Walter Benjamin’s communism

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110441
Author(s):  
Alison Ross
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Collective Experience

What does ‘communism’ mean in Walter Benjamin’s writing? It has been used in some quarters to claim that Benjamin has a quasi-Marxist theory of communist society. This paper will argue instead that Benjamin’s communism is framed by his distinctive conception of experience and that it is understandable only through that conception. Benjamin’s image of ‘communist society’ refers to a specific type of experience (‘collective experience’) rather than a type of social organization. The paper discusses the conceptual background of that image and also points out a number of the difficulties that Benjamin’s conception of collective experience faces given its genesis in a model of individual experience.

Knowledge Transfer for Emerging Work Paradigms

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Sturdivant ◽  
Earl Carnes
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
Environmental Legacy

Abstract Department of Energy (DOE) missions include scientific research and development, nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, and cleanup of the environmental legacy from weapons production. Since the cold war’s end, changes in mission focus have placed considerable attention on the standards for performing work. For activities where risk is understood, the work force’s collective experience is codified in standards. For activities with unconventional risks, good practices and individual experience communicate what is known at the edge of technology and consensus Standards. This paper describes the basis for a Procedures standard, a principles-based enterprise approach for knowledge transfer that supports the unique missions of DOE.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 212-216
Author(s):  
Charles M. Tung
Keyword(s):  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Base Layer ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Difference

The idea of unilinearity is not a shibboleth solidifying an aesthetic and historical period dialectically; rather, unitary time – its putatively isochronic character, its anthropocentric narrativity and its monochronic nature – is a phenomenon that arose in particular technological and cultural conditions, and which provoked or was met with a hotchpotch historicity expressed in certain aesthetic and cultural objects, political orientations and scientific theories. Time is a stable backdrop in other conjunctures, and time has been conceived as unstable in other cultural and historical currents in the past. However, the difference this study underlines comes from the insistent attempt to think of timespace and history as literally multiple – with irregular internal consistency and pace, variable scales and distinctive frames of reference. To hold apart timespace and history analytically, and to keep individual experience separate as well, has often resulted in the preservation of unitary time as the fundamental base layer, as that which underlies narrative sense-making at the level of chronology of fabular order, on which we deploy tropes and figures in rendering both individual and collective experience to ourselves. But there are many base layers, many times.

Le développement idéologique en situation coloniale: essai de théorisation

1976 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Denis Monière
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Slave System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Method Of Production ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Mode Of Production

The fundamental element in the Marxist theory of ideologies is that men's ideas and perceptions are determined by the way in which they earn their living and by the social conditions which ensue. But this view by itself does not adequately explain the ideological framework of a social organization and its process of development since other factors intervene. The dialectic governing the formulation of ideologies is not only vertical but horizontal as well, and in two respects. First, one must avoid being trapped by a logical assumption about the connection between the method of production and the creation of a social structure. We must recognize the co-existence of modes of production; that is to say that in a given social structure there can be several methods of production. Thus, while a capitalist mode of production may prevail, it can still accommodate perfectly well for a certain length of time the continuation of some elements of the feudal or slave system of production, even though the logical end of capitalism is to spread and eliminate them. Hence, depending on the relationship between methods of production, one can discover in the overall structure of the prevailing mode of production some traces of the method of production which previously was dominant, especially during a transitional period.

Stories as Therapy – Life Stories and Myth in Alcoholics Anonymous

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 273-281
Author(s):  
Vibeke Steffen
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Alcoholics Anonymous ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Creation

Personal stories play a central role for communication in AA AA groups. To tell your story is considered both a therapeutic necessity and a moral obligation. By placing important events in meaningful contexts the stories contribute to an understanding of individual experience as well as the creation of a common identity. The article analyses different constructions of personal stories as they are told in AA in Denmark. Focusing on forms of communication and social interaction in the groups, the article illustrates how individual life stories are presented as respectively pedagogical anecdotes, illness stories and mythical tales. Thus, individual and collective experience are merged into the same therapeutic process.

