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By Daniel Morley
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
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Lukács was an important influence on what is called 'western Marxism'.
This was seen as a 'humanist' alternative to the dominant stalinist
orthodoxy of the inter-War period and later. One of Lukács' most
significant arguments was that (contrary to Engels) there can be no
dialectics of nature. Dan Morley examines the debate and goes into the
contradictory relationship between Lukács' interpretation of Marxism and
Stalinism.
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By V.I. Lenin
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
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As people recover from the food and drink
during the Christmas and New Year break we publish something from Lenin:
"Those who toil are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while
here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those
who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity
while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire
existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to
well-being in heaven."
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By Ann Robertson
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Friday, 26 October 2007 |
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In developing this
philosophical outlook, Marx based himself on great thinkers that had preceded
him, but went beyond them in developing further those ideas and providing new
insights. He developed his dialectics from Hegel, the great German philosopher.
Here Ann Robertson in the USA
provides an interesting examination of the development of dialectics from Hegel
through to Marx.
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By Alan Woods
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Sunday, 09 July 2006 |
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This text was originally written by Alan Woods as a part of the book Reason in Revolt: Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science, but eventually the book became too long and this part had to be left out. Therefore this history of philosophy is published here for the first time. With chapters on: Do we Need Philosophy?, The First Dialecticians, Aristotle and the End of Classical Greek Philosophy, The Renaissance, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, and Philosophy in the 20th Century.
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By Leon Trotsky
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Friday, 08 July 2005 |
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Trotsky's 'ABC of
Materialist Dialectics' is a brilliant short explanation of Marxist
philosophy. It was written as
part of a defence of Marxism against a middle class
revisionist tendency in the American
Trotskyist movement in the late 1930s, which
attempted to challenge its basic principles. As
opposed to pragmatism and empiricism,
Trotsky defended dialectical materialism as a richer,
fuller, more comprehensive view of
society and life in general. Reprinted in 1994 with a new
introduction by Rob Sewell and a short addition
summary of the basic points of dialectical materialism by
John Pickard.
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By Juan Ortiz
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Monday, 21 February 2005 |
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We are pleased to publish an interesting document written by a Mexican
comrade on the subject of dialectical materialism and mathematics
(calculus). Juan Ortiz, who is a student of mathematics at the Mexican
National University, has developed what Hegel, Marx, Engels and Trotsky
wrote on the subject. Although the detailed mathematical exposition may
be beyond the grasp of many laymen, we think it very important to
develop the fundamentals of Marxist philosophy in a detailed way.
Unfortunately, Juan’s text is so far only available in Spanish.
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By Rob Sewell
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Saturday, 02 November 2002 |
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We are publishing the first of what will be a series of
Marxist study guides. The purpose is to provide a basic explanation of the
fundamental ideas of Marxism with a guide to further reading and points to help
organise discussion groups around these ideas. We are starting with dialectical
materialism, the philosophy of Marxism. |
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By Alan Woods
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Sunday, 22 July 2001 |
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We have received quite a few e-mails from our subscribers asking about
the attitude of Marxists to religion, relating not only to Marxism and Christianity,
but also to Islam. For example, we have received several communications from sympathetic
people who support liberation theology, in the Philippines.
We are also in contact with groups who describe themselves as Islamic Marxists.
This is clearly an interesting and important question, which deserves serious treatment.
As an initial contribution, we are publishing an article by Alan Woods which is actually
based on his replies to such letters.
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By Alan Woods
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Monday, 09 April 2001 |
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Alan Woods has written an extra chapter to his book on the History of Philosophy dealing with the historical development of
Indian and Islamic philosophy. He separates out the progressive from the reactionary elements, and
also highlights the great contribution of both to philosophical thinking on a world level.
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Philosophy 
