Reading Marx

On Transcendental Materialism
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-0358-0201-6
Verlag: diaphanes

Buch, Englisch, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 135 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 218 g

Reihe: Selected writings and lecture notes

In this lecture course, Reiner Schürmann reads Marx’s work as a transcendental materialism. Arguing that what is most original in Marx is neither his political or sociological nor his economic thinking, but his philosophical axis, Schürmann shows that Marx conceives being as polyvalent praxis. With patient rigor, Schürmann delineates this notion of praxis from the interpretations proposed by Louis Althusser and the Frankfurt School, as he traces Marx’s move beyond the dualism that has governed ontology since Descartes. Stepping out of this dualism, however, Marx does not espouse a monism either—be it an immobile one as Parmenides’, or a dynamic one as Hegel’s. On the problem of universals, Marx’s transcendental materialism is nominalistic: being as action is irreducibly manifold.

Extending his highly original engagement with the history of philosophy, Schürmann in the course of these lectures draws out the philosophical axis in Marx’s work, which determines and localizes his theories of history, of social relations and of economy. On this view, Marx’s unique place in philosophy stems from the fact that the grounding of phenomena is seen by him not as a relation that produces cognition, as in Kant; nor as a relation of material sensitivity, as in Feuerbach; but the grounding occurs in labor, in praxis, in the satisfaction of needs. Whereas the Marxist readings of Marx conceive history, classes and social relations as primary realities, Schürmann brings out a radically immanent understanding of praxis in Marx that introduces multiplicity into being.

Following Schürmann’s own suggestion, this edition is complemented by a reprinting of his Anti-Humanism essay, in which he reads Marx alongside Nietzsche and Heidegger as spelling out the dissociation of being and action. This rupture puts an end to the epochal economy of presence and returns principles to their own precariousness. As a whole, this volume brings out one of the less appreciated facets of Schürmann’s work and offers an interpretation of Marx that resonates with the readings of Jacques Derrida, Michel Henry, Antonio Negri and François Laruelle.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schürmann, Reiner

Rauch, Malte Fabian

Schneider, Nicolas

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 19. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

7			Syllabus
9	-	11	List of Abbreviations
13	-	22	Lecture 1: Introduction: Marx as Transcendental Philosopher	(Reiner Schürmann)
23	-	31	Lecture 2: A Double Problematic in the Early Writings	(Reiner Schürmann)
33	-	39	Lecture 3: The Ambiguity of Marx’s ‘Humanism’	(Reiner Schürmann)
41	-	49	Lecture 4: The Reversal of Problematics in 1845	(Reiner Schürmann)
51	-	59	Lecture 5: Practice as Motive Subjectivity of the Concrete Individual	(Reiner Schürmann)
61	-	69	Lecture 6: Reality as the Production of Material Life	(Reiner Schürmann)
71	-	81	Lecture 7: The Representational Status of Regional Theories	(Reiner Schürmann)
83	-	90	Lecture 8: The Categorial and the Creedal Concepts of Ideology	(Reiner Schürmann)
91	-	95	Lecture 9: The Heterogeneity between Being and Consciousness	(Reiner Schürmann)
97	-	114	Conclusion: Anti-Humanism	(Reiner Schürmann)
115	-	129	Notes	(Reiner Schürmann)
131	-	147	Afterword: On Transcendental Materialism	(Malte Fabian Rauch, Nicolas Schneider)
148			Plan of the Course
149	-	157	Tentative Chronology of Reiner Schu¨rmann’s Courses at the New School for Social Research
158	-	159	Lecture Notes of Reiner Schu¨rmann at the NSSR—Pierre Adler’s Inventory (1994)
160			Editorial Statement

Über Autor(innen)

Rauch, Malte Fabian
Malte Fabian Rauch is a Berlin based writer and editor. His work focuses on recent continental philosophy, contemporary art and aesthetics, as well as media and design theory. After studying in Hamburg, London and at the New School in New York, he currently works in the interdisciplinary research project “Cultures of Critique” at the Leuphana University Lüneburg.

Schürmann, Reiner
Reiner Schürmann wurde 1941 in Amsterdam geboren und verbrachte seine Kindheit und Jugend in Krefeld. Ab 1960 studierte er Philosophie in München, unterbrochen durch einen Aufenthalt in einem israelischen Kibbuz. 1961 trat er als Novize bei den Dominikanern in Frankreich ein und studierte von 1962–69 Theologie im Saulchoir, Essonne, bei Paris, unterbrochen durch einen Studienaufenthalt in Freiburg i. Br. bei Heidegger. 1970 wurde er zum Dominikanerpriester ordiniert, verließ den Orden 1975 jedoch wieder. Seit den frühen siebziger Jahren lebte Schürmann in den USA und wurde 1975 von Hannah Arendt und Hans Jonas an die New School for Social Research in New York berufen. 1993 starb Reiner Schürmann an Aids. Sein umfangreiches philosophisches Werk verfasste Schürmann in französischer Sprache.

Schneider, Nicolas
Nicolas Schneider Nicolas Schneider arbeitet zur Philosophie nach Kant, Kritischen Theorie und Phänomenologie. Im Anschluss an seine Promotion in Philosophie an der Kingston University London, UK, lehrte er an der Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Derzeit ist er wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Universität Lüneburg.