** Reply to note from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue, 07 Oct 1997 19:04:24 +1000
>
> At 11:37 5/10/97 -0500, Paul Zarembka asked
> >
> >Is it time for this list to get into "absolute truth" or "objective truth",
> >"relative truth", and Lenin's MATERIALISM AND EMPIRIO-CRITICISM?
> >
> >Paul
> _____________
>
> No. I don't think so. I think we have had enough of truth already, and we
> should let Lenin rest in these rough times. Cheers, ajit sinha
Ajit,
I infer from your reaction that you have not read Lenin. He precisely
says that none of us possess "absolute truth", "the truth", etc. What
Lenin does say is that scientists, including Marxists, work from the
proposition that "objective truth" exists and we struggle to get closer to
it ("relative truth"). I don't see how you can contest that. Otherwise,
why are you on these lists debating with people? certainly it is not just
fun and games.
Lenin,
end of Section 5, Chapter Two: "The materialist dialectics of Marx and
Engels certainly does contain relativism, but is not reducible to
relativism, that is, it recognises the relativity of all our knowledge, not
in the sense of denying objective truth, but in the sense that the limits
of approximation of our knowledge to this truth are historically
conditioned."
end of Chapter Two: "The standpoint of life, of practice, should
be first and fundamental in the theory of knowledge. And it inevitably
leads to materialism, brushing aside the endless fabrications of
professioral scholasticism. Of course, we must not forget that the
criterion of practice can never, in the nature of things, either confirm
or refute any human idea *completely*. This criterion also is
sufficiently 'indefinite' not to allow human knowledge to become
'absolute', but at the same time it is sufficiently definite to wage a
ruthless fight on all varieties of idealism and agnosticism....The sole
conclusion to be drawn from the opinion of the Marxists that Marx's theory
is an objective truth is that by following the *path* of Marxist theory we
shall draw closer and closer to objective truth (without ever exhausting
it); but by following *any other path* we shall arrive at nothing but
confusion and lies" (italics in original).
Paul
*************************************************************************
Paul Zarembka, supporting the RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY Web site at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka and using OS/2 Warp.
*************************************************************************
