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Materialism And Social Evolution

Contents
List of the Contributors 1 Historical Materialism and Social Evolution Paul Blackledge and Graeme Kirkpatrick 2 Historical Materialism: from Social Evolution to Revolutionary Politics Paul Blackledge Evolution Marx, Engels and Darwin Crude evolutionary Marxism The voluntarist reaction In defence of evolutionism Synthesising evolution and revolution Conclusion 3 Social Darwinism and Socialist Darwinism in Germany: 1860 to 1900 Ted Benton Introduction The diversity of evolutionary biology Evolutionism in culture and politics Conclusion 4 A Darwinian Historical Materialism Paul Nolan Natural selection A quasi-Darwinian theory of history A quasi-Darwinian historical materialism Some other difficulties for the theory Conclusion 5 Analytical Marxism and the Debate on Social Evolution Alan Carling History and evolution v viii 1

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Contents

What sort of evolutionary theory is the Marxian theory of history? The asocial argument for the tendency The Natural Primacy of the forces of production The Competitive Primacy of the forces of production Is Competitive Primacy plausible in history? The Feudal Fission thesis A composite theory of history? Modes of production and theories of transition Laibman: between the sundered concept and the floating fact A case in conclusion 6 History, Exploitation and Oppression Alex Callinicos Social evolution and rational choice Transitions to capitalism Generalising or dissolving class theory? Exploitation and oppression Divide and rule Conclusion 7 Progress and Technology in Habermas’s Theory of Social Evolution Graeme Kirkpatrick Introduction Habermas and the evolution of society The case of the personal computer Habermas, informationalism and social evolution Conclusion 8 The Possible Wonders of Technology. Beyond Habermas towards Marcuse: a Critical Framework for Technological Progress Giusseppe Tassone Introduction Communicative reason versus...