[Marxism-Thaxis] Martin Gardner - RIP
Another great one passes. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/us/24gardner.html?hpw Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant Voted #1 Oil Gas Stock PDGO Why investors think Paradigm Oil Gas is the next BIG oil player http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4bfa680faa6e42194st03vuc ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] (no subject)
Anybody here have an answer to the following question? Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant - Hey there Jim Since you know a ton about Marxist intellectual history, do you know why the Franco German Yearbooks were published only once, in 1844, when the intention had been to produce yearly? Was it for the same reason other journals fail: just didn't take off and/or lack of funds/time? Or was it for some other reason? If you have networks to whom you might pass this along because they might know the answer, I'd appreciate that too! -- Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4be30b65a0f0d39e899st02vuc ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson essay
Rosa Lichtenstein has just published a third essay of Guy Robinson's at her website. All three essays can be accessed at: http://anti-dialectics.co.uk/other_material.htm Scroll to the foot of the page. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4bbf1387d763417d0b3st03vuc ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] _The Riddle of the Self_
Within American philosophy, the pragmatists, John Dewey and George Herbert Mead advanced rather similar perspectives. Of course, they, like the Soviet philosophers, were influenced by Hegel. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu, a-l...@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] _The Riddle of the Self_ Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:57:46 -0400 Felix Mikhailov' book considers the philosophical problems of the human consciousness, its relation to the surrounding world and the means by which self-knowledge can be theoretically investigated. It poses and offers solutions to many questions raised by the nature of human thought, the intellect and the possibility of creating an artificial intellect. By means of a wide survey the book shows that the Self is a product of historically developing cultures in which infinite nature cognises and transforms itself. Jacket note on _The Riddle of the Self_ by F.T. Mikhailov http://www.marxists.org/archive/mikhailov/works/riddle/index.htm Feliks Mikhailov 1976 The Riddle of the Self Written: 1976; Source: The Riddle of the Self; Publisher: Published in English by Progress Publishers in 1980; Transcribed: Andy Blunden; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden; Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton 2006. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction Where Is the Self? I See and I Understand Chapter One: Clear Approaches and Dead-Ends What Is Knowledge Something About Something When Is Kant Right? Towards a Solution Chapter Two: Social Individual Consciousness Bertrand Russell's Mistake Individual and Social (Hegel versus Russell) The End of the Mind-Body Problem Dreams of the Kurshskaya Sand Bar The Substance of History Chapter Three: Man and His Thought Life Source of the Self The Language of Real Life When Consciousness Is Conscious of Itself The Real Life of Language Language and Consciousness The Riddle Answered? Glossary References: Matter | Consciousness | Materialism | Vygotsky Further reading: Awakening to Life, Alexander Meshcheryakov Thinking Speaking, Lev Vygotsky The Thing-in-Itself and Dialectical Materialism, Lenin Subject Object Cognition, V A Lektorsky Mikhailov Internet Archive ___ 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 Refinance Now 4.0% FIXED! $160,000 Mortgage for $633/mo. Free. No Obligation. Get 4 Quotes! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4bb0e0efec24fbb2st01vuc ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Reevaluating Lysenko
Shouldn't we also take a look at the life and career of the Soviet geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, who was the leading Mendelian geneticist in the Soviet Union of his time and who suffered imprisonment, where he died, because of his opposition to Lysenkoism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com 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] Reevaluating Lysenko Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:32:33 -0400 http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2001-February/017071.html [Marxism-Thaxis] LYSENKO, VIEWS OF NATURE AND SOCIETY Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Fri Feb 16 08:54:44 MST 2001 Previous message: [Marxism-Thaxis] LYSENKO, VIEWS OF NATURE AND SOCIETY Next message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Nepal, Maoism gathers strength Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] cburford at gn.apc.org 02/16/01 02:05AM At 09:00 15/02/01 -0800, you wrote: Heh, Charles, sometimes I still look for loons far, far to your left. Have a chuckle. ;-) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/1091/lysenkotable.html However my impression is that Lysenko actually was not so completely wrong as he was made out to be in the west. Of course there were some very good aspects to Soviet Science: Luria was far ahead of the west, in emphasising neuronal circuits rather than individual loci as the organising unit for mental processes. ) Charles B:This site and an earlier one that Michael sent raise an interesting paradox: Lysenko ,the Stalinist ,was not the dogmatist in this argument. Lamarckian claims are against the central dogma of modern genetic theory. This article articulates the fundamentals of genetics in attacking them ( which is a timely clarification with the publishing of the human genome) For example, Senior Assisted Living Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=El-0iK6RTIIPhIrIxAuBMQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAASUQA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Wiki Lenin
Well, feel free to make corrections in that article. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: a-l...@lists.econ.utah.edu, 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] Wiki Lenin Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:38:08 -0500 I wonder if wikipedia distorts Lenin biography. CB Nutrition Improve your career health. Click now to study nutrition! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=a-BNBMuS63-kjj4cs-AacwAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAASQwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] *The Professional*
Another factor that is helping to push Obama and the DP to the right, is the possibility, if not the likelihood of a GOP split, with that party splitting between the more traditional conservatives and right-wing populists associated with the tea-partiers. If the GOP splits, much of the party might be absorbed into the DP, leaving what is left of the GOP to the tea party types. It remains to be seen whether the GOP fragments, but clearly the hope of it splitting is helping to propel the Democrats further to the right, not that they have needed much help in that regard. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: Carrol Cox cb...@ilstu.edu To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marxand the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] *The Professional* Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:08:51 -0600 The Nation February 1, 2010 edition *The Professional* By Eric Foner The first year may not be the best way to judge a president. After one year in office, Abraham Lincoln still insisted that slavery would not become a target of the Union war effort, Franklin D. Roosevelt had yet to address the need for social insurance in the wake of the Great Depression and John F. Kennedy viewed the civil rights movement as an annoying distraction. If we admire them today, it is mostly for what happened during the rest of their presidencies. Well, I'm not among the we who admire them today. My admiration is reserved for the people in the radical movments that _forced_ these men to reluctantly push forward watered-down versions of what was actually needed. FDR's sponsoring Social Security is archetypal here. What led hm to do that? Well there was the agitation for the Townsend Plan, which would have been _real_ retirement program, not the weak imitation that SS is. And the growing poularity of that plan would have been qutie a spur for FDR's Social Security. And that was in a larger context, which first emerged in the Bonus Marchers and the Hoovervilles of the early '30s, and was represented as well by Long's agitation for sharing the wealth. and the growth of the CPUSA of course, though it as a factor was weakened by its popular front subordination to the DP/Dixiecrats. As long as left liberals continue to support Obama there is not a chance of his moving to the left or supporting, even in a shit-eating way, left programs. He IS a conservative; he is NOT meely courting conservative opinion. He supports the Conservative Cause in principle -- he believes in it and will fight for it. Carrol ___ 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 Search Marketing Click for free info on using seach engines to expand your business. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=DbXNJG2hzRwaz0kOjLsbYgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAARBwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Contradiction in text
Of course lots of people who were politically aligned with Stalin in the 1920s eventually found themselves in a labor camp or looking at the wrong end of a gun later on. Just ask Bukharin. Jim F. http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu, a-l...@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Contradiction in text Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 13:10:33 -0500 wikipedia on Krupskaya: Although she was highly regarded within the party, Krupskaya was unable to prevent Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power after Lenin's death[citation needed]. She was then politically isolated by Stalin and his supporters.[citation needed] Krupskaya apparently favored Stalin in the great debates between the Left Opposition and the CPSU majority of the 1920s. In 1925, she attacked Trotsky in a polemic that was in response to Trotsky's tract The Need To Study October. In it, she stated that Marxist analysis was never Comrade Trotskys strong point.[11] In relation to the debate around Socialism in one country versus Permanent Revolution, she asserted that Trotsky under-estimates the role played by the peasantry.[12] Furthermore, she held that Trotsky had misinterpreted the revolutionary situation in post-WWI Germany.[13] ^^ CB: If she apparently favored Stalin, the implication would be not that she was politically isolated by Stalin, but was politically aligned with Stalin. ___ 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 Weight Loss Program Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=_qHxab1yoyfSE2Cs_DN4gQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAAEUgA= ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Noam Chomsky and Larry Aaronson on Howard Zinn
Yesterday, on WGBH-TV's Greater Boston, hosted by Emily Rooney http://www.wgbh.org/greater_boston/index.cfm Scroll down to the second video. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant Love Spell Click here to light up your life with a love spell! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=mZTpGhkj73_QSPl1NrjtrgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNRwA= ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Creationism in the UK
Apparently, creationism is not just an American disease now. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/21/religion.highereducation Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant Love Spell Click here to light up your life with a love spell! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=CEmZYypatWf_YcFuJo9GkgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNRwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Popularity of Atlas Shrugged: r ( theory, practic e)
