Selections from Prison Notebooks - Abahlali baseMjondolo

1 Selections FROM THEPRISON NOTEBOOKSA ntonio GramsciTThhee EElleeccttrriicc BBooookk CCoommppaannyy LLttdd20 Cambridge Drive, London SE12 8AJ, The Electric Book Company 1999 Limited printing and text selection allowed for individual use only. All other reproduction,whether by printing or electronically or by any other means, is expressly forbidden without theprior permission of the publisher. This file may only be used as part of the CD on which it was first 1999 EEsssseennttiiaall CCllaassssiiccss iinn PPoolliittiiccss:: AAnnttoonniioo GGrraammssccii EB 0006 ISBN 1 901843 05 XSELECTIONS FROM THEPRISONNOTEBOOKSOFANTONIO GRAMSCI edited and translated byQuentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell SmithElecBookLondon 1999 Transcribed from the edition published by Lawrence & WishartLondon 1971 ContentsClick on number to go to pageACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

2 12 PREFACE .. 13 GENERAL 22 Early 24 Intellectual Formation .. 27 Socialist Politics in Turin .. 33 Ordine Nuovo, the Red Years and the Founding ofthe .. 46 The under Bordiga 1921-1923 .. 62 The Interregnum in the Italian Party 1923-24 .. 74 The under Gramsci 1924-26 .. 90 Prison .. 117I. PROBLEMS OF HISTORY AND CULTURE1. THE INTELLECTUALS .. 131 The Formation of the 134 The Different Position of Urban and 1482. ON 162 The Organisation of Education and of Culture .. 165 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook5In Search or the Educational 1773. NOTES ON ITALIAN 191 OUTLINE CHRONOLOGY OF ITALIAN 196 History of the Subaltern Classes: MethodologicalCriteria .. 202 The Problem of Political Leadership in theFormation and Development of the Nation andthe Modern State in Italy.

3 208 The City-Countryside Relationship during theRisorgimento and in the National Structure .. 264 The Moderates and the 283 The Function of Piedmont .. 286 The Concept of Passive Revolution .. 289 First 301 Material for a Critical Essay on Croce s TwoHistories, of Italy and of Europe .. 302 The History of Europe seen as PassiveRevolution .. 308II. NOTES ON POLITICS .. 3121. The Modern 313 Brief Notes on Machiavelli s 316 Machiavelli and 331 Politics as an Autonomous Science .. 336 Elements of Politics .. 347 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook6 The Political Party .. 353 Conceptions of the World and Practical Stances:Global and Partial .. 367 Some Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Economism.

4 369 Prediction and Perspective .. 385 Economic-Corporate Phase of the State .. 393 Analysis Of Situations. Relations Of 397On Bureaucracy .. 412 The Theorem of Fixed Proportions .. 420 Number and Quality in Representative Systems 423 Continuity and Tradition .. 428 Spontaneity And Conscious Leadership .. 430 Against Byzantinism .. 436 The Collective Worker .. 439 Voluntarism and Social Masses .. 4412. State and Civil Society .. 445 Observations on Certain Aspects of the Structureof Political Parties in Periods of Organic Crisis .. 450 Caesarism .. 463 The Fable Of The Beaver .. 471 Agitation and Propaganda .. 476 The Philosophy of the Epoch .. 479 Political Struggle and Military 481 The Transition from the War of ManoeuvreSelections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook7(Frontal Attack) to the War of Position in thePolitical Field as well.

5 495 Politics and Military 497 Internationalism and National Policy .. 498 Problem Of The Collective Man Or Of SocialConformism .. 501 Sociology and Political 504 Hegemony (Civil Society) and Separation ofPowers .. 506 The Conception Of Law .. 508 Parliament and the 518 Self-Criticism and the Hypocrisy of Self-Criticism .. 520 The State .. 524 Organisation of National 536 Who is a Legislator? .. 538 Religion, State, Party .. 540 State and 542 Statolatry .. 543 Merits of the Ruling Classes .. 545 Historical 547 Subversive .. 551 Wave of Materialism and Crisis of Authority .. 5563. AMERICANISM AND FORDISM .. 558 Americanism and Fordism .. 561 Rationalisation Of The Demographic CompositionOf 564 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook8 Super-City and Super-Country.

