Jim, thank you very much for this illuminating background knowledge. Dogan
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Farmelant <farmela...@juno.com> To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu CC: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Sent: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 15:27 Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [politicalaffairs] Re: Political Affairs Magazine - The Concept of " Aura" and the Question of Art in Althusser, Benjamin and Greenberg n Sat, 7 Feb 2009 05:30:54 -0800 (PST) Mehmet Cagatay mehmetcagatayay...@yahoo.com> writes: Mr. Dumain, would you please clarify why you regard Althusserian anti-humanism as a kind of "epater les bourgeois"? The whole debate seems peculiarly French to me. n France since the 19th century humanism was een as something that was closely tied to he bourgeoisie. Even someone like Sartre truggled over whether he was a humanist r not. He eventually decided that his xistentialism was a kind of humanism, ut one that was different from the kinds f humanism that the bourgeoisie typically mbraced. In Sartre's case, I think he dentified conventional bourgeois humanism ith essentialism. Those humanisms osited a human essence, whereas for artre, existence preceded essence. In the French debates over humanism n the 1960s and 1970s, structuralists nd poststructuralists like Levi-Strauss, ouis Althusser, and Michel Foucault ttempted to push the critique of humanism uch further than Sartre had been willing o go. Sartre's existentialism, as he realized, as still a humanism. He placed free will t the center of his conception of man. eople, regardless of the circumstances hat they might find themselves in, still etained their freedom, if only the reedom to redefine their situation n alternative ways. The French nti-humanists questioned this view n light of such developments in the uman sciences like structural linguistics which Levi-Strauss to generalize into complete anthropology), psychoanalysis i.e. the work of Lacan which enjoyed reat currency in this period), and of ourse, Marxism. Althusser, was f course, a Marxist and long time ember of the PCF. Foucault, ho had been a student of Althusser, as a member of the PCF for a brief eriod of time. By the 1950s, he had enounced Marxism in favor of Nietzscheanism, lthough his work was still very much nfluenced by Marxism. Levi-Strauss, believed, identified himself at this time s a Marxist, although his work doesn't trike me as being particularly Marxist. There were certainly differences in viewpoints etween these people. Althusser doesn't eem to have been particularly enamored ith Levi-Strauss's work, and he didn't ike being called a structuralist. However, ll these people's work, whether drawing rom Saussure, Freud, Marx, Nietzsche, r Heidegger, all had certain themes in ommon. They all rejected the Sartrean mphasis on human freedom, instead mphasizing the extent to which human ehavior is determined by structures f various sorts, whether these be inguistic structures, kinship structures, tructures of epistemology (Foucault n this *The Order of Things*), social tructures as represented by20the ode of production and associated uperstructures (i.e. Althusser), and o forth. They all rejected the traditional umanist idea that their exists an unchanging uman essence which provides the basis or freedom and equality and human rights. or the French antihumanists, this conception as rejected as being ideological and/or etaphysical, and they drew variously pon Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, n their critiques of humanism. Thank you in advance, Mehmet Çagatay http://weblogmca.blogspot.com/ --- On Fri, 2/6/09, Ralph Dumain <rdum...@autodidactproject.org> wrote: > Althusserian and French anti-humanism in general > is bullshit, the French intellectual's way of, as > they say, epater les bourgeois. If "humanism" > alludes to something else, then that should be > decoded. And I think Tedman is quite mistaken. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___________________________________________________________ lick now for easy qualification on auto loans even with bad credit! ttp://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw4DjCERYK5gSSDrHjS4uhluxNytJa9bOdnXQvteZtsjDX5AF/ _______________________________________________ arxism-Thaxis mailing list arxism-tha...@lists.econ.utah.edu o change your options or unsubscribe go to: ttp://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis _____________________________________________________ ___________________ AOL Email goes Mobile! You can now read your AOL Emails whilst on the move. Sign up for a free AOL Email account with unlimited storage today. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