Since the comment quoted refers to Professor Kevin MacDonald, it should be noted that the good professor holds funny views concerning Jews which can be quite fairly characterized as antisemitic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_B._MacDonald As for people like Ayn Rand or Ludwig von Mises being authoritarian, I am reminded of von Mises's fellow Austrian, Karl Popper, the author of *The Open Society and Its Enemies*, about which, wits at the LSE used to say was written by one of its Enemies. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: CeJ jann...@gmail.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Popularity of Atlas Shrugged: r ( theory, practice) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:53:41 +0900 JF Maybe this angle on AR explains her appeal to Orthodox types? Some of the discussion there looked like it was going towards anti-semitism, so I've waded in and got the one quote I would consider. OTOH, if you go to that page you will see cited her racist rants against the Arabs and her call for near-unconditional support of Israel from the US. Libertarians who hate Rand (because she is Jewish). People who hate Arabs, like Rand. These people really deserve each other http://www.toqonline.com/2009/12/ayn-rand-on-race/ Andrew Hamilton Posted December 8, 2009 at 1:18 pm | Permalink Rand (1905-1982) was born and educated in Russia. Her real name was Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum. She is a classic example of the secular rabbinic-style Jewish guru described by Kevin MacDonald. The sexual dynamics of her cult were baroque. For example, Rand, though married to an Irish-American, carried on a long affair with disciple Nathaniel Branden, 25 years her junior, though Branden, too, was married at the time. Ostensibly both Frank OConnor (Rands husband) and Barbara Branden consented to the affair. Despite her ideological libertarianism, Rand possessed an intolerant, authoritarian personality that greatly affected the dynamics of her cult. It was vividly on display during an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show where I recall her brutally castigating a female member of the audience whod articulated a question/comment that she disapproved of. I believe the woman had prefaced her remark with a fervent expression of her admiration for Rand and her work. That exchange remained forever etched in my mind. Intolerance and authoritarianism likewise characterized another Jewish libertarian, economist Ludwig von Mises. This despite the fact that, in response to a question that began, If you were dictator, what would you do to . . . Mises humorously and charmingly responded, Id abdicate. Mises married a beautiful shiksaan Austrian actress who quit the stage and thereafter served as his dutiful typist and gofer. Her 1976 memoir (available online here http://mises.org/books/myyears.pdf ) displayed a painfully servile and worshipful attitude toward her great Jewish husband. Mises, too, was a guru in the MacDonald mold. ___ 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 Medical Insurance Need Medical Insurance? Click here for affordable quotes. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=AZu4e33vUMednZ9nFB8gegAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAAQVgA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Christian Story of Jesus's Birth Is a Myth Born o f Politics
To me one of the most interesting aspects of the history of Christianity, was how a religion that for many years was regarded by the Roman establishment as a politically subversive cult was eventually embraced by that establishment and became the official religion of the Empire. As the article noted, the early Christians gave to Jesus many titles which were also born by the Roman emperors. The Roman Senate had given Octavius, among his many titles, the title of Price of Peace, presumably, because he reestablished peace and order in the Empire after the outbreak of civil war that had followed his uncle's assassination. Most of the other titles, like Savior of the World, were likewise titles of the emperors. So to the Roman establishment, it seemed clear that the Christian sect was attempting to elevate their crucified leader above the emperors. Obviously, a sign of subversion in the eyes of the establishment. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: CeJ jann...@gmail.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Christian Story of Jesus's Birth Is a Myth Born of Politics Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 15:09:50 +0900 Christian Story of Jesus's Birth Is a Myth Born of Politics http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2010-January/024987.html Nutrition Improve your career health. Click now to study nutrition! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=OlX_CjXRTzSrHfXYv0MU3AAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAASQwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Christian Story of Jesus's Birth Is a Myth Born o f Politics
I think you are referring to Nestorian Christianity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism) It was declared heretical by both the Western and Eastern churches, but it enjoyed official support in Syria and Persia, and its missionaries were active throughout the Middle East and even the Far East (i.e. India, China). That's probably the type of Christianity that was familiar to Mohammed and many of the Nestorian communities in the Middle East were probably absorbed into Islam later on. The issue of the nature or the natures of Jesus was a highly politicized issue as exemplified by the convening of the Council of Nicea by the Emperor Constantine, who at the time, was not even officially a baptized Christian. But by then, Constantine had thrown his political lot in with the Christians and he realized that if that religion was to become the official religion of the Empire, its basic doctrines had to be sorted out. A basic issue like the issue of the nature of Christ was one that was seen as being fraught with all sorts of political implications which both spiritual and temporal authorities had to wade through very carefully. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: CeJ jann...@gmail.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Christian Story of Jesus's Birth Is a Myth Born of Politics Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 15:09:50 +0900 One tension that was always there was the nature of Jesus Christ. For some, he was God's gift, a prophet, a messiah, a teacher (rabbi), but not a god nor God. For all the success Christianity then enjoyed, one large dichotomy was between 'trinitarians' and 'non-trinitarians', although this doesn't seem to have been a clear dichotomy in the religion's first century, but later. At any rate, those who could not accept JC as a god, or were born into those traditions, participated in a type of Christianity that co-existed and often largely assimilated to Islam. Jews and Samaritans who could not accept him as a messiah might well have ended up in Palestinian and Mesopotamian forms of Rabbinical Talmudic Judaism. (However, Rabbinical Judaism has periodically been open to other messiahs as well). If you look at how Islam portrays Jesus Christ (and Mary) in their texts and oral traditions you might get a stronger sense of how he was variously perceived in the now remote late classical, early middle ages. You will also note how various forms of 'Abrahamic' religions that the post-mo minds think of as 'ancient' or 'classical' were really the product of the early middle ages (i.e., trinitarian Christianity, rabbinical Judaism, Karaite Judaism, Islam). Which might bring us to all sorts of interesting political questions. CJ ___ 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 Hotel Hotel pics, info and virtual tours. Click here to book a hotel online. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=z_oz-dMTQYIdhJoJwupsTAAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAATRAA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] COMMUNISTS� EFFECT ON AMERICA
They seem to exaggerate Carl Schurz's relationship. He certainly knew Marx and had worked with him in 1848, but he doesn't seem to have liked him very much. Anyway, as Schurz rose up in GOP politics, his views became more conservative. Many of the other people listed in that article were close associates or supporters of Marx and remained so after they came to the US. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com 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] COMMUNISTS EFFECT ON AMERICA Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 11:31:32 -0500 Ironically, it is the neo-Confederate rightwingers who are , I guess, trying to bring back slavery in the South, who chronicle the enormous contributions of German Communists to the military cause of the North in the Civil War CB COMMUNISTS EFFECT ON AMERICA http://www.southernheritage411.com/truehistory.php?th=122 Their influence from then to nowHow did it all begin? Did they leave their footprints on our nation? Why did Lincoln and his Republicans insist on attacking the sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America? Why did Lincoln and his Republicans refuse to compromise with the South? Perhaps the following may set you on the pathway to truth and aid you in answering both questions. All that follows comes to us through the courtesy of Walter D. Kennedy and Al Benson, from their explosive, iconoclastic history text entitled RED REPUBLICANS AND LINCOLNS MARXISTS: MARXISM IN THE CIVIL WAR (obtainable online at http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/ ). If you think what you o read here is somethingyou aint seen nothin yet! Do read the book. My impression of the contents in just one of its chapters follows. IMPORTANT REPUBLICAN POLICY- INSTIGATORS, FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES, --APPOINTED THERE BY ABE LINCOLN -- 1. Brigadier General Joseph WEYDEMEYER of Lincolns army was a close friend of Karl MARX and Fredrick Engels in the London Communist League. Marx wrote Weydemeyers letter of introduction to Charles A. DANAan editor of New York Times Tribune. Weydemeyer was an escapist from the Socialist/Communist Revolution. He fled to the U.S. and became very active in the just-beginning Republican Party. He supported Freeman in the Republican Partys first election and Lincoln in its second. He was described in a Communist publication as a PIONEER AMERICAN MARXIST. He wrote for and edited several radical socialist journals in the U.S. (p. 200) 2. Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. DANA ---close friend of Marx, published with Joseph Weydemyer a number of Communist Journals and, also The Communist Manifesto, commissioned by Karl Marx. As a member of the Communist/Socialist Fourier Society in America, Dana was well acquainted with Marx and Marxs colleague in Communism, Fredrick Engels. Dana, also, was a friend of all Marxists in Lincolns Republican Party, offering assistance to them almost upon their arrival on the American continent. This happened often after receiving introductory letters from Karl MARX, himself. (p. 196). Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, no other American did more to promote the cause of communism in the United States than did Dana. (p. 141). It was due to Danas close friendship and work with the New York Tribune editor, Horace Greeley, another dedicated socialist, that Greeley employed Marx as a correspondent/contributor to the U.S. newspaper. Dana became the first high-level communist in an American administration---which was the FIRST REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION in the United States of America. 3. Brigadier General Louis BLENKER, Lincolns armyradical socialist/Communist from Germanywas remarkably successful in encouraging German immigrants to join Lincolns army and the Republican party. He promised Lincoln that he could get . . . thousands of Germans ready to fight for the preservation of the Union.(p. xiv). He was a leader in the Revolution in Germany and fought in several battles there. When the Revolution failed, he went to Switzerland where, along with other Marxists, he was ordered to leave the country. His life in the U.S. was markedly grander than it had been previouslyon a much higher social level. As a General, he offered a refuge to all Marxists. If unable to obtain a commission for them, he made a place for them as aide-de-camp. Great food, great drinks, great entertainment and servants were available for one and all obtained, largely by looting defenseless civilians. This practice was so flagrant, civilians who were looted, were considered Blenkered. Later, Blenker, under accusations of graft, resigned his commission. (p. 118) 4. Major General August WILLICHoften called The Reddest of the Red 48ers was a member of the London Communist League with Karl MARX and Fredrick ENGLES. (p. xiv) Before seeking refuge in the U.S. Willich was a personal
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] ] Could God die again ? : Dennett
My take on the New Atheists (including Dennett) here: http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant/Papers/129476/The-New-Atheism--and-New-Humanism- Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com 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] ] Could God die again ? : Dennett Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 12:31:33 -0500 Dennett's Breaking the Spell http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2006-February/019846.html Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org Wed Feb 1 07:58:48 MST 2006 Criminal Lawyer Criminal Lawyers - Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=uVD2IJSbzxLWN6ynpamQswAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAAiFgA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Why Did Engels Write Anti-D�hring ?
