Becoming Marxist. Studies in Philosophy, Struggle, and Endurance

Ted Stolze

Author: Ted Stolze
In Becoming Marxist Ted Stolze offers a series of studies that take up the importance of philosophy for the development of an open and critical Marxism. He argues that an adequate ‘philosophy for Marxism’ must be open to engagement with a diverse range of traditions, texts, and authors – from Paul of Tarsus, via Averroes, Spinoza, and Hobbes, to Althusser, Deleuze, Negri, Habermas, and Žižek. Stolze also explores such practical contemporary issues as the politics of self-emancipation, the nature of Islamophobia, and climate change.

Biographical Note

Ted Stolze, Ph.D. (1996), Claremont Graduate University, is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cerritos College. He is the co-editor (with Warren Montag) of The New Spinoza (University of Minnesota Press, 1997) and has published articles on Spinoza, Hobbes, Althusser, Deleuze, Habermas, Negri, and Žižek.

Readership

Anyone interested in the intersection of Marxism and philosophy and in a distinctively Marxist approach to the history of philosophy.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note Acknowledgements Abbreviations

Part 1 Marxism and the History of Philosophy

What is a Philosophical Tendency?
Paul of Tarsus, Thinker of the Conjuncture
Paul’s Gift Economy: Wages, Debt, and Debt Cancellation
Althusser and the Problem of Historical Individuality
‘The Roaring of the Sea’: Hobbes on the Madness of the Multitude
Spinoza’s Three Modes of Rebellion: Indignant, Glorious, and Serene
Alexandre Matheron on Militant Reason and the Intellectual Love of God
Interlude: An Ethics for Marxism: Spinoza on Fortitude

Part 2 Marxism and Contemporary Philosophy

Death and Life in Marx’s Capital: An Ethical Investigation
Hegel or Spinoza: Substance, Subject, and Critical Marxism
10 Contradictions of Hyperreality: Baudrillard, Žižek, and Virtual Dialectics
11 A Marxist Encounter with the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze
12 Deleuze and Althusser: Flirting with Structuralism
13 Marxist Wisdom: Antonio Negri on the Book of Job
14 A Displaced Transition: Jürgen Habermas on the Public Sphere

Part 3 Self-Emancipation, Then and Now

15 Self-Emancipation and Political Marxism
16 Islamophobia and Self-Emancipation
17 Climate Crisis, Ideology, and Collective Action
Coda. Beatitude: Marx, Aristotle, Averroes, Spinoza
Bibliography Index