Marx's Dream: From Capitalism to Communism by Tom Rockmore

Author:Tom Rockmore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

PART THREE

On the Practice of Marx’s Theory, or the Transition from Capitalism to Communism

The theme of theory and practice originates in ancient Greece and takes a number of different forms in the Western philosophical tradition. They include, as already noted, Rousseau’s concern with freedom in modern world, Kant’s moral theory, Hegel’s political solution, and Marx’s approach. According to Marx his approach differs in that it is intended to be theoretical as well as practical. Marx famously distinguishes between theories that interpret but do not change practice and theories that interpret as well as change practice.

Marx’s aim in changing the world is not limited to the transition from capitalism to communism, which is a means to the further end of human flourishing in the modern world. This transition requires a series of steps that have never been clarified. They include proletarian revolution, economic crisis of enormous size, the role of the party, social critique, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the withering away of the state, and so on.

Marx seems to have a number of different aims in view. A short list might include overcoming religion, a theme that Marx takes up early in his career, and which is important in Marxism, but to which he never later returns; reacting to Hegel, who in Marx’s opinion neither changes nor aims to change the world, and whom Marx perhaps has in mind in the last of the “Theses on Feuerbach”; criticizing his Young Hegelian colleagues for their misunderstandings of Hegel as well as their inability to come to grips with the social surroundings; formulating an alternative theory of modern industrial society compatible with his concern to bring about human flourishing, and so on.

It is clear that Marx intends to change the world by realizing his theory in practice but not clear how he intends to do it. The four possible strategies suggested in his writings rely on the proletariat, economics (or political economy), politics, and critique (or critical social theory). Each of these suggestions has its merits, and each is apparently part of the answer to the question, How can the Marxian approach to the transformation of capitalism into communism at least in theory be realized in practice?

The theories of the revolutionary proletariat and economic crisis are directly due to Marx. The political solution, which is indirectly suggested in his writings, was developed by Lenin and his associates and later further developed by Mao and his associates. The approach to basic social change through critique, which is probably best described as neither Marxian nor Marxist but not anti-Marxist, is inspired by Marx and selected Marxists.

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