Rethinking the radical enlightenment: Old positions/new necessities

In recent decades the legacy of the enlightenment has been under siege. Much scorn has been directed at its overbearing rationalism, its fraudulent universalism, and its humanistic underpinnings. Although critiques have been launched from a variety of quarters, two of the most significant denunciations of the enlightenment have been those issued by postmodernism and communitarianism. Despite their different orientations and agendas, they nonetheless converge, to a certain extent, around a cluster of identifiable themes---anti-humanism, anti-universalism, etc.---that are explored in this work. This dissertation examines these two schools of thought and critically assesses some of their major assertions by drawing on the resources provided by Marx's historical materialism---understood here as the unfulfilled project of radicalized enlightemnent---as well as radical/socialist humanism. It is argued that the legacy of Marx and his radicalized enlightenment project remain crucial referents today despite the many and varied contemporary theoretical discourses that suggest otherwise.