I am neither an Anarchist nor a Marxist, explain the debate?

Why is this considered the debate between idealism and materialism?

In neuropsychology, that debate is mostly settled (next paradigm shift will likely be towards describing what the monism actually looks like through the lens of the brain and advanced physics, so I’m curious what the debate looks like for sociology.

3 comments

The disagreements between anarchists and marxists (typically of the leninist variety) is about praxis. We tend to agree on the critique of capitalism and the final type of society we need to have, but we disagree on how to get there.
- Thanks for taking the time to reply, db0! That is much appreciated.
I know I'm late to the party lol, but these would be my 2 cents (ie. basic rundown):

Both Anarchism and Marxism are strains of revolutionary socialism, but split and remain split over both fundamental and petty disagreements...
The "original" "split" occurred as far back as the First International. This split happened for both theoretical and practical reasons, as well as simple quarrels of personality. Since then, the relationship has been kinda strained, especially with more bureaucracy-friendly strains of "Marxism" (read: revisionist) having seen Anarchists as something to get rid of (historically) and many anarchists saying that wanting a workers' state makes you a "redfash tankie"

Marxism is - in parts (depending on your pov) - a philosophy giving us the tools of dialectical and historical materialism. These are what give Marxists the impression that they are the stewards of scientific socialism.
Thus, Anarchism is seen as idealist and as ignoring material conditions (or not prioritizing them as much) in favour of metaphysical concepts.
(I have not yet studied Anarchism to verify whether those are assumptions made in bad faith as to discredit Anarchists, or whether they have practical merit).

Tl;dr: Anarchism and Marxism have the same goal of a class-, money- and stateless society. Both thus oppose capitalism as the reigning mode of production, but conflict partially stems from fundamental disagreements of e.g. what a state even is, how to get to communism, as well as petty/historical grievances.

I see myself as a Marxist, but if an anarchist revolution would break out, I'd try to support it as best as I can instead of sabotaging it. I hope for this community to be a place of good faith interaction to prevent petty quarrels between those two movements and maybe encourage practical cooperation between honest leftists (read: revolutionary socialists).