Document Summaries

Marxist-HumanistDialectics.com

1999-2003
Clarification of Hegelian-Marxian Dialectic
in Critical Theory and in Marxist-Humanism

1999

PhD Dissertation: Habermas and Marx: Critique of an Incipient Public Sphere
City University of New York Graduate Center, Sociology
Analyses of most of Habermas’s books he had published through the 1990s, especially his interpretations of Marx’s theories. This dissertation all discusses the critique of Habermas’s Marxism and the critical social theory in Moishe Postone’s Time, Labor and Social Domination: A Re-interpretation of Marx’s Critical Theory

2000

“Reexamination of Marcuse’s View of Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory”
Paper read at the Radical Philosophy Association Meetings, Chicago, Illinois November 2000.
11 pages

Hegel in Marcuse, Habermas and Postone: Critical Theory’s Still Unsettled Issue
Paper read at the Eastern Sociological Society Meetings, Baltimore

“Marx’s Capital Reconsidered: American Roots of Marxism and the Black Dimension”
Presentation from a News & Letter Class Series
Discussion of the “Compromise of 1877” (a “tied” presidential election parallel to the 2000 Gore/Bush contest), the Black movement and Reconstruction, and Marx’s two approaches to the implications of the dialectic of concrete and abstract labor. A relation of essence and appearance defines capitalism. Yet, “Fetishism of the commodity” is not a form of appearance of an essence that expresses and conceals the latter, but is rather an “absolute”. There is no difference between essence and appearance in commodity fetishism. Things appear as what they are—social relations between persons in capitalism are material relations between things. Overcoming capitalism requires Marx’s theoretical breakthrough, but only social movements like Black Reconstruction and “freely associated labor” can strip the fetish off the commodity.
6 pages


2001


“Marcuse Archives, Hegel, Critical Theory and Marxist-Humanism”
Revised version of a paper delivered at the Socialist Scholars’ Conference, New York City, April, 2001.
Paper on Volume One (of a planned six volumes) of Herbert Marcuse’s unpublished writings on critical social theory, edited by Douglas Kellner (1998). A second volume of Marcuse’s archives edited by Kellner was published by Routledge in 2001. Along with additional substantial material on development of a critical social theory by Marcuse it contains as an Afterword the article by Jürgen Habermas discussed in this paper.
10 pages


“What is Dialectics? In Hegel, Marx and Today’s World”
Presentation from a News & Letter Class Series
Discussion of the world that shaped Marx’s theory, and the changing world under the impact of Marx’s theory
5 pages

Remarks on Frank Rosengarten’s ‘The Organic Principle’ in Selected Writings of CLR James
Brecht Forum, New York
Critical commentary on the characteristics of James’s “organic principle”, which Rosengarten specifically attributes to Hegel’s thought, primarily the Logic: 1) James’s initial employment then replacement of the idea of “mutually exclusive forces” with the idea of absorption into self and transcendence; and, 2) totality, at the core of the organic principle, as belonging to, “the privileged subject who has mastered the fine points” of dialectical logic.
9 pages


2002



“Hegel and Social Theory in the Critical Theory Tradition and in Marxist-Humanism”

Paper Presented at De La Salle University Philosophy and Political Science Departments
Manila, Philippines. April 3, 2002.

Fundamental distinctions between the Critical Theory and Marxist-Humanist traditions, attributable to divergent interpretations of the implications of Hegel’s absolutes, are relevant for current attempts to develop a critical social theory.

14 pages

Dialogue on the Relevance of Marcuse’s First Hegel Book for a Marxist-Humanist Critical Social Theory
Presentation to New York News & Letter Committees, November 3, 2002.
Critical remarks on George Lukacs’s and Douglas Kellner’s assessments of Marcuse’s first Hegel book, Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity, published in the German in 1932, English translation, 1987, as part of an engagement with Kevin B. Anderson’s assessment of Raya Dunayevskaya’s interpretation of Hegel compared to other Hegelian Marxists.
3 pages

