Subjects Archives: Philosophy

Liedman portrays Engels’ alternative picture of science as a ‘non-reductive materialism’ characterised by a deep confidence in the unity of knowledge and by an equally deep resistance to treating any level of reality as totally determined by another. Engels’ account of scientificity—of what shape a legitimate theory can take—was modelled both on Marx’s theory of capitalism and on Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Marx and Engels both took a surprising interest in the ideas of the great Indian spiritual leader, argues Sean Ledwith.

Katherine Connelly outlines how the events and context of their times shaped the partnership and ideas of Marx and Engels.

Marx diagnosed the oppression of the working class, the alienation of workers from their labor, as well as the alienation of all human beings living within capitalism from their own authentic selves, and proposed that it was objectively possible that emancipation, true liberation, would come one day.

Nearly a hundred professors, experts and scholars from more than 20 universities and research institutions in more than ten countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Germany, the United States, Ireland, Spain, Romania, Denmark, Turkey and India, hold in-depth discussions to commemorate the 175th anniversary of “The Communist Manifesto.”

The prevailing rarefied ideological climate that Germany and most European countries are suffering from today makes a very cautious call for prudence and negotiation a criminal offense that deserves to be punished with ostracism.

How Helen Gym’s fight to save a hospital turned her into a frontrunner to be Philadelphia’s next mayor.

The Nakba, “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which includes the expulsion and subsequent displacement of Palestinians, the destruction of Palestinian towns and villages, and other attempts to eradicate the Palestinian people from their ancestral homeland in the territory that became the State of Israel.

On 8 and 9 May, Berlin traditionally hosts numerous commemorative events to mark the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Marxist economist Michael A Lebowitz passed away at home on April 19.

Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in Trier, where he received a classical education. He studied jurisprudence at Bonn and later in Berlin, where, however, his preoccupation with philosophy soon turned him away from law.

This article on Karl Marx, which now appears in a separate printing, was written in 1913 (as far as I can remember) for the Granat Encyclopaedia. A fairly detailed bibliography of literature on Marx, mostly foreign, was appended to the article.

Times are hard, and they’re getting harder, but we can turn this thing around. Please be kind with yourself in the meantime.

In the final essay to mark the fiftieth anniversary of national revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral’s murder in 1973, first published in the ROAPE journal thirty years ago, Basil Davidson provides a personal portrait. Davidson’s piece contains fascinating detail and insight on Cabral’s principles of organising, as well as how Cabral and his comrades started their successful anti-colonial struggle in the early 1950s, all of which retains its relevance in the context of ongoing struggle and revolt across the continent today.

Belafonte’s activism changed America, his singing shaped a musical consciousness for generations of Americans, and his acting paved the way for Black performers.

Apart from his humanitarian activism, Belafonte was a longtime critic of the U.S. foreign policy.

Garveyism and Afrocentrism, while different, are grounded in their shared nature of being expressions of a call for National conscience.

The story of German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and his posthumous reception almost reads like the plot of an airport spy thriller.

THERE is a commonly-held view that while capitalism in its early stages brings about unemployment and hence an accentuation of poverty, this initial damage is subsequently reversed as it keeps growing

The universal premises of culture and politics have been subject to criticism from the moment that Enlightenment theories emerged. In postmodern theory, radical skepticism replaces judgement and makes universal speculation seem like either an absurd game or a violent imposition.