Alberto Moravia
1907–1990)Italian writer, whose novels and short stories display his narrative skill and psychological insight.Moravia was born of Jewish stock in Rome, the setting for most of his stories. He began ...
Alexandr Alexandrovich Bogdanov
(1873–1928)Significant early theorist of Bolshevism, whose work was attacked by Lenin in 1909. He sought to combine Marxism with the empirio-criticism of Avenarius and Mach.
alienation
Estrangement or withdrawal from society or family. This may be a manifestation of a mental disorder or of social or political disaffection. When it occurs in a family or social group, it may include ...
ALP (principles and practice)
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) was established ‘to create a better, fairer life for working people’. From this foundation Labor's values, policy, and practice have evolved in response to national ...
Alvin Ward Gouldner
(1920 –1980)An American sociologist and critical theorist who diagnosed the “crisis” of post–World War II functionalism and explored the potential for radical politics in the modern era. Gouldner was ...
always-already given
1. (givenness) Broadly, in cultural theory, a key abstract concept that is taken for granted as an essential starting-point for any theory—often inexplicit but nevertheless the philosophical ...
analytical Marxism
A term sometimes applied to the writings of sociologists and social theorists such as Erik Olin Wright, Jon Elster, and John Roemer, who attempted during the 1980s and 1990s to revitalize European ...
anarchism
The doctrine associated with Godwin, Bakunin, Proudhon, and others, that human communities can and should flourish without government. Voluntary cooperation should replace the coercive machinery of ...
André Breton
(1896–1966)French poet.Breton was born in Tinchebray, Orne. His early involvement with the dadaists revealed itself in such works as Mont de piété (1919); in the same year he co-founded the ...
Annales School
[Th]A French school of historical thought, established by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre in the late 1920s and developed by Fernand Braudel in the 1950s and 1960s, which focuses on the idea of the ...
antiscience
Is a phantom phenomenon.There are no self-described anti-scientists or degrees in antiscience. Even the most anti-modernist movements oppose science in the name of a better science. Yet the specter ...
Antonio Gramsci
(1891–1937)Italian intellectual and founder of the Italian Communist Party.Born in Alès, Sardinia, Gramsci was educated at the University of Turin, where he studied history and philosophy. As a ...
Antonio Labriola
(1843–1904)Italian Marxist philosopher, and teacher of moral and political philosophy and philosophy of history in Rome. Labriola corresponded extensively with Engels, and after his death became a ...
Armanda Guiducci
(1923–92).Neapolitan critic and feminist writer. Early work included academic studies of Cesare Pavese (1967) and of the relationship between contemporary culture and Marxist aesthetics in Dallo ...
Asiatic mode of production
Of all Karl Marx's conceptions of the modes of production which he considered to have provided the base for the various forms of society known to human history, this was perhaps the least developed, ...
authoritarianism
A style of government in which the rulers demand unquestioning obedience from the ruled. Traditionally, ‘authoritarians’ have argued for a high degree of determination by governments of belief and ...
autonomy
Free will; self-governing, ability of a person or a group to choose a course of action. Autonomy is a basic human right and is one of the principles of bioethics.
axiom
A generally accepted and perhaps self-evident principle, maxim, or rule, based on empirical observations, logical analysis of evidence, or universal experience.
base and superstructure
Karl Marx's metaphor for the relationship between material production and economic relations (the base) and the political, legal, and cultural dimensions of society (the superstructure). Marx's key ...
Benedetto Croce
(1866–1952)Italian idealist philosopher and the leading Italian intellectual of his day.He was born in Percasseroli, the son of a rich landowner, and lost his parents in an earthquake in 1883. ...
