In regards to point 2.
Given what I now know from the unreliable interpretations of Bakhurst
(1991), the bits and pieces on Deborin and his faction as "dialecticians" as
opposed to "mechanists" recoverable from histories of Soviet philosophy and
theoretical critiques and commentaries, and the clearly Hegelian views of
Lenin, Vygotsky and Ilyenkov, I am more hopeful than sure of any relation
between them and Deborin. I expect that a better acquaintance with Deborin
will help clarify this issue.
A interesting point regarding the position of these two schools on the
natural sciences was the rejection of Lysenkoism by the Dialecticians and
corresponding support given it by the Mechanists, (see
http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/lysenko.htm). Makes one wonder at the
scientific credentials of the Mechanists who were drawn mainly from the
engineering and research elites.
Victor Friedlander-Rakocz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph Dumain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 8:51
Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Deborin
(1) Have you in mind a different intervention against Lukacs from the one
everyone knows about? Deborin intervened against Lukacs and Korsch in
1923 or 1924, i.e. long before 1931.
(2) I find it odd to see Deborin as a link between Lenin and Ilyenkov.
Admittedly, I'm just going on vague impressions, but I thought that what
was Hegelian about Deborin was his philosophy of nature, not the stuff
that would interest Ilyenkov. What am I missing?
At 04:01 PM 10/22/2005 -0400, Jim Farmelant wrote:
I think we are hampered because of relevant material
remains untranslated from Russian. Also, people
in the Soviet Union were not always candid about
revealing who their influences were, especially if that involved
people who had fallen into disfavor. I am sure that
Deborin is the link between Lenin's later more
Hegelian work and the later Hegelianized
Marxism of Ilyenkov.
Deborin appears to have been an adroit
player of the Soviet academic game. In the
1931 conference at which Mitin prevailed,
Deborin made a show of giving support to Mitin's
position over his own. Despite having
been condemned as a a "menshevizing
idealist," he seems to have managed to
regain his academic equibrium several
years later, when he re-emerged as one
of the lead Soviet point men against
Lukacs. He remained on the presidium
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and
he lived to see, under Khruschchev, all of
his works republished in the Soviet
Union. When one considers that lots
of Soviet philosophers, including some
of his own disciples, were killed in
the great purges of the 1930s, all of
this was no mean accomplishment.
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