Marxism and the philosophy of internal relations; or, How to replace the mysterious ‘paradox’ with ‘contradictions’ that can be studied and resolved

Abstract

The problems most people have in understanding Marx come not only from the complexity of his theories, but also from the frequent changes in the meanings of his concepts. The present article attributes this unusual practice to Marx’s ‘philosophy of internal relations’, which serves as the foundation for his dialectical method, and his use of the process of abstraction (breaking up our internally related world into the ‘parts’ best suited to study it). The ‘flexibility’ found in Marx’s use of language is the linguistic counterpart of the different abstractions he believes necessary in order to capture the complex workings of capitalism. Marx’s dialectical categories, especially ‘contradiction’, are good examples of this process at work.

Social workers and alienation: the compassionate self and the disappointed juggler

“…'…we seek reconstructions that leave core postulates intact, that do as well as the preexisting theory upon which they are built, and that absorb anomalies with parsimony, offering novel angles of vision'. (1998 p16) Ollman (2003Ollman ( , 2015 highlights one final aspect of Marxist methodology that is relevant for this research: the relationship between the logical from and the historical i form of alienation. What he means is that alienation theory, as outlined by Marx in his writings, is a high-level abstraction that isolates alienation to its simplest the purest logical form (as outlined in the following section).…”

Distributing resources in a construction project: Conflictual co-operation about a common cause and its theoretical implications

“…Contradictions are a consequence hereof. A contradiction is constituted by incompatible moments in the concrete common cause that all the same are dependent on each other (Ollmann, 2015). We need the concept of common cause to understand why the incompatible moments are dependent on each other (Axel & Højholt, 2019).…”

Contradictions and conflicts: Researching school as conflictual social practice

“…Nevertheless, these common matters are multifaceted and contradictory (Ollman, 2015(Ollman, , 2003. Thus, we want to open theoretical possibilities for analyzing the broader context of school problems and how contradictory aspects of social practice are simultaneously incompatible and dependent on one another (Ollman, 2015(Ollman, , 2003Axel, 2011, submitted). The focus on conflicts represents a way of approaching the Published in Theory & Psychology, 2019, this is authors final version-minor correctional changes was made before publishing 4 interrelatedness of psychological phenomena in social life as opposed to dualistic compartmentalization of psychological functions.…”

“…This is a situated approach to structural and political issues with a point of reference in the shared societal life, where people deal with common matters from different locations and positions (Dreier, 2008; Holzkamp, 2013; Højholt & D. Kousholt, 2018a; Schraube & Højholt, 2016). Nevertheless, these common matters are multifaceted and contradictory (Ollman, 2003, 2015). Thus, we want to open theoretical possibilities for analyzing the broader context of school problems and how contradictory aspects of social practice are simultaneously incompatible and dependent on one another (Axel, 2011, 2019; Ollman, 2003, 2015).…”