The Unknown Marx: Reconstructing a Unified Perspective - Hardcover

Oishi, Takahisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745316980 ISBN 13: 9780745316987

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2001

Synopsis

The Unknown Marx is an incisive critique of the way the West has revised and interpreted Marxist theory. Takahisa Oishi argues that Engels’ and Lenin’s summaries of Marx’s system have now been taken by Western societies to represent the sum total of Marx’s philosophy. By returning Marx’s original writings, Oishi reveals the essential limitations of Engels’ and Lenin’s interpretations, and presents a fresh reexamination of the theories of one of the world’s most influential political philosophers. By departing from Western and Stalinist approaches to Marxism, Oishi attempts to see Marx's writing in the way Marx saw it. In doing so, Oishi gives unique insight into the essence of what we think we know about Marx, evaluating the systematic forms of interpretation which have emerged along with encroaching capitalism. An insightful, highly controversial interpretation of the grand narratives about Marx.

About this title

About the Author:

Takahisa Oishi is Professor of Economics at Takushoku University, Tokyo. Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory, University of Bristol.

Review:

"Marx's theory has been a bone of contention ever since his death in 1883. There have been avid attempts to decipher key texts within his works; to situate his theory in terms of Hegel's thought, and to articulate Marx's supposed distancing from that philosophical position; to determine which texts are more "Marxist" than others; and to attempt to render Marx's method as a tool for continuing social analyses. With so many interpretative works, one really wonders if anything new can be said about Marx. Fortunately, as this book reveals, there seems to be plenty to discuss in terms of rethinking interpretations of Marx's theory. In a detailed and ultimately quite convincing work, Oishi (Takushoku Univ., Tokyo) deftly charts Marx's "immanent critique" of political economy, a position that was recognizable as early as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 and that flowered most famously in Das Capital. Attempting to distance "the unknown Marx" from Engels's "official" interpretation and from Soviet Marxist renderings, Oishi is able to argue convincingly that Marx never intended his position to be linked to an economistic and reductionist "materialist conception of history," but instead saw his task as articulating, in his famous dialectical fashion, a "critique of political economy." Graduate students and faculty." --- B. J. Macdonald, Colorado State University in CHOICE

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0745316980
• ISBN 13: 9780745316987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240