Soviet philosophy

Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
Mon Feb 25 07:57:43 PST 2002


Soviet philosophy "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>


>
>Well, Charles, if your view is that Marx, Engels, and Lenin discovered all
>the truths that need to be said,a nd that all that is left is for this
>truth
>to be popularized, we have very different standards of quality.
>
>^^^^^^^
>
>CB: Not eternal truths, but they have significantly exhausted the truths
>with respect to the philosophy of politics, economics and history , social
>theory, WITH RESPECT TO THE EPOCH OF CAPITALISM. I think there will be a
>need for new social theory once we end capitalism and launch socialism and
>then communism. There will be new contradictions, etc.

Well, bless, Charles, so we don't have to think about society until after the revolution.

^^^^^^^

CB: Here you "conflate" , as they say, "thinking about society" with philosophy of society. "Philosophy" and "thinking" are not synonymous.

A rough analogy would be that we do not need a new theory of the motions of the solar system until the system collapses. We don't need a new fundamental theory of capitalism. We will need a new social theory when capitalism comes to an end. This is what Marx and Engels mean by the winding up of classical philosophy.

We do have to think a lot though , because overthrowing capitalism will take a lot of thought. Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. "Revolutonary theory" does not mean something that is constantly created anew in fundamentals, if the underlying social reality is not changing. As long as we have capitalism, the underlying social reality is staying fundamentally the same. Today's speculative finance capital is still fundamentally capitalism as Marx analyzed it.

What new pertinent philosophical principles do you say there are? Just name a few of them .

^^^^^^^

Well that's certainly a relief, I can just hang up the paper on law, morality, and democracy that I am writing for a meeting here and go in there, read them relevant excepts from Marx and Engels.

^^^^^^^

CB: You probably should check the relevant excerpts from Lenin and Brown too, if its on law and democracy.

How exactly do you see your paper contributing to the overthrow of capitalism ? What new about that task have you discovered ? Frankly, most current papers in the U.S. on law, morality and democracy are anti-revolutionary, and it would be better if the vast majority of them were not written, although I have much more hope that you would write one that contributes to revolutionary struggle than the vast majority of others, But you are pretty unusual.

^^^^^^^


>
>Let me be clear and emphatic ( and consistent with Marx and Engels and
>Lenin's attitude) Marxism has pretty much exhausted the relative truths of
>the social theory of this bourgeois period

We are on different planets, sometimes.

^^^^^^^^

CB: Well, you said it. I'm on earth at all times. Where are you ?



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