Marx Engels, while generally favorable to free trade, weren't always as gung-ho about it as Engels was in Anti-Durhing. In other writings, they recognized that under certain conditions that infant industry arguments for protectionism did have some strength. And Marx at times advanced the argument that if Ireland were to win its independence that one of the economic advantages it would experience would be the freedom to impose protectionist policies that would enable it to industrialize itself. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: CeJ jann...@gmail.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Why Did Engels Write Anti-Dühring ? Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 19:02:50 +0900 Why Did Engels Write Anti-Dühring ? Weight Loss Program Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=85OQhOcYOcPqVKSphevunwAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAAEUgA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault�s Discursive Subjectby Blunden
It is my understanding that dogs can understand up to several hundred words. They are also excellent readers of human body language. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucaults Discursive Subjectby Blunden Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:49:30 -0500 Thanks CJ, I'll take a look. I'm not an expert, but from my experience, cats are less responsive to word symbols than dogs. Note that even dogs can learn a small number of symbols. They respond to their names. On 11/24/09, CeJ jann...@gmail.com wrote: Hey CB, you might find this article interesting. It's a nice synthesis of 'gestural origins' of language with 'mirror neuron' research. Also, I find it interesting how gesture is so different with the cats I interact with on campus. Although gestures meaning things like 'come here' are culturally different--the Japanese one looks more like waving good-bye--there is the symbolic element that, for example, cats don't have. When I want to approach cats who are wary of me, or want them to approach me, I get down on all fours, squint my eyes, and then look away. I'm not saying there isn't anything 'symbolic' or 'representational' in such gestures, but with humans the gestures seem to evoke 'hey you over there, come over here where I am' by pointing to a place that is neither over there where they are nor right where I am. And that is a simple gesture, I would think. I don't know if that makes us more intelligent but differently intelligent. Let's see if the long link runs, and if not I'll do one of those 'short url' things. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B6T0J-4JRVF0G-2_user=1043454_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_rerunOrigin=google_acct=C50820_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=1043454md5=99fd2a00980ca5602994567e4bfe8824 CJ -- Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ ___ 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 ___ 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 Doctorate Degrees Online Boost your career with an online doctoral degree. Enroll today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=y_yOwuThao_dutkLTeZpnQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAA4SoT4AAAMlAAAyOQA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cultural Psychology
In an old Marxmail post, I drew a connection between the debates that took place in the 1920s between the Soviet Mechanists and Deborinists and the later debates in Soviet philosophy and psychology, as exemplified in the work of Ilyenkov. See: http://tinyurl.com/djbre Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com 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] Soviet Cultural Psychology Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:41:44 -0500 Ilyenkovs most widely noted contribution was his study of the ideal, of how ideals come into being as perfectly material cultural products, the archetype of which is money. His study of Capital, The Abstract and Concrete in Marxs Capital is a masterpiece. Ilyenkov gained a formidable reputation as an interpreter of Hegel even outside of the ranks of Marxism. Ilyenkov was a communist, and the frustration of life in Brezhnevs USSR became more and more unbearable for him. Wholesale Hardwood Floors Never pay retail again. Wholesale prices on all hardwood flooring! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=7RmWH8NHEFrfVfzyFF2vXwAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAFwF6j4AAAMlAANlcwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism
Those Marxists like Michal Kalecki or Paul Sweezy (under the influence of Keynes) who embraced the underconsumptionist thesis did not hold that capitalist states would automatically adopt looser fiscal and monetary policies in order to stop or even to prevent economic downturns. On the contrary, they held that capital would be quite resistant to the general adoption of such policies because they would undermine the political power and the social status of capital. Kalecki, for instance, argued that under normal circumstances, capital would be resistant to the adoption of Keynesian-style full-employment policies, even if it was manifestly clear that such policies would boost business profits. That's because, according to Kalecki, such policies would less the social status of businessmen and weaken their political power. Capitalists, in Kalecki's opinion, feared the loss of social status and political power even more than they feared the loss of profits. Hence, their tendency to form political alliances with rentiers (whose incomes would be directly threatened by such policies) in order to oppose full-employment policies. See his famous 1943 paper, Political Aspects of Full Employment can be found online here. http://tinyurl.com/ykxusra Paul Sweezy echoed Kalecki's arguments in his early book, The Theory of Capitalist Development. Later on, both Kalecki and Sweezy pointed out how, what may be called, military Keyensianism provided a way to make Keynesianism work in a way that would be acceptable to capitalists. That of course is not to say that the underconsumptionists were necessarily correct, but rather to point out that Marxist underconsumptionists do not accept the thesis, that even if Keynesian economic analysis is basically correct, that we can ever expect capitalist states to use the tools of fiscal and monetary policy to balance out the business cycle. In their view, the class interersts of capital militate against this happening over the long term. Having said that it must be admitted that the Keynesian influence on Sweezy has always been a bone of contention for other Marxists. Back in the late 1960s, Paul Mattick wrote a critique of Keynesianism, in which Sweezy, was at least by implication, one of his targets. Marc Linder et al. in their book Anti-Samuelson, while primarily (as the title suggests) targeting Paul Samuelson's brand of Keynesianism, also took time out to critique Sweezy precisely for his Keynesianism. And more recently, James Heartfield has simiarly criticized Sweezy Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: Paddy Hackett rashe...@eircom.net To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:50:38 - Myth 2: But the government has to borrow over ?20 billion and so cutbacks are necessary. If we don't take the 'hard medicine' now, it will be worse later. The huge government deficit is a symptom but not the cause of the crisis. Before 2007, for example, there was no deficit as government revenue was ?65.1 billion and spending was ?64.6. The economic crash has wiped out many tax revenues. VAT rates have fallen; PAYE taxes are down, property taxes tumbled and more is being spent on social welfare payments. But the cutbacks have made matters worse. You can see this easily through simple figures.In October 2008, the government claimed that the budget deficit would rise to 6.5 percent of GDP and that cutbacks were needed. But in January 2009, the budget deficit had risen to 9.5 percent - and so more cuts were demanded in an April budget.Yet, after all these rounds of cutbacks, the budget deficit has now risen to 13 percent. In other words, all the sacrifices have been wasted because the debt is even higher. The reason why this occurs is simple. If personal consumption is already depressed through unemployment and wage cuts, reductions in government spending only add to the slow down in the economy. There is even less money to go around and a spiral of economic depression sets in. So instead of digging a deeper hole, we need to embark on a jobs programme that puts people back to work The above argument was recently written by Kieran Allen and published by the SWP. It is based on underconsumptionist assumptions. The underconsumptionist ideology suggests that economic downturns are caused by a lack of demand. This means that the solution to the problem are increases in demand and thereby consumption. This, it is believed, increases demand which in turn leads to increased commodity production. Increased production means an increase, generally speaking, in the creation of value and thereby economic growth. If this theory is correct it means that capitalism never need experience economic downturns. To prevent recessions all that is needed is continuous increases in demand (or consumption). If this theory is correct there is no need to abolish
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism
I should point out that many conservative economists would agree with the portion of Paddy's piece down below. Right-wing critics of Keynes (both in his day and our own) argued that attempts to deal with economic downturns through the loosening of fiscal and monetary policy would most likely result in inflation rather than in renewed economic growth. Such were the arguments of critics like Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises. They, of course, did not use that to argue for the abolition of capitalism. Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: Paddy Hackett rashe...@eircom.net To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:50:38 - In an economic crash when profitability has falling artificially increasing demand cannot solve the problem. Printing more paper money as a means of increasing consumer demand abjectly under downturn economics. The result is merely inflation. The more paper that is injected into the economy the more inflation rises. Rising inflation means that real demand has not increased. On the other hand if the government can freely borrow money as a means of making up for the budget deficit then the upshot is that crashes are superfluous. If this argument is correct then the conclusion is that not excessive credit, but the lack of it, is the cause of the current crash in Ireland. Borrowing, credit, is now the panacea for all economic ills. This being so capital need no longer be concerned over both rising wages and costs. Class struggle is thereby rendered unnecessary and the objective conditions necessary for communism cease to exist. Instant Health Insurance Get fast, free health insurance quotes online now in 2 minutes. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=tEDlXYC68EpV7ZvH4kxnywAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAAjMHj4AAANSABI4JwA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism
Charles is right about that. Obama's policies more closely resemble those followed by Herbert Hoover rather than those followed by FDR. An unabashed Keynesian would criticize Obama for not directing enough of his spending to lower income people, who, according to Keynes, would have a higher propensity to consumption than more affluent people. All this would seem consistent with Kalecki's political economic analysis, according to which we would expect government spending to follow this course it has been, so far, under the Obama Administration. Presumably, things are not likely to change much unless the Federal government begins to feel the heat of working class insurgency as was the case in the US by the time that FDR became president. Jim F. -- Original Message -- Yes, however they are not _Marxist_ underconsumptionists (smile) Also, they gave a lot more to Wall Street, which is supply-side. On 11/18/09, Paddy Hackett rashe...@eircom.net wrote: Obama, the Fed and the Treasury are underconsumptionist as is, to a degree, Western Europe. The massive injection of billions of dollars into the economy is an expression of underconsumptionist ideology. But this merely helps postpone the judgment day. The capitalist needs an unprecedentedly deep slump. By these unprecedented injections the slump has been postponed. But the problem has not been solved. Washington has created another bubble type phenomenon. The problem is that there may not be enough gas to blow up to the previous dimensions --a floppy bubble. This is something I am not qualified to answer. Washington has simply done what the Fed was doing under its last boss. Propping up the system artificially by providing more apparent spend. Those Marxists like Michal Kalecki or Paul Sweezy (under the influence of Keynes) who embraced the underconsumptionist thesis did not hold that capitalist states would automatically adopt looser fiscal and monetary policies in order to stop or even to prevent economic downturns. On the contrary, they held that capital would be quite resistant to the general adoption of such policies because they would undermine the political power and the social status of capital. Kalecki, for instance, argued that under normal circumstances, capital would be resistant to the adoption of Keynesian-style full-employment policies, even if it was manifestly clear that such policies would boost business profits. That's because, according to Kalecki, such policies would less the social status of businessmen and weaken their political power. Capitalists, in Kalecki's opinion, feared the loss of social status and political power even more than they feared the loss of profits. Hence, their tendency to form political alliances with rentiers (whose incomes would be directly threatened by such policies) in order to oppose full-employment policies. See his famous 1943 paper, Political Aspects of Full Employment can be found online here. http://tinyurl.com/ykxusra Paul Sweezy echoed Kalecki's arguments in his early book, The Theory of Capitalist Development. Later on, both Kalecki and Sweezy pointed out how, what may be called, military Keyensianism provided a way to make Keynesianism work in a way that would be acceptable to capitalists. That of course is not to say that the underconsumptionists were necessarily correct, but rather to point out that Marxist underconsumptionists do not accept the thesis, that even if Keynesian economic analysis is basically correct, that we can ever expect capitalist states to use the tools of fiscal and monetary policy to balance out the business cycle. In their view, the class interersts of capital militate against this happening over the long term. Having said that it must be admitted that the Keynesian influence on Sweezy has always been a bone of contention for other Marxists. Back in the late 1960s, Paul Mattick wrote a critique of Keynesianism, in which Sweezy, was at least by implication, one of his targets. Marc Linder et al. in their book Anti-Samuelson, while primarily (as the title suggests) targeting Paul Samuelson's brand of Keynesianism, also took time out to critique Sweezy precisely for his Keynesianism. And more recently, James Heartfield has simiarly criticized Sweezy Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: Paddy Hackett rashe...@eircom.net To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:50:38 - Myth 2: But the government has to borrow over ?20 billion and so cutbacks are necessary. If we don't take the 'hard medicine' now, it will be worse later. The huge government deficit is a symptom but not the cause of the crisis. Before 2007, for example, there was no deficit as government revenue was ?65.1 billion and spending was ?64.6. The economic crash has
