A Failed Parricide: Hegel and the Young Marx

Historical Materialism #116

by Peter D. Thomas (Translator), Roberto Finelli

Many hold that the transition from Hegel’s materialism to Marx’s materialism signifies a progressive development from an abstract-idealist theory-of-becoming, to a theory of the concrete actions of humans within history. A Failed Parricide offers an innovative reading of this transition, arguing that Marx remained structurally subaltern to Hegel’s conception of the subject that becomes itself in relation to alterity.

Genres: Philosophy, History

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Western Marxists can say what they will about the vapidity and dogmatism of Soviet Marxist texts, and sometimes I agree, but at least they attempted to make them understandable. Finelli's prose is more obscurantist than Hegel or the "young" Marx. Thomas should have written a translator's preface or something. The chapter on Feuerbach is very good, though.

[Christopher Carrico · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will take me some time to figure out whether I agree with the main arguments of the book. Also, I think that I can't really definitively pass judgement on A Failed Parricide until I've read its sequel, A Completed Parricide, which hasn't been translated into English yet. I'm giving this 5 stars not as an endorsement of all of its conclusions, but rather because I think it raises some very productive questions, and because I learned a lot from reading it.