If history has no iron laws, where does determinism end and responsibility begin, and can Marxism have a human face?
23 claims from this lecture, in the order Marci Shore makes them, with the 7 terms it leans on and its 12 links to other lectures.
... man is essentially a being of praxis.
Mihailo Marković, 1975. The epigraph Shore gives this lecture.
By number of claims in this lecture.
Shore’s own judgments and connections
The 5 claims the lecture spends most time on.
For Shore, revisionist Marxism turns on a dialogue between opposite journeys meeting in the sixties: Sartre moving from radical freedom toward Marxist determinism, East European philosophers from Stalinism toward existentialism.
Put simply Shore: 1960s "revisionist Marxism" grew from two journeys in opposite directions meeting. Sartre moved from radical freedom toward Marxist determinism, the belief that history follows fixed laws; East European philosophers moved from Stalinism toward existentialism.
Shore describes revisionism as peeling an onion: shed Stalin as distortion, Lenin as its suspected root, the deterministic late Marx for the younger, assuming Marx himself must hold the answers.
Put simply Shore likens revisionism to peeling an onion: set aside Stalin as a distortion, then Lenin as its suspected root, then the late Marx's iron laws for the young Marx, still assuming Marx holds the answers.
"We are communist," Kołakowski writes, not from having recognized communism as historically necessary but from having sided with the oppressed, the poor, the persecuted.
Humans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is.
Put simply Marković: what makes us human is "praxis", free and creative activity through which we change the world and develop our abilities. "Alienation" is the gap between what a person could be and what they actually are.
Kosík's 1967 parable: a jailed reformer, advised to agree if the council called him one-eyed, replied that denying reason betrays conscience: his lens on the show trials.
Put simply Kosík's 1967 story: an imprisoned religious reformer was told to agree if a church council said he had one eye. He answered that denying what reason shows betrays conscience. Kosík used this to think about the show trials.
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Already in Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946), Sartre is warm toward Marxism and the Russian Revolution, yet cannot bring himself to join the Party: a sympathizer, not a member.
By 1960, Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason opens by declaring Marxism "the unsurpassable philosophy of our time"; existentialism's job is to supply what Marx left unsaid.
For Shore, revisionist Marxism turns on a dialogue between opposite journeys meeting in the sixties: Sartre moving from radical freedom toward Marxist determinism, East European philosophers from Stalinism toward existentialism.
Put simply Shore: 1960s "revisionist Marxism" grew from two journeys in opposite directions meeting. Sartre moved from radical freedom toward Marxist determinism, the belief that history follows fixed laws; East European philosophers moved from Stalinism toward existentialism.
Phenomenology cheats, Lukács holds. Philosophy must begin from the object, as Marx does, or from the subject, as idealism does; starting with the relation between them is no third way.
Put simply Lukács: phenomenology cheats. Philosophy must start either from the world of objects, as Marx does, or from the mind, as idealists do. Starting from the link between mind and world is no honest third option.
What made Khrushchev's 1956 speech so shattering for believers, in Shore's reading, was that Stalin had stood for History itself, infallible; now he was revealed as a fallible man.
Put simply Shore: Khrushchev, Stalin's successor, told the Party in 1956 that Stalin had made errors. For believers who saw Stalin as the embodiment of History and its iron laws, that was shattering: he was a fallible man after all.
Žižek finds the whole Stalinist-fascist difference in one small gesture: the fascist leader accepts applause as his own; the Stalinist claps along, since it is really for History, his master.
Put simply Žižek sums up how Stalinist and fascist leaders differ in one gesture. The fascist takes the crowd's applause as his own. The Stalinist claps too, since the applause is really for History, his master.
Shore describes revisionism as peeling an onion: shed Stalin as distortion, Lenin as its suspected root, the deterministic late Marx for the younger, assuming Marx himself must hold the answers.
Put simply Shore likens revisionism to peeling an onion: set aside Stalin as a distortion, then Lenin as its suspected root, then the late Marx's iron laws for the young Marx, still assuming Marx holds the answers.
The revisionists' every question, Shore argues, varies one theme: how much room did history's iron laws really leave for agency? The answer fixes their guilt for cheering the purges.
Put simply Shore: every question the revisionists asked came down to one. How much freedom to choose did history's "iron laws" really leave people? The answer decided how guilty they were for cheering the purges.
Human beings are, in Kołakowski's phrase, the "sole creators of values," and this holds whether one affirms or denies a deterministic account of the world.
Put simply Kołakowski: people alone create values. That stays true whether or not you believe history is fixed in advance.
No one escapes responsibility by pleading that their own actions were merely one fragment of history's larger course; Kołakowski refuses that excuse.
"We are communist," Kołakowski writes, not from having recognized communism as historically necessary but from having sided with the oppressed, the poor, the persecuted.
