Abstract
This chapter commends Geras’s critique of Laclau and Mouffe’s book Hegemony and Social Strategy. Cowling starts by pointing out that Geras is one of a number of critics of postmodernism, and gives a brief account of some of the main features of postmodernism, and some of the lines of criticism that have been developed. Geras subjects Laclau and Mouffe to a forensic dissection, which Cowling argues is superior to the critique by Ellen Meiksins Wood. Cowling supports Geras’s attempt to vindicate the idea of relative autonomy. He agrees with Geras’s reply to Laclau and Mouffe’s riposte to him, but argues that, though his accusations that they are idealist are valid, he could benefit from greater philosophical sophistication, and the issue is discussed in more depth in Chap. 9.
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Cowling, M. (2018). Geras and Postmodernism 1: Laclau and Mouffe. In: Norman Geras’s Political Thought from Marxism to Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74048-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74048-5_8
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