Article Subjects and Geography: Philosophy
The Dialectics of Ecology and Ecological Civilization
April 1, 2025
This article will be released in full online April 7, 2025.
What is ecological civilization? In this article, Chen Yiwen presents a dialectical analysis that illuminates the theoretical and practical elements of ecological civilization, particularly as it develops in the context of China. In China, she notes, significant progress has been made, but there remain outstanding questions that must be resolved during the transition to an ecologically harmonious society that promotes global equality and human flourishing.
Western Marxism and Imperialism: A Dialogue
March 1, 2025
John Bellamy Foster and Gabriel Rockhill assess the history and influence of Western Marxism, defined not geographically, but by a rejection of the Marxism developed in the Soviet Union, in the Global South, and even in classical Marxism. This strain of Marxist thought, birthed in the imperial core, represents a concession to the dominance of U.S. ideology, rather than to correct the pressing issues confronting society today.
The Necessity of a Universal Project
March 1, 2025
In this excerpt from Ellen Meiksins Wood’s In Defense of History, Wood appraises the state of postmodern thought in the late twentieth century. “Today’s postmodernism,” Wood writes, “for all of its apparently defeatist pessimism, is still rooted in the ‘Golden Age of Capitalism.’ It’s time to leave that legacy behind and face today’s realities.”
Arghiri Emmanuel and Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future Relevance
March 1, 2025
Torkil Lauesen delves into the legacy of celebrated Arghiri Emmanuel, whose theory of unequal exchange resonates well into the twenty-first century. Introduced in 1962, Emmanuel’s critique of Ricardian and neoliberal capitalism further illuminated the Marxist concept value as it relates to global exchange and the ongoing exploitation of the Global South by the Global North.
Was Karl Marx a Degrowth Communist?
June 1, 2024
Brian M. Napoletano considers the implications of recent work by Kohei Saito, in which Saito argues that Marx’s thought progressed from early productivism to middle-stage ecosocialism, and finally to degrowth communism. Napoletano concludes, that in arguing for an artificially contrived “epistemological break” between Marx’s supposed early growth-oriented perspective and his later purported “degrowth communism,” Saito fails to recognize Marx’s actual consistent emphasis throughout his work on a dialectically conceived process of sustainable human development, requiring a true social and ecological revolution.
On the Misery of Left Nietzscheanism, or Philosophy as Irrationalist Ideology
April 1, 2024
Matthew Sharpe discusses Aymeric Monville’s Misère du nietzschéisme de gauche (The Misery of Left Nietzscheanism), an exploration of how Nietzsche’s popularity on the left co-opts truly radical energy in favor of authoritarianism and elitism. “If Monville is right,” Sharpe concludes, “Nietzcheanism has acted as a kind of ideological ‘useful idiot.'”
Engels for Our Times: Gender, Social Reproduction, and Revolution
March 1, 2024
Marnie Holborow is associate faculty at Dublin City University and the author of Homes in Crisis Capitalism, recently published by Bloomsbury. She is a socialist activist living in Dublin, Ireland…. READ MORE
The Case for Socialist Veganism
February 1, 2024
Benjamin Selwyn is a professor of international relations and international development at the University of Sussex. He is the author of The Struggle for Development (2017), The Global Development Crisis… READ MORE
The Dialectics of Ecology: An Introduction
January 1, 2024
This is the introduction to John Bellamy Foster, The Dialectics of Ecology: Society and Nature (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2024). All nature is in a perpetual state of flux.…… READ MORE