Das Argument (journal)

"Das Argument - Journal for Philosophy and Social Sciences"" is a longstanding German periodical. It was founded in 1958 as an independent scholarly journal of West German intellectuals of predominantly Marxist orientation. Ever since, "Das Argument" has been the oldest and biggest Marxist journal in West Germany. Together with ProKla (chief edited by Elmar Altvater) and Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik (edited by Jurgen Habermas et al.), it belongs to the Big Three of contemporary German Marxism. Its circulation rate is approximately 2,500 copies per issue. "Das Argument" appears six times a year. Each issue contains between 160 and 180 pages. The last issue of the year is a double issue [http://www.argument.de publisher's website] .

History

The journal emerged from the protests against West German remilitarization. Both from conservatives as well as liberals and Marxists, the journal has been considered to be of far-reaching importance to the shaping of the student movement of the 1960s. During that time period its circulation rate was above 25,000. Since its founding in 1958, the journal has been chief edited by the West German Marxist philosopher Wolfgang Fritz Haug who taught at the Free University Berlin. Haug is internationally renowned for his "Critique of Commodity Aestheticism" which was translated into numerous languages. The English edition appeared in the 1990s. As a journal, "Das Argument" is successor to the legendary Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung which was the official journal of the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research. The Institute of Social Research was the central institution of what has become known as the Frankfurt School.

The Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung appeared between 1931 and 1941 and was chief edited by Max Horkheimer. In the 1930s, it contained the seminal essays of theorists such as Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Leo Lowenthal and many others. In its early years, "Das Argument" was characterized by many of the surviving Frankfurt School theorists. This changed during the 1970s. Since the mid-1980s, "Das Argument" represents a position of Plural Marxism. The two main sister projects of "Das Argument" are, first of all, the "Historisch-kritische Worterbuch des Marxismus" (HKWM) (Historical Critical Dictionary of Marxism [http://www.hkwm.de official website HKWM] ). The HKWM aims at the general refounding of Marxism as a living unity of theory and praxis. It has been published ever since 1994 and is supposed to contain 20 volumes of approx. 500 pages each. Its contributors are renowned Marxists from more than 30 countries. In English, some of its articles are published by the British journal "Historical Materialism". Along with "Das Argument", the Historical Critical Dictionary of Marxism is published by the Berlin Institute of Critical Theory (InkriT). InkriT organizes annual international conventions devoted to the discussion of central HKWM entries which recently have taken place in Esslingen near Stuttgart.

The second project closely connected to "Das Argument" has been the historical critical and complete edition of the Prison Notebooks and Prison Letters from Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci. This project was launched in 1991 and finalized in 1999. "Das Argument" has cooperated with a number of prominent novelists, playwrights and poets such as Günther Anders, the husband of Hannah Arendt, Erich Fried, Christa Wolf, Peter Weiss etc.). Currently, the three main collaborating writers are the nobel prize winning Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek, Volker Braun and Christine Lehmann. In 2008, "Das Argument" is going to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The Editors

Currently, the editorial board consists of

*Wolfgang Fritz Haug (chief editor/philosophy)
*Frigga Haug (chief editor)
*Peter Jehle (literature)
*Mario Candeias (economy)
*Claudia Gdaniec (feminism)
*Richard Heigl (history)
*Vanessa Lux (coordination)
*Erwin Riedmann (sociology)
*Ingar Solty (social movements and politics)
*Thomas Weber (culture)
*Gerhard Zimmer (pedagogy)

Each issue of the journal is devoted to a specific theme (in 2006, these have been "American Vistas", "Politics of Literature", "Female Migrants", "Thinking History Globally" and "Big Contradiction China"). The journal contains a substantial review section which is also derived from the original Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung.

Topics

Among the journal's topics are:
* philosophy and Critical Theory
* Plural Marxism, Western Marxism, Open Marxism, Marxist feminism
* Critical History, analysis of capitalism, neoliberalism/neoliberal mode of production and way of life
* Social Sciences
* Social theory, capitalist globalization, transnational class analysis
* fascism theory, ideology theory, culture theory
* literary science
* history of the labor movement

References

* Haug, Wolfgang Fritz, [http://www.wolfgangfritzhaug.inkrit.de/documents/argu-inkrit-06wfhx.pdf Zur Neugründung des Arguments]
* Korte, Peter, ed., 30 Jahre Argument, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven, Interviews zu einem Jubiläum, Argument Verlag, Hamburg 1988.
* German Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.de): "Das Argument"http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument

External links

* [http://www.argument.de Official website] de icon
* [http://www.hkwm.de Berlin Institute of Critical Theory] (in English and in German)