Costanzo Preve

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Costanzo Preve at a book presentation in Turin (2010)

Costanzo Preve (born April 14, 1943 in Valenza , Italy; † November 23, 2013 in Turin ) was an Italian philosopher and political theorist. Coming politically from the radical left , he was one of the most controversial intellectuals in Italy and aroused media attention for his advocacy of militant anti-Americanism .

Life

Preve studied philosophy, political science and ancient and modern Greek in Turin, Paris and Athens. From 1967 to 2002 he worked as a teacher in Italian high schools. Politically, he became involved first in the Italian Communist Party , then in the radical left with groups such as Democrazia Proletaria . After 1990, Preve carried out a self-critical revision of his previous positions, with which he increasingly isolated himself from most of his old companions on the left. Since 2001 he has supported the political alliance project Campo Anti-imperialista (represented in German-speaking countries as an anti-imperialist coordination ), which aims for a joint struggle by left groups with Arab and Islamic forces, Slavic nationalists, etc. against the American "empire".

Initially, Preve was theoretically based on the French Marxist Louis Althusser , but then turned more to the philosophy of Georg Lukács (especially his late work). He was always hostile to the then influential stream of operaism in Italy . In the 1970s and 1980s, Preve was considered one of the most important intellectuals on the undogmatic left in Italy.

Preve's turn after 1990 was based on the demand for a profound renewal and reformulation of Marxist thought. Taking up Althusser, Preve criticized traditional Marxism for the teleological philosophy of history and "economism". While Marx orthodoxy assumes a regular succession of social formations which, through the antagonism of bourgeoisie and proletariat in capitalist society, necessarily lead to the proletarian revolution and the classless communist society, Preve objects that, firstly, different strands of development are always possible in history Often accidental events determine the further direction, and second, that the class antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is only a historically transient form of social conflict in the capitalist mode of production.

Against Marxist “economism”, which defines social classes from their formal position in the production process and regards the opposition between bourgeoisie and proletariat both as the generally determining factor of social reality in bourgeois society and as the driving force behind its necessary overcoming, Preve started that classes as real sociological quantities are a result of a multitude of socio-cultural conditions. Preve assumed that processes of social change began in the Western European countries in the 1960s, which the old bourgeoisie and the working class, as they had developed in the 19th century - as relatively homogeneous collectives, which are both actors in a conflict of economic interests as well as were carriers of a certain culture - decayed. Capitalism had entered a "post-bourgeois" and "post-proletarian" phase in which the new middle classes with a liberal orientation had become the ruling force and the mainstay of imperialism , while on the other hand there were forms of social exclusion that were associated with the old class terms cannot be described. Under the conditions of the absolute economic and military supremacy of the USA, the central conflict of today's capitalism on a world scale is no longer that between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, but that between "imperialist-American homogenization" and the struggles of "peoples" to defend their traditions and cultures and states to preserve their national sovereignty.

Preve used the term "globalization" to represent what he sees as an Anglo-American "monoculture" that dominates the world today. Preve bases his sharply anti-American thrust on the historical argument that the USA is primarily the product of a migration of religious currents that were ostracized as outsiders in Europe and that have implemented an image of society in North America that, in contrast to European democracy, is not based on the ancient idea of Polis is based, rather, on an unlimited utilitarian individualism. Preve sees the overpowering influence of the USA as the decisive cause for the spread of neoliberalism , i. H. the worldwide implementation of a "pure capitalism". Politically, the dictatorship of the "unity party of political correctness" prevails in Europe today: Political correctness is the guiding code of the rule of the new liberal middle classes, which meanwhile justify wars with "ethical" arguments and the defense of " human rights " and thus the old international law Override the principles of sovereignty of states. Under these conditions, at least in Europe, the traditional political opposition between the "left" and the "right" has become largely meaningless. According to Preve, "left" and "right" today only designate cultural identities, without their contrasts reflecting the central conflicts of society. Preve continues to see himself personally as a leftist and communist , but believes that political changes will primarily come from new currents of populism and communitarianism beyond the dichotomy of "left" and "right". His thinking touches on that of Alain de Benoist , who is considered the intellectual protagonist of the French New Right and with whom Preve is in intellectual exchange. In contrast to de Benoist, however, Preve defends the philosophical universalism of the Enlightenment .