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Keeping Afghanistan Safe From Democracy
General McChrystal is believed by many to have Potomac fever, that is, he wants Obama's job. Both Abe Lincoln and Harry Truman in their times had their experiences with politically ambitious generals. A major test for Obama will be whether he has the guile and intestinal fortitude to deal with such a general. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com 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] Keeping Afghanistan Safe From Democracy Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 08:35:35 -0500 Keeping Afghanistan Safe From Democracy By Robert Scheer San Francisco Chronicle November 5, 2009 http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/scheer/#ixzz0W73PpiAz The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way. P Manufacturer-Direct Hardwood Floors Never pay retail again. Wholesale prices on all hardwood floors! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=nOmHS7rGKEBFkIea4HcNugAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAKMXpD4AAAMlAANldAA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] latest Soviet philosophy books online
That reminds me of the days of Imported Publications, Inc. of Chicago, who were the official distributors in the US for Progress Publishers and MIR as well as other eastern European publishing houses. That company seems to have disappeared with the Soviet Union. In addition to works of philosophical interest, they also had classical Russian literature and lots of science and mathematics books which were available for a fraction of the price for comparable works from US or UK publishers. Also, if you were interested in that sort of thing, you could get the collected speeches of various top Soviet leaders. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org To: marxist philosophy marxistphiloso...@yahoogroups.com Cc: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] latest Soviet philosophy books online Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:35:28 -0500 . . . from the defunct Progress Publishers, that is. I limit myself to books of philosophical interest. Bogomolov, A. S. http://leninist.biz/en/1985/HAP349/History of Ancient Philosophy: Greece and Rome; translated by Vladimir Stankevich. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1985. 349 pp. (Guides to the Social Sciences) See also: Nersesyants, V.S. [Vladik Sumbatovich] http://leninist.biz/en/1986/PTAG210/Political thought of ancient Greece; translated from the Russian by Vladimir Stankevich. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1986. Omelyanovsky, M. E. [Omel'ianovs'kyi, M. E. (Mykhailo Erazmovych)]. http://leninist.biz/en/1979/DMP383/Dialectics in modern physicshttp://leninist.biz/en/1979/DMP383/. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1979. These books can be found on the extensive online repository of Soviet books: http://leninist.biz/ This project, the creation of the intrepid Robert Cymbala, may not be able to go any further due to lack of financial support. ___ 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 Medical Insurance Quotes Compare medical insurance companies and save money now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=91LhSxcTLTyfn7MILNN-vQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAPBMGj8AAAMlAAiWIAA= ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Claude Levi-Strauss, RIP
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/03/world/AP-EU-Obit-France-Levi-Strauss.html?_r=1 Criminal Justice Degrees Start your criminal justice career. Earn your degree 100% online! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=tVgbzMaiQX6Jfgiuj6Vz0QAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAMUgID8AAAMlAAAQKAA= ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [Marxism] Claude Levi-Strauss, RIP
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologist, Dies at 100 By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN Published: November 3, 2009 Claude Lévi-Strauss, the French anthropologist who transformed Western understanding of what was once called primitive man, died overnight between Saturday and Sunday. He was 100. [...] Mr. Lévi-Strausss structural approach, seeking universals about the human mind, cut against that notion of anthropology. He did not try to determine the various purposes served by a societys practices and rituals. He was never interested in the kind of fieldwork that anthropologists of a later generation, like Clifford Geertz, took on, closely observing and analyzing a society as if from the inside. (He began Tristes Tropiques with the statement I hate traveling and explorers.) [...] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/europe/04levistrauss.html?partner=rssemc=rss Online Medical Insurance Get free online medical insurance quotes and save more money today. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=8hMfeVkNrUgHuPhGATIe8QAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAPBMGj8AAAMlAAiWIQA= ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Rosa Lichtenstein vs. Andrew Kliman on dialectics
http://marxisthumanistinitiative.org/2009/05/05/brief-comments-on-the-relationship-between-marxism-and-the-hegelian-dialectic/ Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFoYd8dOsnewwT0QfdeIISpTkQxJtOUEwXTKGTcquKkdXmegqfK4g/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] What's wrong with eugenics?
It should be noted that before the actions of the Third Reich had discredited eugenics. It was something that was widely supported by intellectuals across the board from far right to far left, and all points in between. Bertrand Russell and G.B. Shaw were noted supporters of eugenics. It also had the support of many Marxists including for instance, Trotsky. Thus Trotsky in his article, If America should go Communist (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1934/08/ame.htm) wrote the following concerning eugenics - note the distinction that he drew between the kind of eugenics that he supported and the kind that the Nazis supported: While the romantic numskulls of Nazi Germany are dreaming of restoring the old race of Europes Dark Forest to its original purity, or rather its original filth, you Americans, after taking a firm grip on your economic machinery and your culture, will apply genuine scientific methods to the problem of eugenics. Within a century, out of your melting pot of races there will come a new breed of men the first worthy of the name of Man. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: waistli...@aol.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] What's wrong with eugenics? Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:43:18 EDT In a message dated 8/20/2009 6:36:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, shm...@pipeline.com writes: Are you confused by the capitalization-to-start-sentences style rule I (unfortunately) adhered to? eugenics (nonrestrictive noun) is not Eugenics (restrictive noun). The former's meaning is determined by the meaning of the words comprising it: *eu* (good) plus *genics* (pertaining to heredity): its cognates are such words as euphoria and generation. The latter, as indicated by the upper-case E, has a meaning restricted to the definition intended by the speaker, and there are indefinitely many such definitions. Reply Well . . . yes, I am utterly confused. By eugenics what is meant is something totally different from what one finds when they access the word on line. As I understand things in my confusion, what is meant is the striving for good health through the selection of positive - (life affirming hereditary traits that strengthen the human organism and increases longevity) more compatible genetic material in a mate. If this approximate your meaning then I suggest Arnold Ehret who describes how this process spontaneous process operates amongst human beings. Then he describes what in the environment blunts this spontaneous process and how to detoxify the human from the legacy of property and industrial society. * eugenics is universal among mammals and birds and most other terrestrial animals. It is the key factor making evolution a conscious, not a random process. Darwin called it sexual selection. communism is the *beginning* of history because only in a communist society because only then will eugenics become a social goal, the evolution of our species the object of a *fully* conscious process. Reply I do agree that only in a communist society - after the human has been detoxified of the muck of property, and roughly seven generation have had an opportunity to close the metabolic breach, the pursuit of good health becomes a full societal goal. Until then finding the optimal mate is hit and miss, due to the misfiring and dysfunction of the senses. Human's possess the innate ability to smell ones optimal mate. However, property has distorted our nose and makes it a liar. Not for nothing have men wrote poetry to the beauty of hair, which under optimal conditions operate as extensions of our sexual organs. The smell of hair is a powerful thing to a healthy clear human body. Capital created fragrance to cover up and replace natural smell. To this day we sing of the touch of your hand because when one touches the optimal mate the electrical charge of the cells are excited. Much of these sense perceptions have been lost and/or blunted by property, capital and wrong consumption. Do read Ehret. There are some interesting proposition put forth by Zechariah Sitchin in his description of the genetic manipulation of man and the optimal hereditary factors need to produced the healthiest offspring's. I am interested in any material suggested on this topic, provided it steers clear of racial theory and natural selection based on ideological concepts of class and/or class as a social index. WL. Park City Express Direct Private Transportation to Park City Resort and Deer Valley http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=OdMA2VXf9oldyBiUNY3sOQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAUAAHsUbj47uU1E6-ilZBkve7YNejP3AA== ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change
[Marxism-Thaxis] Another obit for Jerry Cohen, The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-jerry-cohen-maverick-philosopher-who-subjected-marxism-to-the-rigours-of-analytical-philosophy-1770667.html The strong, silent type. Click here for great looking bamboo flooring! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTJs36jYVO7qcpNsctbuPIYdE71h0lUS955cqa2uZww3wunyqkrV1u/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Couple of newspaper obits for Jeyy Cohen
In the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/10/ga-cohen-obituary In the Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6790514.ece Click here for great quotes from top international movers! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTMAuTIaPprI7abty61H3WpGXEPo362Jw3hDiBeMVvhDag2tkanFPi/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [marxistphilosophy] G.A. Cohen Goes Home
