Session 5: To use or not to use Utopian principles in international affairs.
In his article, E.H. Carr initially criticizes Utopianism for proposing abstract principles for current and real political situations and not setting up necessary standards for the conduct of international affairs. In fact, he doesn't regard its principles as principles since they reflect the national policy that is being based on particular interpretation of national interest and at a particular time. Utopianism fails to stop "selfish vested interests" ( Carr 88) from emerging. Carr isn't the only one who has criticized utopianism exactly on the same ground.
Before him, were the Marxists, like Marx himself and Engels, who have heavily criticized utopian socialism. For instance, Engels has pointed out that although utopian-socialism did criticize the existing capitalist institutions and capitalist mode of production, it simply couldn't explain them and as a result, failed to get the mastery of them. All the utopianism did is to declare capitalism as bad. In my previous semester, I read an article by Roger Paden, Marx's Critique of the Utopian Socialists, in which he highlights the Marxist's criticism of utopianim . One of the criticism that Marx made was that utopianism is a political trap which must be avoided at all cost. It is pointless to waste time on dreaming about perfect societies, the perfect society models that the utopian-socialists proposed like for instance Robert Owen's Village of Cooperation model, and publicly debating the advantages of alternative perfect societies. It seemed that Marx preferred realism over idealism, or in other words utopianism.
But one shouldn't forget the role that utopianism played in Marxism ideology. One shouldn't forget that Marx and Engels were heavily inspired by utopian-socialism and most of the principles of utopianism were incorporated into Marxism. Marx himself dream of dialectical materialism coming to an end with the victory of proletariat and about a classless society and a society run by the proletariats and Carr has rightly pointed out this in his article. So yes I do agree with Carr that the political theories should include the elements of both realism and utopia. Consistent realism and realism alone cannot provide an incentive for taking meaningful action. If the cause and effect are too rigid to allow scientific predictions then actions and as well as thought become meaningless.
(the reason why I am 5 mins late is because today my internet is slow and its taking a bit of time to post my blog)
Before him, were the Marxists, like Marx himself and Engels, who have heavily criticized utopian socialism. For instance, Engels has pointed out that although utopian-socialism did criticize the existing capitalist institutions and capitalist mode of production, it simply couldn't explain them and as a result, failed to get the mastery of them. All the utopianism did is to declare capitalism as bad. In my previous semester, I read an article by Roger Paden, Marx's Critique of the Utopian Socialists, in which he highlights the Marxist's criticism of utopianim . One of the criticism that Marx made was that utopianism is a political trap which must be avoided at all cost. It is pointless to waste time on dreaming about perfect societies, the perfect society models that the utopian-socialists proposed like for instance Robert Owen's Village of Cooperation model, and publicly debating the advantages of alternative perfect societies. It seemed that Marx preferred realism over idealism, or in other words utopianism.
But one shouldn't forget the role that utopianism played in Marxism ideology. One shouldn't forget that Marx and Engels were heavily inspired by utopian-socialism and most of the principles of utopianism were incorporated into Marxism. Marx himself dream of dialectical materialism coming to an end with the victory of proletariat and about a classless society and a society run by the proletariats and Carr has rightly pointed out this in his article. So yes I do agree with Carr that the political theories should include the elements of both realism and utopia. Consistent realism and realism alone cannot provide an incentive for taking meaningful action. If the cause and effect are too rigid to allow scientific predictions then actions and as well as thought become meaningless.
(the reason why I am 5 mins late is because today my internet is slow and its taking a bit of time to post my blog)
Good points Taha, though I would just point out that Carr is trying to challenge the Utopian school of thought and advocate for the embrace of realism.
ReplyDelete