Liberalism, reason(ableness) and the politicization of truth: Marx's critique and the ironies of Marxism

摘要

Liberals and Marxists alike have had a stake in making Marx non-liberal in theory and anti-liberal in practice. My re-reading of his work and life emphasizes the considerable overlaps and continuity between his views and activities and the liberalism of his day and ours. Marx's critique of liberalism thus becomes subtler and less easily dismissed by liberals, who would do well to confront the violence and class struggle inherent in the success of the liberal project, rather than to erase this in favour of an idealized doctrine and sanitized history. I identify an irony in that Marx politicized reason and reasonableness long before anti-foundational 'post-Marxists' developed their 'political' critique of traditional Marxist conceptions of truth and science.