A. P. LERNER succeeds in criticizing the kind of crap that passes for
dialectics of nature in the Marxist literature. A study of the arguments of
Marxist scientists in the 1930s would be historically profitable, if one has
the patience to review the literature. I have quite a bit of it myself.
Helena Sheehan also provides quite a bit of info in her book MARXISM AND THE
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. But what she leaves out is also instructive.
There are two or three aspects of dialectical materialism to consider:
(1) diamat as ontology
(a) diamat as emergent materialism
(b) what is 'dialectical' in diamat (incl. dialectical contradiction)
(2) diamat as epistemology (abstraction, concept formation, categorial
thinking, contradiction, etc.)
And of course the relation between (1) and (2).
And then of course the relationship between abstract philosophical categories
and empirical concepts, fudged from Engels on.
I've devoted quite a bit of effort over many years to straighten out this mess,
but my efforts have fallen on deaf eyeballs.
Sheehan not only leaves out quite most of Marx as well as quite a bit of
Engels, but she leaves subjective dialectics (epistemology & logic) out of
account, the area where the Soviets of the '30s, Somerville (ass-kissing the
Soviets), Novack (following Trotsky) and others messed up completely.
Dialectics of nature was plausible to scientists, I think, based on the
plausibility of emergent materialism, sans scrupulous logical scrutiny of the
actual doctrine. This may have been due to some form of ideological
subservience to Moscow, or the power of metaphor, it's hard to tell.
The best one can say of Haldane here, I think, is that diamat belongs to what
Gerald Holton called themata:
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/themata1.html
I might be able to accept that Haldane was thematically guided in a certain
direction, but otherwise his account of his own discovery process is
implausible.
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Dec 9, 2005 3:18 PM
To: 'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and
the thinkers he inspired' <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Is Professor Haldane's Account of Evolution
Dialectical?Professor Haldane Replies
________________________________
JBS Haldane Archive
Is Professor Haldane's Account of Evolution Dialectical?
A.P. Lerner
and
Professor Haldane Replies
JBS Haldane
Ralph Dumain's The Autodidact Project
http://www.autodidactproject.org
The C.L.R. James Institute
http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org
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