An encounter between Gramsci, Marx, Foucault and Bergson

David presented at the 2nd International Conference on Cultural Political Economy: Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy, at the University of Bristol, Thursday, 25th August 2016.

Abstract: Cultural Political Economy (CPE) as readily acknowledges the debt of Gramscianism to Marx as Gramsci did himself. Contrastingly, the debt owed by much of 20^th century French philosophy – not least Foucault himself – to Bergson, is little acknowledged – including by Foucault – or studied, and this debt, and Bergson’s ideas, seem yet to appear in the CPE literature. The focus upon multiplicity Foucault drew most markedly from Bergson’s work, however, stemmed from the latter’s broader metaphysical stance of a monism comprised of an indivisible dualism, which, because continuously in the process of creation, exists in permanent creative, emergent novelty beyond any causal closure. These foundational – and radical – ideas had a profound effect upon the next century of French philosophical thought. This paper will argue that they indeed also promise a metaphysical grounding which CPE arguably currently lacks, and could benefit from.   In an encounter, then, between Gramsci, Marx, Foucault and Bergson, both Marx and Gramsci become set in a temporal frame that at once discards historical inevitability and opens up new vistas of possibility – bringing the ‘when’ to join the ‘how’ and the ‘why questions’.

Ref:

Kreps, D. (2016) ‘An encounter between Gramsci, Marx, Foucault and Bergson’ at 2nd International Conference on Cultural Political Economy: Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy Bristol University, Bristol, UK, 25th-26th August 2016.