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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Resolving Epistemological Contradictions in Marxist African Studies |
Author: | Marenin, Otwin |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
Volume: | 27 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 641-669 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | African studies Marxism Politics and Government |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161113 |
Abstract: | The epistemological status of their own consciousness is the core contradiction of Marxist scholars. This difficulty has not been acknowledged by Marxists working on Africa. This article outlines five sets of answers offered by Marxists to their core contradiction: empiricality, rationality, morality, praxis, and paradigm assertion. It argues that African Marxists have failed to acknowledge both their theoretical debts to specific epistemological justifications, as well as their own location in the specific material conditions of their societies; that they have worked themselves into a theoretical dead end in their search for a new dominant and radical paradigm; and that the struggle towards a nonparadigmatic stance presents the least biased method for 'resolving' the contradictions between materialist base and theoretical interpretations. The aim of the article is to demystify Marxism as a social science, not to evaluate its concepts or theory. Notes, ref. |