Critical Materialist Irrealism and 21st Century Socialism


Christopher Powell, Toronto Metropolitan University

In this paper I define irrealism, not as an ontological claim, but as a gesture of conscientiously abstaining from ontological claims. Practicing irrealism means stepping back from the game of ontology. This allows us to observe how others play the game, and to negotiate amongst alternative ontologies without requiring a new meta-ontological consensus. Defined this way, irrealism is something we already practice some of the time. Irrealism can help us reformulate radical socialism. The Eurocentric development of the modern world-system has involved cultural imperialism and genocidal settler colonialism, driving a catastrophic reduction of human ethnodiversity and steering humanity towards monoculturalism. Classical socialism has been anticolonial but still modernist, predicated on ontological consensus and therefore lacking intrinsic theoretical resources for protecting ethnodiversity. This paper examines the ways in which irrealism is consistent with historical materialism, how it is already being used effectively by socialists, and how its use could be extended to articulate a pluriversal socialist futurity.

This paper will be presented at the following session: