OF A GOLDEN AGE

we’ve started reading Marx in philosophy class. after our unit on Kierkegaard, who was a fluid, lovely writer even when i did not agree with his ideas, Marx reads very dogmatically. his writing his dramatic and clunky sometimes. I am not digging it. also, as I told the class, the communist manifesto qualifies more as speculative fiction than philosophy.

that raises an interesting question, though. what are the criteria for philosophy? it varies wildly and is similar to what U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart famously used to qualify pornography: “I know it when I see it.” philosophy doesn’t necessarily need to be systematic, because plenty of writers — especially in the mid-twentieth century and beyond — tackle one particular issue at a time without tying it into any larger schematic. philosophy can also be speculative, within reason, especially when considering thought exercises and hypothetical situations.

the boundary seems to arise when Marx gives an entire narrative of what he “knows” to be the future of humankind. I’m sorry, Marx, what are your sources here?

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