"But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavour toward better understanding and, consequently, a thing in movement. To limit oneself to describing a science just as it is will always be to betray it a little. It is still more important to tell how it expects to improve itself in the course of time. " (M. Bloch) The purpose of a motto is to indicate the spirit in which a work is conceived; to reveal a little of oneself in the hope that the reader will be indulgent. If the above is to serve this purpose, a further dimension must be added to it - for it is more important to participate in the improvement of a science than merely to tell how it expects to improve itself. In this respect, this study aims not merely to elucidate and criticize Lukäcs' central analytical concepts, but also to extend and apply them creatively to Lukäcs' work itself. It is thus simultaneously a study of Lukacs and a study from Lukäcs.

The thesis is a contribution to the understanding of the relationship of the dialectical thought and method of G. W. F. Hegel and K. Marx. The aim of the thesis is to ascertain what the relation and the difference between the contrary forms, of the idealist and the materialist dialectic, actually is. The thesis consequently attempts to make sense of Marx’s view that his application of the dialectical method was not only different from but also the “direct opposite” of his idealist predecessor. This theme, itself the source for the enigmatic nature of the inversion, is developed by ascertaining some of the core elements that lie behind and underpin Marx’s own comment; that the rational kernel of Hegel’s mystical form of dialectic could be discovered if it was “turned right side up again”. The thesis also explored the relationship between the early Marx’s critique of Hegel, contained in the 1844 Paris Manuscripts, with the later Marx’s comments on his view of the relation of his dialectic to Hegel’s. As such, the thesis argues that there is both a continuity and a development in Marx’s critical attitude to Hegel’s dialectical thought. The core elements of the rational kernel of Hegel’s dialectic for Marx lies, as the thesis will argue, in the Hegelian account of the general form of working of the dialectic, and in Hegel’s explication of the laws of dialectics. The thesis thus explore the intimate relation of these two interconnected themes from the point of view of Hegel’s systematic idealism, and in Marx’s materialist application of these rational elements to his critique of political economy. This involves endeavouring to elucidate, both the nature of a dialectical account of contradiction, and the related explanation of nomological activity or law from a dialectical perspective. The thesis also attempts to explore the fundamental contrast of the materialist from the idealist elucidation of these core elements.

Bibliography: leaves 342-355 / iv, 355 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Philosophy, 1990

On prend pour point de départ le constat d'une résistance dans la réception marxiste française de la thèse féministe de Judith Butler portant sur la construction discursive du «sexe» par le «genre». L'antagonisme apparent du matérialisme et du constructivisme, révélé par la réception française de Trouble dans le genre, invite à chercher, en amont, une solution matérialiste au problème épistémologique de la construction conceptuelle du donné. En remontant à la source de Marx, on peut montrer que sa pensée a nourri, chez Althusser et Foucault, une approche matérialiste du discours qu'on peut qualifier de constructiviste. Au prisme de l'épistémologie historique de Canguilhem, se dessinent des parentés entre Althusser et Foucault qui donnent une postérité inédite à Marx: l'exploration de deux figures du «matérialisme discursif» dans l'archéologie foucaldienne et l'épistémologie althussérienne, permet de rendre caduques les objections empiristes à l'idée d'une construction discursive du« sexe». L'objectif est de proposer une articulation entre le matérialisme marxiste et la pensée queer, en mettant au jour une tradition de pensée qui croise les apports de l'épistémologie historique et du matérialisme, et prend au sérieux la production de la nature et du corps par le discours. Il s'agit de donner à la thèse de Butler les conditions de son audibilité matérialiste et de déterminer en retour la fécondité de sa mise en question du donné pour le marxisme. / This analysis starts by pointing out a reluctance in the French Marxist reception of Judith Butler's feminist theories, mainly those regarding the discursive construction of « sex » by «gender». This apparent conflict between materialism and constructivism encourages us to look upstream for a materialistic solution to the epistemological issue of the conceptual construction of «facts». By getting back at the root of Marx, one can indeed show that his thought has provided input into Althusser's and Foucault's reflections for the development of a materialistic approach of discourse, which may be qualified as contructivist. In the light of Canguilhem's historical epistemology, some philosophical kinship between Althusser and Foucault takes shape, which provides a previously unseen posterity to Marx : the examination of two features of «discursive materialism» in Foucault's archeology and in Althusser's epistemology enables to make null and void the empiricist objections at the idea of a discursive construction of «sex». The goal is to pro vide a philosophical junction between Marxist materialism and queer theory, by highlighting a tradition of thought which combines the contributions of historical epistemology and materialism, and which takes seriously into consideration the production of nature and body by discourse. The goal is to provide Butler's theory with the means to be heard as a materialistic account, and in return to specify for marxism what it might gain when this theory challenges the given facts.