Karl Marx

Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropology, and postmodernism

When the expanded edition of Explaining Postmodernism: From Rousseau to Foucault was being published, I re-read several transition figures, i.e., those twentieth-century intellectuals who were important in preparing the groundwork for postmodernism. One is anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009), whom I first read as an undergraduate. Lévi-Strauss formally studied philosophy and law, but because the bulk

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Marx’s three failed predictions [EP]

[This excerpt is from Chapter 5 of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault] Marxism and waiting for Godot First formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, classical Marxist socialism made two related pairs of claims, one pair economic and one pair moral. Economically, it argued that capitalism was driven by a logic of competitive

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Werner Sombart on heroes versus merchants

Those of us in the democratic-republican West often find it impossible to understand how the world could go to war so often in the 20th century. We were raised in a culture that had internalized Locke, Jefferson, Mill, and others—for whom the goal of peace and respect for others’ rights to life, liberty, and property

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Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* [Atlas University course]

This week in the A.U. course on Socialism we cover Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx, who devised the ideology of communism, proclaims the inevitable self-destruction of capitalism due to its internal contradictions and urges communists to lead the world to a classless society. The full course: https://www.atlassociety.org/course/socialism. Other Waterfall

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Socialists Define Socialism [Atlas Intellectuals]

Introducing this new Atlas Intellectuals course on Socialism we will consider how Socialists define Socialism throughout the years Karl Marx, Henri de Saint-Simon, Robert Heilbroner and more. The full course: https://www.atlassociety.org/course/socialism Other Atlas Intellectuals courses on Capitalism, Objectivity, Money, Robotics, and more: https://www.atlassociety.org/atlas-university/atlas-intellectuals

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Violent Politics — The Lesson of Marxist Philosophy [Open College transcript]

We’re now posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the second: OC2: Violent Politics — The Lesson of Marxist Philosophy “For Marxism, the democratic process is a pointless sham.” Audio versions of the podcast are available free at my website, YouTube, Bitchute, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud. To cover additional production costs, the

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