6 574 Financial Autarky of 577 Some Aspects of the Sexual Question .. 585 Feminism and Masculinism .. 589 Animality and 591 Rationalisation of Production and Work .. 596 Taylor and 604 Quantity and Quality .. 606 Taylorism and the Mechanisation of the Worker .. 608 High 611 Shares, Debentures and Government 616 American and European 620 III. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRAXIS .. 623I. THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY .. 624 Some Preliminary Points of Reference .. 626 Connection between common sense , religionand philosophy .. 630 Relation between science, religion and 631 Problems of Philosophy and 657 Scientific discussion .. 657 Philosophy and History .. 657 Creative 659 Historical Importance of a Philosophy .. 661 The Philosopher .. 661 Language , Languages and Common Sense .. 663 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook9 What is Man?

7 668 Progress and 677 Individualism .. 682 Examination of the concept of human 684 Philosophy and 685 Quantity and quality .. 686 Theory and practice .. 687 Structure and Superstructure .. 689 The term catharsis .. 691 The Kantian Noumenon .. 693 History and Anti-History .. 695 Speculative Philosophy .. 696 Objectivity of 699 Pragmatism and 700 Ethics .. 702 Scepticism .. 703 The Concept of Ideology .. 7042. PROBLEMS OF MARXISM .. 708 Some Problems in the Study of the Philosophy ofPraxis .. 711 Statement of the problem .. 711 Questions of 713 Antonio 719 The Philosophy of Praxis and Modern 722 Speculative Immanence and Historicist or RealistImmanence .. 739 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook10 Unity in the Constituent Elements of Marxism.

8 744 Philosophy Politics 745 Historicity of the Philosophy of Praxis .. 746 Economy and Ideology .. 751 Moral Science and Historical Materialism .. 754 Regularity and Necessity .. 755A repertory of the Philosophy of Praxis .. 761 The Founders of the Philosophy of Praxis 763 Hegemony of Western Culture over the wholeWorld Culture .. 765 Passage from Knowing to Understanding and toFeeling and vice versa from Feeling toUnderstanding and to Knowing .. 767 Critical Notes On An Attempt At PopularSociology .. 769 General Questions .. 778 Historical Materialism and Sociology .. 778 The Constituent Parts of the Philosophy of Praxis .. 786 Structure and Historical Movement .. 788 The 789 Science and 790 The Dialectic .. 791On Metaphysics .. 794 The Concept of Science .. 796 The So-Called Reality of the External World.

9 800 Judgment on Past Philosophies .. 812 Immanence and the Philosophy of 813 Questions of Nomenclature and Content .. 817 Selections from Prison NotebooksClassics in Politics: Antonio Gramsci ElecBook11 Science and the Instruments of 824 The Technical Instrument .. 826 Objection to emplricism .. 831 Concept of orthodoxy .. 831 Matter .. 836 Quantity and Quality .. 843On Art .. 845 Selections from Prison Notebooks12 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe editors would like to express their thanks to the Istituto Gramsci inRome, holders of the copyright on Gramsci s Prison Notebooks , forpermission to publish the present selection and for allowing them toconsult and to copy from the photostat of Gramsci s manuscript in thepossession of the Institute.

10 Particular thanks for their assistance are dueto Dr Elsa Fubini and Prof. Valentino Gerratana of the staff of theInstitute, and to the director, Franco Ferri. The initiative for thepublication of this volume came from Roger Simon and Steve Bodington,who have supervised its progress throughout, making many invaluablesuggestions, and without whose stimulus the work would have takeneven longer to would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to certain bookswithout which the General Introduction could not have been written. Themost important of these sources is the series of books on Turin working-class history and the early history of the Italian Communist Party byPaolo Spriano. Also indispensable were Giuseppe Fiori s biography, theTasca archive material published in the Annali Feltrinelli in 1960 and1966, and the Marx Memorial Library s collection of Comintern congressreports, Nowell Smith would like to thank all those who helped ortook part in the preparation of his sections of this edition, in particularRosalind Delmar, a constant collaborator on the volume from itsinception; John Merrington, Ian Steedman, Norman Geras and MichaelEvans.