Marxist analysis needs both material grounding and historical specificity to avoid twin errors

Evidence

Whether or not we try to develop an adequate Marxist theory of ideology from this point, it seems to be the case that the problem of ideology presents us with a paradigm instance of Marxist theory as such , what Althusser has called the necessity—and the difficulty—of holding on to “both ends of the chain” at once: the relative autonomy of a region (e.g., ideology) and its “determination in the last instance” (i.e., the determinacy of ideology by other instances, and, in the last instance, by the economic). It is the necessity to hold fast to the latter protocol which has, from time to time, sanctioned a tendency to collapse the levels of a special formation—especially, to collapse “ideas” or ideology into “the base” (narrowly defined as “the economic”). On the other hand, it is the requirement to explore the difficult terrain of “relative autonomy” (of ideology) which has given the field of ideology its awkward openness. It is through this gap—to borrow a recent metaphor of Althusser’s—that the “pup” of semiology continues to “slip between the legs” of a Marxist theory of ideology. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371; Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy; Marx’s method moves between successive levels of abstraction rather than abstracting once (+10 more)

Related

• Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy (similarity 0.90)
• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once (similarity 0.87)
• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms (similarity 0.87)
• Marxism conceives society as overdetermined relatively autonomous levels, not a simple unity (similarity 0.87)
• Economic structures are necessary but not sufficient to explain political and ideological features (similarity 0.86)
• Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture (similarity 0.85)
• Marxism reads social formations as overdetermined unities with relatively autonomous levels (similarity 0.85)
• Marx’s method jointly requires material grounding and historical specificity (similarity 0.85)
• The theory of ideology must hold both relative autonomy and economic determination simultaneously. (similarity 0.85)
• Marx’s concept of historical specificity deepened between German Ideology and Capital (similarity 0.85)
• Mature Marx employed structural rather than sequential causality (similarity 0.83)
• Marx distinguishes material economic transformation from ideological forms of consciousness (similarity 0.83)
• Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism (similarity 0.83)
• The Second International enshrined reductive economic determinism as official Marxism (similarity 0.82)
• Historical materialism is fundamentally historicist, not metaphysical (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once #expands (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371
• Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy #expands (0.85)
• Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture #corroborates (0.85)
• Social forms must be abstracted from many historical instances #expands (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 60
• Marx’s method moves between successive levels of abstraction rather than abstracting once #corroborates (0.70)
• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms #expands (0.70)
• Marx’s concept of historical specificity deepened between German Ideology and Capital #corroborates (0.70)
• Analysis must treat racisms in their historical specificity, not as one universal form #expands (0.65) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 632