• Kaplya
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Jordan Peterson didn’t invent the term neo-Marxism, he simply didn’t understand what it means and applied it to the wrong context.

    I took a course in Critical Theory long before Peterson was even a thing, and neo-Marxism was definitely used in the texts, typically refering to Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer et al. (Frankfurt School) in the 1960s who were disillusioned with Marxism-Leninism (they believed what happened to the USSR was bad) and believed that a new form of philosophy combining the post-structuralist/post-modernist tradition (though with some reservations about post-modernist thoughts) was the way forward for the emancipation project of human societies.

    Neo-Marxism refers to leaving behind Marxism and forming a “new” school of thought, not unlike how neo-classical economics leaves behind the entire classical economics tradition (Smith, Ricardo, Marx) and calling themselves the “new classicals” who are replacing the older school of thought.