Negativity as the Compass of Revolution
A Marxist Rejection of the No-Alternative Ethos
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10488149 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Saladdin Ahmed (0000-0003-4636-8217, Department of Political Science Union College 508 Union Street Schenectady, NY 12308, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 409-438 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0036-8237 • E-ISSN: 1943-2801 |
| Publisher | Guilford Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1521/siso.2022.86.3.409 |
| OpenAlex | W4283779924 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
While the famous Thatcherian slogan “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) has been widely internalized, Marxism remains capable of negating capitalism. The no-alternative ethos may be countered, from a Marxian philosophical perspective, by means of a negativity thesis framed around the following two inter-twined arguments. First, capitalist hegemony is itself a reason for a revolutionary project that aims at a world in which alternatives are not thought to be impossible. Second, Marxism does not offer a prefigurative model for communism, and this is not a shortcoming but a merit: communism cannot be known positively under the limiting conditions of capitalism. Given that communism is historical, expecting an a priori model of the communist society amounts to committing an idealist fallacy
Capitalism · Communism · Economics · Epistemology · Ethos · Fallacy · Hegemony · Marxist philosophy · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Slogan · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |