The Necessity of Philosophy

Abstract

The crisis of Marxism deepens, interest in Marxism explodes in America. A group of French philosophers declares the death of Marxism,⁵ a British analytic philosopher of language defends Marx’s theory of history, pronouncing it an infant science.⁶ At the same time, Andre Gorz, standing somewhere between the two extremes, proclaims that Marxism is at once an indispensible way of looking at the social world but has “lost its prophetic value.”’ Throughout Latin America, radical theologians discover in Marxism an important way to liberate theology from its “other-worldly” predilections, but combining the teachings of the Christian church with the “scientific” teachings of historical materialism.⁸ But those reared in the tradition of critical social theory — like Jurgen Habermas, whose Marxist roots were sunk into the eroded soil of post-war German social democracy — have decided that a reconstruction of historical materialism was needed.⁹ Such a theory would, according to Habermas, recognize the moral and cognitive dimensions of social transformation where Marxism has refused such recognition; a new kind of historical materialism is necessary to insert a principle of intersubjectivity as an objective constituent of the historical process. Habermas seeks a secular ground for moral development and a spiritual ground for secular evolution.