Against the left, however, Preve took to the field with polemics that were mostly caustic. From Antonio Negri to Fausto Bertinotti , from the Disobbedienti to the Trotskyists to the Rifondazione Comunista, all relevant currents of the Italian left earned scorn and ridicule from him. The critics of globalization considered Preve to be hopelessly "Americanized". The core idea of ​​his criticism of the left consists in the diagnosis - partly linked to Michel Foucault - that today's left is actually reproducing and supporting the power system it wants to fight. Preve accused the "postmodern" left of having adopted the nihilistic worldview of neoliberalism with their individualism and hedonism . Preve exemplified this with the theory of Antonio Negri, which, following Gilles Deleuze, elevates "desire" - in contrast to the finite "need", limitless - to the driving force of change in society and thus, in Preve's view, has nothing other than the basis the illusionism of liberal "consumerism" with its deceptive promises of happiness.

From his analyzes Preve concluded that the most urgent political task today is the worldwide support of all forces that are able to set limits to the economic and military domination of the USA. A new social counterforce would have to break with the left-wing liberal discourse (individualism, hedonism, "political correctness", rejection of national identity, etc.), which integrates the left into the ruling system, that dominates the left.

Publications (selection)

  • La filosofia imperfetta. Una proposta di ricostruzione del marxismo contemporaneo . 1984, Franco Angeli
  • La teoria in pezzi. La dissoluzione del paradigma teorico operaista in Italia (1976-1983) . 1984, Dedalo
  • Reification and Utopia . 1987, Sendler
  • La passione durevole . 1989, Vangelista
  • Il filo di Arianna. Quindici lezioni di filosofia marxista . 1990, Vangelista
  • Il convitato di pietra . 1991, Vangelista
  • L'assalto al cielo. Saggio su marxismo e individualismo . 1992, Vangelista
  • Il pianeta rosso. Saggio su marxismo e universalismo . 1992, Vangelista
  • L'ideologia Italiana. Saggio sulla storia delle idee marxiste in Italia . 1993, Vangelista
  • Il tempo della ricerca. Saggio sul moderno, il postmoderno e la fine della storia . 1993, Vangelista
  • L'eguale libertà. Saggio sulla natura umana . 1994, Vangelista
  • Oltre la gabbia d'acciaio . 1994, Vangelista, (+ Gianfranco La Grassa )
  • Il teatro dell'assurdo (cronaca e storia dei recenti avvenimenti italiani) , 1995, Punto rosso, (+ Gianfranco La Grassa )
  • Una teoria nuova per una diversa strategia politica , 1995, Punto rosso, (+ Gianfranco La Grassa )
  • Un elogio della filosofia . 1996, Punto Rosso
  • La fine di una teoria. Il collasso del marxismo storico del Novecento . 1996, Unicopli, (+ Gianfranco La Grassa )
  • Il comunismo storico novecentesco (1917-1991) . 1997, Punto Rosso
  • Nichilismo Verità Storia. Un manifesto filosofico della fine del XX secolo . 1997, CRT, (+ Massimo Bontempelli)
  • Gesù uomo nella storia, Dio nel pensiero . 1997, CRT, (+ Massimo Bontempelli)
  • Il crepuscolo della profezia comunista. A 150 anni dal “Manifesto” . 1998, CRT
  • L'alba del Sessantotto. Una interpretazione filosofica . 1998, CRT
  • Marxismo, Filosofia, Verità . 1998, CRT
  • Destra e sinistra. La natura inservibile di due categorie tradizionali . 1998, CRT
  • La questione nazionale alle soglie del XXI secolo . 1998, CRT
  • Le stagioni del nichilismo. Un'analisi filosofica ed una prognosi storica . 1998, CRT
  • Individui liberati, comunità solidali. Sulla questione della società degli individui . 1998, CRT
  • Contro il capitalismo, oltre il comunismo. Riflessioni su di una eredità storica e su un futuro possibile . 1998, CRT
