The Cambridge Companion to Marx / Edition 1

by Terrell Carver

Overview

Marx was a highly original and polymathic thinker, unhampered by disciplinary boundaries, whose intellectual influence has been enormous. Yet in the wake of the collapse of Marxism-Leninism in Eastern Europe the question arises as to how important his work really is for us now. An important dimension of this volume is to place Marx's writings in their historical context and to separate what he actually said from what others (in particular, Engels) interpreted him as saying. Informed by current debates and new perspectives, the volume provides a comprehensive coverage of all the major areas to which Marx made significant contributions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521366946
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/25/1991
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.87(w) x 8.98(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Chronology; 1. Reading Marx: life and works Terrell Carver; 2. Critical reception: Marx then and now Paul Thomas; 3. Social and political theory: class, state, revolution Richard W. Miller; 4. Science: realism, criticism, history James Farr; 5. History: critique and irony Terence Ball; 6. Moral philosophy: the critique of capitalism and the problem of ideology Jeffrey Reiman; 7. Political philosophy: Marx and radical democracy Alan Gilbert; 8. Reproduction and the materialist conception of history: a feminist critique Susan Himmelweit; 9. Gender: biology, nature, and capitalism Jeff Hearn; 10. Aesthetics: liberating the senses William Adams; 11. Logic: dialectic and contradiction Lawrence Wilde; 12. History of philosophy: the metaphysics of substance in Marx Scott Meikle; 13. Religion: illusions and liberation Denys Turner; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

This volume is among the first in a new series intended to serve as ``companions'' to the works of major philosophers. Its 13 chapters include some of the best Anglo-American authors on Karl Marx. Yet those who feel that such a book must reflect the major interests of its subject will be astonished by the absence of a chapter devoted to economics and the presence of those concerning feminism, ``gender theory,'' and religion. The editor's stated appreciation of the separation of the ``Marxian from the Marxist'' could have better focused his choice of topics. Nevertheless, the unimpeachable quality of individual chapters demonstrates the enduring value of Marx's text. Richard Miller's chapter on social and political theory carefully discusses Marx's use of such terms as ``exploitation,'' ``the state,'' and ``ideology''; Scott Meikle exposes the ``confusion'' of Marx's thought with ``progressive Benthamite egalitarianism''; Laurence Wilde addresses the neglected question of Marx's dialectical reasoning. The bibliography is especially welcome. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-- Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie

Library Journal

"...this is a solid and useful book for introducing students and non-specialists to the learned and clear-thinking discourse which has come to characterize much scholarly Marxian inquiry in the closing decades of the twentieth century." Canadian Philosophical Reviews

"Its 13 chapters include some of the best Anglo-American authors on Karl Marx....the unimpeachable quality of individual chapters demonstrates the enduring value of Marx's text." Library Journal

From the Publisher