Advancing Utopistics:
The Three Component Parts and Errors of Marxism

Author: Mohammad Tamdgidi
Publisher: Paradigm Publishers (Boulder, CO)
Hardcover - 336 pages, 21 figures, index.
Publication Date: August 2007
ISBN: 1594513856
ISBN13: 9781594513855

Inspired by Immanuel Wallerstein’s Utopistics, this book shows why utopistics cannot advance without sober and self-critical revisitations of its own intellectual heritage. Most sympathetic critiques of Marxism have targeted the shortcomings in its practices and/or theories (including its materialist conception of history), while regarding Marx’s materialist dialectical method as sacred ground. Through a succinct analysis of the inner contradictions of the three practical, theoretical, and methodological tenets of classical Marxism, Tamdgidi argues that the root causes of Marxism’s decline must be sought in Marx’s method itself.

This book concludes with a critical reexamination of the relation of Marxism and utopianism, arguing that Marx and Engels’s debunking of utopianism in contrast to science had more of an ideological function than substantive merits, an ultimate error that set back the cause of advancing alternative strategies for radical social change for decades.

A substantial methodological appendix is devoted to the exposition of a non-reductive, creative dialectical method more conducive to advancing utopistics.

"In Tamdgidi's critical study of Marxism and its troubled relationship to utopianism, 'the pull between what is and what should be' is re-explored creatively, resulting in a new and promising utopystics, shorn of limiting dualisms and conceits. An equally rigorous and hopeful book."
–Avery F. Gordon, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Tamdgidi does the field of Marxist critique a great service…. Tamdgidi's suggestion – that utopistics must be a creative endeavor to which all forms of knowledge and experience, Western and Eastern, scientific or otherwise, can and should critically contribute – is a major advance in the field of world-systems studies."
–Peter McLaren, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction : Advancing utopistics 1
Ch. 1: Dictatorship of the "proletariat"? 16
Ch. 2: Economically inevitable transition? 45
Ch. 3: Either idealist or materialist dialectics? 73
Ch. 4: The opposition of idealist and materialist outlooks 96
Ch. 5: The neither idealist nor materialist Marx 126
Ch. 6: The component errors as a whole 151
Ch. 7: Marxism and utopia 181
Conclusion : Toward utopystics 212
Appendix: The creative dialectical method 226

I Interpreting Dialectics Dialectically 226
II Splitting the Creative Research Labor Process 230
III Dialectical Methodology: Dialectics of Dialectical Ontology and Epistemology 243
IV Dialectics of the Creative Research Labor Process as a Whole 283
V Dialectics of the Development of "Dialectics": A Historical Outline 287
VI The Creative Dialectical Method 296

Bibliography 299
Index 311

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE:
Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge

Editor: Mohammad H. Tamdgidi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Massachusetts Boston

This journal is abstracted in the Sciological Abstractss, and included in EBSCO's SocINDEX with Full-Text.

Table of Contents of Previous Issues:

Vol. V, Special Issue, Summer 2007 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Reflections on Fanon"
Vol. V, Issue 2, Spring 2007 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Insiders/Outsiders: Voices from the Classroom"
Vol. V, Issue 1, Fall 2006 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Othering Islam"
Vol. IV, Special Issue, Summer 2006 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Re-Membering Anzaldua"
Vol. IV, Issue 1&2, Fall 2005/Spring 2006 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Scholarships of Learning"
Vol. III, Issue 1&2, Fall 2004/Spring 2005 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Course Topic as well as Pedagogical Strategy"
Vol. II, Issue 2, Fall 2003/Spring 2004 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Critical Theories in Applied Settings"
Vol. II, Issue 1, Spring 2003 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Social Theories, Student Realities"
Vol. I, Issue 2, Fall 2002 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Spiritual Renaissances and Social Reconstructions"
Vol. I, Issue 1, Spring 2002 (Contents) Issue Theme: "Life Courses & Social Policies"

PUBLICATIONS

Book

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. Advancing Utopistics: The Three Component Parts and Errors of Marxism. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.

Dissertation

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “Mysticism and Utopia: Towards the Sociology of Self-Knowledge and Human Architecture (A Study in Marx, Gurdjieff, and Mannheim),” Ph.D. Dissertation: SUNY-Binghamton. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc.

