A Speculative Theory of Politics: Logic of the Party-Form

Abstract

The dissertation provides a defense of political partisanship from a philosophical perspective by a) arguing that classical and contemporary philosophy have been unable to understand such phenomenon due to its moral and metaphysical prejudices, b) that the Hegelian speculative tradition has been almost alone in defending something like a partisan conception of truth, and that c) Marx and the socialist and communist tradition that followed preserved this speculative conception of truth by tracing it to the social universe and applying it to the practical tasks of party building and organization. In tracing and reinterpreting that history, the dissertation provides a marker on how to connect abstract philosophical questions with practical matters of politics. I believe following Lenin that there is no revolution without revolutionary theory, no politics without philosophy, and conversely, that there is no political philosophy if it does not provide guidelines for political practice and exercise.