REASON IN REVOLT
MARXIST PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE
MARXISM IS NOT COMMUNISM
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
Historical materialism, developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is a theoretical framework for understanding history through the lens of material conditions and economic production rather than just ideas.
It argues that a society’s economic "base”, its mode of production, determines its social, political, and intellectual "superstructure," driving historical change through class struggle.
From hunting, to agriculture, trade, mercantilism, colonialism, industry, capitalism, proletariat, trade unions, technology, modern capitalism, financial empires, Artificial Intelligence.
And, likely back to hunting, when all world resources will be depleted, and overpopulation will be the death sentence to most of mankind.
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
Dialectical materialism is the general philosophical framework, viewing reality as a material, interconnected process driven by contradictions.
Historical materialism is the application of this framework to human history, arguing that material economic production (the base) determines social institutions and consciousness (the superstructure).
Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis (contradictions drive change).
Kant, Hegel, transformation, nature, quantum mechanics, the mind, life, you and me.
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This fascinating book by Alan Woods and Ted Grant, originally published in 1995, will remove misconceptions, and brainwashing.
The achievements of science and technology during the past century are unparalleled in history. They provide the potential for the solution to all the problems faced by the planet, and equally for its total destruction. Allegedly scientific theories are being used to "prove" that criminality is caused, not by social conditions, but by a "criminal gene". Black people are alleged to be disadvantaged, not because of discrimination, but because of their genetic make-up. Of course, such "science" is highly convenient to right-wing politicians intent on ruthlessly cutting welfare.
In the field of theoretical physics and cosmology there is a growing tendency towards mysticism. The "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe is being used to justify the existence of a Creator, as in the book of Genesis . For the first time in centuries, science appears to lend credence to religious obscurantism. Yet this is only one side of the story.
A growing number of scientists are becoming discontented with the old outlook. The rapid rise of the theory of Chaos and Complexity is one of the most significant developments in science at the turn of the new millennium. Many of the ideas expressed by this new trend are strikingly similar to the theories of dialectical materialism worked out by Marx and Engels over 150 years ago.
A significant part of the present work is devoted to an exploration of the relationship between Marxist philosophy and the new theories. Will this encounter provide the basis for a new and exciting breakthrough in the methodology of science?
Table of Contents
Author's introduction to eBook edition
Author's Preface to the Second English Edition
Authors' Foreword
Part One: Reason and Unreason
Introduction
Philosophy and Religion
Dialectical Materialism
Formal Logic and Dialectics
Part Two: Time, Space and Motion
Revolution in Physics
Uncertainty and Idealism
Relativity Theory
The Arrow of Time
The Big Bang
Part Three: Life, Mind and Matter
The Dialectics of Geology
How Life Arose
The Revolutionary Birth of Man
The Genisis of Mind
Marxism and Darwinism
The Selfish Gene?
Part Four: Order Out of Chaos
Does Mathematics Reflect Reality?
Chaos Theory
The Theory of Knowledge
Alienation and the Future of Humanity
Bibliography
Glossary of Terms
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