Mass Politics and Marxism. Genealogy of Problem of Dialectics of Reason as Dialectics of Mass Democracy

Jakub Nalichowski

In this paper I present some part of historical-doctrinal background of Jürgen Habermas’ early understanding of the nature of politics. My analyses concentrate around theproblem posed by young Karl Marx, namely the problem of dialectics of mass politics as a materialization of dialectics of reason, and its fate in Marx’s later writings and that of his followers including György Lukács and Antonio Gramsci. I show that because of being boundby German Idealism’s schemes of thought, Marxism could not comprehend this problem properly and it lost the understanding of its significance. This gives me the perspective to introduce the general outline of Frankfurt School and then Habermas’ comprehension of dialectics of mass politics.

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Keywords: Habermas · Marx · politics · capitalism