HISTORY AND THEORY: THE ROLE OF INTERPRETATION AND CRITICISM IN THE THOUGHT OF GEORGE LICHTHEIM

In the history of debate and interpretation over the meaning of Marxism and socialism, George Lichtheim stands out as a complex and fascinating figure. As a life-long Marxist who had himself experienced the bitter frustration of socialism in Europe in the 1920's and 30's, Lichtheim was in a unique position to understand both the hopes and failures of Marxism as a body of thought and a movement for human emancipation. What sets his writing apart from that of other commentators is his attachment to ideas as potentional "movers" of human action and events, as well as the ambiguous and often difficult relationship between theoretical "intentions" and their practical realization. Marxism, as Lichtheim viewed it, was a prime example of such ambiguity. The "promise" of nineteenth-century Marxian theory had been frustrated and perhaps exhausted by events in the twentieth century.;It is felt that Lichtheim's major contribution was to have transmitted the heritage of Hegel and Marx to an English-speaking audience. Amidst the confusion and misunderstanding of these two seminal thinkers, Lichtheim's writing restores the true significance of this tradition to Western thought. In particular, Lichtheim adopted an approach to the interpretation of theory and history that had been neglected by Lichtheim's contemporaries, and which proved extremely useful in resolving the long-standing dispute over Marx's relation to his various progeny.;Not all of the conclusions that Lichtheim drew from his "historical and critical" appraoch were, however, sound, in the present view. His interpretation of contemporary society and culture is thought to have been colored by his own disillusionment with the outcome of the socialist movement in Germany during the 1920's and 30's. His later writings reflect a certain pessimism that Marxism and liberalism had both been rendered obsolete by events in this century. The roots of Lichtheim's disillusionment are traced to the difficult situation he occupied during the Weimar period, and the scars which it left after his forced resettlement in the West.;Finally, an attempt is made to reconstitute Lichtheim's approach as an adequate theory of contemporary society, and as a means of orienting future political action.;Furthermore, like the body of thought and the movement it spawned, Lichtheim's own life and writings reveal an ambiguity of intentions that are often difficult to reconcile. What the present study sets out to achieve is an understanding of Lichtheim's approach to the interpretation of thought, how that approach relates to what Lichtheim took to be the dominant political theory of its time, namely Marxism and socialism, and finally, the adequacy of Lichtheim's conclusions regarding the fate of political theory in the contemporary period.