“On the Publication of the Power of Negativity”
From a News & Letter Class Series
Review of Raya Dunayevskaya’s interpretation of Hegel’s dialectic by way of a critical assessment of the collection The Power of Negativity, Collected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx, edited and with an Introduction by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson. Lexington Press: 2002
8 pages

Letter on Herbert Marcuse’s and Raya Dunayevskaya’s Interpretations of Hegel, January 4, 2002

Dialogue (response to Peter Hudis) comparing and contrasting Marcuse’s and Dunayevskaya’s approach to the relationship of philosophy and social theory

4 pages

“U.S. Military Re-enters the Philippines as New Forces for Social Transformation Emerge”

Published in News & Letters, June, 2002
In-person report on the Philippines’s revolutionary struggle and U.S. troop movements, one year into the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration.
6 pages

“Notes for Talk on Philippines June 2002”
Political reflections on recent trip to the Philippines
4 pages


2003


Book Review of Alternative to a Dead God, by Florentino T. Timbreza. Manila: De La Salle University Press. 2001.
Published in Φιλοσοφια: International Journal of Philosophy 32:1 (2003), 101-105.

What does it mean to say that Philippine society is in total crisis? In Alternative to a Dead God, the philosopher Florentino Timbreza investigates this question. The work interprets contemporary Filipino values. It analyzes how they have been shaped in part by the “critique” of traditional Christianity from the standpoint of everyday life of ordinary people. Finally, Timbreza “tests” the adequacy of philosophic concepts drawn primarily from the wide-ranging works of the Frankfurt School theoretician and socialist humanist Erich Fromm.


“Hegel’s Dialectic of the Idea of the True and the Idea of the Good in Contemporary Marxist Theory”
Paper Delivered at the Socialist Scholars’ Conference, New York City
An assessment of how major contemporary Marxist theorists—Lenin, Marcuse, and Dunayevskaya—have interpreted the dialectic of Hegel’s Absolute Idea.
7 pages

“The Social Relevance of Hegel’s Absolute Idea: Herbert Marcuse’s Two Hegel Books”
Paper presented at the American Sociological Society meetings, San Diego
19 pages

Review of The Power of Negativity: Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx, by Raya Dunayevskaya. Edited and introduction by Peter Hudis and Kevin Anderson.

Published in Critical Sociology 29:2 (2003).

5 pages

War on Iraq, Resistance, and the Shift in Global Politics, April 13, 2003
Presentation to New York News & Letters Committees and friends
3 pages



2004-2007
Emerging Differences within Marxist-Humanist Theory


2004

“Hegel and Critical Social Theory: New Perspectives from the Marcuse Archives”
Published in the The Sociological Quarterly. 45 (1), 141-159.

18 pages

Hegel’s Dialectic in Marcuse’s “First Hegel Book”
Lecture delivered at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

The Dialectic at the Intersection of Marcuse’s “First Hegel Book” and his Discovery of 1844 Marx
Paper read at the Socialist Scholars’ Conference, New York City

The Meaning of U.S. Occupation of Iraq
Presentation to New York News & Letters Committees

Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme as Development of Capital and Hegelian Marxian Dialectic
Paper read at the Re-Thinking Marxism Conference, University of Massachusetts, Amherst


2005

50th Anniversary of Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud
Remarks at New York News & Letters Meeting

The Marcuse/Dunayevskaya correspondence and Marcuse's "Philosophic Interlude" in Eros and Civilization
Paper read at the Conference on “Reading Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization After 50 Years”, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, November 3-6, 2005.
20 pages

Conference Report on “Reading Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization after 50 Years”
Article published in News & Letters, December 2005

“Marx’s Grundrisse: Today’s Significance of Raya Dunayevskaya’s Critique of Martin Nicolaus’s Introduction”
Presentation to New York News & Letters
Assessment of Raya Dunayevskaya’s essay, entitled "The Dialectic of Marx's Grundrisse," which was written on the occasion of the appearance of the first English translation of Marx’s “rough draft” of Capital and appears in the September-October 2005 issue of New & Letters
8 pages

On Marx’s ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’
Letter to News and Letters committee members
Debate on Marx’s 1875 text, which takes up post-capitalist society
4 Pages

