Main Currents of Marxism

Background and publishing history

According to Kołakowski, Main Currents of Marxism was written in Polish between 1968 and 1976, at a time when it was impossible to publish the work in Poland. A Polish edition was published in France between 1976 and 1978, and then copied by underground Polish publishers. Translations in English, German, Dutch, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish subsequently appeared. Another Polish edition was published in Great Britain in 1988 by the publishing house Aneks. The work was first published legally in Poland in 2000. Kołakowski writes that only the first two volumes appeared in French translation, and speculates that the reason for this is that "the third volume would provoke such an outrage among French Leftists that the publishers were afraid to risk it."

Summary

Kołakowski provides an analysis of the origins, philosophical roots, golden age and breakdown of Marxism. He describes Marxism as "the greatest fantasy of the twentieth century", a dream of a perfect society which became a foundation for "a monstrous edifice of lies, exploitation and oppression." He argues that the Leninist and Stalinist versions of communist ideology are not a distortion or degenerate form of Marxism, but one of its possible interpretations. Kołakowski writes that, despite his rejection of Marxism, his interpretation of Marx is influenced more by György Lukács than by other commentators. His first volume contains a discussion of the intellectual background of Marxism, examining the contributions of such figures as Plotinus, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Jakob Böhme, Angelus Silesius, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, as well as an analysis of the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Though Kołakowski does not accept that Hegel was an apologist for totalitarianism, he says of Hegel that, "the practical application of his doctrine means that in any case where the state apparatus and the individual are in conflict, is the former which must prevail."

The second volume includes a discussion of the Second International, which Kołakowski considers Marxism's "Golden Age", because of the open discussion and flexibility that were possible in that period. The third volume deals with Marxist thinkers such as Leon Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci, Lukács, Karl Korsch, Lucien Goldmann, Herbert Marcuse, and Ernst Bloch, as well as the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Kołakowski critically discusses works such as Lukács's History and Class Consciousness (1923) and Bloch's The Principle of Hope (1954). Jean-Paul Sartre is discussed within a section on "Developments in Marxism since Stalin's death"; Kołakowski describes and criticizes Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960). Kołakowski criticizes dialectical materialism, arguing that it consists partly of truisms with no specific Marxist content, partly of philosophical dogmas, partly of nonsense, and partly of statements that could be any of these things depending on how they are interpreted.

Mainstream media

Main Currents of Marxism was reviewed by author Michael Harrington in The New Republic, and historian Tony Judt in The New York Review of Books. The book received two reviews Library Journal, the first from Robert C. O'Brien and the second from Francisca Goldsmith.

Scientific and academic journals

Main Currents of Marxism was reviewed by William P. Collins in The Journal of Politics, Barry Hindness in The Sociological Review, economist Mark Blaug in Economica, historian Martin Jay in The American Historical Review, philosopher Sidney Hook in The American Scholar, sociologist Ralph Miliband in Political Studies, sociologist Craig Calhoun in Social Forces, David Joravsky in Theory & Society, Ken Plumme in Sociology, philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky in Praxis International, John E. Elliott in the Journal of Economic Issues, and Franklin Hugh Adler in The Antioch Review.

Evaluations in books

Marxist historian G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, writing in The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (1981), considered Main Currents of Marxism overpraised, but was influenced by it nevertheless and granted that Kołakowski accurately delineated some of the disastrous developments of Marx's thought by many of his followers. The work was praised by philosophers such as A. J. Ayer, and Roger Scruton, who in Thinkers of the New Left (1985) wrote that Kołakowski had "lucidly charted" the main tendencies of Marxism and expressed agreement with Kołakowski's view of Lukács as "an intellectual Stalinist, one for whom an opponent sacrifices, by his very opposition, the right to exist."

Conservative authors William F. Buckley Jr. and Charles R. Kesler wrote that Kołakowski traces at length "the connection between Marxist theory and Stalinist reality", calling his book "excellent". Paul Thomas, writing in The Cambridge Companion to Marx (1991), argued that Kołakowski wrongly interprets Marxism as "radical anthropocentrism, a secularization of the (real) religious absolute, a formula for human self-perfectibility, and the self-deification of humankind." Thomas saw Kołakowski's interpretation as being motivated by the wish to connect Marx to "his self-appointed disciples." David McLellan praised Kołakowski in the 1995 edition of his Karl Marx: His Life and Thought for the thoroughness of his philosophical discussion of Marx. M. W. Jackson, writing in Jon Stewart's anthology The Hegel Myths and Legends (1996), criticized Kołakowski's treatment of Hegel, arguing that Kołakowski is one of many authors who have misleadingly seen Hegel's philosophy as supporting "a quiescent authoritarian politics or worse." In the same work, Main Currents of Marxism is listed as a work that has promoted "myths" about Hegel. Historian of science Roger Smith wrote that while Main Currents of Marxism is "written by a deeply disabused Polish ex-Marxist intellectual", it is "an invaluable history across an extended range." Philosopher Richard Rorty wrote that people in eastern and central Europe who have read Kołakowski suspect that he tells you "pretty much all you will ever need to know about Marx and Marxism–Leninism."

Philosopher John Gray praised Main Currents of Marxism, calling it "magisterial".