Karl Korsch
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Karl Korsch | |
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20th-century philosophy | |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Western Marxism |
Main interests | Politics, economics, law |
Notable ideas | The principle of historical specification (comprehending all things social in terms of a definite historical epoch) |
Part of a series on |
Marxism |
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Karl Korsch (German:
Early years
Karl Korsch was born in the small rural village of
Beginning in 1906, Korsch successively attended universities in Munich, Geneva, and Berlin, studying various subjects such as philosophy and humanities in preparation for a more concentrated study in the field of law.
First World War
Korsch received a grant in 1912 to travel to England and work on translating and writing a commentary to a legal text by Sir Ernest Schuster.[7] During this time, Korsch became a member of the Fabian Society, a reformist socialist organization. In 1913 he married Hedda Gagliardi, who came from a bourgeois family.[8] She was a grandchild of feminist Hedwig Dohm, who would be closely involved in his theoretical work. Hedda Korsch from 1916 was a teacher at the Wickersdorf Free School Community. Korsch's stay in England came to an end in the summer of 1914 when he received orders to report to his military regiment at Meiningen for maneuvers. Despite being opposed to a war that he knew was on the horizon, Korsch nevertheless made the decision to return to his native country because in the words of his wife: “He wanted to be with the masses, and they would be in the army.” At the start of the war, Korsch initially held the rank of lieutenant but was quickly demoted to sergeant for daring to voice his objections to the German Army's invasion of neutral Belgium. However, these disciplinary measures did little to shake Korsch of his pacifist convictions; throughout the war, he refused to carry any sort of weapon into battle.[9] According to Hedda Korsch, Karl's rationale for going into combat unarmed was “that it made no difference, since you were just as safe with or without a weapon: the point was that you were safe neither way.” Instead of fighting, Korsch made it his personal mission to save as many lives as he could. As the conflict wore on, Korsch was decorated several times and was even re-promoted to the rank of captain. He was awarded the Iron Cross twice for his bravery under fire.[9] More important than these official accolades, Korsch's strong moral character and reputation for bravery under fire helped him garner the respect of many of the men in his company. An account cited that he had to change his North German accent to be understood by the soldiers and the common people.[10]
In 1917 he joined the
Political activism in Germany, 1917–1933
Korsch's wartime experiences in Germany had radicalised him, especially the ferment within the leftwing parties of Germany following the
Korsch attributed the failure of the German revolution to the lack of ideological preparation and leadership of the working class. Accordingly, he turned his focus to developing workers' organisations into bodies subjectively capable of realizing revolutionary opportunities. In contrast to what seemed to him a
In 1926 he formed the
Exile
Having been active in left-wing politics in Germany from 1917–1933, he left his country of birth on 27 February 1933, the night of the Reichstag fire. At first he stayed in England and Denmark.
The deaths of Dora Fabian and Mathilde Wurm
The bodies of
Life in the United States
In 1936, he settled in the United States with his wife, teaching at Tulane University,
In his later work, he rejected orthodox Marxism as historically outmoded, wanted to adapt Marxism to a new historical situation, and wrote in his Ten Theses (1950) that "the first step in re-establishing a revolutionary theory and practice consists in breaking with that Marxism which claims to monopolize revolutionary initiative as well as theoretical and practical direction" and that "today, all attempts to re-establish the Marxist doctrine as a whole in its original function as a theory of the working classes social revolution are reactionary utopias."[15]
Philosophical work
Korsch was especially concerned that Marxist theory was losing its precision and validity – in the words of the day, becoming "vulgarized" – within the upper echelons of the various socialist organizations. His masterwork, Marxism and Philosophy, is an attempt to re-establish the historic character of Marxism as the heir to Hegel. It commences with a quote from Vladimir Lenin's On the Significance of Militant Materialism: "We must organize a systematic study of the Hegelian dialectic from a materialist standpoint." Korsch's critique of traditional bourgeois concept of progress in his work Karl Marx stressed that the development of material productive sources is not a natural result or a result of independent economic evolution and can be changed by man.[16] He maintained that the revolutionary transformation of the mode of production and labor is essential to realize a proletarian revolution.[17]
In Korsch's formulation, Hegel represented at the level of ideas the real, material progressiveness of the
Korsch's stance had ramifications which were unpalatable to the official Communist Party structure – not least, casting the Party's own ideological weaknesses as the only material explanation for the failure of the revolution. Published in 1923, Marxism and Philosophy was strongly opposed by Party faithful and other left-wing figures, including Karl Kautsky and Grigory Zinoviev.[19] Zinoviev famously said of Korsch and his fellow critic Lukács, "If we get a few more of these Professors spinning out their theories, we shall be lost." Over the subsequent five years, the German Communist Party gradually purged all such dissenting voices. Korsch survived within a current known as the Resolute Lefts, until his expulsion in April 1926.[19] He remained a communist deputy to the Reichstag.
