Throwing the Dice of History with Marx

The Plurality of Historical Worlds from Epicurus to Modern Science
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-53355-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 277, 420 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 838 g

Reihe: Historical Materialism Book Series

By digging through the stratigraphy of the history of ideas we can find within and beyond Marxism an ‘aleatory current’ that values the role of chance in history. Using this perspective, the book builds a case for a historical materialism that is stripped of all teleology. Starting in the ancient Mediterranean with Epicurus, it traces the history of conceiving history as plural up to Marxism and modern science. It shows that concrete historical ‘worlds’ such as ancient Mesoamerica and Eurasia cannot be reduced to a single template. Affirming the potentiality of a future non-capitalist ‘world’, it invalidates any ‘end of history’ thesis.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bajema, Marcus

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

9789004533554
Introduction

1 The Aleatory Current in Philosophy and the Present Conjuncture

2 The Ancient Atomists on Nature, Humankind and History

3 Encounters with Ancient and New Worlds

4 Universal History from a Materialist Perspective

5 Marx and the Thesis of the Plurality of Worlds

6 ‘The Relics of Bygone Instruments’, Marxist Archaeology and the Thesis of the Plurality of Worlds

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Marcus Bajema, Ph.D. (2015), Leiden University, is an independent scholar residing in The Hague, The Netherlands. He is interested in Marxist theory and history as comparative social science, having earlier published a book comparing Maya and Mycenaean early civilisations.