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Blackledge – Kirkpatrick, eds. Historical Materialism and Social Evolution.

Biblioteca / 2000-2009

Paul Blackledge – Graeme Kirkpatrick, editors. Historical Materialism and Social Evolution.

Londres: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

250 páginas.

Contents

1 – Historical Materialism and Social Evolution / Paul Blackledge – Graeme Kirkpatrick

2 – Historical Materialism: from Social Evolution to Revolutionary Politics / Paul Blackledge

Evolution

Marx, Engels and Darwin

Crude evolutionary Marxism

The voluntarist reaction

In defence of evolutionism

Synthesising evolution and revolution

Conclusion

3 – Social Darwinism and Socialist Darwinism in Germany: 1860 to 1900 / Ted Benton

Introduction

The diversity of evolutionary biology

Evolutionism in culture and politics

Conclusion

4 – A Darwinian Historical Materialism / Paul Nolan

Natural selection

A quasi-Darwinian theory of history

A quasi-Darwinian historical materialism

Some other difficulties for the theory

Conclusion

5 – Analytical Marxism and the Debate on Social Evolution / Alan Carling

History and evolution

What sort of evolutionary theory is the Marxian theory of history?

The asocial argument for the tendency

The Natural Primacy of the forces of production

The Competitive Primacy of the forces of production

Is Competitive Primacy plausible in history?

The Feudal Fission thesis

A composite theory of history?

Modes of production and theories of transition

Laibman: between the sundered concept and the floating fact

A case in conclusión

6 – History, Exploitation and Oppression / Alex Callinicos

Social evolution and rational choice

Transitions to capitalism

Generalising or dissolving class theory?

Exploitation and oppression

Divide and rule

Conclusion

7 – Progress and Technology in Habermas’s Theory of Social Evolution / Graeme Kirkpatrick

Introduction

Habermas and the evolution of society

The case of the personal computer

Habermas, informationalism and social evolution

Conclusion

8 – The Possible Wonders of Technology. Beyond Habermas towards Marcuse: a Critical Framework for Technological Progress / Giusseppe Tassone

Introduction

Communicative reason versus instrumental reason: Habermas’s theory of progress

A quasi-Habermasean model for technological progress: Simpson’s longing for a meaningful life

 ‘No concept is more abstract than the idea of a mere machine’: an interpretation of Marcuse’s critical theory of technology

9 – Lean Production and Economic Evolution in Capitalism / Tony Smith

Evolutionary mechanisms in capitalism

From ‘Fordism’ to lean production

Lean production and the conditions for a transition to socialism