Well on Marxmail I had posted the following in response to another poster, who had drawn a comparison between Cohen and Althusser. --- I suspect that Jerry Cohen would not have minded if people took note of his passing by debating the merits of his works. Actually, I find his reading of Marx to have been closer to the readings that were provided by such Second International Marxists like Kautsky and Plekhanov. I believe that somewhere in KMTH he makes such an acknowledgement. But yet he did seem to have to come to such a reading by way of Althusser, even though he rejected Althusserianism. G.A. Cohen discussed Althusser in his foreword to KMTH. There, after detailing some of the positive contributions of the Althusserians to Marxism (which for Cohen included the re-emphasis on Marx's more mature writings like *Capital* rather than the earlier writings like the *1844 Manuscripts* and the attention that Althusser and his followers paid to historical materialism) then proceeded to note what he regarded as some of their more negative attributes. Writing thus: Above all, I found much of *Lire Capital* critically vague. It is perhaps a matter for regret that logical positivism, with its insistence on precision of intellectual commitment, never caught on in Paris. Anglophone philosophy left logical positivism behind long ago, but it is lastingly the better for having engaged with it. The Althusserian vogue could have unfortunate consequences for Marxism in Britain, where lucidity is a precious heritage, and where it is not generally supposed that a theoretical statement, to be one, must be hard to comprehend. Alas, one consequence of Cohen's work was to revive the very sort of mechanical materialism that Althusser had rejected along with humanist Marxism, but which the young Jerry Cohen seems to have imbibed along with his mother's milk, having been born and raised within the milieu of the Canadian CP. Cohen, himself, years later, came to see the inadequacy of this type of historical materialism but seemed to draw the conclusion that the problem laid with historical materialism in general rather than with the specific variety of historical materialism that he had embraced. Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: jksc...@yahoo.com To: marxist philosophy marxistphiloso...@yahoogroups.com Subject: [marxistphilosophy] G.A. Cohen Goes Home Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 17:57:20 + Unless I missed it the death the other day of Jerry Cohen attracted no comment on a list devoted to Marxist philosophy. I know that as first a founder of analytical Marxism, then as a refugee from Marxism to liberal egalitarianism, he was not favored among the participants here. But IMHO he was one of the most influential and important Marxist thinkers of the latter half of the 20th century, and his legacy requires comment. Not much time here but I will note a few thoughts; - In the context of a sharp decline in the quantity and quality of Marxist theory, Cohen and the AMs stood for the disconnection of theory from practice, the entrenchment of Marxism as another academic exercise. In some ways this was not their fault giving the collapse of Marxism as a movement and a force in the world. - Cohen helped bring a level of rigor and precision in Marxist thinking that had been sorely lacking for a very long time. If it's complained that his work lacked popular accessibility, what are we to say about Adorno, a favorite here who gets wide discussion? - Cohen's major work on Karl Marx's Theory Of History is very valuable, but went down the wrong track in reviving a stagist, mechanical, primacy of the productive forces 2d Internat'l conception of historical materialism. (Possibly due in part to his roots in the Canadian CP.) True, Marx gave that view a lot of space, but Cohen almost totally neglected Marx's alternative class struggle view, which I think is more true and valuable and gets no less, arguably more, space. Brenner is far better on this (and no less rigorous). - Cohen's turn to traditional style moral philosophy as important, first as a complement to his idea of historical materialism, then as a replacement for Marxism and materialist analysis, was a major retrogression. No doubt there is more ethics in Marx and Marxism than Marx cared to admit, but Marx pointed the way in integrating these into materialist analysis. Cohen's own positive ethical views were, moreover, disappointingly primitive and underdeveloped. See his awful Egalitarianism book, but also earlier papers on exploitation and his paper critiquing value theory -- a real train wreck. And I don't accept value theory myself! I haven't carefully read the last book in Rawls. Btw in that book Cohen lists as the big three books on political philosophy Rawls' A Theory of Justice, Hobbes' Leviathan, and Plato's Republic. Marx's Capital doesn't make his cut. Given Cohen's a priori turn to liberal
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] G.A. Cohen Goes Home
CB wrote: - Seems likely that the Canadian CP's materialism was dialectical, not mechanical. Stages of history or mode of production analysis denigratingly labelled stagist seems to be a Trotskyist theoretical shortcoming. Also, history in the Soviet Union and China seem to lend support to a more stagist interpretation of the world movement to socialism. Perhaps this means Cohen's work is supported by these real history , real world developments. Yes, that was pretty much Jerry Cohen's take on the implications concerning the fall of the Soviet Union. When he issued his revised edition of KMTH in 2000, he appended a chapter on the collapse of the Soviet bloc in which he made the following observations: === What is the significance for Marxists, of the failure of the socialist project in what was the Soviet Union? And what is the significance, for socialists, of the failure of that project? I separate the two questions not merely for the formal reason that 'Marxists' and 'socialists' designate (overlapping but nevertheless) distinct categories, but also for the substantial reason that the significance of the Soviet failure is, in my view, very different for the two cases. For reasons to be explained below, the Soviet failure can be regarded as a triumph for Marxism: a Soviet success might have embarassed key propositions of historical materialism, which is the Marxist theory of history. But no one could think that the Soviet failure represents a triumph for socialism. A SOviet success would have been unambigously good for socialism. I treat, here, the significance of the Soviet failure for Marxism. Now, as I said, had the Soviet Union succeeded in building socialism, that might have embarassed historical materialism. It might, in particular, have posed a serious challenge to the central claims of historical materialism: (1) 'No social formation ever perishes before all the productive forces for which there is room for it have developed . . .' (2) 'and new higher relations of production never apppear before . . . [they] have matured in the womb of the old society itself.' It follows from the passage on exhibit that a capitalist society does not give way to a socialist one until capitalism is fully developed in that society, and that socialism does not take over from capitalism until the higher relations which characterize socialism have matured within the antecedent capitalist society itself. But what, precisely, is imposed by the requirement that relations constitutive of the future socialist society must mature under capitalism? A complete answer to that question might be difficult to supply, but whatever else is required for such relations to have matured within capitalism, thre surely must exist, for such relations to have matured, a large proletariat within the capitalist society in question: it must be false that the great bulk of 'immediate producers' are peasants, rather than industrial wage-workers. Now against the background of the two exhibited historical materialist theses, I want to discuss a criticism of historical materialism which is often made by anti-Marxists. I draw attention to this criticism because I believe it to be instructively incorrect. The criticism is that, whereas Marx predicted that socialist revolution would first break out in advanced capitalist countries, it in fact occurred first in a relatively backward one, one so backward that one might refuse to call it a capitalist country. And this predictive failure was not just of the man Karl Marx himself, but of historical materialis, because of its commitment to theses (1) and (2) above. For here was a socialist revolution in an incompletely capitalist country in which further development of the productive forces , under a capitalist aegis, was surely possible (so that (1) stands falsified), and in a country which had not generated much of a proletariat (so that (2) also stands falsified). Before indicating why I think that this criticism is misguided, I should address a standard reply to it, in defence of (2), which I think unsound. The standard reply, against the charge that the 1917 revolution occurred without the existence of a developed proletariat, and, therefore, in contradiction of (2) above, is that there was a highly developed and concentrated proletariat in the huge factories of Petrograd itself, where the leading revolutionary events occurred, and where power was seized. But, while an ample local proletariat may help to explain, and may have even been crucial to, Bolshevik political success, theorem (2) is, in my view, supposed to be true not because of the exigencies of politics but because of what a socialist form of economy requires for viability. So this way of protecting (2) against the threat posed to it by the Russian revolution fails. Despite the failure of the 'Petrograd proletariat' gambit, I do not think that the 1917
[Marxism-Thaxis] (no subject)
New Statesman obits for Jerry Cohen and Francis Jeanson. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2009/08/ga-cohen-death-equality http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2009/08/francis-jeanson-1922-france Jim Farmelant Blue Cross Blue Shield SC Compare Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina Health Plans. Get Quotes. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=34NoGNzsk7uUCbBWhYHw1AAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAUAALN7Mj4w4J19Uug_bfCcwDnpDzyuAA== ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [Marxism] The Nature and Paradoxes of Freedom
coercion by the seller because of the presence of other sellers with whom he can deal The employee is protected from coercion by the employer because of other employers for whom he can work One almost despairs of logic, and of the use of models. It is easy to see what Professor Friedman has done, but it is less easy to excuse it. He has moved from the simple economy of exchange between independent producers, to the capitalist economy,without mentioning the most important thing that distinguishes them. He mentions money instead of barter, and enterprises which are intermediaries between individuals in their capacities as suppliers of services and as purchasers of goods as if money and merchants were what distinguished a capitalist economy from an economy of independent producers. What distinguishes the capitalist economy from the simple exchange economy is the separation of labor and capital, that is, the existence of a labor force without its own sufficient capital and therefore without a choice as to whether to put its labor in the market or not. Professor Friedman would agree that where there is no choice there is coercion. His attempted demonstration that capitalism coordinates without coercion therefore fails. Concerning the concepts of negative freedom that were embraced by both Hayek and Isaiah Berlin, Dogan is quite correct that for both men, the embracing of negative liberty (and the rejection of positive liberty) was very much motivated by their desire to defend capitalism. Where the two men differed, is that Berlin's embrace of negative liberty was in the context of his pluralism. By pluralism, Berlin meant a value pluralism or a pluralism of values (not unlike Max Weber's conception) in which there are a plurality of ideals, which may all be equally valid, but which are not entirely compatible with one another. For Berlin, while negative liberty was a valid social ideal, it was not the only one. Berlin recognized as valid, the social ideals of equality and solidarity. Therefore, for Berlin, unlike Hayek, the good society while embracing negative liberty also might embrace other ideals like equality or solidarity. Therefore, Berlin was able to rationalize the emergence of the welfare state in the UK and the New Deal in the US. In this way, as Dogan suggests, Berlin's pluralism of values was closely tied to the pluralism of classes under capitalism, and so Berlin like a good social democratic liberal attempted to mediate between the interests of capitalists and workers under capitalism. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: Dogan Gocmen dgn.g...@googlemail.com To: farmela...@juno.com Subject: [Marxism] The Nature and Paradoxes of Freedom Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:37:33 +0300 Dear All, a draft paper by Ä°smail Åiriner and me is available now. Comments are always welcome... The Nature and Paradoxes of Freedom Click to get free auto insurance quotes from top companies. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTImHYsxS1zpPYm1SoENOdVHvGqOpftd0EoYgIRXqjAbTQp1ZsUpry/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Leszek Kolakowski dies
*Leszek Kolakowski, philosopher, sociologist and essayist has died, aged 82. * We receive this news with great pain and sorrow, said Rector of Warsaw University, Katarzyna Chalasinska-Macukow. This is a big loss not just for Poland but for the world. Polands lower house of parliament, the Sejm, stopped debating, Friday, to pay the distinguished intellectual a minutes silence in his memory. Kolakowskis /Main Currents of Marxism/ (1978) became a standard academic text in universities the world over and he was awarded Polands highest honour, the White Eagle, for services to the history of ideas. Kolakowski was born in Radom, central Poland in 1927. He took his degree at Lodz University and his doctorate in Warsaw University where he later led the history of philosophy departament. Originally a member of the communist Polish United Workers Party he became disillusioned and joined a growing band of revisionist Marxists. After being thrown out of the party and losing his post at Warsaw University, Kolakowski became convinced that Stalinism was the logical conclusion of Marxism and not its aberration, as was the line in many communist parties in Europe and elsewhere. From the late 1960s he worked in universities in the US, and UK, where he became a prominent academic at Oxford University. He is thought to be a major intellectual inspiration to the opposition to communism in Poland. * http://polskieradio.pl/thenews/national/artykul112297_leszek_kolakowski_dies.html * Find great deals and choose from hundreds of model airplane designs. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTGsHZPKZ01ZDS1WjzmkCKC3b8ag4Q8yTHHPo8TvX8NEFaBAoHLSZS/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Paul Cockshott on Leonid Kantorovich and the soci alist calculation debate
