Organic Marxism

Discussion

Philip Clayton:

"The links between traditional Chinese thought and process philosophy have long been recognized. Concerning the second, we have attempted to show how process philosophy helps to transform modernist Marxism into Organic Marxism. The third connection is particularly urgent; we need to show how Chinese traditional wisdom can play an important role in Organic Marxism. For example, we note that the most significant recent school in Marxist studies, Ecological Marxism, rarely mentions the Chinese traditions. We hope that our constructive proposal in the book will help to overcome that limitation.

Alfred North Whitehead is as central to process thought as Marx is to socialism. We believe that Whitehead is important for Organic Marxism in two ways. On the one hand, he helped to convince Western thinkers in the twentieth century that process is central to both science and human experience, in the way that the I Jing convinced Chinese philosophers of the same conclusion. On the other hand, Whitehead’s challenge to either/or thinking in politics helped to open the door for postmodern Marxism."

(https://www.openhorizons.org/8203organic-marxism-process-philosophy-and-chinese-thought.html)

More information

* Book: Philip Clayton and Justin Heinzekehr. Organic Marxism: An Alternative to Capitalism and Ecological Catastrophe. Process Century Press, 2014

URL = https://processcenturypress.com/organic-marxism-an-alternative-to-capitalism-and-ecological-catastrophe/ [1]

"This revolutionary book fuses the enduring legacy of socialism—government for the common good—with the best of the environmental movement and the newest insights from sustainability studies. The result is a manifesto in the tradition of Bill McKibben’s Eaarth—a roadmap forward in the face of the growing environmental catastrophe, which is the most complex crisis humanity has ever faced. Catherine Keller writes, “What an unexpected, discomforting and important work! If Marxism seemed to be abandoned in the West to a few academic leftists and nostalgic activists, the authors bring it roaring back into relevance.” American conservatives like to say that Marxism was destroyed by its opponents and by the mistakes of Marxist governments. Organic Marxism provides the definitive answer to this charge."

• From the First Enligthenment of Reason To the Second Enlightenment of Beauty