Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin
Bookchin in 1990
BornJanuary 14, 1921
New York City, U.S.
DiedJuly 30, 2006(2006-07-30) (aged 85)
Era20th-/21st-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy, anarchism, libertarian socialism, Hegelianism, philosophy of ecology
Main interests
Social hierarchy, dialectics, post-scarcity, anarchism, libertarian socialism, ethics, environmental sustainability, ecology, history of popular revolutionary movements
Notable ideas
Communalism, social ecology

Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006[1]) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. Influenced by G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Peter Kropotkin,[2] he was a pioneer in the environmental movement.[3] Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ecology and urban planning within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban affairs, and social ecology. Among the most important were Our Synthetic Environment (1962), Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), The Ecology of Freedom (1982), and Urbanization Without Cities (1987). In the late 1990s, he became disenchanted with what he saw as an increasingly apolitical "lifestylism" of the contemporary anarchist movement, stopped referring to himself as an anarchist, and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called "communalism", which seeks to reconcile and expand Marxist, syndicalist, and anarchist thought.[4][5]

Bookchin was a prominent anti-capitalist and advocate of social decentralization along ecological and democratic lines. His ideas have influenced social movements since the 1960s, including the New Left, the anti-nuclear movement, the anti-globalization movement, Occupy Wall Street, and more recently, the democratic confederalism of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. He was a central figure in the American green movement.

  1. ^ Small, Mike (August 8, 2006). "Murray Bookchin" (Obituary). The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 16, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  2. ^ Bookchin, Murray (January 2005). The Ecology of Freedom; The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Chico, CA: AK Press. pp. 8, 11. ISBN 978-1904859260. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  3. ^ John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico, Environmental Philosophy, Inc, University of Georgia, Environmental Ethics v. 12 1990: 193.
  4. ^ Bookchin, Murray. "The Future of the Left," The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy. New York: Verso Books, 2015. pp. 157–158.
  5. ^ Biehl, Janet. "Bookchin Breaks with Anarchism Communalism October 2007: 1". theanarchistlibrary.org. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2023.