Open Marxism

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Open marxism is a "school" of Marxism which draws on anarchist critiques of Party communism and stresses the openness to praxis and to history^[1], the "practical reflexivity" of Marx's own concepts. The "openness" in Open Marxism also refers to a non-deterministic view of history in which the unpredictability of class struggle is foregrounded. The sources of Open Marxism are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, from anarchism to elements of Autonomism.

Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. Recent work by Open Marxists has included a revaluation of Theodor W. Adorno. Those commonly associated with Open Marxism include John Holloway, Werner Bonefeld, Richard Gunn, Kosmas Psychopedis, Kostas Axelos and Helmut Reichelt^[2].

Axelos' variant of Open Marxism makes explicit connections to the existentialist critique of systems theory. He uses Martin Heidegger's phenomenology to posit an open system of relations rather than a closed and deterministic totality that could be known fully by Marxist theory. Despite this, Axelos tries to maintain the unity of knowledge, even if he sees the world as multidimensional and open (see world disclosure for the phenomenological concept of world).^[3]

References

1. ^ "The Limitations of "Open Marxism" " by Mike Rooke
2. ^ "The Limitations of "Open Marxism" " by Mike Rooke
3. ^ *Axelos, K. (1984). Systematique ouverte (Open Systems). Les Editions de Minuit: Paris.

Further reading

• Axelos, K. ([1976] 1961). Alienation, Techne and Praxis in the Though of Karl Marx. Trans. R. Buzina. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Axelos, K. (1984). Systematique ouverte (Open Systems). Les Editions de Minuit: Paris.
• Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (ed.), Open Marxism, vol. 1: Dialectics and History (ISBN 978-7543-0590-3)
• Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (ed.), Open Marxism - vol. 2: Theory and Practice (ISBN 978-7453-0591-1)
• Bonefeld, W., Holloway, J., Psychopedis, K. (ed.),Open Marxism - vol. 3: Emancipating Marx (ISBN 978-7453-0864-3)
• Holloway, J., Matamoros, F., Tischler, S. (ed.), Negatividad y Revolución: Theodor W. Adorno y la Política, 2007 (ISBN 978-987-22929-2-8)

See Also

• Parametric determinism
• Western Marxism
• Neo-Marxism
• Post-Marxism