Discussion on Park,

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Discussion on Park,A Critique of
Overdetermination Marxism
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• The Marx Problem
• 1848 WORKINGMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
  (ideology) Manifesto
• 1859 My inquiry led to the conclusion that
  neither legal relations nor forms of state could
  be grasped whether by themselves or on the basis
  of a so-called general development of the human
  mind, but on the contrary they have their origin
  in the material conditions of existence, the
  totality of which Hegel, following the example of
  the Englishmen and Frenchmen of the eighteenth
  century, embraces the term civil society that
  the anatomy of this civil society, however, has
  to be sought in political economy (scientific
  socialism) Preface to a Contribution

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• 1865 Trade unions work well as centres of
  resistance against the encroachments of capital.
  They fail partly from an injudicious use of
  power. They fail generally from limiting
  themselves to a guerilla war against the effects
  of the existing system, instead of simultaneously
  trying to change it, instead of using their
  organized forces as a lever for the final
  emancipation of the working class, that is, the
  ultimate abolition of the wage system.
  (ideology) Speech to 1st International

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• 1877 This crisis Russo-Turkish war and Near
  Eastern crisis is a new turning point in
  European history. Russia has long been standing
  on the threshold of an upheaval, all the elements
  of it are prepared--I have studied conditions
  there from the original Russian sources,
  unofficial and official (the latter only
  available to a few people but got for me through
  friends in Petersburg). (relativization of
  scientific socialism) Marx letter to Sorge

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• Thus the post-Marx Marxists need to find a way
  to reconcile Marxs inconsistency between
  ideology and historical materialism, as well need
  to explain scientific socialisms proposal that
  the inevitable Revolution will occur under
  capitalist stage of history yet actually occurred
  in a pre-capitalist society (Russia).

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• Althusser attempted to reconcile the economic
  determinism of scientific socialism with the
  idealistic by re-reading Marxs writings in
  order to explain the Russian Revolution and
  borrowed Freuds concept of overdetermination
  to say that the base and superstructure are
  co-determined.
• Althusser uses Lenins concept of weakest link
  where aggregated contradictions in non-economic
  spheres provide economic rupture point for
  Revolution.

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• Park believes that post-modern Marxism
  (specifically Resnick Wolf and Ameriglio
  Callari) oversimplifies overdetermination.
• Park calls this OM (Overdetermination Marxism).

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• In the paper Park conducts an immanent critique
  of OM and finds
• post-modern Marxism reduces Marx to an
  epistemologist, not a social scientist
• OM is itself reductionist, applying a fruitless
  essentialist non-essentialist reading to
  Marxian and Marxism thought
• Marxism is reduced to relativism where both
  economic and non-economic spheres carry equal
  weight in historys progress, and,

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• 4) Entry point means science (or is it just
  Marxism?) is reduced to a theory shaped by
  trivial chance events experienced by one
  individual (e.g. the reader of the text).
• 5) OM flattens Althusser and makes Marxism
  ahistorical without addressing the grand
  narrative of historical progress attempted by
  Marx

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• General comment on the paper
• Excellent critique, insightful, in-depth and
  well-argued logically and textually
• Suggestions
• Sometimes unclear whether comparing OM to Marx or
  post-Marx Marxism in general
• Sometimes unclear whether addressing
  post-Modernism in general or OM
• OM means Resnick Wolff, then later Ameriglio
  Callari thrown in, so somewhat unclear definition
  of OM
• What is Parks resolution to the Marx problem
  of inconsistencies in Marxs use of ideology and
  historical materialism, and the failure of
  scientific socialism to explain the Revolution?

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• A modest (perhaps reactionary) proposal
• Cant we look at Marxs writings on historical
  progression in terms of J.S. Mills general
  tendencies and countervailing tendencies?
• Isnt entry point similar to reflexivity
  (R.K. Merton, K. Popper) in social science where
  bias of researcher acknowledged up-front?