Description
Book SynopsisKarel Kosík (1926-2003) reputation as a creative thinker is owed largely to his philosophical 'blockbuster' Dialectics of the Concrete, first published in Czechoslovakia in 1963. In reintroducing Kosik's philosophy to English-speaking readers, Kosik's work is shown to be important not only as a leading intellectual document of the Prague Spring, but also as an original theoretical contribution with international impact that sheds light on the meaning of labour and praxis, cognition and economic structure, and revolution and the crises of modernity. Contributors include: Ian Angus, Siyaves Azeri, Vit Bartos, Jan Černy, Joseph Grim Feinberg, Diana Fuentes, Gabriella Fusi, Tomas Hermann, Tomas Hřibek, Xiaohan Huang, Peter Hudis, Petr Kužel, Ivan Landa, Michael Lowy, Jan Mervart, Anselm K. Min, Tom Rockmore, Francesco Tava, and Xinruo Zhang.
Table of ContentsTable of Contents IAcknowledgements Notes on Authors Introduction Joseph Grim Feinberg, Ivan Landa, Jan Mervart Part 1 The Reform Years and the Origins of Dialectics of the Concrete 1 Karel Kosik as a Public Intellectual of the Reform Years Jan Mervart 2 Karel Kosik and His 'Radical Democrats': The Janus Face of Dialectics of the Concrete Moving from a Historical to a Systematic Approach to Philosophy Tomas Hermann Part 2 Praxis and Labour 3 Praxis in Progress: On the Transformations of Kosik's Thought Francesco Tava 4 Labour and Time: Karel Kosik's Temporal Materialism Ivan Landa 5 Inception of Culture from the Ontology of Labour: The Original Contribution of Karel Kosik to a Marxian Theory of Culture Ian Angus 6 'The Philosophy of Labour' and Karel Kosik's Criticism of 'Care' Siyaves Azeri 7 Kosik, Lukacs and the Thing in Itself Tom Rockmore Part 3 Modernity, Nation, and Globalisation 8 The Ontological Dialectic and the Critique of Modernity: Based on the Interpretation of Kosik's Concrete Totality Xinruo Zhang and Xiaohan Huang 9 And the 'Thing Itself' Is Man: Radical Democracy and the Roots of Humanity Joseph Grim Feinberg 10 The Dialectic of Concrete Totality in the Age of Globalisation: Karel Kosik's Dialectics of the Concrete Fifty Years Later Anselm K. Min Part 4 Intellectual Encounters 11 Kosik's Notion of 'Positivism' Tomas Hřibek 12 Kosik's Concept of 'Concrete Totality': A Structuralist Critique Vit Bartos 13 The World of the Pseudoconcrete, Ideology and the Theory of the Subject (Kosik and Althusser) Petr Kužel 14 Karel Kosik and Martin Heidegger: From Marxism to Traditionalism Jan Černy Part 5 Influence and Reception 15 A Route of Critical Thought: Between Italian and Czech Intellectuals Gabriella Fusi 16 Karel Kosik in Mexico: Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez and the Dialectics of the Concrete Diana Fuentes 17 Karel Kosik and US Marxist Humanism Peter Hudis Postscript: Looking Backwards 18 Spirit of Resistance: Note for an Intellectual Biography of Karel Kosik Michael Lowy References Index
