Marx and the "criticism in a hand-to-hand fight". Towards a geneaology of a modern critique of society

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Bohlender
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252969499

On the basis of its genealogical approach the research project at hand has so far carved out two crucial findings: firstly, that the social critique of Marx is indeed consistently exercised in and through a hand-to-hand fight and secondly, that this hand-to-hand fight, that is, the political deployment of a theory and a thinking in adversary constellations, is the constitutive characteristic of Marxian social critique. Up to now the aim of the project was to reveal this indelible intertwinement of the Marxian social critique with the hand-to-hand fight. In continu-ing the principle framework of the project, the new research perspective aims now to explore the consequences and effects of this insight on the comprehensive claim of truth of Marx´s social critique. Consequently, the new basic question of the project is: What does it mean for the shape of a social critique when on the one hand it is performed as a partisan politics of truth for a socio-historical movement and on the other hand it has to claim a comprehensive and revolutionary truth for the whole of society precisely as a mouthpiece of this movement? Referring to the previous research results, the project will apply this question to those three leading fields of media or practices by which the social critique of Marx is constituted and composed: the field of political organization, the field of journalistic practices, and the field of scientific theory.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants