Marxism: Looking Backward and Forward: Essay 9

Abstract

I am sure that I am not alone in the feeling that it is difficult to meet the important questions raised by the editors of Monthly Review in a balanced way. The segmentation of social science in various "disciplines" has effectively diminished our capabilities to conceptualize properly, beyond a more or less well-defined domain. For this reason I make no effort to appraise, say, the contributions of Marxists to philosophical thought. This segmentation, however, has done more damage than meets the eye. For even within the domain of one's so-called competence, it has tended to displace the focus of the problem, any problem, effectively disengaging it from its source, which inevitably must be sought in the unfolding unique historical process.

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