Ralph Dumain : Furthermore, while Cornforth's class analysis of the history of philosophy may be broadly correct (though it is micro-incorrect in failing to account for the subjective self-understanding of positivists and pragmatists), his reduction of the contrast between Marxism and bourgeois philosophy to "two camps" is Stalinist through and through. Not only is he wrong about the nature of the Stalinist camp, but he is wrong about the relationship of Marxist to non-Marxist philosophies. In practice, he treats Marxist philosophy as a system opposed to other systems, though he denies doing so. Like most philosophers influenced by diamat--in this period, especially--he was very good at exposing both the social roots and the idealist blinders of bourgeois philosophy--i.e., at exercising the negative, critical function of Marxist philosophy--but diamat as a constructive philosophy remained primitive, underdeveloped, stagnant, locked into formulas and authorities. This is the tragedy of the whole tradition.
Others have endlessly criticized the logical structure of diamat over the past century. One could toss off hundreds of names. The first that pop into my mind are Scanlan, Norman, and 'Rosa Lichtenstein'. There are some who have argued that bad logic works to the advantage of bad ideology--Popper, for example, and now 'Rosa'. However, there remains more to be said about this, even at this late date. It is especially relevant for recalibrating the relations among intellectual traditions, my larger project. ^^^^^^^ CB: These all sound like exercises of a negative critical function as well. Where is an affirmative critique or an exercise of synthesis in materialist dialectics or whatever the proper name for Marxist dialectics is ? The synthetic development of Marxist dialectics would come out of the revolutionary practice, as in actual revolutions in the SU and progeny, no ? _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
