A Study Of Gramsci's Historicism

The purpose of this dissertation is to interpret, demonstrate, generalize and reveal the meaning, theoretical structure, characteristics, influence and inspirations of Gramsci's historicism. It consists of seven parts as follows:Chapterâ… , Gramsci and historicism. To produce a profile of historicism from the etymological, theoretical original, connotative and manifestational points. Analyze the historical source of Gramsci's historicism and the school of thought it belongs to, including the impact from Vico, Hegel, Labriola, Croce and so on. Explore the causes of Gramsci's complex of historicism from both theoretical and realistic level.Chapterâ…¡, Criticism and Reconstruction:contents of Gramsci's historicism. First, Gramsci criticizes the speculative idealist historicism of Croce and positivism Marxism of Bukharin, reveals their common theoretical flaw that deviates the integral principle of theory and practice in Marxism's historicism. Second, the illumination of the connotation of Gramsci's historicism:praxis philosophy is self-contained, Marxism philosophy cannot be simply divided into dialectical materialism and historical materialism, it is a historical theory or historical materialism which overcomes the dualism and changes the domain and themes of traditional philosophy; The essence of philosophy of praxis is the unity of theory and practice, in one word, philosophy is history, philosophy is politics, philosophy is ideology. Not only the theory and practice but also the intellectuals and masses are organic combination through the intermediary of ideology, so that attain the dialectical unity of theoretical criticism and practical criticism; Philosophy of praxis is the product of history, it changes with the history; As a methodology, historicism not only emphasizes the analysis of diachronic or process but also requires the unity of logic and history, theory and practice.Chapterâ…¢, Philosophy of praxis:the structure of Gramsci's historicism. Elaborate the concrete manifestations of historicism in Gramsci's philosophy of praxis From the view of world and history, dialectics and epistemology. In world view, praxis philosophy observes the entire world from the perspective of human society and it's practice, to exclude the outside world which separates from human practice as a religion and theology, to take the material as an integrant element of human practice, to regard nature as a social and historical category while observe it from the respective of practice or history. In the view of history, to see history as a becoming process based on practice, with the mechanical determinism, vulgar evolutionism and transcendentalism replaced by the theory of practice; highlight the human subjectivity and diversity or fortuity of history development. In dialectics, Gramsci Criticizes Croce's dialectics of distinction and Bukharin's mechanical materialism dialectics, reveals their common drawback that the dialectics is separated from reality; Marxist dialectics is a "rational dialectics" which researches the laws of history practically and takes history as its object; Gramsci only ackownledges the dialectic of humanized nature, while denies the dialectic of nature-in-itself. In epistemology, Gramsci adheres to empiricism that recognizes knowledge as continuous becoming process on the basis of practice; advocates the combination between cognitive activities and political activities to take the fighting for objectivity and truth as political activities for culture hegemony. Science of nature which belongs to superstructure, can be historicized and excavated from the behind historical and culture factors.Chapter IV, Humanism, immanence, totality:the characters of Gramsci's historicism. The characters of Gramsci's historicism are summarized as humanism, immanence and totality in this chapter. The humanism character consists in:While Gramsci criticizes the abstract humanism of Corce and the mechanical materialism that denies initiative of subject, he reveals implicit humanism from historicism of philosophy of praxis on the perspectives of human nature, values, practice, the view of history and so on. The character of immanence consists in:Both Gramsci and Croce use immanentism to criticize transcendentalism, but Gramsci's philosophy of praxis which considers theory as immanent in history and the product of history is different from Croce's immanentism which puts everything (including the theory) into the spirit. The character of totality consists in:Totality is an important methodology for exposition Gramsci's historicism. The methodology of totality not only includes an organic entirety which comprises linkages between various elements, but also includes the "whole" history of the development of organic entirety; The character of totality is imbodied in the exposition of important issues of Gramsci's historicism, such as theory and practice, philosophy and history, the intellectuals and the masses etc.Chapterâ…¤, The identity