| Review of: | Anti-Hegelian Reading of Economic Theory by Andrea Micocci |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Colin Tyler |
| Reviewed in: | Political Studies Review |
| Date accepted online: | 21/04/2004 |
| Published in print: | Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages 42-151 |
Political Theory
This book's central claim is that the academic division of human action into the various, relatively discrete disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities has greatly intensified the alienating effects of capitalism. The author focuses particularly on the consequences of the divorce of philosophy from economics, which he claims has led to the situation where 'The social sciences, both bourgeois and marxist, have been dealing with a "social reality" whose connections with "reality in general" remain mysterious and unexplored' (pp. 6-7) Underlying the critique is an Epicurian concern to discredit these artificial, academic divisions between the various subject matters of the human sciences, as a prelude to the reunification of human praxis with nature (the subject for another book). Pivotal to this endeavour is an attempt to expose the hypostasising effects of the contemporary social sciences, an attempt that builds primarily on the thought of Marx, Della Volpe and Lucio Colletti.
Clearly, this is a very ambitious project, in terms of both its scope and its self-conscious deviation from current mainstream wisdom. Many doubts remained for me, at least by the end of the book. One should question the appropriateness of portraying Hegelianism as a hypostasising force (not least because of Hegel's insistence that the individual should reach a point where Reason recognises and seeks to transcend the limited and provisional character of its current categories of the Understanding). Moreover, do not the present categorisations of human activity serve on balance to expand the range of valuable human activities and phenomenal states?
This is undeniably a wide-ranging, scholarly and challenging work. As Alex Callinicos concludes in the work's preface: 'Here is a distinctive philosophical voice that demands to be heard' (p. vii). It is recommended to critical political economists and anyone concerned with the interrelation of ideology and power within contemporary capitalism.