Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences) [Paperback]

Chris Matthew Sciabarra (Author)

Book Description

Series: Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences | Publication Date: July 31, 1995

This book develops a critique of utopianism through a provocative comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, thus engaging two vastly different traditions in critical dialogue. By emphasizing the methodological and substantive similarities between Marxian and Hayekian perspectives, it challenges each tradition's most precious assumptions about the other. Through this comparative analysis, the book articulates the crucial distinctions between utopian and radical theorizing. Sciabarra examines the dialectical method of social inquiry common to both Marxian and Hayekian thought and argues that both Marx and Hayek rejected utopian theorizing because it internalizes an abstract, ahistorical, exaggerated sense of human possibility. The chief disagreement between Marx and Hayek, he shows, is not political but epistemological, reflecting their differing assumptions about the limits of reason.

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About the Author

Chris Matthew Sciabarra is Visiting Scholar in the Department of Politics at New York University. He is the author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (July 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791426165
• ISBN-13: 978-0791426166
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,741,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended; a very nice study of a useful subject., September 3, 1997

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[e-mail] (Columbus, Ohio US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences) (Paperback)

Utopianism is a term which conjures up many thoughts. It is most often used to mean the designing of plans for society which are unrealizable according to their own standards of value. While this is certainly a sound general usage, a more specific set of illustrations are useful to show the *roots* of utopianism. The roots of utopianism, the qualities that constitute utopian thought throughout history (from Plato to Rawls), are the specific fallacies of thought that show in utopianism - reification, dualism, constructivism, etc.

Sciabarra gives a sound exposition of the original critiques of utopianism by Karl Marx and F.A. Hayek and thus proceeds to show how two unique and radical thinkers were able to legitimately separate their radicalism from utopianism.

Beyond the issue of radicalism vs. utopianism Sciabarra's book is also a useful auxilliary to a comparison of historical similarities between radical thought of Hayek, Marx, and the theorists influenced by them.

Sciabarra's main original thesis here is that Marx and Hayek are related by their (implicit or explicit) commitment to a doctrine of internal relations which is also called dialectic. Dialectical analysis rejects many of the traditional ontological dualisms of political science - holism (organicism) vs. atomism, criticism vs. action and commits itself to examining the dynamic relationships that define the thought and action; therefore the being of things. Relationships are not external to agents, dialectically speaking, but they are internal to and inseparable from what it means to be an agent - a socially constituted being with realms of choice, consent, resistance, and emancipation available. Thus we can begin to eliminate the aforementioned haunting dualisms.

This book is also useful beyond presenting an original thesis. It offers some very accessible explanations of Marx and Hayek's thought on economics, psychology, and humanity's capability to collectively construct its own future. The last chapter also offers a discussion of the radical psychology of Habermas and Wainwright and it's applicability to radical projects - of the left or right.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular and compelling., December 29, 1998

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[e-mail] Ioannis K... (Austin, Texas. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences) (Paperback)

A compulsory book to read for any social theorist. Question of social planning and limits of epistimology are especially actual in today's world of globalization.