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Nietzsche believed in the horror of existence: a world filled with
meaningless suffering_suffering for no reason at all. He also
believed in eternal recurrence, the view that that our lives will
repeat infinitely, and that in each life every detail will be
exactly the same. Furthermore, it was not enough for Nietzsche that
eternal recurrence simply be accepted_he demanded that it be loved.
Thus the philosopher who introduces eternal recurrence is the very
same philosopher who also believes in the horror of existence. In
this groundbreaking study, Philip Kain develops an insightful
account of Nietzsche's strange and paradoxical view that a life of
pain and suffering is perhaps the only life it really makes sense
to want to live again.
Philip J. Kain deftly demonstrates the historical antecedents to
and continuing relevance of Karl Marx's thought. Kain reveals the
unappreciated pluralism of Marx, how it has endured and how it will
continue to adapt to the challenges of modern day thought such as
feminist theory.
Many people think Marx a totalitarian and Soviet Marxism the
predictable outcome of his thought. If one shows them the
texts-proves to them that Marx was a radical democrat-they often
flip and think him utopian. Totalitarian or utopian-for many those
seem to be the alternatives. How might one combat this completely
mistaken image? To establish the connection between Marx and social
democracy, philosopher Philip J. Kain argues four main points.
First, economy if markets are controlled to eliminate alienation,
socialist society for Marx is compatible with a market. Second,
markets can be controlled democratically. Third, Marx had a theory
of revolution compatible with a democratic electoral movement
engaged in by a social democratic party. And fourth, from the late
1860s on, Marx and Engels worked with the German Social Democratic
Party of Liebknecht, Bebel, Bernstein, and Kautsky-which eventually
became the largest party in Germany and the largest socialist party
in the world. If social democracy is a true expression of Marxism,
then Marx cannot be called a totalitarian. There is nothing
remotely totalitarian about social democracy. Nor is it utopian. It
exists all over Western Europe. Moreover, social democratic parties
have always opposed the undemocratic tactics of Soviet Marxism.
Drawing on these four points, Kain argues against the depiction of
Marx as either utopian or totalitarian, and instead makes a case
for Marx as a social democrat, whose strongest legacy is found in
Western Europe.
This book traces the development of Marx's ethics as they underwent
various shifts and changes during different periods of his thought.
In his early writings, his ethics were based on a concept of
essence much like Aristotle's, which Marx tried to link to a
principle of universalization similar to Kant's "categorical
imperative." In the period 1845-46, Marx abandoned this view,
holding morality to be incompatible with his historical
materialism. In the later work he was less of a determinist. Though
he no longer wished to reject morality, he did want to transcend a
morality of burdensome obligation and constraint in order to
realize a community built upon spontaneous bonds of solidarity.
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