Macherey and the Becoming-Real of Philosophy

112 the minnesota review Ted Stolze Macherey and the BecomingReal of Philosophy I. From Crisis to Crisis Although Pierre Macherey has become recognized in the Englishspeaking world primarily as a literary critic, he has for the last twenty years, in relative obscurity, taught philosophy, written philosophical books and essays, and intervened in marxist theory as a philosopher. Evidently, a balanced equation exists between the well-known literary critic and the unknown philosopher. This brief introduction will try to upset the balance of that equation and to provide a tentative, unstable appreciation of Macherey's philosophical orientation and development over a period of time which has been described as a protracted "crisis of marxism." Macherey has been among the few marxists who have recognized the theoretical and political stakes involved in that crisis without foreseeable end. During the 1960s, the crisis seemed to many to concern whether or not marxism is (or ought to be) a humanism. Yet Macherey (following Althusser) argued that a deeper question underlay that of marxism's relationship to humanism: what is the "scientificity" of marxism? By seeking allies among such historians of science as Bachelard, Canguilhem, and Koyré, Macherey hoped to advance a rigorous alternative to a simplistic, humanist critique of reductive or scientistic marxisms. During the 1980s, the crisis has assumed far more serious proportions. Today, it isn't so much the "scientificity" of marxism as it is its "philosophicality" that is at stake. By "philosophicality" I mean marxism 's intelligibility to itself and others, its ability coherently to distinguish itself from other theoretical frameworks and political projects. The current challenge comes not so much from marxists as it does from those who once considered themselves marxists but now claim to have "gone beyond" marxism. Correspondingly, a new question seems to have arisen: no longer, is marxism humanist? but, is marxism postmodernist? It is crucial not to misconstrue this new question as only a variant of the old: those who promote postmodernism lay no claim to humanism, nor to any of the values associated with it. It is crucial, too, to regard the new question as no less badly posed than the old. If during the 60s the real issue was marxism's relationship to science not humanism; equally, if not more so, the real issue during the 80s is marxism's relationship to philosophy, not postmodernism. stolze 113 Macherey has begun to envision not just another "return to Marx," as the project of the 60s was conceived. Instead, in keeping with the exigencies of the moment, he has initiated a project for a "Marx beyond Marx," if we may borrow Antonio Negri's expression.1 By seeking allies not in the history of science but in the history of philosophy, Macherey now hopes to advance a materialism able to contest the latest "immaterialisms ."2 II. Humanism's Last Stand But let's slow down a little and not anticipate too much. Before we can consider Macherey's latest interventions, we must return to his earliest interventions in marxist theory as a philosopher. In particular, we need to examine closely his essay "On the Rupture,"5 and the historical situation in which it was written. Let us recall that there was a discussion within—but not confined to— the French Communist Party about the theoretical significance of humanism for marxism. Roughly speaking, that discussion in the 60s resulted from events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (e.g., Khrushchev's "secret speech" to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the failed Hungarian Revolution in 1956) which marked the decline of Stalinism and culminated in 1968 with Czechoslovakia's "Prague Spring." The words "marxism with a human face" became the slogan of those who, at best, dreamed of creating a genuinely democratic socialism, but also, at worst, failed to provide an adequate analysis of the grim reality of so-called bureaucratic socialism. Louis Althusser wasted no time publishing in the Italian journal Critica Marxista his own critical reflections on "Marxism and Humanism," which was published in France in Les Cahiers de l'Institut des Sciences économniques appliqées. Althusser's essay prompted an indignant response by Jorge Semprun that...