Book Chapters

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. (Forthcoming 2008). “From Utopistics to Utopystics: Integrative Reflections on Potential Contributions of Mysticism to World-Systems Analyses and Praxes of Historical Alternatives.” Islam and the Modern Orientalist World-System edited by Khaldoun Samman and Mazhar al-Zo’by. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. (Forthcoming). “The Simultaneity of Self and Global Transformations: Bridging with Anzaldua’s Liberating Vision.” In Bridging: How and Why Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua’s Life and Work Transformed Our Own. Academics, Activists, and Artists Share their Testimonios, edited by AnaLouise Keating and Gloria Gonzelez-Lopez. Texas: Texas University Press.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004. Online publication of article-length excerpt from the second (“Gurdjieff and Mysticism: The Archaeology of an Eastern Teaching”) chapter of my dissertation titled "Mysticism and Utopia: Toward the Sociology of Self-Knowledge and Human Architecture (A Study in Marx, Gurdjieff, and Mannheim" (SUNY-Binghamton, 2002), published in Gurdjieff: A Reading Guide (edited by J. Walter Driscoll), Third Edition. http://www.gurdjieff-bibliography.com. 29 pages.

Articles:

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. “Intersecting Autobiography, History, and Theory: The Subtler Global Violences of Colonialism and Racism in Fanon, Said, and Anzaldua.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. V, Special Double-Issue (Summer).

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. “Abu Ghraib as a Microcosm: The Strange Face of Empire as a Lived Prison.” Sociological Spectrum, v. 27, n. 1, 29-55.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. “Toward a Dialectical Conception of Imperiality: The Transitory (Heuristic) Nature of the Primacy of Analyses of Economies in World-Historical Social Science.” Review (Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations). v. XXIX, n. 4, 291-328.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. “Anzaldúa's Sociological Imagination: Comparative Applied Insights into Utopystic and Quantal Sociology.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. IV, Special Issue (Summer), 265-285.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2005/6. “Private Sociologies and Burawoy's Sociology Types: Reflections on Newtonian and Quantal Sociological Imaginations.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. IV, double-issue 1&2 (Fall/Spring), 179-195.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2005. “Orientalist and Liberating Discourses of East-West Difference: Revisiting Edward Said and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.” Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 7, ns. 1&2, Spring/Fall, 187-201.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004/2005. “Working Outlines for the Sociology of Self-Knowledge.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. III, ns. 1&2, (Fall/Spring), 123-133.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004. “Freire Meets Gurdjieff and Rumi: Toward the Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Oppressive Selves.” Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 6, n. 2, Fall, 165-185.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004. “Rethinking Sociology: Self, Knowledge, Practice, and Dialectics in Transitions to Quantum Social Science.” Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 6, n. 1, Spring, 61-81.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003/4. “De/Reconstructing Utopianism: Towards a World-Historical Typology.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. II, n. 2, Fall/Spring, 125-141.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003. “Marx, Gurdjieff, and Mannheim: Contested Utopistics of Self and Society in a World-History Context,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. II, n. 1, Spring, 102-120.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “Building A Sociology of Self-Knowledge: One Brick At A Time.” Newsletter of the ASA Comparative and Historical Sociology Section, v. 14, Winter. American Sociol. Assoc. URL: http://www.cla.sc.edu/socy/faculty/deflem/comphist/chs02Win.html#tamdgidi

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “The Dialectics of World-History: A Guiding Thread,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. I, n. 2, Fall, 109-134.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “Ideology and Utopia in Mannheim: Towards the Sociology of Self Knowledge.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. I, n. 1, Spring, 120-140.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2001. “Open the Antisystemic Movements: The Book, the Concept, and the Reality.” Review (Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations), XXIV, 2, Summer, 299-336.