Shore sees the Praxis Group's real preoccupation as overcoming alienation through praxis, a word they nearly fetishize: action that is partly self-chosen, theoretically informed and existentially fulfilling, not mere thinking.
Put simply Shore: the Yugoslav Praxis Group's real concern was overcoming alienation, the gap between what people are and what they could be, through "praxis," a word they almost worshiped: action partly self-chosen, guided by theory, and fulfilling, not mere thinking.
One concrete idea to come out of Yugoslavia's Praxis Group was that workers should manage their factories themselves.
Humans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is.
Put simply Marković: what makes us human is "praxis", free and creative activity through which we change the world and develop our abilities. "Alienation" is the gap between what a person could be and what they actually are.
Only socialist revolution counts as revolution "in its deepest and fullest sense," Petrović argues: not swapping one exploitation for a more progressive one, but abolishing all exploitation and self-alienation.
Put simply Petrović: a real revolution does not swap one kind of exploitation for a better one. It ends all exploitation and all the ways people are estranged from themselves. Only socialist revolution is revolution in that fullest sense.
In Kundera's telling, the Czechoslovak communists took power in February 1948 without bloodshed, cheered on by about half the population: "the more dynamic, the more intelligent, the better half."
With only Stalinist language to criticize Stalinism, Shore argues, Czechoslovakia's writers began by setting word against word, borrowing from Heidegger and Sartre: conscience beside class consciousness, persons beside the people.
Put simply Shore: Czechoslovak writers had only Stalinist language to criticize Stalinism. So they began setting words against each other, borrowing from Heidegger and Sartre: "conscience" beside "class consciousness", individual persons beside "the people".
People are thrown into a history already moving on its own, yet they also act within it: individual and history shape each other in an interactive model.
Put simply Kosík: we are born into a history already moving under its own steam, yet we also act within it. People and history shape each other.
If iron laws drive history inexorably toward a goal, how can that be squared with human striving, or with human activity meaning anything? Kosík holds this antinomy still unresolved.
Put simply Kosík: if fixed laws drive history unstoppably toward a goal, how can human effort matter or mean anything? He thinks no one has yet resolved this contradiction.
Kosík's 1967 parable: a jailed reformer, advised to agree if the council called him one-eyed, replied that denying reason betrays conscience: his lens on the show trials.
Put simply Kosík's 1967 story: an imprisoned religious reformer was told to agree if a church council said he had one eye. He answered that denying what reason shows betrays conscience. Kosík used this to think about the show trials.
When reason and conscience lose their unity, Kosík warns, what follows is nihilism: a slide into nothingness.
Put simply Kosík warns that when reason and conscience stop going together, the result is "nihilism": a slide into nothingness.
At the 1967 Writers' Congress, addressing Party leaders as persons, not officials, Vaculík admits, in Shore's rendering, that if asked whether that beautiful Marxist dream can be realized, he honestly does not know.
For Shore, Vaculík's admission at the 1967 writers' congress was the most radical statement made there: to voice doubt about history's iron laws at all.
3 of these 7 first come up in this lecture. Definitions are our paraphrase.
Where a claim here answers an earlier lecture, and where a later lecture answers a claim here. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
HegelFor Hegel the subjective is nearly a term of abuse: freedom means recognizing necessity, identifying with history's objective movement until you stop wanting it otherwise. L5 · 12:06
KołakowskiHuman beings are, in Kołakowski's phrase, the "sole creators of values," and this holds whether one affirms or denies a deterministic account of the world. L18 · 27:20
Reinstates subjective value-creation against Hegelian contempt for "the subjective"Our inference
MarxFactory work estranges workers from labor itself: hired by the hour, tending machines, performing one fragment of a process whose finished product is never theirs. L5 · 29:36
MarkovićHumans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is. L18 · 32:15
Rereads Marx's alienation existentially, via Sartre: the gap between actual existence and potential essence
MarxFactory work estranges workers from labor itself: hired by the hour, tending machines, performing one fragment of a process whose finished product is never theirs. L5 · 29:36
PetrovićOnly socialist revolution counts as revolution "in its deepest and fullest sense," Petrović argues: not swapping one exploitation for a more progressive one, but abolishing all exploitation and self-alienation. L18 · 34:52
Real revolution must abolish self-alienation, not just swap ruling classesOur inference
ShoreShore poses a Calvinist-style puzzle for classical Marxism: if the proletariat is predestined to win anyway, why act at all? That is the problem Lenin will take up. L5 · 49:31
KosíkIf iron laws drive history inexorably toward a goal, how can that be squared with human striving, or with human activity meaning anything? Kosík holds this antinomy still unresolved. L18 · 42:00
Names the same unresolved antinomy: iron laws of history vs moral responsibilityOur inference
MarxClass consciousness, in Marx's near-technical sense, is the moment workers grasp both that the bourgeoisie exploits them and that nothing short of worldwide violent revolt will end it. L5 · 43:12
ShoreWith only Stalinist language to criticize Stalinism, Shore argues, Czechoslovakia's writers began by setting word against word, borrowing from Heidegger and Sartre: conscience beside class consciousness, persons beside the people. L18 · 39:16
Czech writers pair class-consciousness with conscience, borrowing existentialist terms
MarxCommunism, for Marx, is what history's laws must produce, not a wish: hence his contempt for utopian socialists like Fourier and Saint-Simon, who merely hope for a kinder world. L8 · 14:11
Kołakowski"We are communist," Kołakowski writes, not from having recognized communism as historically necessary but from having sided with the oppressed, the poor, the persecuted. L18 · 28:22
Replaces claimed historical necessity with a moral choice to side with the oppressed.