Further remarks on Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program
Developing debate on “Critique of the Gotha Program”, including clarifications of Herbert Marcuse’s dialogue with Dunayevskaya on this key Marx text
3 Pages

Letter to Peter Hudis, October 20, 2005
Developing differences within News & Letter Committees on Hegel, Critical Theory, and Marxist-Humanism
2 Pages

2006

“Dialogue on Dialectic and Post-Capitalism in the Dunayevskaya/Marcuse, Fromm Correspondence”
Unpublished Manuscript
Focus on discussions of post-capitalist society in the Dunayevskaya/Marucse correspondence (1954-1979) and the Dunayevsksaya/Fromm correspondence (1959-1980)
19 Pages

“Alternatives to Capitalism”
Talk to New York News & Letters on “Alternatives to Capitalism”
Continuing discussions of the dialectical concept of post-capitalist society, including debates on Marx’s theory of value, the necessity and freedom dialectic, and Herbert Marcuse’s assessment of Dunayevskaya’s 1958 book Marxism and Freedom.
6 pages

The Dunayevskaya/Marcuse, Fromm Correspondence
Talk to New York News & Letters on work-in-progress
2 pages

Marx’s Transformation of Hegel’s Revolution in Philosophy into a Philosophy of Revolution
Presentation to New York News & Letters Committee for class series on alienation and its transcendence
10 pages

What does Marx’s Concept of ‘Revolution in Permanence’ Mean for Today?
From a News & Letter Class Series
Examination of Marx’s concept of revolution-in-permanence, from his 1843 essay “On the Jewish Question” through Capital volume 3’s concepts of freedom and necessity to implications for post-capitalist society on a global scale
13 pages

Suggestions for Revisions of the Theoretical Section of News & Letters Draft Perspectives
Contribution to News & Letters Pre-Convention Discussion Bulletin
Summary of important theoretical distinctions between the specific, relatively undeveloped society (1875 Germany) posited in Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Program” versus the highly developed capitalist society that was the “model” underlying Capital, especially volume 3.
9 pages

Alternatives to Capitalism
Sub-Report to 2006 News & Letters Convention on
Caution against transhistoricizing the “lower phase” of communism, including the imputed necessity of distributing the means of subsistence on the basis of duration and intensity of labor, determined by natural mental and physical superiorities/inferiorities of individual workers.
14 pages
Marcuse’s Hegelian Marxism Today
Panel on 65th Anniversary of Reason and Revolution: Left Forum, New York City, 2006
1 pages

The Intersection of Marxist-Humanism and Critical Theory at the Time of Eros and Civilization, Marxism and Freedom, and Marx’s Concept of Man: Dunayevskaya/Marcuse Correspondence 1954-1958
Paper read at the Rethinking Marxism Conference, Amherst, Massachusetts
12 pages

2007

Two Letters to Rank-and-File Members of News & Letters Committees
Two philosophic statements in response to Andrew Kliman’s attempt to suspend dissidents from N&L membership
6 pages

Extensive Alternative Interpretations of Hegel, Marx and Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism Still Needed
Contribution to News & Letters Pre-Plenum Discussion Bulletin: Call for News & Letters Dissident Thinkers to Challenge Theoretical Revisions of Raya Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism
16 pages

Marx’s Value Theory in the Critical Theory Tradition and in Marxist-Humanism
Contribution to News & Letters Pre-Plenum Discussion Bulletin
18 pages

Marx’s Concepts of Concrete and Abstract Labor
Letter to Ron Kelch on Marx’s concept of the dialectic of labor time and free time, and Herbert Marcuse’s misquotation of Marx’s Grundrisse that obscures Marx’s theory of a qualitatively different post-capitalist labor
2 pages

Notes on Hudis on Postone
Critical notes on Peter Hudis’s interpretations of Moishe Postone’s work on Marx’s concept of socially-mediating labor, August 11, 2007
7 pages

“Itinerary of a Wrong Idea”
Contribution to News & Letters Pre-Plenum Discussion
Continuing debate within News & Letters on Marx’s concept of post-capitalist society—labor as its own end, or a realm of freedom beyond the sphere of material production?
8 pages

