Kosík’s Marxism: Sources, Significance and Limitations

e-mail: J.Arnason@latrobe.edu.au

The paper will start with memories of reading Dialectics of the Concrete, shortly after its first publication, and  of its impact on  the Czech intellectual scene of the times. A second section will then discuss the distinctive characteristics of Kosík’s Marxism, with particular reference to its phenomenological and/or Hegelian orientation. Finally, the specific limitations of Kosík’s reinterpretation of Marx will be considered, both on the basis of  historical experience and in light of later intellectual developments.