Humanitarian Critical Theory: A Review of East European Neo-Marxism

Author: Yi Junqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Eastern European Neo-Marxism is an important component of Neo-Marxism in the 20th century, primarily composed of theorists and schools with a humanistic critical theoretical flavor, such as the Yugoslav Praxis School, the Budapest School in Hungary, the Ideological Critique School in Poland, and the Humanism School in the Czech Republic. They, together with Western Marxism, form the basic camp of Neo-Marxism. Eastern European Neo-Marxism emerged in the historical process of "de-Stalinization" in Eastern European society after World War II. Most of these theoretical schools start from the perspective of Marx's theory of alienation and practical philosophy, while being influenced by modern Western philosophy, particularly Western Marxism. On one hand, they are committed to analyzing the universal cultural dilemmas of humanity in the 20th century, and on the other hand, they focus on critiquing the flaws of the state socialist theories and practices in Eastern Europe. In practical philosophy, need theory, radical democracy theory, critique of everyday life, critique of technical rationality, ideological critique, theory of alienation, socialist theory, and humanism, they have made relatively unique explorations.