http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/marxism Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:20:11 -0400 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:20:11 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1914/eo-wilsons-sociobiology-and-the-marxist-response-a-critique-of-the-critics By Sharan K. Garlapati - Sociobiology is a sub-discipline of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics (Wilson 2000). While the term "sociobiology" appeared at least as early as the 1940s, the concept itself did not gain significant recognition until the publication of Dr. E. O. Wilson's, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in 1975. This book pulled together a vast body of zoology, ethology, and research from other disciplines... Tue, 05 Oct 2021 10:37 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1914/eo-wilsons-sociobiology-and-the-marxist-response-a-critique-of-the-critics http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1902/biologization-of-capital-and-capitalization-of-biopower-connecting-foucault-and-marx By Tianhao Hou - Foucault raised the concept of biopower in the first volume of The History of Sexuality and placed its emergence in the context of capitalism, but he did not fully tackle the relationship between biopower and capitalism. In this article, the author fills this gap through a careful reading of Foucault and Marx, arguing that perpetual spirals are formed between biopower and capitalism and their techniques intersected on the human body. The author first traces the definitions of each concept in order to show that they can be discussed and drawn connection with each other. After that, he expands upon... Tue, 25 May 2021 09:33 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1902/biologization-of-capital-and-capitalization-of-biopower-connecting-foucault-and-marx http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1758/slavery-to-self-liberation-the-haitian-revolution-in-marxist-theory By Alexander J. Clegg - The Haitian Revolution of 1791 – 1804 was a successful slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue that began in the wake of the French Revolution and went on to influence subsequent liberation movements for decades to come. The Saint-Domingue revolutionaries have been described as having "invented decolonisation" (Nesbitt, 2008: 9), thus making the newly independent Haiti "the first postcolonial state" (ibid.: 56) in 1804, an extraordinary achievement considering that only a few years before, Saint-Domingue had been the world’s most valuable colony. This essay examines... Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:08 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1758/slavery-to-self-liberation-the-haitian-revolution-in-marxist-theory http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1624/antonio-gramsci-hegemony-and-the-greek-crisis-building-new-hegemony-to-supersede-neoliberal-discourse By Carter Vance - Antonio Gramsci’s interpretation and analysis of “hegemony,” its mechanisms, causes and consequences for the Left, is fundamentally an attempt to grapple with how culture and the “common sense of the epoch” (Miliband, 1990) grow out of class society and impose their ontological structure on even those whose interests it opposes. Given the continued existence and deepening of class divisions in the 21st century, an understanding of Gramsci’s work may be even more of a critical project for the Left now than when it was first written. The terrain on which political... Mon, 10 Apr 2017 11:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1624/antonio-gramsci-hegemony-and-the-greek-crisis-building-new-hegemony-to-supersede-neoliberal-discourse http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1542/reinterpreting-the-treatment-of-the-rural-population-by-perus-shining-path By Auston Stiefer - The Peruvian Communist Party (PCP) was founded as the Peruvian Socialist Party in 1928 by José Carlos Mariátegui after his analysis of the “semifeudal” Peruvian economic state, which did not strictly follow Marx’s socialist model.1 Just over 30 years later, the PCP began to radically transform under the teaching of Maoist thought by Abimael Guzmán, a philosophy professor at the National University of Haumanga and future leader of the party.2 Over the next two decades, the PCP renamed the Sendero Lumnioso (“Shining Path”) drew upon Mariá... Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:33 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1542/reinterpreting-the-treatment-of-the-rural-population-by-perus-shining-path http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1462/can-marxist-thought-successfully-accommodate-radical-feminism By Bohdana Kurylo - The relationship between feminism and socialism is extremely intimate but also immensely intricate. According to feminist poet Adrienne Rich (1977, p. 285), ‘the repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers. Indeed, it is work that has a special significance in the socialist tradition, playing a key role in making people who they are and shaping social relations. In the capitalist world, class becomes its structure, production its aim, and alienation its consequence. In the alternative world... Tue, 18 Oct 2016 04:20 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1462/can-marxist-thought-successfully-accommodate-radical-feminism http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1460/theories-of-nationalism-a-brief-comparison-of-realist-and-constructivist-ideas-of-the-nation By Matt Finkel - In the immense field of scholarly work regarding defining nationhood, a raging debate exists between the conservative view of the nation and the constructivist view. A clear and definitive change in the conception of the ‘realness’ of the nation can be seen throughout the historiographical study of nationalism. The conception of the nation has shifted dramatically, from the proto-jingoist conservatism of the ‘primordial nation’ of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Johann Gottfried Herder and the German nationalist school of thought they represent to the constructivist ‘imagined... Sun, 16 Oct 2016 08:57 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1460/theories-of-nationalism-a-brief-comparison-of-realist-and-constructivist-ideas-of-the-nation http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1120/pottermania-capitalist-eye-candy-viewed-through-a-neo-marxist-lens By Tinatin Japaridze - “Beware: Capitalist-Consumerism poses a danger to our Socialist ideals,” the Soviet-propaganda papers such as Pravdaand Izvestyahad proclaimed since the harrowing days of the Cold War. But by the early 1990s, the evergreen motto of the USSR, “We have everything,” had been supplanted for a new post-communist mantra: “Everything can be bought for money.” The hard currency shops in the USSR that exclusively catered to foreign visitors had finally lifted the iron curtain for their own citizens. Arbat Irish House, one of Moscow’s first Western-style grocery... Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:55 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1120/pottermania-capitalist-eye-candy-viewed-through-a-neo-marxist-lens http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/846/race-as-a-material-ideology By Jason Walsh - The persistence of racism within the working class is a fundamental problem for any Marxist analysis of race, and there have been several attempts to solve this problem within the Marxist tradition. Most traditional understandings, however, turn out to be theoretically inconsistent and lacking in terms of explanatory power when confronted with the historical realities of Italian, Irish, and African-American labor relations in the early 20th century. I will argue that bringing Louis Althusser's theories of the state and ideology to bear on the problem of working-class racism can offer a better... Sat, 21 Dec 2013 02:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/846/race-as-a-material-ideology http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1611/karl-marx-and-the-fair-trade-chocolate-industry-in-the-ivory-coast By Caitlin McGonnigal - The research completed aimed to show that the idea of fair trade, using the example of goals for the chocolate industry of the Ivory Coast, can be described as an example of the economic ideal which Karl Marx imagined. By comparing specific topics discussed by Karl Marx's philosophy on capitalism and its failures, and the ideals purported by fair trade organizations and partners, parallels can be made. This analysis showed that Karl Marx's philosophy coordinates with fair trade ideals in topics such as the importance of history, the eradication of child labor and environmental degradation, and... Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1611/karl-marx-and-the-fair-trade-chocolate-industry-in-the-ivory-coast http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/614/implicit-negritude-in-the-dark-child By Miles G. Kellerman - In James Kirkup and Ernest Jones’ English translation of Camara Laye’s 1953 autobiography, The Dark Child, there is a significant stylistic decision in the final sentence. Kirkup and Jones’ version reads: “Later on I felt something hard when I put my hand in my pocket. It was the map of the métro…” (Laye 188). Laye wrote the memoir in French, and the final sentence reads as such in the original version: “Plus tard, je sentis une épaisseur sous ma main: le plan du métro gonflait ma poche” (Laye 174, French edition). Kirkup and... Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:09 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/614/implicit-negritude-in-the-dark-child http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/581/power-and-transgression-in-twelfth-night-and-measure-for-measure-artifice-and-ideology-as-tools-of-the-elite By Jesse A. Goldberg - Shakespeare’s comedies, at first glance, seem to uniformly end on a positive note, with the fulfillment of desires, the overcoming of obstacles, and the victory over malevolent forces. In Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure, however, this is not the case. The conclusions of both plays are reiterations of problematic power structures present in each play. This is not to say that these comedies are absolutely favorable to strict power structures. In fact, both plays are in favor of bending the rules sometimes, though they seem to suggest that there are rules that are not meant to be bent... Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:11 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/581/power-and-transgression-in-twelfth-night-and-measure-for-measure-artifice-and-ideology-as-tools-of-the-elite http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/269/book-review-the-shock-doctrine-by-naomi-klein-2007 By Delia M. Harrington - Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine ties together history, economics, globalization, natural disasters and geopolitics into one bleak picture. Klein’s thesis is that the Shock Doctrine, also called Disaster Capitalism, has been put into practice all over the world, supported by Milton Freidman and his Chicago Boys. The shock doctrine is a theory that in order to put into practice the highly unpopular tenets of a free market economy, the implementation of such policies must happen directly after a shock to the national conscious. Such shock can take the form of a terrorist attack, national... Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/269/book-review-the-shock-doctrine-by-naomi-klein-2007 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/218/human-rights-and-radical-social-change-liberalism-marxism-and-progressive-populism-in-venezuela By Tillman Clark - “Human rights” is a concept so deeply intertwined into the modern discourse that it seems almost impossible to question it or refer to any standard beyond it. The problematic nature of this issue is not so much that people have different conceptions of “human rights”--”right” is pretty straightforward in theory, considering the “right to free speech,” the “right to freedom of association,” the “right to property,” or the “right to a minimal means of subsistence”--but instead the way in which they mask particular... Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:46 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/218/human-rights-and-radical-social-change-liberalism-marxism-and-progressive-populism-in-venezuela