István Mészáros (, , ; 19 December 1930 – 1 October 2017) was a Hungarian
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
philosopher. Described as "one of the foremost political philosophers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries" by ''
Monthly Review
The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States.
History Establishment
Following ...
'', Mészáros wrote mainly about the possibility of a transition from
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
to
socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
. His ''
magnum opus
A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.
Historically, ...
'', ''Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition'' (1995), was concerned not only with this theme but provided a conceptual distinction between capitalism and capital, and an analysis of the current capitalist society and its " structural crisis". He was interested in the critique of the "
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
,
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
. He was raised by his single mother and his maternal grandmother, and at age twelve falsified his birth date to work along with his mother in an airplane factory building engines. The poor working conditions would later arise "his lifelong hatred of exploitation and oppression". When he was 15 or 16, Mészáros was introduced to the Marxist philosophy during visits to a bookshop. After having contact with
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Anti-Dühring'', and Marx and Engels's ''
The Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The ...
'', he became interested in the works of
György Lukács
György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...
about Hungarian literature. Mészáros liked Lukács's works "so much" that he even sold personal belongings to buy them and decided to enter the University of Budapest. He did so in 1949 when he won a scholarship with the emergence of a Communist state in Hungary.
At the university, he affiliated himself to the so-called " Budapest School", a group of Hungarian philosophers who were taught or influenced by Lukács, including Ágnes Heller and György Márkus. During this period, Lukács was very criticised by the Hungarian Communist Party and
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communism, communist politician who was the ''de facto'' leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the Hungarian ...
's government banned some of his works between 1949 and the mid-1950s. Because of his allegiance to Lukács and his attendance of Lukács's seminars, Mészáros almost got expelled from the university. Later, Lukács nominated Mészáros as his assistant at the Institute of Aesthetics because of his public contestation of the censorship of Mihály Vörösmarty's play ''Csongor és Tünde'' denounced as a "pessimist aberration". His pro-Vörösmarty essay, published in the literary magazine ''Csillag'', earned him the 1951 Attila József Prize and helped the reincorporation of the play in the National Theatre's repertoire.
During the 1950s, Mészáros was an active member of the Hungarian Writers' Union and was involved in artistic and literary circles, notably in the anti-Stalinist Petőfi circle—a group associated with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This interest for cultural issues reverberated in his 1955 doctoral dissertation in philosophy entitled ''Szatíra és valóság'' ("Satire and Reality"). In the following year, he was made editor of the cultural magazine '' Eszmélet'', created by Lukács, composer
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education.
...
, and other personalities. Mészáros was also chosen to be an associate professor of philosophy and Lukács's successor at the Institute of Aesthetics. However, after the defeat of the revolution and Lukács's imprisonment for supporting it, Mészáros verified that "there was no hope for socialist transformation in Hungary". So, after the Soviet invasion in 1956, he left the country, becoming one of the first citizens from a Communist country to criticise
Stalinism
Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
.
Academic career in the West
Mészáros moved to Italy and was a professor at the
University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...
. During his time in Turin, he wrote a book of memoirs about the Hungarian uprising titled ''La rivolta degli intellettuali in Ungheria'' ("The Revolt of the Intellectuals in Hungary") that was published in 1958 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. He worked in Italy until moving to the United Kingdom, where he worked at Bedford College, London (1959–1961) and the University of St. Andrews (1961–1966). In 1964, he released the book ''Attila József e l'arte moderna'' through the Milanese publisher . He joined the
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
in 1966, where he held the Chair of Philosophy. His 1970 book ''Marx's Theory of Alienation'' established his reputation in the English-speaking world, and won him that year Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize. Receiving the award, he got the opportunity to do the first Isaac Deutscher Memorial Lecture at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
in the following year. Originally conceived as "Alienation and Social Control" in late 1970, the lecture was renamed "The Necessity of Social Control". In 1971, it appeared under the title "Alienation and the Necessity of Social Control" in the '' Socialist Register'', and was also published by Merlin Press in book-format as ''The Necessity of Social Control''.
In late 1972, Mészáros was appointed professor of philosophy to teach political theory courses at
York University
York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...
, Toronto, and then resigned his position at Sussex. However, he had his visa refused by the Canadian government because his entry was not "in the best interests of the country" and he posed a "security risk". Sussex's fellows Tom Bottomore, Roy Edgeley and Laurence Lerner spoke against the government decision, as well as did York university officials, and 30
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
's faculty members and students led by historian Jan M. Bak. After accusations of being a "Russian spy" for
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
, a letter to Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...
by political scientist C. B. Macpherson, Mészáros's deportation, and the change of immigration minister from Bryce Mackasey to Bob Andras, Mészáros was allowed to enter Canada legally in January 1973. After that, he worked as a senior professor of York's Social and Political Thought Program for three years before returning to Sussex.
