Rethinking Gramscis Political Philosophy Essay - 3376 Words

Rethinking Gramscis Political Philosophy ABSTRACT: This paper is a clarification and partial justification of a novel approach to the interpretation of Gramsci. My approach aims to avoid reductionism, intellectualism, and one-sidedness, as well as the traditional practice of conflating his political thought with his active political life. I focus on the political theory of the Prison Notebooks and compare it with that of Gaetano Mosca. I regard Mosca as a classic exponent of democratic elitism, according to which elitism and democracy are not opposed to each other but are rather mutually interdependent. Placing Gramsci in the same tradition, my documentation involves four key points. First, the Notebooks contain an explicit†¦show more content†¦(1) Second, I said in large measure, and this does not mean entirely; that is, I think it would be wrong to claim that all of Gramscis political theory derives only from Mosca since there is no question that there are other sources, such as Marx, Lenin, Hegel, Gentile, Croce , and Machiavelli. (2) Third, when I speak of political theory, I am not referring to the totality of Gramscis thought, but to that part which deals with questions which are strictly and explicitly political and social, such as classes, forces, crises, revolutions, governments, parties, and states. For example, I am not referring to Gramscis philosophical conceptualizations of the dialectic and the theory-practice nexus, nor to his historical interpretations of the Italian Risorgimento and French Revolution. Naturally, this distinction among political-theoretical, philosophical-conceptual, and historical aspects is not meant to be a separation since there are important relationships among them; however, the distinction aims to avoid confusion. Fourth, I should like to make clear that it would be an intellectualist error to pretend that Gramscis thought derives only from other thought, be it Moscas, Croces, orShow MoreRelatedThe White Man s Burden By Rudyard Kipling10612 Words   |à ‚  43 Pageswhich grants them with a sense of uncertainty. Mrs Moore is uncertain of her experience in the caves. She confuses things for being unable to recognise ‘nothingness’ from ‘all’ (Edwards, 2002: 60). She, therefore, decides to leave India as her philosophy of life becomes absurd in the nothingness of the Indian landscape. It acquires various meanings according the nature of the experience each character lives. The Indian sky predominates the atmosphere of the novel; it is dull, very enormousRead MoreThe White Man s Burden10652 Words   |  43 Pagesof India. It underlines the colonial relationship of the British colonial context and the colonised Indians in an exhaustive way. The relationship between the two nations is that of hegemony and power. India, as Ahmad Abu Baker believes in his â€Å"Rethinking Identity: The Coloniser in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India†, is very ‘hostile to the colonisers, fighting them and intensifying their feelings of alienation and exile’ (Abu Baker, 2006: 68). The novel is a well-polished text for it takes ten