-- Ralph Dumain <rdum...@autodidactproject.org> wrote:
(11) "Lenin chose physics to illustrate his theories. He could have picked any number of sciences had he so wished. I should also note the conditions of 1908 are not unique. Marxism itself, as a scientific world view, is going through a similar crisis today in 2008 as was physics in 1908. Lenin's methods of analysis are as useful today as they were then." COMMENT: The prior citations include some questioning of Lenin, with occasional extrapolations of the issues involved. This one is not a criticism, but a rather silly analogy. ----------------------- Well in Soviet writing, Lenin's notion of a crisis in physics as described in "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" was applied to a number of different disciplines. Thus, the early Soviet psychologists (Vygotsky,Lenontiev, Rubenshtein, Luria, etc. maintained that their own science was undergoing a crisis that was similar to the one that Lenin had asserted was troubling physics. The crisis in psychology was seen as emerging from a contradiction between the materialist outlook that was associated with experimental psychology, and the idealism which bourgeois psychology retained from the philosophies of Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Kant. The writings of Wundt, the father of modern psychology, were seen as exemplifying this contradiction. Therefore, early Soviet psychologists were more than willing to give a fair hearing to psychologies that challenged Wundt's introspectionism including both John B. Watson's behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. Watson's work was looked favorably upon because he was seen as attempting to articulate a materialist psychology. Indeed, Watson was invited to write an article on behaviorism for the *Large Soviet Encyclopedia*. Gestalt psychology was treated favorably at first because it was seen as an attempt at developing a dialectical psychology. A little later on, Soviet psychologists initiated attempts at developing their own psychological theories which they hoped would be consistent with basic Marxist principles such as the materialist conception of history and Lenin's analysis of reflection. Thus, American behaviorism was ultimately rejected as being mechanistic and positivistic while Gestalt psychology was rejected as idealist. Nevertheless, they were recognized as having made important contributions which had to be absorbed into a psychology that was firmly grounded in dialectical materialism. Jim Farmelant ____________________________________________________________ Click here for proven Credit Repair programs. Increase your score today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2Ou7KoRuSgp0h3NwUUGbacARVZUxreAzViQItkbYknBozHT/ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
