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Is Marx's Thought on Freedom Contradictory?

Kandiyali, Jan

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Authors

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Dr Jan Kandiyali jan.kandiyali@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Political Theory



Abstract

In The Longing for Total Revolution Bernard Yack argues that Marx’s thought is plagued by a recurring contradiction. On the one hand, Marx criticizes his idealist predecessors for failing to get beyond the dichotomy between human freedom and natural necessity, and he identifies labour, activity determined by the necessity of having to satisfy material needs, as the primary activity of human freedom. On the other hand, Marx’s account of what makes us distinctively human as well as his view that capitalism dehumanizes workers implicitly relies on the same dichotomy. In response, this paper argues that while Yack identifies a tension in Marx’s writings, he overlooks the resources Marx has to resolve it.

Citation

Kandiyali, J. (2021). Is Marx's Thought on Freedom Contradictory?. Critical Review, 33(2), 171-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2021.1984052

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Nov 9, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Sep 23, 2021
Publicly Available Date May 9, 2023
Journal Critical Review
Print ISSN 0891-3811
Electronic ISSN 1933-8007
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 33
Issue 2
Pages 171-183
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2021.1984052

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Accepted Journal Article (258 Kb)
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Critical Review. Kandiyali, Jan (2021). Is Marx's Thought on Freedom Contradictory? Critical Review 33(2): 171-183. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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