| Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx Contributor(s): Vattimo, Gianni (Author), Zabala, Santiago (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231158025 ISBN-13: 9780231158022 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $84.15 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Communism, Post-communism & Socialism - Philosophy | Political - Political Science | History & Theory - General |
| Dewey: 335.401 |
| LCCN: 2011008349 |
| Series: Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.7" W x 7.1" (0.75 lbs) 264 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Having lost much of its political clout and theoretical power, communism no longer represents an appealing alternative to capitalism. In its original Marxist formulation, communism promised an ideal of development, but only through a logic of war, and while a number of reformist governments still promote this ideology, their legitimacy has steadily declined since the fall of the Berlin wall. Separating communism from its metaphysical foundations, which include an abiding faith in the immutable laws of history and an almost holy conception of the proletariat, Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala recast Marx's theories at a time when capitalism's metaphysical moorings--in technology, empire, and industrialization--are buckling. While Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri call for a return of the revolutionary left, Vattimo and Zabala fear this would lead only to more violence and failed political policy. Instead, they adopt an antifoundationalist stance drawn from the hermeneutic thought of Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty. Hermeneutic communism leaves aside the ideal of development and the general call for revolution; it relies on interpretation rather than truth and proves more flexible in different contexts. Hermeneutic communism motivates a resistance to capitalism's inequalities yet intervenes against violence and authoritarianism by emphasizing the interpretative nature of truth. Paralleling Vattimo and Zabala's well-known work on the weakening of religion, Hermeneutic Communism realizes the fully transformational, politically effective potential of Marxist thought. |
Contributor Bio(s): Vattimo, Gianni: - Gianni Vattimo (PhD, Philosophy, Turin) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Turin. He is the author of a large number of books, most of which have been translated into English, including Of Reality (Columbia, 2016), A farewell to Truth (Columbia, 2011), and The Responsibility of the Philosopher (Columbia, 2010). He is also known for his political activism in support of gay rights and has served as a member of the European Parliament. As a philosopher he is known for his espousal of nihilism, his rejection of truth in favor of interpretation (hermeneutics), his adoption of weak thought as a withdrawal from metaphysics, and his situational Marxism.Zabala, Santiago: - Santiago Zabala (PhD, Philosophy, Pontifical Lateran University) is ICREA Research Professor and Director of the Vattimo Archive at Pompeu Fabra University. He is the author of a number of books, including Why Only Art Can Save Us: Aesthetics and the Absence of Emergency (Columbia, 2017) and (with Gianni Vattimo) Hermeneutic Communism (Columbia, 2011). |