Mészáros collected and edited thirteen 1958–1976 essays by Philippine historian Renato Constantino in a book titled ''Neo-Colonial Identity and Counter-Consciousness: Essays in Cultural Decolonisation''. First published by Merlin Press in 1978 and then by M. E. Sharpe in 1979, it contained a 23-page introduction, which would be later re-published in '' Journal of Contemporary Asia'' as a part of a tribute done in 2000 after Constantino's death.
Mészaros was appointed
emeritus professor
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
In some c ...
by Sussex in 1991, and he won the Lukács Prize in 1992. In 1995, he retired from Sussex, was nominated for the Michael Harrington Award for his work ''Beyond Capital'', and was also elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In the late 1990s, he became an advisor to ''
Monthly Review
The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States.
History Establishment
Following ...
John Bellamy Foster
John Bellamy Foster (born August 19, 1953) is an American professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of the ''Monthly Review''. He writes about political economy of capitalism and economic crisis, ecology and ecological crisis, ...
, and also contributed to the magazine and its parent Monthly Review Press.
In 2009, he won the Venezuelan Premio Libertador al Pensamiento Crítico ("Libertador Prize for Critical Thinking") for his work ''The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time''. After this work, he also published the two-volume critique of "bourgeois ideology" ''Social Structure and Forms of Consciousnes'': ''The Social Determination of Method'' in 2010 and ''The Dialectic of Structure and History'' in 2011. Following the publication of latter, he planned to write a sequel for ''Beyond Capital'', entitled ''Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State''. Meszáros drafted three volumes, ''The Historic Challenge'', ''The Harsh Reality'', and ''The Necessary Alternative'', with the first volume almost completed. However, in 2017, he died in
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...
, where he was being cared for after a stroke in September made him leave his home in
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...
,
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
.
Thought
Mészáros was a critic of politicians and philosophers who constantly used the sentence " there is no alternative". Usually associated with conservative figures like
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
, Mészáros stated it reached
Labour parties
Labour Party or Labor Party is a name used by many political parties.
Africa
Burkina Faso
* Party of Labour of Burkina, active 1990–1996
* Voltaic Labour Party, active
South Africa
* Labour Party (South Africa)
* Labour Party (South Africa, ...
, Communist statesmen like
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
, and former radicals turned post-modernists. Because of this, he believed
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...
was an important philosopher to whom "Marxists owed a great debt to". Critical of Sartre's
existentialism
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...
, Mészáros praised his opposition to the "there is no alternative" motto and affirmed, "I don't embrace his ideas but I embrace the aim". Mészáros declared, "Sartre was a man who always preached the diametrical opposite: there is an alternative, there must be an alternative; you as an individual have to rebel against this power, this monstrous power of capital. Marxists on the whole failed to voice that side". This was reflected on Mészáros's ''The Work of Sartre: Search for Freedom'', first published in 1979 and expanded in 2012 with a new section, "The Challenge of History".
Mészáros believed it was important to make a distinction between
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
and capital to theorise about a transition to socialism. He posited that capital appeared "thousand of years" prior to capitalism and that it can continue without capitalism, which is the case of
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
(USSR) in his understanding. In this sense, a revolutionary upheaval can overthrow capitalism in a limited area by the expropriation of the capitalist class, but the power of capital can still control the system through the division of labour and the "hierarchical command structure of capital". Mészáros defined capital as "command system whose mode of functioning is accumulation-oriented". In his conception, the extraction of
surplus value
In Marxian economics, surplus value is the difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to manufacture it: i.e. the amount raised through sale of the product minus the cost of the materials, plant and ...
can be done in a "political way"—like in the case of USSR—or through "an economically regulated extraction of surplus labour and surplus value"—like in the West. Mészáros argued that the accumulation process in the Stalinist states "was done in a very improper fashion from the point of view of productivity" and in a 1982 essay said that it would eventually collapse because of this fact—and not because of US-backed anticommunist military policies.
Personal life
Mészáros met his Italian wife, Donatella Morisi, in 1955 in Paris; they were married on 14 February 1956; she died in 2007. They had three children: Laura, born 1956; Susie, born 1960; and Giorgio, born 1962.