Postscript on Marxism
Postscript on Marxism

Author(s): Michael A. Peters
Subject(s): Philosophy, Marxism, Scientific Life
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Michael A. Peters; postscript; Marxism; scientific life;
Summary/Abstract: Peter McLaren wrote this piece last and so I come to it last and have recast it as an endword rather than a foreword because I think this will become the basis for an ongoing dialogue of which this exchange is only the first stage. It is so different from the other articles that I decided to engage with it as a postscript or endnote. Peter is a great friend. He is a “mate” as we say in New Zealand and I regard him as a brother and it is with affection that I engage with his ideas here. Where a number of the other contributors attempted to define me in their terms—I am a secret Kantian, universalist or cosmopolitan even if I don’t already know it—Peter seeks to define me by what I’m not and especially by contrast to what he is—a revolutionary Marxist. And he takes up the cudgels on behalf of revolutionary Marxism against postmodernism and poststructuralism which are movements that allegedly define me. This is a tricky assignment for Peter as a revolutionary Marxist because he is on record as being against both postmodernism and poststructuralism and yet at the same time he is my friend and wants to be able to be respectful and to say some nice things. He manages to achieve this very well and with eloquence. I am both flattered and relieved frankly— that we can remain good friends. But I like him and treat him as a brother (even though I have qualms about “brotherhoods”) not because he is a revolutionary Marxist but despite it. He could have been a Mormon.

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