Concrete Labor: Internal Contradictions?
Letter to Ron Kelch in response to query about transhistorical character of “concrete labor”, August 29, 2007
3 Pages
Marx’s Concept of Labor and Post-Capitalist Society
Letter on emerging differences within a N&L dissident faction as seen in post-2007 News & Letters Plenum discussions, with references to Dunayevskaya’s disagreements with B.J. Harrell’s “Marx and Critical Thought”, and importance of Karel Kosik’s work, Dialectic of the Concrete.
4 Pages

Lower and Higher Phases of Post-Capitalist Society
Discussion of Tom More’s 2007 News & Letters Plenum Draft Subreport: “The law of value and a philosophically-grounded alternative to Capitalism”, 8/6/2007.
6 pages

Debate on Meaning of U.S. War in Iraq and Marxist-Humanist Theoretical Direction
May 26 letter to National Co-Organizers on Draft for 2007-2008 Call for Plenum

“Marcuse on Marx’s Capital and on Post-Capitalist Society “
Paper read at conference on “Critique and Liberation in the Work of Herbert Marcuse” Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia November 8-10, 2007
14 pages

“Critique and Liberation in the Work of Herbert Marcuse”
Letter on the second bi-annual conference on the work of Herbert Marcuse held at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia November 2007
2 pages

Early Dunayevskaya on Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Program”
Presentation for News & Letters class series, including questions on Dunayevskaya’s interpretations of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” as merely a distributive principle,
3 pages

News & Letters Transformation into Opposite?
Letter to News & Letters Dissidents
3 pages

Misunderstanding Moishe Postone’s Interpretations of Marx’s Theory of Value and Price
Letter to News & Letters dissidents on Andrew Kliman’s book, Reclaiming Marx’s Capital.
6 pages

Capital, Technology, and the New Society
Presentation for a News & Letters class series, including analyses of the positions of Dunayevskaya, Marcuse, and Fromm.
17 pages

Draft Introduction to the Raya Dunayevskaya/Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm Correspondence
Tracing the theoretical trajectories of Dunayevskaya, Marcuse, and Fromm, and the points of intersection that defined their correspondence in the 1950-1980s, as the introduction to a volume including Dunayevskaya’s correspondence with two of the founders of the Frankfurt School in 1920s-30s Germany
98 pages

Internal Theoretical Weaknesses in N&L Dissidents’ Views?
Post-2007 Convention Email Communication with N&L Dissident Thinkers
Proposal for developing dissidents’ perspectives, especially on concepts of the relationship of labor and society


2008-2010
New Perspectives on Hegelian-Marxism, Marxist-Humanism, and Critical Social Theory

2008

Summary of 2008 N&L Convention
Post-News & Letters split suggestions for theoretic development of Marxist-Humanism, especially at the intersection of Dunayevskaya and Marx’s reading of Hegel’s Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
3 pages

Hegel’s Dialectic Intrinsic to Marx’s Economic, Political, and Social Categories
2008 welcome statement to the 2008 News & Letters Convention
5 pages
Labor Time and Society
Post-2008 Convention Remarks at New York Local News & Letters Meeting

First Post-Split New York News & Letters Public Presentation
Global Economic Crisis and Workers’ Freedom Struggles: The Marxist-Humanist Concepts of State-Capitalist and Post-Capitalist Society

Exchange of Letters on Draft Essay for N&L: “Dunayevskaya’s Philosophic Moment and the Dialectic of Necessity and Freedom in Hegel and in Marx”
The importance of the dialectical relationship between Hegel’s Introduction to Philosophy of Mind and that work’s closing syllogisms in the final chapter (Absolute Mind) for Marx’s concept of post-capitalist society.

