Engels, Friedrich (1820–95)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrell Carver
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Production ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Dialectical Method ◽  
Surplus Value ◽  
The Core ◽  
Communist Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
Scientific Socialism

Until the 1970s the most influential framework for understanding Marx’s career and ideas was the one established by Engels. This framework was crucially related to his understanding of philosophy and its supposed culmination in Hegel’s systematic and all-encompassing idealism. Engels claimed that Marx had grounded Hegel’s insights in a materialism that was coincident with the physical and natural sciences of his day, and that Marx had identified a dialectical method applicable to nature, history and thought. With respect to history, Marx was said to have formed a ‘materialist conception’, from which his analysis of capitalist society and its ‘secret’ of surplus value were derived. Together these intellectual features were the core of the ‘scientific socialism’ which, Engels argued, should form the theory, and inform the practice, of the worldwide socialist or communist movement. This was to abolish the poverty and exploitation necessarily engendered, he claimed, by modern industrial production. Philosophically the tenets of dialectical and historical materialism have been defended and modified by orthodox communists and non-party Marxists, and expounded and criticized by political and intellectual opponents. The three laws of dialectics, and the doctrine that history is determined by material factors in the last instance, have been attacked as tautologous and indeterminate. Engels’s view that scientific socialism is a defensible representation of Marx’s project has also been challenged by textual scholars and historians.

Practical Necessity and Historical Necessity in Historical Materialism

2021 ◽  
pp. 192-222
Author(s):  
David James
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Practical Necessity ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Necessity

Practical necessity is shown to play a key role in Marx’s explanation of the historical necessity to which historical materialism is committed and to facilitate the adoption of a first-person standpoint that introduces minimal assumptions about what would lead the relevant agents to act in ways that bring about certain events and states of affairs. It is argued that Marx’s commitment to the idea of historical necessity, on the one hand, and his account of the possibility of a society in which freedom and necessity are reconciled, on the other, generate a problem in relation to the historical necessity of a phase of history that precedes a post-capitalist society in which freedom and necessity are reconciled. The idea of historical necessity would not apply to this phase of history, whereas to claim that it does so implies the existence of ‘surplus’ practical necessity.

Marxian Metaphysics and Individual Freedom

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 229-242
Author(s):  
G. W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Surplus Value ◽  
Class Society ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
Proletarian Revolution ◽  
The One

The principles of historical materialism involve Marx in making two crucial claims about freedom. The first is that the revolutionary proletariat is, in an important sense, more free than its class antagonist the bourgeoisie. The second is that the beneficiaries of a successful proletarian revolution—the members of a solidly established communist society—enjoy a greater freedom than even proletarians engaged in revolutionary praxis. It is perhaps natural to take Marx to be operating here with what might be called a logically continuous notion of freedom, established communists enjoying to perfection (or as near as maybe) what revolutionary proletarians merely imperfectly experience and what the bourgeoisie entirely misses. But whatever one's views might be about what Marx in fact says about freedom this cannot be what he ought to say for his theory of freedom to work. The kind of line Marx (and Marxists) need to take finds a significant precedent in his economics where we find a theory implying two quite distinct logical dimensions in that the principles and concepts designed to apply to the transactions of capitalism (commodity, capital, wage-labour, surplus-value, and so on) necessarily lack descriptive purchase on communist economic reality. The existence of these two dimensions, and particularly Marx's comparative silence as to the nature of the second, reflect his conviction that the transition between the two systems must be marked by a profound conceptual as well as material break. Consequently it is not unreasonable, perhaps, to look for an analogous discontinuity in his metaphysics and to expect to find two distinct varieties of freedom, the one reflecting the nature of class society, the other of human community.

Marxian Metaphysics and Individual Freedom

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 229-242
Author(s):  
G. W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Surplus Value ◽  
Class Society ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
Proletarian Revolution ◽  
The One

The principles of historical materialism involve Marx in making two crucial claims about freedom. The first is that the revolutionary proletariat is, in an important sense, more free than its class antagonist the bourgeoisie. The second is that the beneficiaries of a successful proletarian revolution—the members of a solidly established communist society—enjoy a greater freedom than even proletarians engaged in revolutionary praxis. It is perhaps natural to take Marx to be operating here with what might be called a logically continuous notion of freedom, established communists enjoying to perfection (or as near as maybe) what revolutionary proletarians merely imperfectly experience and what the bourgeoisie entirely misses. But whatever one's views might be about what Marx in fact says about freedom this cannot be what he ought to say for his theory of freedom to work. The kind of line Marx (and Marxists) need to take finds a significant precedent in his economics where we find a theory implying two quite distinct logical dimensions in that the principles and concepts designed to apply to the transactions of capitalism (commodity, capital, wage-labour, surplus-value, and so on) necessarily lack descriptive purchase on communist economic reality. The existence of these two dimensions, and particularly Marx's comparative silence as to the nature of the second, reflect his conviction that the transition between the two systems must be marked by a profound conceptual as well as material break. Consequently it is not unreasonable, perhaps, to look for an analogous discontinuity in his metaphysics and to expect to find two distinct varieties of freedom, the one reflecting the nature of class society, the other of human community.

The Salvage of Ideas: Schumpeter and the Core Problems Still Confronting Economics

2003 ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
P. Wynarczyk
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Core ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

Two aspects of Schumpeter' legacy are analyzed in the article. On the one hand, he can be viewed as the custodian of the neoclassical harvest supplementing to its stock of inherited knowledge. On the other hand, the innovative character of his works is emphasized that allows to consider him a proponent of hetherodoxy. It is stressed that Schumpeter's revolutionary challenge can lead to radical changes in modern economics.

