Dialectic At Work: On Making Sense: Let Everyone Tell Their ‘Story’
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- čas přidán 4. 09. 2024
- [Season 1 Episode 3] On Making Sense: Let Everyone Tell Their ‘Story’
In this episode, “On Making Sense: Let Everyone Tell Their Story”, the Dialectic goes to work to further explore the Marxist idea of dialectics and ‘overdetermination’. Specifically, we deal with the following question: if indeed (as Prof. Wolff has argued in the previous episode) reality is ‘overdetermined’ by a complex interaction between a host of over-determinants then how can we say anything analytical about the real world? How can we still ‘tell a story’?
We argue that the only solution to the mess is to examine the ‘conditions of existence’ that mutually shape a given object of analysis by pulling it and pushing it in multiple trajectories. There are, therefore, no guarantees in this kind of Marxism.
Different analysts will choose to examine different aspects of the social totality by focusing on some part of it. This also leads us to a criticism of mainstream Economics and its emphasis on the ‘empiricist’ mode of reasoning. As Prof Wolff demonstrates here, the field of econometrics makes irrational claims of ‘one-way’ causality that are at odds with how the real-world works. Since ‘evidence’ is always examined in the light of theories, there is no ‘neutral’ way of discerning the truth from fiction. The empiricist focuses on the ‘evidence’ but forgets that evidence is mediated within a theory; the ‘rationalist’ focuses on ‘reason’ but forgets that reason is constructed within the evidence. Marxian overdetermination does not give supremacy to either, but rather understands the dialectic at play between experience and reason, and their impact, in turn, on a host of outcomes.
About
The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.
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This interview series is an excellent complement to Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick's 1987 book Knowledge and Class. The conversation really reinforces how the process of class-the production and appropriation of surplus value-can be used as the entry point for analysis without falling into the trap of essentialism Dr. Wolff warns us of.
Thank you so much for this series. It’s much easier to point people towards your videos than it is to get them to read philosophy.
Gestalt ways of looking at things is also very important, which lies deep beneath and within this conversation, though this series and conversation is excellent and very well organized and easily approachable.
In one word Marx said "Struggle".
The struggle of the working day for the Working Class,
The struggle to pay bills,
The struggle to get solidarity with the class to fight back,
And also which Mr Wolff fails to mention, the struggle for the Working Class forming it's own Party to organise to change the world.
We need more education of this type to help people understand the privatization of public resources and the economies of the world.
Spread out to offer these podcasts to aging organizations that are always looking for online classes for education of our early senior populations and to summer classes offered by community organizations.
Thank you
I am incrementally learning more about Socialism, Capitalism and Marx through my diligent watching of videos featuring the good Professor. I look forward to a program that features a discussion on Lenin with Professor Wolfe as your guest...or whomever you feel can explain in the granular manner that Professor is so good at doing.
A really great podcast! Thank you, Democracy at work, for adding this to your playlist! It is very important for the audience to understand Marxian theory and dialectics in particular. Looking forward to the next episode of this!
Great show, thx.
Brilliant discussion IMO. Thanks.
Good job
Behind every story
There will be money
And god knows money
Everyone uses this dialect or perspective manipulative oratory --- EVERYONE! The problem is that at the end of the day the right thing is never done, where is the "do the right thing party" ?
I'd be even more suspicious of a party that called itself that. Founders of do good parties or any others get so pleased with themselves, like Orwell's pigs, that they think, just to get the ball rolling, they should have a little more liberty etc etc than the members, or the nation, should they get that far.
A core point here is that there is no knowing with full certainty what “the right thing” is without knowing everything, which is impossible. This is an attempt to make those decisions by systematically breaking down what _is_ known to find conflicting bases of thought and resolving the source of said conflict
China's hybrid system -- Corporatism
What did you say 😮
Capitalism is equal to Racism 😭😭😭😭😭