Continental Philosophy Research Group Talk (Igor Shoikhedbrod, St. Francis Xavier)

The Continental Philosophy Research Group is pleased to welcome as guest speaker Igor Shoikhedbrod, an assistant professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at St. Francis Xavier University. Prior to his appointment at St. Francis Xavier University, Dr. Shoikhedbrod taught courses in political theory, legal theory, ethics, law, and political economy at Dalhousie University, as well as at the University of Toronto, where he won two awards for teaching excellence. He is the author of Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism: Rethinking Justice, Legality and Rights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), as well as of several scholarly articles in Contemporary Political Theory, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Critical Analysis of Law, Critical Horizons, the Hegel Bulletin, the Owl of Minerva, and the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. Dr Shoikhedbrod is currently at work on a second book project focusing on global financial capitalism and the crises of legal form.

Talk Title

Jürgen Habermas: The “Last Marxist”?

Talk Abstract

Jürgen Habermas’s recent engagement with Marx in Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie has mostly gone unnoticed by commentators. Habermas is among the few representatives of the Frankfurt School who has consistently stressed the importance of the “Marxian heritage” for a rigorous understanding of critical theory. In this talk, I critically examine two guiding threads in Habermas’s ongoing reconstruction of historical materialism: the relationship between labor and interaction, as well as the emancipatory potential unleashed by the democratic constitutional state. I argue that Habermas’s reconstruction of historical materialism points to several lacunae in Marx’s work, but that it also reveals valuable insights into the latter’s oeuvre that have yet to be adequately addressed by Habermas. I conclude that it is time for Habermas to consciously reclaim the “Marxian heritage.” 

About the Continental Philosophy Group

One of six departmental research interest groups, the Continental Philosophy Group works in the traditions of textual interpretation of human consciousness, phenomenology, and post-structuralist critical theory, among other related traditions of thought.