{"product_id":"9781442637658","title":"Merleau-Ponty and Marxism: From Terror to Reform","description":"\u003cp\u003eInfluenced by Kojève's interpretation of Hegel as well   as his direct political experience of the second world war, Maurice Merleau-Ponty   abandoned the religious and philosophical position he had assumed in the 1930s and   turned to Marxism. This is the first critical study of the French philosopher's   political ideas and the context in which they evolved. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn its origin and   its development, Merleau-Ponty's political thought expressed a subtle dialectic   between ongoing political events and the apparent truths of Marx's analysis.   With the onset of the cold war, the discovery of the Soviet concentration camps, the   repression of Eastern Europe, the Algerian crisis, and the founding of the Fifth   Republic, Merleau-Ponty began to take a critical look at Marx's ideas of the   genesis of humanism in the light of these disturbing political realities. His   reconsideration of the basis of Marxism and his conclusion that it had lost contact   with history led to a fundamental reorientation of his attitudes. No longer   sympathetic to the use of violence to end violence, he criticized Sartre's   external justification of communist violence as 'magical' and advocated   instead a new liberalism combining parliamentary democracy with an awareness of the   social problems of industrial capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBarry Cooper's study of this   important contemporary thinker gives context for an understanding of Merleau-  Ponty's politics and, in so doing, brings together the complex issues and ideas   that have shaped modern European political and philosophical thought. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47128463507696,"sku":"9781442637658","price":30.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781442637658_p0.jpg?v=1763806486","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781442637658","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}