Edited Volumes

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. Editor. Issue Theme: “Reflections on Fanon: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Social Theory Forum, March 27-28, 2007, UMass Boston: The Violences of Colonialism and Racism, Inner and Global: Conversations with Frantz Fanon on the Meaning of Human Emancipation” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. V, Special Double-Issue, Summer.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. Editor. Issue Theme: “Insiders/Outsiders: Voices from the Classroom” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. V, n. 2, Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. Editor. (Guest Co-Editors: Ramón Grosfoguel and Eric Mielants.) Issue Theme: “Othering Islam: Proceedings of the International Conference on 'The Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Configurations in Europe and the United States: The Case of Islamophobia (Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, France, June 2-3, 2006)” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. V, n. 1, Fall.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. Editor. Issue Theme: “Re-Membering Anzaldúa: Human Rights, Borderlands, and the Poetics of Applied Social Theory: Engaging with Gloria Anzaldúa in Self and Global Transformations”(Social Theory Forum 2006, UMass Boston),” in Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. IV, Special Issue, Summer.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2005/6. Editor. Issue Theme: “Scholarships of Learning,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. IV, ns. 1&2, Fall/Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2005. Guest Editor. Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum held at UMass Boston, April 6-7 (topic: “Theories and Praxes of Difference: Revisiting Edward Said in the Age of New Globalizations”), in Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 7, ns. 1&2, Spring/Fall.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004. Guest Editor. Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum held at UMass Boston, April 7 (topic: “Liberating Social Theory: Inspirations from Paulo Freire for Learning, Teaching, and Advancing Social Theory in Applied Settings”), in Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 6, n. 2, Fall.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004/5. Editor. Issue Theme: “Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Course Topic as well as Pedagogical Strategy.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. III, ns. 1&2, Fall/Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004. Guest Editor. Discourse of Sociological Practice, v. 6, n. 1, Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003/4. Editor. Issue Theme: “Critical Theories in Applied Settings.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. II, n. 2, Fall/Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003. Editor. Issue Theme. “Social Theories, Student Realities.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. II, n. 1, Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. Editor. Issue Theme: “Spiritual Renaissances & Social Reconstructions.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. I, n. 2, Fall.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. Editor. Issue Theme: “Life Courses & Social Policies.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. I, n. 1, Spring.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 1997. Editor. 'I' in the World-System: Stories from an Odd Sociology Class. Selected Student Writings, Soc. 280Z: Sociology of Knowledge: Mysticism, Utopia, & Science. (A class-book collectively self-published by my students at Binghamton University.) Limited edition, Binghamton: Crumbling Façades Press (student-created publisher name), hard cover. Medford, MA: Okcir Press.

Book Reviews

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. Review of Romance and Reason: Ontological and Social Sources of Alienation in the Writings of Max Weber. By Andrew M. Koch. New York: Lexington Books, A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006. In Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews (a publication of the American Sociological Association)., v. 36, n. 4(July): 386-387.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. Review of Magic and Witchcraft: Contemporary North America. Edited by Helen A. Berger. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. In Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews (a publication of the American Sociological Association), v. 35, n. 3 (May), 297-298.

Editor's Notes

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. “Editor's Note: Reflections on Fanon.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. V, Special Double-Issue (Summer), ix-x.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2007. “Editor's Note: My Architect (1930-2007).” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. V, Issue 2 (Spring), vii-viii.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. “Editor's Note: Probing Islamophobia.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. V, Issue 1 (Fall), vii-xi.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2006. “Editor's Note: Re-Membering Anzaldúa.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. IV, Special Issue (Summer), ix-xii.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2005/6. “Editor's Note: Peer Reviewing the Peer Review Process.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. IV, ns. 1&2 (Fall/Spring), vii-xv.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2004/5. “Editor's Note: Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Course Topic As Well As Pedagogical Strategy.” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge. v. III, ns. 1&2 (Fall/Spring), vii-ix.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003/4. “Editor's Note: A Welcoming Statement to the Editorial Advisory Board,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. II, n. 2, Fall/Spring, vii-ix.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2003. “Editor's Note: Social Theories, Student Realities,” (Review of the book Achieving Against the Odds: How Academics Become Teachers of Diverse Students, co-edited by Esther Kingston-Mann and Tim Sieber, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001). Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self- Knowledge, v. II, n. 1, Spring, v-xii.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “Editor's Note: Spiritual Renaissances & Social Reconstructions,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, v. I, n. 2, Fall, v-vi.

Tamdgidi, Mohammad. 2002. “Editor's Note: Life Courses and Social Policies,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self- Knowledge, v. I, n. 1, Spring, v-vi.

 

"I" in the World-System:
Stories from an Odd Sociology Class
Selected Student Writings:
Soc 280Z-Sociology of Knowledge: Mysticism, Science, and Utopia,
Binghamton University, Spring 1997

Limited Edition | 5.5x8.5 | 334 pages.
Crumbling Facades Press (imprint coined in
the class of Spring 1997, by student Ingrid Heller)
(Originally printed in hard-cover. Limited copies available in softcover.)