Hi Jim Farmelant:
>Among those intellectuals have been many who considered
>themselves to be Marxists. Georg Lukacs was a protege
>of Weber's, as well as the logical empiricist-Marxist Otto Neurath.
>The Frankfurters were clearly very much influenced by Weber too.
>What might be of interest here is the extent to which many
>prominent Marxists have been influenced by (both positively
>and negatively)by Weber. Did these Marxists manage to
>uncover the "rational kernel" of Weber's thought or
>has this influence been detrimental to the development
>of their own ideas?
I have to think more before commenting upon Weber's influence on
Lukacs & Neurath (I'd think that this is a topic that you & Justin
are much more qualified to comment upon than I am), but with regard
to the Frankfurt School, I think that Weber's influence was
detrimental to them in the sense that it made them as pessimistic as
Weber.
I think that Weber tends to appeal to those Marxists in the "West"
who want to explain "why the masses have not turned toward
socialism." If that's the question that you think is the most
pressing, Weber gives you many handy -- really too handy -- answers.
To me, many leftist intellectuals' obsession with the so-called
passivity of the masses -- our "un-revolutionary" present -- is a
major problem. An implicit assumption in it is that "the masses
betrayed intellectuals, the masses have not & will not go for
Revolution, etc." This implicit assumption prepares the ground for
the said intellectuals' own abandonment of Marxism or retirement from
activism.
I like Carrol's attitude better: "We don't live in the socialist
world today because our Enemies have been too strong & we have not
been able to vanquish Them yet. However, the present affairs in no
way prove that Marx's theory was entirely incorrect; nor does it
constitute evidence that humanity will never experience universal
social emancipation. History is a matter of contingent evolution,
and only within the contingency of historical evolution may we seek
to understand laws, tendencies, historical necessities, etc. 'What
is?' 'Struggle,' said the Old Man, and he was right. Let's slog it
out!"
Pessimism of the intellect, _optimism of the will_! Don't mourn, organize!
Yoshie
