Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence

Description

First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classic of modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophical techniques in an uncompromising defense of historical materialism commanded widespread admiration. In the ensuing twenty years, the book has served as a flagship of a powerful intellectual movement--analytical Marxism. In this expanded edition, Cohen offers his own account of the history, and the further promise, of analytical Marxism. He also expresses reservations about traditional historical materialism, in the light of which he reconstructs the theory, and he studies the implications for historical materialism of the demise of the Soviet Union. Frontmatter Copyright Foreword A Note on References & Acknowledgements Introduction to the 2000 Edition: Reflections on Analytical Marxism Content 1. Images of History in Hegel and Marx 2. The Constitution of the Productive Forces (1) Economic Structure and Productive Force (2) Some Terminological Points (3) Labour Power (4) Science (5) More Candidates for the Catalogue (6) The Development of the Productive Force 3. The Economic Structure (1) Ownership Rights in Productive Force (2) Possible and Impossible Ownership Positions of Producers (3) Subordination (4) Redefining the Proletarian (5) The Structural Definition of Class (6) The Individuation of Social Forms (7) Modes of Production (8) Varieties of Economic Chang 4. Material and Social Properties of Society (1) Introducing the Distinction (2) Matter and Form in the Labour Process (3) Use-value and Political Economy (4) Revolutionary Value of the Distinction (5) Against Marx on Mill (6) Work Relations 5. Fetishism (1) Fetishism in Religion and in Economics (2) What is True and What is False in Fetishism (3) Diagnosis of Commodity Fetishism (4) Diagnosis of Capital Fetishism (5) Commodity Fetishism and Money (6) Commodity Fetishism, Religion, and Politics (7) Communism as the Liberation of the Content 6. The Primacy of the Productive Forces (1) Introduction (2) Assertions of Primacy by Marx: The Preface (3) Assertions of Primacy by Marx: Outside the Preface (4) The Case for Primacy (5) The Nature of the Primacy of the Force (6) Productive Forces, Material Relations, Social Relatio (7) 'All earlier modes of production were essentially conservative' (8) Addendum 7. The Productive Forces and Capitalism (1) The Emergence of Capitalism (2) The Capitalist Economic Structure and the Capitalist Mode of Production (3) Capitalism and the Development of the Productive Force (4) Four Epochs (5) Capitalism's Mission, and its Fate (6) The Presuppositions of Socialism (7) Why are Classes Necessary? 8. Base and Superstructure, Powers and Rights (1) Identifying the Superstructure (2) The Problem of Legality (3) Explanations of Property Relations and Law by Production Relations (4) Bases Need Superstructures (5) Is the Economic Structure Independently Observable? (6) More on Rights and Powers (7) Rights and Powers of the Proletariat (8) Addenda 9. Functional Explanation: In General (1) Introduction (2) Explanation (3) Function-statements and Functional Explanation (4) The Structure of Functional Explanation (5) Confirmation (6) Are any Functional Explanations True? (7) Consequence Explanation and the Deductive-nomological Model 10. Functional Explanation: In Marxism (1) Introduction (2) Conceptual Criticisms of Functional Explanation (3) Functionalism, Functional Explanation, and Marxism (4) Elaborations (5) Marxian Illustrations 11. Use-value, Exchange-value, and Contemporary Capitalism (1) Introduction (2) The Subjugation of Use-value by Exchange-value (3) A Distinctive Contradiction of Advanced Capitalism (4) Mishan and Galbraith (5) The Argument Reviewed (6) Is Capitalism a Necessary Condition of the Distinctive Contradiction (7) An Objection (8) The Bias of Capitalism and Max Weber (9) Obiter Dicta 12. Fettering 13. Reconsidering Historical Materialism 14. Restricted and Inclusive Historical Materialism 15. Marxism After the Collapse of the Soviet Union APPENDIX I. Karl Marx and the Withering Away of Social Science APPENDIX II. Some Definitions Works Cited Name Index Subject Index