Everything is always changingour ideas, wills, and opinions. What is true today may not be true tomorrow; whatever we see as true at a given moment is not objectively so but rather represents the victory of a particular will and opinion against the others working within us. We are constantly changing goal posts and competing for dominance. A number of philosophers have asserted that an in-depth study of the history of philosophy reveals bitter enmities among philosophers arguing for their ideas from which emerge conflicting philosophies in the form of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. As clearly traced in this book, it started with the philosophies of Heracleitus against Parmenides, Plato against the Sophists, Descartes against the empiricists, Catholic scholastics and Hume against Descartes, Kant against Hume. The line continues to African philosophers against Western philosophers, to the utilitarians against pragmatists. This book, presenting one of the most in-depth studies on Hegelian dialectic, illustrates in a very unique way that the disagreement between various philosophers and their philosophieswhen adequately understoodillustrates not conflict but the growth and development of philosophy toward objective and absolute truth. One needs to understand how Hegelian dialectic works in its triadic movement to be able to grasp how it is inherent in every sphere of life, the most being in politics and evolution of the forms of governance that is at the center of discussion in this must-read book.

Everything is always changing--our ideas, wills, and opinions. What is true today may not be true tomorrow; whatever we see as "true" at a given moment is not objectively so but rather represents the victory of a particular will and opinion against the others working within us. We are constantly changing goal posts and competing for dominance. A number of philosophers have asserted that an in-depth study of the history of philosophy reveals bitter enmities among philosophers arguing for their ideas from which emerge conflicting philosophies in the form of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. As clearly traced in this book, it started with the philosophies of Heracleitus against Parmenides, Plato against the Sophists, Descartes against the empiricists, Catholic scholastics and Hume against Descartes, Kant against Hume. The line continues to African philosophers against Western philosophers, to the utilitarians against pragmatists. This book, presenting one of the most in-depth studies on Hegelian dialectic, illustrates in a very unique way that the disagreement between various philosophers and their philosophies--when adequately understood--illustrates not conflict but the growth and development of philosophy toward objective and absolute truth. One needs to understand how Hegelian dialectic works in its triadic movement to be able to grasp how it is inherent in every sphere of life, the most being in politics and evolution of the forms of governance that is at the center of discussion in this must-read book.

It has been nearly two centuries since Marx famously turned Hegel on his head in order to repurpose dialectics as a revolutionary way of thinking about the internal contradictions of our social relations. Despite critiques from post-structuralists, post-colonialists, and others, there has been a resurgence of dialectical thought among political theorists as of late. This resurgence has coincided with a rise in the mention of words like class warfare, socialism, and communism among the general public on the streets of Seattle in 1999, in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in the actions of the Greek anarchists and the Spanish indignados, and in the rallying cry of "we are the 99%" of the Occupy Movement, and in academia. This book explores how it is that dialectical thought might respond to the critiques brought forth by those on the left who are critical of Marxism’s universalizing and authoritarian legacy. Brian C. Lovato singles out Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe as the key interlocutors in this ongoing conversation between Marxism and post-structuralism. Laclau and Mouffe argue that Marxist theory is inherently authoritarian, cannot escape a class-reductionist theory of revolutionary subjectivity, and is bound by a closed Hegelian ontology. Lovato argues the opposite by turning to two heterodox Marxist thinkers, Raya Dunayevskaya and C. L. R. James, in order to construct a radically democratic, dynamic, and open conceptualization of dialectical thought. In doing so, he advances a vision of Marxist theory that might serve as a resource to scholars and activists committed not only to combatting capitalism, but also to fighting against colonialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and heteronormativity. The writings of Dunayevskaya and James allow for Marxism to become relevant again in these tumultuous early years of the 21st century.

Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization is an exploration of Hegel’s dialectic and its radical re-creation in Marx’s thought within the context of revolutions and revolutionary organizations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Does a dialectic in philosophy itself bring forth a dialectic in revolutionary organization? This question is explored via organizational practices in the Paris Commune, the 2nd International, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-37 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, as well as the theoretical-organizational concepts of such thinkers as Lassalle, Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Pannekoek. “What Philosophic-Organizational Vantage Point Is Needed for Revolutionary Transformation Today?” is examined by engaging the theoretical arguments of a number of thinkers. Among them: Adorno, Dunayevskaya, Hardt and Negri, Holloway, Lebowitz, Lukcás, Mészáros and Postone.