2009

Notes for Brecht Forum Event on Arnold Farr’s New Book
Contribution to discussion on Farr’s book, Critical Theory and Democratic Vision: Herbert Marcuse and Recent Liberation Philosophies, panel with Steve Bronner, Peter Marcuse, and Arnold Farr

Significance of Volume 3 of Marx’s Capital for Conceptualizing Post-Capitalist Society

Presentation for a News & Letters class series in preparation for renewed work on publishing a new volume of Raya Dunayevskaya’s writings on Marx

The Meaning of Marx’s Concept of Human Power as its Own End
Second presentation for class series in preparation for renewed work on publishing a new volume of Raya Dunayevskaya’s writings on Marx

Suggestions for Theoretical Direction in Post-Split News & Letters
Discussion of the relation of Hegel’s dialectic to Marx’s concept of post-capitalist society in which material production is humanized and the time devoted to it minimized.
5 pages

Marx’s Capital, Volumes One and Three, Current Economic Crisis, Post-Capitalist Society
Paper read at Left Forum, New York City
7 pages

The Structure of Hegel’s Science of Logic and Marcuse’s Two Hegel Books
Notes for Left Forum, New York City, panel discussion on Arnold Farr’s new book
7 pages
News & Letters Article on Brecht Forum Panel, New Book on Herbert Marcuse
“Author Meets Critic” book party to celebrate the publication of Arnold Farr’s Critical Theory and Democratic Vision, Herbert Marcuse and Recent Liberation Philosophies. The event was held March 4 at Brecht Forum in New York. Speakers included Farr, Peter Marcuse, Steven Eric Bronner, and Russell Rockwell.
2 pages

Progress Report: Work on Volume of Dunayevskaya/Marcuse, Fromm Correspondence
Letter to Olga Domanski, News & Letters National Organizer, 11/23/08
2 pages

Dialogue on Moishe Postone’s Analysis of Marx’s Concept of Labor
“Reader’s View” published in December, 2008 News & Letters

Dialogue on Drafts for Essay on Marx’s Dialectic of Necessity and Freedom
Exchange of letters with Franklin, News & Letters Co-National Organizer, and Ron Kelch
14 pages

Reply to David Black’s Hobgoblin Essay, “Why Philosophy, Why Now?”
Explanation of independent theoretical position, neither side of 2008 News & Letters split
6 pages
Freedom, Necessity, and Post-Capitalist Society
Essay published in News & Letters, June/July 2008
2 pages
The Great Recession and Beyond: Capitalist Crises and Post-Capitalist Society
Lead article in August-September 2009 News & Letters
Notes on Capitalist Economic Crisis and Marx’s Capital
March 22, 2009 letter to Olga Domanski and Franklin Dimetriev, News & Letters Co-National Organizers
3 pages
Reply to Charles Reitz’s Commentary on “Freedom, Necessity, and Post-Capitalist Society”

Response to Charles Reitz’s comments on the essay, “Freedom, Necessity, and Post-Capitalist Society” (N&L, June-July, 2008), including disagreement with Retiz’s acceptance of Friedrich Engels’s notion of a dichotomy between Hegel’s method and Hegel’s system.

Distinction in Dunayevskaya’s and Marx’s Theory of Hegel and Post-Capitalist Society
September 12 2009 critical reply to two News & Letters members’ views on assessing, selecting, and publishing posthumously Dunayevskaya’s writings on Marx

Contemporary Relevance of Dunayevskaya’s Analyses of Volume 3 of Marx’s Capital
Letter to News & Letters Co-National Organizers on importance of including reexamination of Marx’s Capital, Volume 3 in light of current economic crises.
4 pages

Typhoon Fengshen in the Philippines
News & Letters article, June 2008

Resignation from News & Letters
September 28, 2009 letter explaining theoretical reasons for separating from News & Letters

Original Analyses of Marx’s Capital in the Marcuse/Dunayevskaya Correspondence
Paper read at “Marcuse and the Frankfurt School for a New Generation”, sponsored by York University, University of Kentucky, and the International Marcuse Society, October 29-31, York University

Review of Raya Dunayevskaya, Philosopher of Marxist-Humanism Eugene Gogol. Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications, 2004, and The Power of Negativity, Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx. Edited and Introduction by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2002.
Unpublished manuscript argues that both volumes are insufficiently critical of Dunayevskaya’s interpretations of the Hegel/Marx dialectic, specifically the concept of post-capitalist society.
25 pages