Social criticism has enjoyed a renaissance in the past few years. The anti-globalization protests at Seattle and Genoa and the great marches against the war in Iraq have put contestation of capitalism and imperialism back on the political and intellectual agenda. But how does social critique situate itself philosophically today, after the marginalization of Marxism and the impact of postmodernism? In The Resources of Critique, Alex Callinicos seeks to address this question systematically. He does so, in the first part, by surveying some of the most influential contemporary critical theorists Alain Badiou, Jacques Bidet, Luc Boltanski, Pierre Bourdieu, Eve Chiapello, Jürgen Habermas, Antonio Negri and Slavoj Žižek. The limitations of all these theorists perspectives prompts Callinicos in the second part of the book to outline an alternative approach whose main elements are a critical realist ontology, a Marxist theory of social contradiction, and an egalitarian conception of justice. The main thrust of his argument is to show that Marx's critique of political economy remains inescapable for anyone seeking to challenge the existing world order but only if it maintains an open but rigorous dialogue with other critical perspectives. The Resources of Critique is, above all, a contribution to this dialogue.
Alex Callinicos is Professor of European Studies at Kings College, London.
IntroductionPart I: Four Kinds of Impasse1. Modernity and its Promises: Habermas and Bidet1.1 Between sociological suspicion and the rule of law: Jürgen Habermas1.2 With and against Marx and Rawls: Jacques Bidet2. Between Relativism and Universalism: French Critical Sociology2.1 Capitalism and its critiques: Boltanski and Chiapello2.2 The dialectic of universal and particular: Pierre Bourdieu3. Touching the Void: Badiou and iek3.1 The exception is the norm3.2 Miracles do happen: the ontology of Alain Badiou3.3 Unreal: Slavoj iek and the proletariat4. The Generosity of Being: Antonio Negri4.1 All is grace4.2 Negri's Grundrisse: revolutionary subjectivity versus Marxist 'objectivism'4.3 The refusal of transcendencePart II: Three Dimensions of Progress5. A Critical Realist Ontology5.1 The story so far5.2 Dimensions of realism6. Structure and Contradiction6.1 Realism about structures6.2 The primacy of contradiction6.3 A dialectic of nature?7. Justice and Universality7.1 From fact to value7.2 Equality and well-being7.3 Why equality matters8. Conclusion
"Sharp, lucid and wide-ranging, The Resources of Critique subjects modern political theory to the test of a robust materialism, and in doing so constitutes a vital contribution to such a theory in its own right."Terry Eagleton, University of Manchester