MarxCommunism, for Marx, is what history's laws must produce, not a wish: hence his contempt for utopian socialists like Fourier and Saint-Simon, who merely hope for a kinder world. L8 · 14:11
Kołakowski"We are communist," Kołakowski writes, not from having recognized communism as historically necessary but from having sided with the oppressed, the poor, the persecuted. L18 · 28:22
Commitment is a moral choice for the oppressed, not a deduction from historical necessity
MarxCommunism, for Marx, is what history's laws must produce, not a wish: hence his contempt for utopian socialists like Fourier and Saint-Simon, who merely hope for a kinder world. L8 · 14:11
ShoreFor Shore, Vaculík's admission at the 1967 writers' congress was the most radical statement made there: to voice doubt about history's iron laws at all. L18 · 46:41
Admitting doubt about the "Marxist dream" breaks with scientific certainty
HeideggerDasein's condition is thrownness (Geworfenheit): it lands, with a kind of violence, in a time and place it never chose, with no before and no outside from which to consent. L12 · 31:33
KosíkPeople are thrown into a history already moving on its own, yet they also act within it: individual and history shape each other in an interactive model. L18 · 41:09
Shore says Kosík rereads Marx and Hegel through Heidegger, yielding the idea that we are always already thrown into history yet act within it.
SartreThe for-itself (pour-soi) is consciousness as an activity, not a thing: a fluid negating of what one has been, reaching past the given into the future to do something different. L13 · 35:49
MarkovićHumans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is. L18 · 32:15
Shore hears echoes of Sartre's for-itself, the going beyond, in Marković's account of alienation as the gap between actual existence and potential essence.
KosíkIf iron laws drive history inexorably toward a goal, how can that be squared with human striving, or with human activity meaning anything? Kosík holds this antinomy still unresolved. L18 · 42:00
ShoreShore's own illustration of aporia is the Stalinist terror: everyone had to watch ceaselessly for enemies lurking anywhere, even as history's iron laws supposedly guaranteed the communist future. L22 · 38:30
The antinomy of iron laws versus responsibility reappears as the aporia of Stalinist vigilanceOur inference
KołakowskiNo one escapes responsibility by pleading that their own actions were merely one fragment of history's larger course; Kołakowski refuses that excuse. L18 · 28:00
HavelHavel's greengrocer is not powerless, which makes him answerable and so guilty: it is people like him whose compliance keeps the game going. L23 · 42:07
Havel extends Kołakowski's universal responsibility to complicity: everyone sustaining the system shares its guilt.Our inference
Throughlines that pass through this lecture.
As they come up in the lecture.
Manifesto of the Communist Party Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
History and Class Consciousness
Munich Conference: Chamberlain (with Daladier and Mussolini) cedes the Sudetenland to Hitler, promising "peace for our time".
Darkness at Noon Sonnenfinsternis
Existentialism Is a Humanism L'existentialisme est un humanisme
Red Army liberates Prague.
Yalta Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin divide Europe into spheres of influence.
Communists win 38% (a plurality) in free Czechoslovak elections.
Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia.
Stalinist show trials (1948–1953) replay the Soviet terror of 1937 across Eastern Europe.
Slánský trial and executions in Prague (Otto Katz among the condemned).
Death of Stalin.
Congress of the Czechoslovak Writers Union responds to the Secret Speech.
Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" at the 20th Party Congress.
Responsibility and History
Kołakowski publishes "Responsibility and History" at age 30.
Critique of Dialectical Reason Critique de la raison dialectique
Dialectics of the Concrete Dialektika konkrétního
Korčula Summer School (Praxis Group), Croatia: Marcuse, Bloch, Fromm, Habermas, Lefebvre and Eugen Fink among the attendees.
The Dialectic of Morality and the Morality of the Dialectic
Praxis journal and the Yugoslav Praxis Group are active.
Reason and Conscience
Fourth Czechoslovak Writers' Congress: Kosík's "Reason and Conscience," Vaculík's admission of doubt.
Prague Spring: Dubček's "socialism with a human face".
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia ends the Prague Spring.
Humanism and Revolution
Secret police confiscate Kosík's manuscripts; he writes to Sartre, who responds in Le Monde.