Philosophical Foundations of Analytical Marxism

Abstract

The Analytical Marxian paradigm is motivated by a desire to make Marx's theory "clear." Its criteria for success in this venture are drawn from one tendency within contemporary analytical philosophy. The works of G.A. Cohen and Jon Elster on Marx are best understood in the light of this philosophical background. The ultimately fatal limitations of the analytical paradigm as a whole, and of its interpretation of Marx's theory of history in particular, are derived from a contradiction at this philosophical level: Analytical Marxism attempts to make Marx's thought clear with a methodology which is fundamentally corrosive to the practical-active meaning of that thought.