxist
>>> theory of freedom" from Marx-quotes - are as scarce as hen's teeth. I expect
>>> that it will take fully another generation before Marx is finally freed from
>>> the oppressive intellectual stranglehold of "Marxism-Leninism" - a
>>> stranglehold which handicapped even Dunayevskaya's own work. Question is
>>> really whether Marxists will continue to celebrate conservatively a mythical
>>> pantheon of past heroes, or whether they are prepared to tackle seriously
>>> the findings of the social sciences in the last half century, which have
>>> changed the understanding of world history greatly, even just because of the
>>> enormous numbers of newly educated people and large funds that have been
>>> devoted to discovering more about it...
>>>
>
>
> I agree with Jurriaan's points, but with a qualification. I agree that
> there is a libertarian and humanist dimension to Marx's thought, but
> that doesn't mean that we should necessarily embrace Dunayevskaya's take
> on that question. After all, there are many who have emphasized his
> humanist dimension - including Sartre and - more recently - Sidney Gluck (!).
> More specifically, I think that her take on that question which sees
> his humanist thought rooted in Hegel's understanding of freedom and spirit
> to be highly problematic. While there is certainly in my view a strong
> influence of Hegel on Marx, that is NOT it, imo.
>
> In any event, in keeping with the rest of Jurriaan's message, I agree that
> we shouldn't continue to celebrate a pantheon of past heroes - and that includes
> Marx.
>
> In solidarity, Jerry
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>
>
>

-- 
Alejandro Valle Baeza
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Av. Universidad 3000, México 04510, DF.
56222148
Página personal <http://www.paginasprodigy.com/avalleb>:
Blog sobre crisis <http://crisis-economica.blogspot.com>
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Received on Tue Apr 6 15:29:02 2010

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