In Defense of ‘True Humanness’ : On the Insularity of the ‘Praxis’ Philosophers

Abstract

In the European tradition, islands usually connote two meanings. On the one hand, they serve as a place where thinking individuals can isolate themselves from the nonsense of everyday life in order to practice true ‘care of themselves and others’ (Foucault) in peace and quiet. On the other hand, they serve as a place to which concerned societies deport their ‘human scum’ in order to prevent the contamination of their organism. The so-called Praxis philosophers organized summer schools on the island of Korčula from 1963 to 1974 to gain the support of Western philosophers for their humanist opposition to their state’s bureaucratized Marxism. This would enable their philosophy to get rid of the academic insularity that was allocated to it at home. Western philosophers, in turn, saw the Korčula summer schools as a welcome liberal island in Eastern doctrinaire Marxism, which supported their interpretation of Marx’s philosophy. Connecting with Eastern philosophers, they expected to rescue the humanist orientation of this philosophy from the capitalist mercantilism at home. But despite these attempts to affirm the ‘true humanness’ of Marxism, its insularity persevered and this article attempts to show why.