Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx

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HERMENEUTIC COMMUNISM

msu xnncrlo N s: Critimlsmdiainkdigivn, Politics, and Culture

INSURRE CTI ONS: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture Slavoj Ziiek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis,_]eErey\M Robbins, Editors

TI-IE INTERSECTION OP RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE IS ONE OP TI-IE MOST DISCUSSED AREAS IN THEORY TODAY. IT ALSO HAS THE DEEPEST AND MOST WIDE­ RANGING IMPACT ON THE WORLD. INSURRECTIONS: CRITICAL STUDIES IN RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE WILL BRING TI-IE TOOLS OP PHILOSOPHY AND CRITICAL THE­

ORY T0 TI-IE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OP TI-IE RELIGIOUS TURN. TI-IE SERIES WILL

ADDRESS A RANGE on RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND POLITICAL VIEWPOINTS IN TI-IE UNITED STATES, EUROPE, AND OTHER PARTS o1= THE WORLD. WITHOUT ADVOCATING

ANY SPECIFIC RELIGIOUS OR THEOLOGICAL STANCE, TIIE SERIES AIMS NONETHELESS T0 EE FAITI-IFUL T0 Tl-IE RADICAL EMANCIPATORY POTENTIAL OP RELIGION.

After the Death of God,]ohn D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited by_]elfrey\M Robbins The Politics of Postsecular Relqion: Mourning Secular Futures, Ananda Abeysekara

Nietzsche and Levinas: 'Kfter the Death ofa Certain God' edited byjill Stauffer and Bettina Bergo Strange Wonder: 'Die Closure ofMetaphysics and the Opening ofAwe, Mary-jane Rubenstein Religion and the Specter ofthe West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality and the Politics of Translation,

Arvind Mandair Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction, Catherine Malabou

Anatlreism: Returning to God After God, Richard Kearney Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation, Peter Sloterdijk

Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics Ajter Liberalism, Clayton Crockett

Radical Democracy and Political '17Ieology,]elfrey\M Robbins Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic,

edited by Slavoj Ziiek, Clayton Crockett, and Creston Davis What Does a ]ew Want? On Binationalism and Other Specters, Udi Aloni

HERHiEiEUTiC CUHNiUiiiS§i FRDM HEIDEGGER T0 MARX

GIANNI VATTIMO * SANTIAGO ZABALA

Cl b U t)'Press NEW YORK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHERS SINCE 1893

NEW YORK CI-IIC!-IBSTBR, WBST SUSSBX

Copyright 0 zou Columbia University Press All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vattimo, Gianni, 1936­

Hermeneutic communism : from Heidegger to Marx / Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala.

p. cm. - (Insurrections) Includes bibliographical references (p. 199) and index.

ISBN 978-0°2.3I°l$801°2 paper) - ISBN 978-o-2.31-5:1807-8 (e-book)

1. Communism-Philosophy z. Philosophy Marxist. 3. Hermeneutics. L Zabala, Santiago,

1975- lL Title. Ill. Series. HX73y38§ zou 33§.4OI1dC12

. zouoo8349 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper:

This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America

c1o9876543z1 References to Intemet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the

manuscript was prepared.

CUNTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

Introduction 1 PART I. FRAMED DEMOCRACY 1. imposing Descriptions 11 Truth’s Violence 17 The Conservative Nature of Realism 26

The Winner’s History 37

2. Armed Capitalism 45 'The Impositions of the Liberal State 51

V

Conserving Financial Recessions 58 Fighting the Weak 64

PART Il. HERMENEUTIC COMMUNISM 3. Interpretation as Anarchy 75 The Anarchic Vein of Hermeneutics 79 Existence Is Interpretation 87 Hermeneutics as Weak Thought 95

4. Hermeneutic Communism 109 Weal