Resnick and Richard Wolf

Knowledge and Class

Anti-essentialist, Althusserian Marxism

Althusser

Rethinking Marxism

Knowledge and Class central work of “new Marxian political economy” using the central concept of “overdetermination” against essentialism and determinism in orthodox “classical” Marxist political economy. The general epistemological pluralist conception of truth is a foundation stone for analysising class structure of societies. Class is consistuted at multiple levels and can no longer be regarded in a “dualist” and reductionist manner. Much indebptedness to the work of Louis Althusser for providing the framework wherein post-modernism and post modern Marxism can intersect. Witness in Callari & Ruccio (1994) to the constructed reading of Althusser in pluralist; anti-positivist and essentialist manner. So central is the usage of overdetermination that they almost attribute to Althusser as having already dealt with the modernist/poistmodernist debate, alkbeit not in the terms as expressed.

From their idea of overdetermination, Resnick and Wolffe derive not only that all elements of the totality are informative of a conjuncture at the same time, this means that all entities are processural. Change thus becomes central to the anti-essentalist ontology they are trying to build.

Note both humanism and empiricism are read as essentialist.

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