  • La fine dell'Urss. Dalla transizione mancata alla dissoluzione reale . 1999, CRT
  • The ritorno del clero. La questione degli intellettuali oggi . 1999, CRT
  • Le avventure dell'ateismo. Religione e materialismo oggi . 1999, CRT
  • Un nuovo manifesto filosofico. Prospettive inedite e orizzonti convincenti per il pensiero . 1999, CRT, (+ Andrea Cavazzini )
  • Hegel Marx Heidegger. Un percorso nella filosofia contemporanea . 1999, CRT
  • Scienza, politica, filosofia. Un'interpretazione filosofica del Novecento . 1999, CRT
  • I secoli difficili. Introduzione al pensiero filosofico dell'Ottocento e del Novecento . 1999, CRT
  • L'educazione filosofica. Memoria del passato - Compito del presente - Sfida del futuro . 2000, CRT
  • Il bombardamento etico. Saggio sull'interventismo umanitario, l'embargo terapeutico e la menzogna evidente . 2000, CRT
  • Marxismo e filosofia. Note, riflessioni e alcune novità . 2002, CRT
  • Un secolo di marxismo. Idea e ideology . 2003, CRT
  • Le contraddizioni di Norberto Bobbio. Per una critica del bobbianesimo cerimoniale . 2004, CRT
  • Marx inattuale. Eredità e prospettiva . 2004, Bollati Boringhieri
  • Verità filosofica e critica sociale. Religione, filosofia, marxismo . 2004, CRT
  • Dove va la destra? Dove va la sinistra? (+ Giano Accame; editor: Stefano Boninsegni). 2004, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo
  • Comunitarismo Filosofia Politica . 2004, Noctua
  • L'ideocrazia imperiale americana . 2004, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo
  • Filosofia del presente . 2004, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo
  • Filosofia e Geopolitica . 2005, Edizioni all'insegna del Veltro, (preface by Tiberio Graziani)
  • Del buon uso dell'universalismo . 2005, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, (preface by Carlo Gambescia)
  • Dialoghi sul presente. Alienazione, globalizzazione, Destra / Sinistra, atei devoti. Per un pensiero ribelle (+ Alain de Benoist and Giuseppe Giaccio). 2005 Controcorrente
  • Marx e gli antichi greci . 2005, Petite Plaisance, (+ Luca Grecchi)
  • Il popolo al potere. Il problema della democrazia nei suoi aspetti storici e filosofici . 2006, Arianna Editrice, (preface by Giuseppe Giaccio)
  • Verità e relativismo. Religione, scienza, filosofia e politica nell'epoca della globalizzazione . 2006, Alpina (preface by Franco Cardini )
  • Elogio del comunitarismo . 2006, controcorrente
  • Il paradosso De Benoist . 2006, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, (preface by Carlo Gambescia)
  • Storia della dialettica . 2006, Petite Plaisance
  • Storia critica del marxismo . 2007, Edizioni Città del Sole, (preface by André Tosel )
  • Storia dell'etica . 2007, Petite Plaisance
  • Hegel antiutilitarista . 2007, Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, (preface by Carlo Gambescia)
  • Storia del Materialismo . 2007, Petite Plaisance
  • Una approssimazione al pensiero di Karl Marx. Tra materialismo e idealismo . 2007, Il Prato (preface by Diego Fusaro )
  • Ripensare Marx. Filosofia, Idealismo, Materialismo . 2007, Editrice Ermes
  • Alla ricerca della speranza perduta . 2008, Settimo Sigillo, (+ Luigi Tedeschi)
  • La quarta guerra mondiale . 2008, Edizioni all'insegna del Veltro
  • Il marxismo e la tradizione culturale europea , 2009, Petite Plaisance

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ In memoria di Preve , Italian , accessed November 24, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Preve, Costanzo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Valenza , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 23rd November 2013
Place of death Turin