and difference of historicism:Gramsci and the Early Western Marxism. Based on the analysis of historicism mentioned in previous chapters, the paper reveals the relationships of Gramsci's Historicism and other early Western Marxists through analyzing the historicism of Lukacs and Korsch and comparing with Gramsc's. Section one, focuses on the analysis of Lukacs's historicism. With Hegel's "entity is subject", Lukacs expects to realize the unity of theory and practice through reinstating Marxist dialectics of subject and object; Lukacs emphasizes that Marxist philosophy is historical ontology and historical dialectics in criticism of natural ontology insisted by naturalism of the Second International; The stress on the method of procedure and diachronism is also an important aspect of Lukacs's historicism. Section two, aims to elaborate Korsch's historicism. By criticizing various tendencies which deny Marxist philosophy, Korsch reinstates the unity of theory and practice of Marxist dialectics through researching the interrelationships between Marxist dialectic and Hegelian dialectics; In the relationship between philosophy and history, Korsch thinks that Marxist philosophy is a part of reality as well as the history of philosophy is rooted in the history of human society. Section three, compares Gramsci's historicism with Lukacs and Korsch's. The identities of their theory are that:In the perspective of theory, all of them object to the naturist trend and emphasize to interpret Marxist philosophy from the perspective of history; In order to restore the unity of theory and practice which is the Critical feature of Marxism, they all stress that Marxism is ideology; They all attach importance to philosophical traditions of Marxism; In the relationship between philosophy and history, Marxist philosophy is historical materialism which is a reflection of the reality. Marxist dialectics is historical dialectics; In the fight against dogmatism, they treat Marxist philosophy historically; They all stress the characters of historicism such as humanist, totality and so on. The differences of their theories are as follows:humanism of Lukacs's historicism is abstract ethical humanism, while Gramsci's historicism is practical humanism of reality; In the relationship with Hegel, especially as far as Lukacs is concerned, he identifies the theory and practice which is full of speculative characteristic. While Gramsci insists that the theory comes from practice; In the aspect of ontological foundation, although Lukacs and Korsch stress that the essence of historicism is the unity of theory and practice, they achieve this unity only with the help of dialectic of totality. rather than the practice which constitutes the foundation of the ontology of Marxist philosophy. In the opinion of Gramsci, practice is not only the way of human existence, but also a foundation of perceptual world and human history, the unity of theory and practice is based on practice.Chapterâ…¥, historicism and anti-historicism:Gramsci and the scientific Western Marxism. To summarise and reveal Althusser's critiques of Gramsci's historicism and generalize it's merits and defects from three aspects mainly. First, Althusser affirms that the unity of theory and practice, philosophy and history is the essence of Gramsci's historicism, but he criticizes that Gramsci's opinion is only repeating the dialectical relationship between theory and practice of Marxism. For Althusser adheres to Marxism as a "theory of theoretical practice", eventually resulting in his theory separate from practice. Second, in the relationship between science and ideology, Althusser blames Gramsci's flaw that he ignores the epistemological break in development of Marx's thought and identified science with ideology which can be attributed to superstructure. Althusser criticizes Gramsci's mistake that he confuses religion and Marxism which leads him to denigrating and misunderstanding of Marxism, but science and ideology are opposite absolutely in Althusser's critique. Finally, in the relationship between dialectical materialism and historical materialism, Althusser criticizes Gramsci's bias against materialism that Marxist philosophy is not understood as dialectical materialism but merely historical materialism.The end:Influence and Inspirations:influence of Gramsci's historicism. Analyze the influence of Gramsci's historicism to western of Marxism and the inspirations for the construction of contemporary Chinese Marxist theory. Secularity, realism, criticism and other essential characteristics of Gramsci's historicism has had a profound influence on the Frankfurt School and the post-modernism of Marxism. The prominence of realism, practicality and popularity in Marxism provides a useful inspirations for contemporary Chinese Marxist theoretical research on how to correctly handle the relationship of Marxism and the reality of contemporary China, as well as the relationship of Marxist ideology and the scientific nature of Marxism.