The Nobel Prize in Economics is arguably not a real Nobel Prize since Alfred Nobel made no provision for such a prize in his will. It was instead established by the Bank of Sweden in the late 1960s as a Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. And they arguably did this for ideological reasons since conventional mainstream economics was coming under fire in the wake of the upheavals of the 1960s. Anyway,concerning the Nobel Prize in economics. There is the strange case of Joan Robinson, and why she didn't get the Nobel Prize in economics. She was widely expected to get the Prize in 1975. Indeed, Business Week published a profile on her, precisely because they, along with just about everybody else was expecting her to win the Prize, but the Nobel committee, instead, at the last moment, awarded it to Leonid Kantorovich, and the American, Tjalling C. Koopmans, for their work in creating linear programming. Apparently, Robinson despite her contributions in such areas as the analysis of imperfect competition and capital theory (work which was of at least the same caliber as that of other economists who did win the Prize) was denied it because of her outspoken leftist, even Maoist, politics, and many say, because she was after all a woman. No woman has ever won the Prize in economics. It was also said that the Nobel Committee was fearful that she might pull a Sartre and turn down the prize, possibly following that up with a denunciation of the economics profession in general. In fact it is reported that she went out of her way to reassure the Committee that she had no intentions of doing any such thing, but they never awarded her the Prize anyway. And of course a man like Paul Sweezy, who was the dean of American Marxist economics was never in the running for such a prize, even though he had made contributions to technical economics (such as his kinked edge demand curve under conditions of oligopoly) which would have normally merited the Prize if that work had been done by someone else. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: CeJ jann...@gmail.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Paul Cockshott on Leonid Kantorovich and the socialist calculation debate Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 19:20:25 +0900 Also, it might interesting to note here that Koopmans won the prize the same year (1975), and the work of Koopmans and Kantorovich really follows from the first winner of the prize, Tinbergen. And Frisch btw won it at the same time as Tinbergen. Although Kantorovich may be the only 'Soviet' here, he is not at all anathema to the likes of Koopmans, Tinbergen, or Myrdal, the guy who won it the same year as von Hayek (1974). Austrian economics is often heterodox to other forms of economics emanating from both sides of the political spectrum. That is because counter 20th century trends, it eschews quantification (stats, maths), induction and experimental induction. So you can put the Austrians in counterpoint with just about any mainstream economist of distinction. Conservatives, I think, tended to 'cherry-pick' ideas from the Austrians to serve their ideological purposes. BTW, the prize in economics is a very strange prize, with a very complex and changing title. See this take: http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/text172_p.html Protect your investment. Click here to find the homeowner insurance policy that you need. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTIoQHDtrclOMCC5BNhFhOABiGUTdiZTlCUoOcOaBPlrosPpTYsLqo/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Moderator's note (was Re: Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 66, Issue 5)
I am going to have Hans look into this issue. This Skoost character or entity is not, as far as I can tell, a subscriber to the list, but appears to be, perhaps, piggybacking off of someone who is a legitimate subscriber. Jim Farmelant Thaxis -Moderator -- Original Message -- From: Karl Dallas karldal...@f2s.com To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 66, Issue 5 Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:54:45 +0100 Re: Skoost Message: 3 Date: 19 Apr 2009 11:00:06 + From: Juan Ramon sko...@skoost.com Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] A little gift - Juan To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Message-ID: 20090419105906.62177ac...@skoismta07.skoost.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Juan Ramon belongs to Skoost and sent you a little gift. Getting the lowest homeowner insurance rate? Click here to compare quotes from top companies. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTIoQEL5s15oQzgAw3bmRyar1Aa54SDxmzMl7cnW7VV1BJk9DheIko/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Forward from Erwin Marquit
Jim, I apologize for omitting www from the link. I should have written: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~marqu002 since since I did not realize that omission of the “www” generates an alias that leads to the website of the Marxist Educational Press (MEP), which I also manage. Although I manage both, they are quite different, in fact one is on the university’s server and the other forms an alias for the MEP website on a separate computer in the Physics department. Erwin Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTJkoLK4IbqmmPCbnAjv02xm5mSiWIUMMRrZ2MRvJQBg2TCOVjkAhS/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Forward from Erwin Marquit
You already list several articles of mine on your web site. As a physicist, my primary field is conceptual foundations of physics so that I have put on my university web site a collection of some of my published articles on dialectical materialism and the philosophy of the nature sciences most of which you probably do not have. You may wish to cross list them. The URL is http://tc.umn.edu/~marqu002 Erwin Marquit Professor Emeritus of Physics University of Minnesota Click for online loan, fast no lender fee, approval today http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTIpd4uli2MQ0mh3o5C9ACum9C7H8MGqQ68AQnhyCozh2eARRtJcH2/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Forward from Rosa Lichtenstein
Jim, Essay Thirteen Part Three has finally been published -- on 'Mind', Language and 'Cognition'. It has been delayed many months since it is exceedingly long. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rosa.l/page_13_03.htm Apart from Essay Twelve Part One, it is my most Wittgensteinian essay. Among other things, it debunks Voloshinov and Marcuse. Regards, Rosa! Need cash? Click to get a cash advance. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFRJ8wNls6O8GrKp6JENqjNNEiVlyEW7ILedaQT4hMrZbXqLMpyhi/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Alain Badiou
-- CeJ jann...@gmail.com wrote: Isn't it interesting just how the French colonial experience has produced so many leading French intellectuals, writers, academics? Do you mean like Camus? Althusser? Derrida? Jim Farmelant Click to get kitchen cabinets at affordable prices. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2eZNnswusAojciGHqO5GlWB7mZHjarYioTvnrCzHfRZZJWh/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal - January 24, 2009 How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas By ANDREW HIGGINS Moshav Tekuma, Israel Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor's bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile's trajectory back to an enormous, stupid mistake made 30 years ago. Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation, says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel's destruction. Instead of trying to curb Gaza's Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat's Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with Yassins, primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric. Last Saturday, after 22 days of war, Israel announced a halt to the offensive. The assault was aimed at stopping Hamas rockets from falling on Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hailed a determined and successful military operation. More than 1,200 Palestinians had died. Thirteen Israelis were also killed. Hamas responded the next day by lobbing five rockets towards the Israeli town of Sderot, a few miles down the road from Moshav Tekuma, the farming village where Mr. Cohen lives. Hamas then announced its own cease-fire. Since then, Hamas leaders have emerged from hiding and reasserted their control over Gaza. Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at a more durable truce are expected to start this weekend. President Barack Obama said this week that lasting calm requires more than a long cease-fire and depends on Israel and a future Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security. A look at Israel's decades-long dealings with Palestinian radicals -- including some little-known attempts to cooperate with the Islamists -- reveals a catalog of unintended and often perilous consequences. Time and again, Israel's efforts to find a pliant Palestinian partner that is both credible with Palestinians and willing to eschew violence, have backfired. Would-be partners have turned into foes or lost the support of their people. Israel's experience echoes that of the U.S., which, during the Cold War, looked to Islamists as a useful ally against communism. Anti- Soviet forces backed by America after Moscow's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan later mutated into al Qaeda. At stake is the future of what used to be the British Mandate of Palestine, the biblical lands now comprising Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Since 1948, when the state of Israel was established, Israelis and Palestinians have each asserted claims over the same territory. The Palestinian cause was for decades led by the PLO, which Israel regarded as a terrorist outfit and sought to crush until the 1990s, when the PLO dropped its vow to destroy the Jewish state. The PLO's Palestinian rival, Hamas, led by Islamist militants, refused to recognize Israel and vowed to continue resistance. Hamas now controls Gaza, a crowded, impoverished sliver of land on the Mediterranean from which Israel pulled out troops and settlers in 2005. When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and '80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank. When I look back at the chain of events I think we made a mistake, says David Hacham, who worked in Gaza in the late 1980s and early '90s as an Arab-affairs expert in the Israeli military. But at the time nobody thought about the possible results. Israeli officials who served in Gaza disagree on how much their own actions may have contributed to the rise of Hamas. They blame the group's recent ascent on outsiders, primarily Iran. This view is shared by the Israeli government. Hamas in Gaza was built by Iran as a foundation for power, and is backed through funding, through training and through the provision of advanced weapons, Mr. Olmert
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [A-List] Natural Science and the Spirit World[1]
Engels was, course, quite right to debunk belief in ghosts and mediums. In fact there were some political reasons behind this. At the time that Engels wrote this, spiritualism was quite popular within the IWMA, especially in the US and UK. In the US, one of the leading figures in the IWMA, Victoria Woodhull, was also a famous medium, whom both Marx Engels very much disapproved of (perhaps unfairly). On the other hand, it should also be pointed out that Engels does go off the rails on a few points in his essay. Engels poked fun of the idea of a fourth dimension. But even in his day, n-dimensional geometries were already quite well established and respectable. Later on, physicists like Albert Einstein would show that such geometries could be useful for understanding aspects of physical reality. Engels poked fun of the notion of imaginary numbers, that is numbers that were derived from the square root of -1. But both imaginary numbers and complex numbers were already, in Engels's time, a quite respectable part of mathematics. And physicists and engineers were already using them in analyzing such things as wave phenomena, for instance. While Engels generally had a good grasp of the science of his day, he was behind the times in his understanding of mathematics (he was also deficient in his understanding of the latest work on the foundations of the calculus) and that led him to making a few whoppers in his writings. His assertion that empiricism was lacking the intellectual resources for battling belief in the paranormal is open to question too. Probably the most important critique of belief in miracles ever written was David Hume's essay, Of Miracles, (http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/14.html). Hume, of course, was an empiricist philosopher. If Engels wished to show the inadequacies of empiricism as a basis for refuting the paranormal, then he should have discussed Hume's essay and showed where Hume went wrong. Jim Farmelant -- Charles Brown charl...@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us wrote: Engels’ Dialectics of Nature http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/don/ch10.htm Natural Science and the Spirit World[1] T Click here to find the right business program for you and take your career to the next level. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw1UFte6Gs1QHlNzmzloOuJ9Ur0FG1ThDK2aLQMJDl716W3AV/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] A Lie You weren't supposed to believe
From Richard Seymour's (aka Lenin) blog.