scholarly journals SCENIC REPRESENTATIONS OF A CONCERT IN THE INDEPENDENT RUSSIAN POETRY

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-352
Author(s):  
A.V. Markov
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Complex Image ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Russian Poetry ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Complex Movement

The article examines the influence of pictorial models on the complex image of a concert in uncensored Russian poetry. It is proved that this image has always had an existential meaning associated with the characteristics of the individual and collective experience of death and immortality, and was not associated with the everyday environment of the concert. The concert turned into a universal symbol of the intense experience of time, its complex movement, allowing to revive dead musical material, and therefore revive the memory of individual people. Such a unique combination of collective experience and individual experience of immortality became possible thanks to the experience of painting: by the example of the image of the concerts of an owl in Dutch painting following the parable of Dion Chrysostom and the concept of restoration by Adolf Ovchinnikov, it is shown that such an experience of individuality as wisdom capable of combining the ideas of death and immortality was supported by the very technologies of painting and the metaphorical meanings in the fable and parable. A detailed analysis of several poems (Alexander Mironov, Ivan Zhdanov, Viktor Krivulin) proves that the same model of the intermedial experience of a concert, with all the differences in the poetics of these authors, expressed the same metaphysical meaning.

scholarly journals Capitalism and alienation: Towards a Marxist theory of alienation for the 21st century

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102110215
Author(s):  
Emil Øversveen
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Inherent Feature ◽  
Philosophical Writings

Alienation is among the most influential terms in Marxist theory, but also one of the most ambiguous and controversial. Unlike previous literature, which has tended to focus on Marx’ early philosophical writings, this offers a novel reinterpretation of the theory of alienation found in Marx’s later works. Rather than conceiving alienation as a subjective experience or an inherent feature of social organization, I contend that alienation in the Marxist sense can be understood as an objective process arising from the appropriation of the results of production and their transformation into capital. This interpretation resolves the main theoretical problems conventionally associated with alienation theory, for example the tendency towards essentialism and moral paternalism. In particular, a Marxist theory of alienation explains the paradox of social power and isolation that characterizes contemporary capitalist societies, in which feelings of powerlessness and loneliness are intensified despite objective increases in humanity’s social power and interdependence.

scholarly journals Justice of ≪new man≫ in Karl Marx' vision

Sæculum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
Ion Dur ◽  
Andrei Claudiu Dipşe
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
New Man ◽  
Fair Distribution ◽  
Philosophical Debates

AbstractThis study aims to highlight the problem of justice in Karl Marx’s vision from the perspective of the critique of capitalism. Although, there is a strong dialectic in the socio-political and philosophical debates among political thinkers (including Marxists) on the existence or non-existence of a theory of justice in Marxism, the exegesis of Marxist writings reveals two types of justice (“Justice through fair distribution and Justice through the dictatorship of the proletariat”). The first aspect the study proposes is to reinforce and argue for the existence of a Marxist theory of Justice, followed by a critical analysis of how this is reflected in both socialist and communist society.

scholarly journals Marx and Engels’ Peace Thought and Its Contemporary Value

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meihong Gu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Chinese Nation ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
The Face ◽  
Development Concept ◽  
Peaceful Development ◽  
The Times

Marx and Engels’ peace thought is vital to Marxist theory. They used historical materialism and materialist dialectics as world outlook and methodology to study peace. They analyzed the root and nature of war, revealed various ways to achieve peace under different conditions, and made a blueprint of a permanent peaceful world of the future human communist society. In the face of major changes in the current world unseen in a century and the increasing uncertainty and instability in China’s security, it is highly valuable that we deeply study Marx and Engels’ peace thought again. Using Marxist standpoints to rationally analyze the domestic and international situations help us comprehensively and accurately grasp the theme of the times. It is of practical significance to strengthen the peaceful development concept, actively build a community with shared future, and continuously realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

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