Costanzo Preve

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Costanzo Preve (b. 1943) is an Italian Marxist philosopher and a political theoretician.

[edit] Biography

Costanzo Preve studied philosophy, political science and ancient and modern Greek in Turin, Paris and Athens. He worked as a high school teacher from 1967 to 2002, and was engaged first in the Italian Communist Party (PCI) then got close to Democrazia Proletaria, a party created in 1975 and opposed to the "historic compromise" between the PCI and the Christian Democracy. After the dissolving of the PCI following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Costanzo Preve undertook a critical review of his own positions held in the precedent decades. He gave lectures for, and took part in some of the cultural activities, of the Anti-Imperialist Camp, a union of international leftist anti-imperialist activists, who have received much attention from the media because of their critical stand against US imperialism and Zionism.

Costanzo Preve was initially influenced by Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, before turning himself towards Georg Lukacs. He rejected the important Operaismo current (or autonomist Marxism) during the 1960-70s. In the 1990s, Preve returned to Althusser and criticizes "economism" and orthodox Marxism based on a teleological philosophy of history inspired by Hegel. As did Althusser in his latter work on "random materialism" (matérialisme aléatoire), Preve insists on the place of contingency in history and considers the class contrast between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat to be a historical passing form specific to a certain period of the capitalist mode of production. Preve conceives of the 1960s as a rupture in history, in much the same way that the appearance of the proletariat in the 19th century had been. Capitalism entered a new phase. However, Preve insists against Althusser on the young Marx's theory of alienation and on his theory on human nature, and provocatively considers Marxism as the last phase of German Idealism. Preve has also insisted on the unprecedented power of the sole hyperpower, that is the United States, and warned against cultural imperialism. He criticizes Toni Negri and Michael Hardt's Empire (2000).

Costanzo Preve assigned four "masters" to Marx: Epicurus (to whom he dedicated his thesis, Difference of natural philosophy between Democritus and Epicurus, 1841) for his materialism and theory of clinamen; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from which come his idea of egalitarian democracy; Adam Smith, from whom came the idea that the grounds of property is labour; and finally Hegel.

[edit] Bibliography

La filosofia imperfetta. Una proposta di ricostruzione del marxismo contemporaneo , Franco Angeli, Milano 1984
La teoria in pezzi. La dissoluzione del paradigm teorico operaista in Italia, 1976-1983 , Dedalo, Bari 1984
IL filo di Arianna. Quindici lezioni di filosofia marxista , Vangelista, Milano 1990
L'assalto aluminium cielo. Saggi CSU marxismo e individualismo , Vangelista, Milano 1992
IL pianeta rosso. Saggio CSU marxismo e universalismo , Vangelista, Milano 1992
L'eguale libertà. Saggio sulla natura umana , Vangelista, Milano 1994
Nichilismo, verità, storia. Un manifesto filosofico della fine del 20. secolo , CRT, Pistoia 1997
Individui liberati, comunità solidali. Sulla questione della società degli individui , CRT, Pistoia 1998
Destra e sinistra. La natura inservibile di due categorie tradizionali , CRT, Pistoia 1998
La questione nazionale all soglie del 21. secolo. Note introduttive ad un problema delicato e pieno di pregiudizi , CRT, Pistoia 1998
La fine dell'URSS, dalla transizione mancata alla dissoluzione material , CRT, Pistoia 1999
Hegel, Marx, Heidegger. Un percorso nella filosofia contemporanea , CRT, Pistoia 1999
IL bombardamento etico. Saggio sull'interventismo umanitario, l'embargo terapeutico e la menzogna evident , CRT, Pistoia 2000
Marx inattuale. Eredità e prospettiva , Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2004 * L'ideocrazia imperial Americana. Una resistenza possibile , Settimo Sigillo, Roma 2004
Filosofia della presente. Un mondo alla rovescia there interpreter acres , Settimo Sigillo, Roma 2004
Filosofia e geopolitica. Eurocentrismo, euroatlantismo, eurasiatismo , Edizioni all'insegna del veltro, Parma 2005
IL Popolo aluminium Potere. IL problema della democrazia nei suoi aspetti storici e filosofici , Arianna Editrice