Ralph Dumain At 09:43 AM 5/22/2006 -0400, Charles Brown wrote:
> > (1) Cornforth came to doubt Engels' dialectics of nature; see his > > 1980 book > > COMMUNISM AND PHILOSOPHY. > >^^^^^ >CB; "dialectics of nature" the book or the whole idea that nature is >dialectical ? What did he come to doubt about "dialectics of nature" ? I can't answer this question until I obtain a copy of the book, which will probably take a couple of months unless someone wants to send me a copy. ^^^^^^ CB: I'd copy it for you , but I don't have a copy. If the CP bookstore in Chicago is still open they may have it. ^^^^^^ >Apparently, the Soviet thaw under Khrushchev was mirrored by >a similar thaw within the western CPs. > > > > > (5) Cornforth was influenced by Wittgenstein's view of language > > throughout > > his career. > >Shouldn't surprise anyone. > >^^^^^ >CB: When was it that Wittgenstein went to the Soviet Union and wanted to >work as a worker, but the Soviets wanted him to teach philosophy. Was that >an early "thaw" in the SU itself ? > >^^^^^ I imagine Wittgenstein wanted to go to the USSR before the Khrushchev era--1920s or 1930s, perhaps? This wouldn't be a thaw, though. The Soviets would never have accepted the kind of philosophy Wittgenstein would teach, unless seduced by his reputation. ^^^^ CB: I thought Cornforth was a student or associate of Wittgenstein's . He could have communicated with Soviets. They had contact in international conferences. Also, my understanding is that Wittgenstein rejects his own first system. I think it is at this point that he wants to go live in the Soviet Union and be a "worker". Why wouldn't the Soviets want a big time philosopher who has in his own career and thinking sort of fulfilled Engels metaphor of philosophy coming to some kind of end ( The End of Philosophy was before the end of history, the end of ideology, all the other post-ologies and afterologies). Wittgenstein could be a sort of practicing bourgeois philosopher negating himself right in front of Soviet philosophy students. Exhibit A that bourgeois philosophical approach leads to a dead end. >7) The most important of Cornforth's works for today is THE OPEN > > PHILOSOPHY AND THE OPEN SOCIETY (1968). > >^^^^^^ >CB: In this book he seems to emphasize dialectics as interconnectedness and >motion. If we ever get a chance to digitize another Cornforth book, this should be the first priority. ^^^^ CB: I've got the book. I don't know what is involved in digitizing. Is that typing ? ^^^^^^^ I've put a few chapters of MARXISM AD THE LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY on my web site. It's a lot of work. Someone should go through SCIENCE VERSUS IDEALISM (I have the 1962 version, which already involves the modification of Cornforth's earlier views) for usable material. If I can get hold of COMMUNISM AND PHILOSOPHY, I can see what's usable in it. I have no use for the trilogy, but I know someone in Eastern Europe who does, so my guess is it will end up on the web. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