AFRICAN WOMEN AND FORBIDDEN GROUNDS: FEMALE SEXUALITY AND SELF-DETERMINATION IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54
Author(s):  
Oyeh O. Otu
Keyword(s):  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
African Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
African Women ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Sexual Repression

This article examines how female conditioning and sexual repression affect the woman’s sense of self, womanhood, identity and her place in society. It argues that the woman’s body is at the core of the many sites of gender struggles/ politics. Accordingly, the woman’s body must be decolonised for her to attain true emancipation. On the one hand, this study identifies the grave consequences of sexual repression, how it robs women of their freedom to choose whom to love or marry, the freedom to seek legal redress against sexual abuse and terror, and how it hinders their quest for self-determination. On the other hand, it underscores the need to give women sexual freedom that must be respected and enforced by law for the overall good of society.

Evaluation of Road Utilisation as Space For Holding Social Ceremonies in Indigenous Residential Area of Ogbomoso, Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (March 2018) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A Okanlawon ◽  
O.O Odunjo ◽  
S.A Olaniyan
Keyword(s):  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Noisy Environment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Core ◽  
Local Roads ◽  
Strict Enforcement ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

This study examined Residents’ evaluation of turning transport infrastructure (road) to spaces for holding social ceremonies in the indigenous residential zone of Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Upon stratifying the city into the three identifiable zones, the core, otherwise known as the indigenous residential zone was isolated for study. Of the twenty (20) political wards in the two local government areas of the town, fifteen (15) wards that were located in the indigenous zone constituted the study area. Respondents were selected along one out of every three (33.3%) of the Trunk — C (local) roads being the one mostly used for the purpose in the study area. The respondents were the residents, commercial motorists, commercial motorcyclists, and celebrants. Six hundred and forty-two (642) copies of questionnaire were administered and harvested on the spot. The Mean Analysis generated from the respondents’ rating of twelve perceived hazards listed in the questionnaire were then used to determine respondents’ most highly rated perceived consequences of the practice. These were noisy environment, Blockage of drainage by waste, and Endangering the life of the sick on the way to hospital; the most highly rated reasons why the practice came into being; and level of acceptability of the practice which was found to be very unacceptable in the study area. Policy makers should therefore focus their attention on strict enforcement of the law prohibiting the practice in order to ensure more cordial relationship among the citizenry, seeing citizens’ unacceptability of the practice in the study area.

Defending the Difference

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Natural Entities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

Dreyfus argues that there is a basic methodological difference between the natural sciences and the social sciences, a difference that derives from the different goals and practices of each. He goes on to argue that being a realist about natural entities is compatible with pluralism or, as he calls it, “plural realism.” If intelligibility is always grounded in our practices, Dreyfus points out, then there is no point of view from which one can ask about or provide an answer to the one true nature of ultimate reality. But that is consistent with believing that the natural sciences can still reveal the way the world is independent of our theories and practices.

Interactional means of teaming up: enacting the features of contemporary working life in a theater performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riikka Nissi ◽  
Melisa Stevanovic
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Live Performance ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Workplace Organization ◽  
The One

Abstract The article examines how the aspects of the social world are enacted in a theater play. The data come from a videotaped performance of a professional theater, portraying a story about a workplace organization going through a personnel training program. The aim of the study is to show how the core theme of the play – the teaming up of the personnel – is constructed in the live performance through a range of interactional means. By focusing on four core episodes of the play, the study on the one hand points out to the multiple changes taking place both within and between the different episodes of the play. On the other hand, the episodes of collective action involving the semiotic resources of singing and dancing are shown to represent the ideals of teamwork in distinct ways. The study contributes to the understanding of socially and politically oriented theater as a distinct, pre-rehearsed social setting and the means and practices that it deploys when enacting the aspects of the contemporary societal issues.

A NEW VERSION OF MISKAWAYH’S BOOK OF TRIUMPH: AN ALTERNATIVE RECENSION OF AL-FAWZ AL-AṢGHAR OR THE LOST FAWZ AL-AKBAR?

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELVIRA WAKELNIG
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Standard Version ◽  
The World ◽  
Alternative Version ◽  
The One ◽  
Unpublished Manuscripts

Textual evidence preserved in two still unpublished manuscripts strongly suggests that there once existed an alternative version of Miskawayh’s Fawz al-aṣghar, the Minor Book of Triumph. The article discusses possible explanations for why Miskawayh may have composed two recensions of his Fawz and compares structure and content of the alternative version with the edited standard version. The one passage which is contained in the alternative Fawz only is presented in Arabic with an English translation. Part of this additional material is parallel to al-Fārābī’s Iḥṣā’ al-‘ulūm, namely its division of natural sciences, and may ultimately derive from a no longer extant treatise by Paul the Persian. An appendix provides the Arabic text and English translation of a hitherto unknown fragment of al-Balkhī in which he discusses Plato’s saying that the world has a causative, but no temporal beginning.

Reconciling Confucianism and Nationalism

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The Core ◽  
The One ◽  
Party State

Confucianism has made a comeback in mainland China over the last two decades or so. Politically minded Confucian revivalists see Confucianism as the core of national identity that differs from ‘‘foreign’’ traditions such as liberalism and they argue for replacing Marxism with Confucianism as the core ideology of the one-party state. But is the ancient tradition of Confucianism compatible with the modern tradition of nationalism? And is it possible to defend a morally appealing form of ‘‘Confucian nationalism’’? This essay argues that both questions can be answered affirmatively.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document