In my understanding, the concept to which you refer is part of Herbert
Marcuse's legacy to Marxist thought. It originates in his early synthesis
of Heidegger (who repels me, I'm afraid) and Marx. Heidegger's project of
"authenticity", outlined in Being and Time, was directed towards the
individual's ascension from the "fallenness" of social existence to the
authentic experience of consciously being-in-the-world (an ontological,
asocial nonsense via tautology re the former and via negation re the
latter, to my mind). Marcuse, both disillusioned and obsessed with the
failure of the Marxist revolutionary movement (as it had emerged from the
second communist Internationale) embarked on a Heideggerian revision of
Marx with a view to defining the radical, revolutionary act as an
existential revolt against prevailing social conditions (and thus, as a
transcendence of social consciousness in the concreteness of "being"). He
had hoped, by his revision, to turn revolutionary marxism into a "concrete
science" in respect of "radical action".
This could be a completely wrong understanding about the term you're
talking about and my unfamiliarity with activity theory prevents me from
giving examples. Sorry, perhaps someone else can be more helpful.
BTW I see Marcuse's revisionism as being exemplary of an unnecessary focus
on the revolutionary aspects of the young marx. Really, such a focus denies
the essence of many useful aspects of marx's diachronic materialism (which
is essentially evolutionary rather than revolutionary to my mind). But I
shan't go on about that. Eventually, Marcuse ended up seeing the nihilism
inherent in Heidegger and the utter bankruptcy of his philosophy,
especially after it was put to such horrible use by Hitler et al with, I
might add, Heidegger's full and enthusiastic approval.
Hope this is useful.
Phil
At 20:17 02-02-99 -0500, you wrote:
>Can anyone give me a good explanation of what Marxians mean when they
>talk about "ascending to the concrete?" Examples, especially those
>related to AT, would be helpful.
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Rochel Sara Heckert
>
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Phil Graham
pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au
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