ABSTRACT
This critical discussion of some of the most important concepts of political debate that we use today brings us to some more general points of critique in relation to Marx’s work. There has been an enormous amount of analysis of his writings over the decades, from those sympathetic to his ideas through to those who see him as the anti-Christ of politics and all shades in between. To pick out some of the key points of discussion is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, for better or worse, here are the most pertinent ones as we see them. That is, these criticisms are not based upon a purely ideological antagonism to Marx, simply because he was a communist, but upon his work as a philosopher and political thinker whose genius was to take Hegelian Idealism and marry it to his own theory of historical materialism. Below, then, are three grouped areas of discussion. In the first we look at the issues surrounding the different methodologies that Marx employs. The second group concerns Marx’s use of history, and the role of structure and agency within that model. Finally, there is a set of discussions around Marx’s economic theories and his model of capitalism.
