The Futures of Marx

For a long time, Marx was regarded in academic philosophy no less than in the general discussion as an author of the past, a name without a future. The intensifying crises of global capitalism, the escalating climate crisis, and the postcolonial discussion have brought his critique back into the critical consciousness of the present under changed auspices. At the same time, academic philosophy has rediscovered Marx as a crucial author who has a more open and diverse future than he was previously thought to have. The symposium The Futures of Marx brings together voices from the new international discussion of Marx that seek to tap into these more open futures and that draw from more diverse sources than the previous discussion. Three complexes are at the forefront: a redefinition of the relationship between nature and society in the Anthropocene, a broader critique of the capitalist way of life as a general inability to act, and an understanding of philosophical critique that is not satisfied with merely interpreting the world but wants to participate in its transformation. From Marx, an idea of liberation opens up that does not propagate a liberation of the human being at the expense of nature, but at the same time is supposed to be the “true resurrection of nature” itself. His critique does not aim, as the cliché would have it, at the demise of the individual in plan and collective, but at the rediscovery of our acting with, through and for others. And his “true critique” does not cling to immaterial ideals, as dogmatic critique does, but wants to become real. If we follow this new other Marx, the future must be materialistic, naturalistic and critical in a new way.