Criticism and counter criticism of Humanism

Authors

  • João Quartim de Moraes Doutor em Ciência Política pela Fondation Nationale de Science Politique de l’Academie de Paris. Professor de Filosofia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas-SP, Brasil.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/ls.v18i33.25742

Keywords:

Teleology, Marxism, materialism, humanity, Darwinism, theoretical objectivity.

Abstract

The critique of metaphysical humanism is a centerpiece of Althusserian philosophical legacy. It shows the theoretical inconsistency of teleological versions of Marxism and opens the way to the materialist understanding, critical and objective, of social history. The very thesis of self-production of man by labor, interpreted metaphysically, is reduced to a tautology: labor produces man because he works in a human way. The materialist explanation of Engels highlighted the important role of work in the evolutionary connection of the hand to the brain, rooting human history in the evolution of the primates. When Losurdo claims against Althusser that the humanist vocabulary is present in all of the work of Marx, he dismisses the problem of theoretical objectivity in historical materialism.

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Published

2014-12-31

How to Cite

Moraes, J. Q. de. (2014). Criticism and counter criticism of Humanism. Lutas Sociais, 18(33), 74–89. https://doi.org/10.23925/ls.v18i33.25742

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 33 (2014): Louis Althusser, 50 years later

Section

Dossier

License

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