Research Catalog

Title

Making history : agency, structure, and change in social theory / by Alex Callinicos.

Author

Callinicos, Alex

Publication

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

liii, 287 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

"Making History is about the question - central to social theory - of how human agents draw their powers from the social structures they are involved in. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy, and a wide range of historical writing, Alex Callinicos seeks to avoid two unacceptable extremes - dissolving the subject into an impersonal flux, as poststructuralists tend to - and treating social structures as the mere effects of individual action (for example, rational-choice theory). Among those discussed are Althusser, Anderson, Benjamin, Brenner, Cohen, Elster, Foucault, Giddens, Habermas, and Mann. Callinicos has written an extended introduction to this new edition that reviews developments since Making History was first published in 1987. This republication gives a new generation of readers access to an important intervention in Marxism and social theory."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Historical materialism book series, 1570-1522 ; 3

Uniform Title

Historical materialism book series 3.

Subject

• Marx, Karl, 1818-1883
• Agent (Philosophy)
• Act (Philosophy)
• Structuralism
• Historical materialism
• Revolutions > Philosophy
• Historische sociologie
• Sociale structuur
• Handelen
• Individu en samenleving
• Theorieën

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ch. 1. Subjects and agents -- 1.1. Three concepts of agency -- 1.2. The orthodox conception of agents -- 1.3. Human nature : the need for a philosophical anthropology -- 1.4. Human nature : morality, justice and virtue -- 1.5. Practical reason and social structures -- Ch. 2. Structure and action -- 2.1. The concept of social structure -- 2.2. The basic concepts of historical materialism -- 2.3. Orthodox historical materialism -- 2.4. Rational-choice Marxism -- 2.5. Structural capacities and human action -- 2.6. What's left of historical materialism? -- Ch. 3. Reasons and interests -- 3.1. Expressivism and the hermeneutic tradition -- 3.2. Interpretation and social theory -- 3.3. Charity, truth and community -- 3.4. The utilitarian theory of action -- 3.5. Interests and powers -- Ch. 4. Ideology and power -- 4.1. Collective agents -- 4.2. Falsehood and ideology, I -- 4.3. Falsehood and ideology, II -- 4.4. Nation, state and military power -- 4.5. A note on base and superstructure -- Ch. 5. Tradition and revolution -- 5.1. Revolution as redemption : Benjamin and Sartre -- 5.2. Marxism and the proletariat -- 5.3. The rationality of revolution -- 5.4. Revolution and repetition -- 5.5. The tradition of the oppressed.

ISBN

• 9004136274 (alk. paper)
• 9789004136274 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2004045143

OCLC

• 54499878
• SCSB-10869095

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library