Negativity as the Compass of Revolution: A Marxist Rejection of the No-Alternative Ethos

• Autores: Saladdin Ahmed
• Localización: Science and society, ISSN 0036-8237, Vol. 86, Nº. 3, 2022 (Ejemplar dedicado a: MARXISM IN OUR TIME), págs. 409-438
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • While the famous Thatcherian slogan “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) has been widely internalized, Marxism remains capable of negating capitalism. The no-alternative ethos may be countered, from a Marxian philosophical perspective, by means of a negativity thesis framed around the following two intertwined arguments. First, capitalist hegemony is itself a reason for a revolutionary project that aims at a world in which alternatives are not thought to be impossible. Second, Marxism does not offer a prefigurative model for communism, and this is not a shortcoming but a merit: communism cannot be known positively under the limiting conditions of capitalism. Given that communism is historical, expecting an a priori model of the communist society amounts to committing an idealist fallacy.