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Revolutionary Subjectivity in the Thought of Karl Marx. Exploring the Psychosocial Dynamic of Emancipation

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Published Jan 2025

Paul Elias

Author: Paul Elias
Revolutionary Subjectivity in the Thought of Karl Marx presents a rigorous interdisciplinary analysis of Marx’s social philosophy and critically examines a terminal inconsistency within his idea of revolutionary subjectivity. In doing so, major areas of Marx’s thinking which have been misrepresented in scholarly discourse are coherently interpreted and rearticulated, providing a basis for exploring the incipient psychology and theory of mind in his work. This project reveals a novel theoretical waypoint whereby Husserl’s phenomenology and Freud’s psychoanalysis (particularly as developed by Melanie Klein) can engage in conversation with his social theory. While this critique poses a significant challenge to Marxism, it also offers an innovative prospect to sublate the insights of Marx’s work and reanimate his thinking for our contemporary period.

Biographical Note

Paul Elias, Ph.D. (2019), is an academic based in Toronto. He has directed courses in the Department of Social Science at York University and his writing has appeared in academic journals and other scholarly platforms.

Readership

A book for academics ranging from advanced scholars of Marx’s work to undergraduate students interested in sociopolitical theory, psychology, and philosophy, and non-academics with a keen interest in these subjects.

Table of Contents

Preface: A Confession ix
Introduction 1

1 Ontology and Method 15
1 Ancient Hellenic Philosophy and the ‘Exploration of the
Rational’ 15
2 ‘Dialectic’ as the Onto-Methodological ‘Higher Movement of
Reason’ 19
3 Phenomenology and the ‘Higher Dialectic of the Concept’ 24
4 Marx’s ‘Speculative’ Thought and Undue Criticism of Hegel 30
5 The ‘Concrete’ Nature of ‘Speculative’ Thought and Clarification of
Marx’s ‘Empiricism’ 34
6 A Note on the Relationship between Hegel’s Philosophy and Marx’s
Thought, and Its Significance for Marxism 38

2 Philosophical Anthropology 40
1 ‘Nihil humani a me alienum puto’ 40
2 Human Self-Creation and the Role of Labour in Our Transformative
Relationship with Nature 47
3 Marx’s Aristotelian Idea of ‘Nature’ and the Paradox of Humanity’s
Historical Genesis 50

3 ‘Communist Society’ 55
1 ‘Universally Developed Individuals’ and the General Character of
Freedom in ‘Communist Society’ 55
2 Realms of Life Activity and the Character of Social Relations in
‘Communist Society’ 57
3 A Note on the ‘First Phase of Communist Society’ 64
4 The ‘Universal’ Nature of Freedom and the Principle of ‘Justice’ in
Marx’s Writings 66
5 Questioning the Possibility of Knowledge about ‘Communist
Society’ 71

4 History 74

1 ‘Reason Nevertheless Prevails’ 74
2 The Development of Humanity through ‘Estrangement’ in
History 77
3 The ‘Passions’ of Capitalists and Their ‘World-Historical’ Activity 85
4 The World Market of Global Capitalism and the Establishment of
Worldwide Networks of Social Intercourse 90
5 Marx’s Teleological Theory of Humanity’s Historical
Development 96

5 Revolutionary Subjectivity 111
1 The Subjective Dimension of Revolutionary Transformation 111
2 Revolutionary Productive Capacities 116
3 The Ethical Character of Revolutionary Subjectivity 120
4 The Problem 124
5 Marx’s Idea of ‘Revolutionary Practice’ and the Limitations of
Vanguardism 129

6 ‘Show the World What It Is Really Fighting for’: Prospect for a
Psychosocial Theory of ‘Estranged’ Political Struggle 143
1 ‘Estrangement’ and the Human ‘Soul’ 143
2 The Confluence and Divergence of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
and Marx’s ‘Materialist Conception of History’ on Human
Development 147
3 Husserl’s Phenomenological Psychology and Marx’s Incipient
Psychology 155
4 Kleinian Psychoanalysis and the Development of ‘Human Need’ 158
5 A Psychology of Political Struggle in the ‘Bourgeois Epoch’ 163
Conclusion 172
Bibliography 193
Index 202