Influence
Korsch is an often neglected figure within twentieth century
Korsch also instructed
Works
- 1923: 'Marxism and Philosophy'. English publication by NLB (New Left Books), 1970 (trans. ISBN 978-1781680278.
- 1931: "The Crisis of Marxism." Unpublished essay; first published in 1971 in Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung (in German).[24]
- 1932: 'Geleitwort zu Kapital'. Berlin ('Introduction to Capital'); reprinted 1971 in Three Essays on Marxism.
- 1935: 'Why I am a Marxist'. In: Modern Quarterly, Vol. IX no. 2, April 1935, p. 88 - 95 (part of a symposium with other contributions Why I am Not a Marxist by Alexander Goldenweiser, George Santayana and H. G. Wells, and Why I am a Marxist by Harold Laski); reprinted 1971 in Three Essays on Marxism.
- 1937: 'Leading principles of Marxism: a Restatement'. In: Marxist Quarterly (published by the American Marxist Association), Vol 1/3, Oct-Dec 1937, p. 356 - 378; reprinted 1971 in Three Essays on Marxism.
- 1938: Karl Marx, London: Chapman & Hall / New York: John Wiley & Sons.[25] Originally published as part of a series "Modern Sociologists". Reissued 1963. Published in original German version 1967. Translated in Italian, French, Spanish and Greek. Many times reissued.
- 1971: Three essays on Marxism, introduction by Paul Breines, New York: Monthly Review Press (This contains the essays 'Why I am a Marxist', 'Introduction to Capital' and 'Leading Principles of Marxism: a Restatement'). Also published in London 1971 by Pluto Press.
- Revolutionary Theory, edited by Douglas Kellner, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977 (A good collection, with a 60-page introductory essay on Korsch's life and work by Kellner).
- Ten Theses on Marxism Today, at Ten Theses on Marxism Today by Karl Korsch (1950). Published in Telos 26 (Winter 1975-76). New York: Telos Press.A Gesamtausgabe (Complete Works) in German is edited by Offizin Verlag, Hanover, Germany.
Sources
- ISBN 0-674-20525-1. herein:
- Goode, Patrick (1983). "Karl Korsch". In Kiernan, V.G.; Miliband, Ralph(eds.). The Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. pp. 263–264.
- Kiernan, V.G.; Miliband, Ralph(eds.). The Dictionary of Marxist Thought. pp. 523–526.
- Goode, Patrick (1983). "Karl Korsch". In
- Korsch, Karl (1977). Kellner, Douglas (ed.). Karl Korsch: Revolutionary Theory (PDF). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. OCLC 219839492. herein:
- Kellner, Douglas (1977). "Korsch's Revolutionary Marxism". In Kellner, Douglas (ed.). Karl Korsch: Revolutionary Theory. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 3–113.
- ISBN 1-84277-292-9.
References
- ISSN 0191-6599.
- ^ Renton (2004), pp. 60–63.
- ^ Jacoby (1983), pp. 523.
- ^ Goode (1983).
- ^ Weber, Hermann. "Korsch, Karl". Deutsche Biographie (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
- ^ Mulhern (2011), pp. 15.
- ^ a b c d Kellner (1977), pp. 6–7.
- ^ Mulhern (2011), pp. 14.
- ^ a b Renton (2004), p. 64.
- ^ Mulhern (2011), pp. 15–16.
- ISBN 0902308505.
- ^ Die Entstehung der GIK, 1927-1933, accessed 13 July 2010
- ISBN 9781526110466. Retrieved Feb 1, 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ Thinkers of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical, Bibliographical, and Critical Dictionary. Gale Research Company. 1983. p. 300.
- ^ "Ten Theses on Marxism Today by Karl Korsch (1950)". www.marxists.org. Retrieved Feb 1, 2023.
- ISBN 978-90-04-19395-6.
- ISBN 0-520-04798-2.
- ISBN 978-1-85584-541-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-393-32943-8.
- ^ Kellner (1977), pp. 3.
- ^ Kellner. “Korsch's Road to Marxian Socialism,” 14
- ^ Eiland, Howard (2016). Walter Benjamin : A Critical Life. Cambridge Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 465.
- ^ See also Nguyen, Duy Lap (2022). Walter Benjamin and the Critique of Political Economy. London: Bloomsbury academic. pp. 142–159.
- ^ "The Crisis of Marxism" (1931): English text online on marxists.org.
- ^ According to WorldCat there has been a publication in 1936 (London); but we may suppose that's a mistake
- ^ 'Memories of Karl Korsch' (1972) also online available at Marxists.org.
External links
- Karl Korsch Libertarian Communist Library
- RevoltLib Karl Korsch Archive Library
- Karl Korsch Marxist Internet Archive (Biography, interview and photographs)
- Karl Korsch's challenge to Marxism (Commentary)
- Karl Korsch's Marxism (Commentary)
- Mattick, Paul. Karl Korsch: His Contribution to Revolutionary Marxism (Commentary)