Starosta, Guido (2005) Science as practical criticism : an investigation into revolutionary subjectivity in Marx's critique of political economy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The key theoretical concern of this doctoral research is to trace the way in which
Marx discovered and developed the determinations of the revolutionary subjectivity
of the working class. In order to achieve this, a critical reading of Marx's 'early
writings' from the perspective of his later works was carried out in the first part of the
thesis. Specifically, the analysis attempted to find in both the insights and limitations
of the former and clues towards the direction that Marx's later development would
take. One of the original results of my reassessment of Marx's early work is to
uncover the methodological significance of those texts for Marx's re-appropriation of
Hegel's dialectical method and the consequent determination of social science as
practical criticism. The second part of my investigation consists in a critical analysis
of the ways in which these early insights crystallised in the writing of Capital. The
aim of this critical reading of Marx's most important work is to provide a
reconstruction which goes beyond traditional Marxist theories and their unresolved
tension between the forms of objectivity and the forms of subjectivity of capitalist
society. In particular, my thesis is that most readings of Marx tend to see
revolutionary subjectivity as abstractly free and as the opposite of the subjectivity
alienated in capital. My own investigation of Marx's critical theory aims to show that,
for him, emancipatory subjectivity itself is a social form of the alienated subjectivity
of the modern individual. I show that the genesis of that emancipatory subject can be
found in the transformations in the materiality of social life brought about by the real
subsumption of humanity to capital. Finally, the investigation attempts to thematise
the intrinsic connection between these questions of subjectivity and Marx's dialectical
method.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races H Social Sciences > HX Socialism. Communism. Anarchism
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Marx, Karl, 1818-1883 -- Criticism and interpretation, Working class, Subjectivity
Official Date:	February 2005
Dates:	Date Event February 2005 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Clarke, Simon, 1946- ; Fine, Robert, 1945-
Extent:	361 leaves
Language:	eng

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