---
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/01/lie-you-werent-supposed-to-bel...
Let's be clear about this. On 6 January, three UN-run schools in Gaza were
attacked by Israeli forces, not just one. What is more, the previous day an
Israeli bombing of a UN school had killed three members of the same family.
This sort of killing can usually be dealth with in a perfunctory fashion
('we regret all loss of innocent life, but the responsibility belongs to
those who use terror and hide among civilians...'). However, the massacre of
43 people in a UN school bearing flags and insignia and housing some 350
refugees from the fighting (many of whom had fled on orders from IDF
leaflets dropped on the towns and cities), demanded a more considered
explanation and justification. I just want to take a quick look at the
explanations offered by Israeli spokespeople and its military.
The IDF's initial justification for the attack on the Al-Fakhura school was
that Hamas had used the building to fire mortars from, and its tanks had
responded. Implicit in this was an admission that they had targeted the
school on purpose. The tank shells, presumably shot from quite nearby, were
fired by soldiers operating under orders from command centres equipped with
detailed targeting intelligence. As is now known, the Israeli military had
the GPS coordinates not only of this UN school but of the other UN schools
that it attacked. And the first thing the IDF let us know is that it was
done on purpose. Their excuse was barbaric, of course. The idea that an
invading force may attack a building filled with hundreds of terrorised
civilians just in order to kill two of those resisting the invasion is
nothing short of grotesque. But the fact that it was barbaric was part of
the point: rather than bluntly condemning a war crime, you were invited to
focus on whether Hamas would be so evil as to attack Israel's brave boys
from within a civilian building. Because it is so frequently repeated you
might be predisposed to assume that Hamas did indeed position its
'infrastructure of terror' among unsuspecting citizens but, whether you are
so predisposed or not, you are already drawn into the macabre calculus of
the murderer if you even get involved in that argument. You have tacitly
accepted the logic in which war crimes are not merely acceptable, but
actually appropriate, if the enemy really is as evil as Israel says. The
usual suspects, of course, immediately embraced Israel's excuse: Israel's
killing, they expostulated, merely demonstrates the ruthless, diabolical
genius of Hamas. If anything, they added, the IDF was admirably restrained
in its action. But it is doubtful that many others were taken in.
The second thing that the IDF claimed was that there were Hamas troops
hiding inside the building, nestling among the refugees, thereby forcing the
Israelis to slaughter the innocent. This is quite a different claim, and the
first thing that would occur to any reasonable observer would be that the
sudden embellishment reflected some sort of dishonesty ('the elaborations of
a bad liar', as Hannibal Lecter would put it). Or perhaps there had been a
failure by everyone to get their stories straight and stick to them. At any
rate, the logic of the astounding claim that Israel acted in self-defense
remained as tortuous as it had been. But Israel claimed to have identified
the bodies of Hamas members, and even fed two names to the media, (so once
again you were invited to get bogged down in the merits of Israel's claim
rather than decide on an appropriate response to the slaughter).
The next part of the story is the most interesting. In order to get around
the absurd idea that Hamas military operatives had sneaked into the building
and launched mortars without anyone in the school noticing, Israel's
spokespeople claimed that Hamas gunmen had taken over the UN building, taken
the civilians hostage and used the base to fire mortars at Israeli soldiers.
Mark Regev said it was a very extreme example of how Hamas operates. Such
a claim was obviously checkable in a matter of minutes. Any UN personnel
present in the school at the time could easily say whether in fact they had
all been suffering under Hamas captivity until Israel 'liberated' the
building. The UN produced an emphatic denial, based on its own
investigations, that there was ever any Hamas fighter in the building. By
now, the fact that Israel has never provided any real evidence for its
claims, which continue to shapeshift, comes into sharp focus. Moreover,
since Israeli troops didn't visit the building or have access to the records
of the deceased, it would be highly improbable that they would be able to
not only name two of the dead, but also gather intelligence that proved they
were members of Hamas' military wing, within such a short space of time.
So, the Israeli government topped that brazenness with a stroke of
effrontery that is somehow not
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Lenin philosophy blog
-- 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] specific help requested
Concerning Marxism and theology, while I am no expert on liberation theology, I am quite aware that many leading 20th century theologians took an interest in old Chuck (along with Feuerbach, Nietzsche and Freud), including such figures as Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebhur, and Paul Tillich, to name just a few names. The old social democrat, Michael Harrington, was pretty good on this in his book, *The Politics at God's Funeral*. Mark Lindley and I discussed Harrington in our essay, Six Prominent American Freethinkers, which is available online at: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/fl161208.html. One of our later posters. Ralph Dumain, has discussed the issues of reductionism and emergence on a special blog at: http://www.autodidactproject.org/my/emergence-blog.html Jim Farmelant -- Susan F Dane susanfd...@mac.com wrote: Dear Fellow-Subscribers: I've recently subscribed and am receiving a variety articles. However I'm looking for something specific pertaining to the following: I am currently beginning a study of 'liberation theology'. Marx and his 'dialectic' keep coming up in a way presupposing the reader has some understanding of what this is. I'm pretty clueless and need some help trying to understand what an atheist is doing (albeit not by his own direct actions) in the realm of theology. There have been some indications that this is somehow compatible with or a natural consequence of the confidence human kind has been led to place in 'science'... I'm not seeing a clear connection. I am lacking in the presuppositions to jump into the conversation with much understanding. Anyone care to respond to the issue of Marxism and 'reductionism'? Any help is appreciated. Many thanks, Susan Dane ___ 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 Save $15 on Flowers and Gifts from FTD! Shop now at http://offers.juno.com/TGL1141/?u=http://www.ftd.com/17007 ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] specific help requested
Ralph Dumain posted a response which bounced to me. I approved it for the list, but it seems that it has gotten lost in cyberspace. So, I would suggest that Ralph either try posting it again, or send it directly to me, so I can post it. Jim Farmelant -- Susan F Dane susanfd...@mac.com wrote: Dear Jim: Thank you so, so much for the references. I'll track them down. I appreciate your help. Develop a fitness program that works for you. Click here for free info and revolutionary products. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2aeoIc78l6B3dKqm8v3ghGf9bmgus0WG3ki018wmwOmQ7ap/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] specific help requested
Ralph Dumain wrote the following: I am puzzled as to how the question of reductionism is related to the question of liberation theology. Perhaps these were intended as separate questions. Re reductionism: note that the current location of my Emergence blog is: http://www.autodidactproject.org/blog/emergence/ If you read my introduction, you will see the main purpose of this blog: http://autodidactproject.org/blog/emergence/index.php/about/ I am attempting to track the divergent interpretations of emergence and their ideological and social motivations, some of which are quiter suspect. Does this at all relate to liberation theology? Perhaps there are links. For example, the obscurantist mystical-religious emergentism that comprises one strand of emergentism relates to the crisis of bourgeois society and its reversion to irrationalism. This strand of emergentism is financed in the millions of dollars by the reactionary Templeton Foundation. There have been linkages, affrimative linkages, between Marxism and religionism prior to the current epoch in which liberation theology was labeled as a trend. I will only single out one that points to one source of mystification: “Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law” by Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury (http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/HJ-SP1.html) This is a chapter from the Red Dean Johnson's 1940 pro-Stalinist apologia The Soviet Power. Note his sophistical argument allying dialectical materialism with Christianity and opposing both to materialism. Presumably the latter is inter alia implicitly condemned as reductionist while diamat is consonant with a religious point of view. This, however, is not what we think of in the past decades as liberation theology. Formally, there is a trend in Latin America known as liberation theology. But of course there are various liberation theologies of various individuals, religions, dominations, and populations. Cornel West's prophetic pragmatism is one example, perhaps not as obnoxious as the black liberation theology that developed in the late '60s, but just as dishonest and retrograde in its intellectual content. On the Marxist side, attachment to liberation theology is either opportunistic or self-deceiving. Radical religionists attach themselves to various desired aspects of Marxism, but amalgamating class analysis with the obscurantist metaphysics of their religions, suitably sanitized to render them revolutionary. Aside from philosophical falsification, there is the deeper issue of the relation of social development to forms of consciousness, suitably repressed by both Stalinism and liberation theology. The deeper issue of dialectic is not simply one of materialism vs idealism, but the dialectical relation between consciousness and the state of society. -Original Message- From: farmela...@juno.com Sent: Dec 23, 2008 6:50 AM To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] specific help requested Concerning Marxism and theology, while I am no expert on liberation theology, I am quite aware that many leading 20th century theologians took an interest in old Chuck (along with Feuerbach, Nietzsche and Freud), including such figures as Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebhur, and Paul Tillich, to name just a few names. The old social democrat, Michael Harrington, was pretty good on this in his book, *The Politics at God's Funeral*. Mark Lindley and I discussed Harrington in our essay, Six Prominent American Freethinkers, which is available online at: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/fl161208.html. One of our later posters. Ralph Dumain, has discussed the issues of reductionism and emergence on a special blog at: http://www.autodidactproject.org/my/emergence-blog.html Jim Farmelant -- Susan F Dane wrote: Dear Fellow-Subscribers: I've recently subscribed and am receiving a variety articles. However I'm looking for something specific pertaining to the following: I am currently beginning a study of 'liberation theology'. Marx and his 'dialectic' keep coming up in a way presupposing the reader has some understanding of what this is. I'm pretty clueless and need some help trying to understand what an atheist is doing (albeit not by his own direct actions) in the realm of theology. There have been some indications that this is somehow compatible with or a natural consequence of the confidence human kind has been led to place in 'science'... I'm not seeing a clear connection. I am lacking in the presuppositions to jump into the conversation with much understanding. Anyone care to respond to the issue of Marxism and 'reductionism'? Any help is appreciated. Many thanks, Susan Dane -Original Message- From: Ralph Dumain Sent: Dec 23, 2008 8:45 AM To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] specific help requested I am puzzled as to how the question of reductionism is related