In The Vitality of Contradiction, Bruce Gilbert provides an exposition of Hegel's political philosophy to establish not only that societies fail because of their contradictions, but also how the unsurpassable oppositions of social life cultivate freedom. He moves beyond Hegel's works to consider the limits of liberal-capitalism and the contemporary social movements around the world that stretch us beyond the global economic system. Drawing on key Hegel texts such as Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right, Gilbert shows how societies outgrow themselves as they come to recognize key aspects of freedom and justice. He argues that the dialectic requires that we recognize how liberal-capitalism has both cultivated freedom and yet fails to lead us to more sophisticated forms of freedom. Gilbert also highlights organizations including Brazil's Movement of Landless Workers and the Mondragon cooperative in Spain and the sophisticated ways in which they are teaching the world new and better ways to be free. Engaging and perceptive, The Vitality of Contradiction illuminates the basic principles behind Hegel's political thought and indicates the ways in which his work encourages people to strive for a form of socialist democracy.

Dialectics and Contemporary Politics recasts dialectical thought for a post-Marxist age in which labour movement politics is just one political option among many. The book is organized thematically around concepts such as immanent critique, ideology, experience, and resistance, and according to figures who are vital to the present trajectory of dialectics, including Hegel, Adorno, Foucault, Jameson and Žizek. New analysis of these concepts and theorists is used to show how they transform our understanding of social life as well as offer a way of understanding social transformation. Interspersed throughout this theoretical work are dialectical examinations of political phenomena from tolerance, democracy, and the rise of Barack Obama, to state-economy relations as well as those of power and resistance. A radical and often revolutionary theory of society is pursued that is no longer confined to the terms of Marxism or any other school of thought. In this regard a novel advance is made by presenting the history of dialectical criticism as an ‘anti-tradition,’ which is defined as a practice that is characterized by a history of discontinuity, discord, and incompatible applications. A theory of dialectics emerges that is flexible, coherent, and which can account for much more than capitalism and class politics. This work will be of great interest to all scholars of Marxism, critical theory, social and political theory and political philosophy

Much of contemporary philosophy, political theory, and social thought has been shaped directly or indirectly by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, though there is considerable disagreement about how his work should be understood. He has been described both as a metaphysician and characterized as an ironic narrator who anticipated the character of philosophy after metaphysics. His position is equally ambiguous with regard to his political thought. He has been construed both as an enemy of the liberal state and as a friend of freedom. This volume's revisionist reassessment, building on the scholarship of Klaus Hartmann, explores these ambiguities in favor of a non-metaphysical reading of Hegel's arguments. It also shows how the foundations of his political thought support a liberal democratic state. This reappraisal of Hegel's arguments resituates him as a philosopher who anticipates the difficulties of post-modernity and offers a basis for reassessing ontology, aesthetics, and revolution. Philosophers and those doing work in political theory will find this volume of great interest.

The world is facing a wave of uprisings, protests and revolutions: Arab dictators swept away, public spaces occupied, slum-dwellers in revolt, cyberspace buzzing with utopian dreams. Events we were told were consigned to history—democratic revolt and social revolution—are being lived by millions of people. In this compelling new book, Paul Mason explores the causes and consequences of this great unrest. From Cairo to Athens, Wall Street and Westminster to Manila, Mason goes in search of the changes in society, technology and human behavior that have propelled a generation onto the streets in search of social justice. In a narrative that blends historical insight with first-person reportage, Mason shines a light on these new forms of activism, from the vast, agile networks of cyberprotest to the culture wars and tent camps of the #occupy movement. The events, says Mason, reflect the expanding power of the individual and call for new political alternatives to elite rule and global poverty.

Raya Dunayevskaya is hailed as the founder of Marxist-Humanism in the United States. After breaking with Leon Trotsky in 1939 and heading west, Dunayevskaya labeled Stalin's Russia a totalitarian state-capitalist society. In this new collection of her essays co-editors Peter Hudis and Kevin Anderson have crafted a work in which the true power and originality of Dunayevskaya's ideas are displayed.

When the Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic György Lukács returned to Hungary from Moscow after World War II, he engaged in a highly active phase of writing and speaking about the democratic culture needed to exorcise the remnants of fascism and to create the conditions for the advance of socialism in Central Europe. His essays of the period, including the influential volume Literature and Democracy, appear here for the first time in English translation. Engaged with questions of realist and modernist world-views in art, the relations of literary history to politics and social history, and the role of cultural intellectuals in public life, these essays offer a new look at one of the most influential Marxist thinkers of the twentieth century.