philosophy
Rationality & Science - Noam Chomsky
Chomsky on rationality & science. This essay formed part of a Z-Papers special issue on the topic in 1995.
THIS DISCUSSION involves people with a large range of shared aspirations and commitments; in some cases at least, friends who have worked and struggled together for many years. I hope, then, that I can be quite frank. And personal, since to be honest, I don't see much of independent substance to discuss.
Herbert Marcuse and the quest for radical subjectivity
Marcuse was engaged in a life-long search for a revolutionary subjectivity, for a sensibility that would revolt against the existing society and attempt to create a new one.
The past decades have witnessed a relentless philosophical assault on the concept of the subject, once the alpha and omega of modern philosophy. Materialists have decried the idealist and essentialist dimensions of the traditional concept of the subject in its various Cartesian, Kantian, and other philosophical forms.
Letter of América Scarfó to Emile Armand
Translation of an important document in the history of Argentinian anarchism and of anarchist thinking on amatory ethics. "I desire for all just what I desire for myself: the freedom to act, to love, to think. That is, I desire anarchy for all humanity."
Letter of América Scarfó to Emile Armand
Buenos Aires, 3 December 1928. To comrade E. Armand.
Dear Comrade,
Introduction to Marx's early writings - Lucio Colletti
The late Lucio Colletti discusses the content of Marx's early writings and how their late emergence influenced Marxism and the reinterpretation of Marx.
Written as an introduction to the Early Writings volume of the Penguin Marx Library; London, 1975.
Stirner, Feurbach, Marx and the Young Hegelians - David McLellan
A summary of Stirner's ideas and their strong impact on his fellow Young Hegelians. McLellan asserts that Stirner's influence on Marx has been under-estimated and that he "played a very important role in the development of Marx's thought by detaching him from the influence of Feuerbach", his static materialism and his abstract humanism. Stirner's critique of communism (which Marx considered a caricature) also obliged Marx to refine his own definition. Stirner's concept of the "creative ego" is also said to have influenced Marx's concept of "praxis".
Source; originally a chapter in The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx; David McLellan, MacMillan Press, UK, 1980.
MAX STIRNER
1. STIRNER'S LIFE AND WORKS
Against Method - Paul Feyerabend
A summary of and the conclusion from Paul Feyerabend's 1975 book 'Against Method', outlining an 'anarchistic theory of knowledge.' His views on the philosophy of science remain provocative today, controversially arguing that the method widely seen as separating science from psuedo-science is in fact a barrier to scientific progress.
Summary
* Science is an essentially anarchistic enterprise: theoretical anarchism is more humanitarian and more likely to encourage progress than its law-and-order alternatives.
Sokal Hoax - 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity' by Alan Sokal
In 1996, physicist Alan Sokal performed an experiment after becoming frustrated with what he saw as the abuses of science and mathematics by writers and academics under the umbrella of 'cultural studies/poststructuralism/postmodernism. Here is the original hoax text, laced with nonsense phrases, meaningless mathematics, and topped with flattering citations of the editors of the journal to which it was submitted, Social Text. When the article was accepted and published, Sokal revealed his deliberate hoax, and threw petrol on the flames of the already burning 'Science Wars'.
Note: This article was published in Social Text #46/47, pp. 217-252 (spring/summer 1996).
Noam Chomsky on Postmodernism
Noam Chomsky reveals some of his frustrations with postmodernism and the role of 'intellectuals' in engaging with the public.
I've returned from travel-speaking, where I spend most of my life, and found a collection of messages extending the discussion about "theory" and "philosophy," a debate that I find rather curious. A few reactions -- though I concede, from the start, that I may simply not understand what is going on.
Bauer, Marx and religion - David McLellan
McClellan discusses Bauer's critique of religion and its enduring influence on the young Marx.
Keep on Smiling - questions on immaterial labour
Toni Negri and Michael Hardt’s recent works, Empire and Multitude, have earned these authors great popularity in the Anglo-Saxon world. Negri is known in Italy for belonging to autonomia operaia in the ’70s and for being on the receiving end of political persecution by the Italian state at the end of that decade. His earlier work (above all Marx Beyond Marx) was a valid contribution to the understanding of the nature of capitalism and influenced many among us who sought an answer to Marxist objectivism and a theory of history based on class struggle. However, Negri’s earlier work circulated among a restricted public, via obscure publishers. The new Toni Negri for the ‘new’ era emerges in 2000 with Empire. A tome written with literature professor Michael Hardt, Empire was warmly welcomed even by the bourgeois press.