[Marxism-Thaxis] Korsch revisited (from Ralph Dumain)
Well, revisited only briefly, but I will have to make a careful study of Karl Korsch’s 1923 book Marxism and Philosophy when I can squeeze it into my reading schedule. These issues are all old now, but they were new then, and they continue to resurface in our milieu. I’ve just read a few essays by Korsch on the Marxist Internet Archive and I just want to relate a few impressions. I have mixed reactions. On the one hand, Korsch laudably attempts to relate philosophies as forms of consciousness to moments in social and political development, opposing the tendency, also purportedly rife within Marxism, as treating philosophies as detached abstractions at war with one another, such as the struggle between idealism and materialism. At the same time, Korsch seems to avoid politicizing philosophy in a way that would suppress its intellectual content in favor of purely pragmatic political exigencies. It seems that Korsch consciously opposes both tendencies in order to restore what he considers to be the original Marxian approach, which finds its precedent in Hegel. For example, in a section reproduced from Marxism and Philosophy, Korsch states: Hegel wrote that in the philosophic systems of this fundamentally revolutionary epoch, ‘revolution was lodged and expressed as if in the very form of their thought’. Hegel’s accompanying statements make it quite clear that he was not talking of what contemporary bourgeois historians of philosophy like to call a revolution in thought – a nice, quiet process that takes place in the pure realm of the study and far away from the crude realm of real struggles. The greatest thinker produced by bourgeois society in its revolutionary period regarded a ‘revolution in the form of thought’ as an objective component of the total social process of a real revolution. Only two peoples, the German and the French – despite or precisely because of their contrasts – took part in this great epoch of world history, whose deepest essence is grasped by the philosophy of history. Click to get free information on Pigeon Forge vacations. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2hpWzMrlKb8K5omGKsWiVZm9KnB1Vg5U8Nq0xPJR1RjnbCB/ ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Korsch revisited (from Ralph Dumain)
Ralph, I think I need to email Hans about this issue, since it seems that you're practically the only poster here that runs into this problem on a regular basis. Jim Farmelant -- Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org wrote: This is only a fragment of my post. Furthermore, I'm tired of each of my posts bouncing. Perhaps I should just unsubscribe. -Original Message- From: farmela...@juno.com farmela...@juno.com Sent: Dec 23, 2008 12:14 PM To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Korsch revisited (from Ralph Dumain) Well, revisited only briefly, but I will have to make a careful study of Karl Korsch’s 1923 book Marxism and Philosophy when I can squeeze it into my reading schedule. These issues are all old now, but they were new then, and they continue to resurface in our milieu. I’ve just read a few essays by Korsch on the Marxist Internet Archive and I just want to relate a few impressions. I have mixed reactions. On the one hand, Korsch laudably attempts to relate philosophies as forms of consciousness to moments in social and political development, opposing the tendency, also purportedly rife within Marxism, as treating philosophies as detached abstractions at war with one another, such as the struggle between idealism and materialism. At the same time, Korsch seems to avoid politicizing philosophy in a way that would suppress its intellectual content in favor of purely pragmatic political exigencies. It seems that Korsch consciously opposes both tendencies in order to restore what he considers to be the original Marxian approach, which finds its precedent in Hegel. For example, in a section reproduced from Marxism and Philosophy, Korsch states: Hegel wrote that in the philosophic systems of this fundamentally revolutionary epoch, ‘revolution was lodged and expressed as if in the very form of their thought’. Hegel’s accompanying statements make it quite clear that he was not talking of what contemporary bourgeois historians of philosophy like to call a revolution in thought – a nice, quiet process that takes place in the pure realm of the study and far away from the crude realm of real struggles. The greatest thinker produced by bourgeois society in its revolutionary period regarded a ‘revolution in the form of thought’ as an objective component of the total social process of a real revolution. Only two peoples, the German and the French – despite or precisely because of their contrasts – took part in this great epoch of world history, whose deepest essence is grasped by the philosophy of history. Click to get free information on Pigeon Forge vacations. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2hpWzMrlKb8K5omGKsWiVZm9KnB1Vg5U8Nq0xPJR1RjnbCB/ ___ 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 ___ 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 Get the shot you need with a discreet new spy camera. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2NoOALia1zxW7ZqeHRsaJqKp0dFLqfoTpJxZXVvLj2Cd0lD/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Shameless Self-promotion
Six Prominent American Freethinkers http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/fl161208.html Click here to find the satellite television package that meets your needs. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2MVWJM1otoZsNHPCfSJa5H16MkBBMgcN3cUZ3zekdriUb8t/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Benazir Bhutto reportedly assasinated in a suicide bomb attack
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071227/ap_on_re_as/pakistan _ Keep your cool with great prices on name brand refrigerators. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/Ioyw6i3n20gexA9kxmIQEeA6SQJylCo7rGB3vVd1EH4S70xvKDeYft/ ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Steve Early, My new religion (Boston Globe)
My new religion www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/21/my= _new_religion/ By Steve Early | December 21, 2007 WHILE MILLIONS of Americans have managed to minimize the impact of this year's presidential election campaign on their collective consciousness,= the candidates from both parties have had a transformative effect on me. They've made me a militant atheist. It's not a label that would have fit comfortably in the past. In fact, I've long been in the closet with all those other secular humanists who never cared enough about organized religion, one way or another, to complain about it in public - much less join an atheist group. But now I stand accused, by a prominent neighbor in Belmont, of wanting to establish a new religion in America - the religion of secularism. In a recent speech, Mitt Romney declared that I'm wrong - despite my never having gotten into an argument with anyone about which religion is right or wrong or whether they all should be avoided. In my previous job as a labor organizer, the subject was taboo, due to its potential divisiveness in groups striving for workplace and class solidarity. Unless you're guilt tripping a Catholic institution into living up to the standards of past papal pronouncements about the dignity of labor, or trying to get some local minister or rabbi to bestow their blessing on the fast-disappearing practice of collective bargaining, what's God got to do with having a union anyway? Being a socialist as well as a trade unionist seemed like baggage enough for me. Why call attention to the fact that you're also part of that tiny fraction of the population that doesn't believe in angels and auras, holy ghosts or trinities, great spirits, supreme beings, or deities? Now, my scrupulously maintained detachment from all matters spiritual is under siege. The other side - as the brave Moslem apostate Ayann Hirsi Ali points out - just won't leave us alone, here or abroad. In the United States, while still far from being a theocratic state, the live and let live tolerance of an earlier era has given way to in-your-face proselytizing - or, in Romney's case, demonizing. On the presidential campaign trail, ritual professions of Judeo-Christian faith have become a precondition for admission to the first, second, or any tier of candidates. Among the Democrats, you must have a favorite Bible passage or parable ready to cite. In the GOP camp, you better believe every word in the book as well. On candidate resumes, church attendance is no longer enough. Now, would-be occupants of the White House flaunt their past roles as Christian leaders - although ex-minister Mike Huckabee's application of that label to himself, in Iowa TV ads, seems designed to call attention to doctrinal differences with Romney. This must be hard for our former governor to take. After all, he's an ex-bishop in the Mormon stake that erected a huge mausoleum-like temple, with a controversial steeple, that towers over everything around it just a few blocks from my house (yet he implies that I'm plotting to impose my nonreligious views on him?). Meanwhile, religiosity plays a big role in Hillary Clinton's latest makeover, just as United Church of Christ membership is Barack Obama's first line of defense against rumors that he may be a follower of the Prophet Mohammed! And so it goes, with nary a sane word from anyone running about why, as John F. Kennedy argued, separation of church and state should render all of this discourse irrelevant for the duration. It's enough to make even a nonbeliever pray for a moment of respite, a day of deliverance, or, better yet, a year of abstinence from any further public declarations by the candidates on the unfathomable mysteries of their faith. Steve Early is a freelance journalist. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company _ _ Click here to pick up the school supplies you need! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/Ioyw6i3nmNloxaxpraH60XtdKLdxpMH4lh1tz53zgrKY1SVYWbU4r1/ ___ 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
