IHE IHEORY OF ·IDEOlOIiV In [APIIAL John mepham •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• “There must be some way out of here” Said the joker to the thief “There’s too much confusion I can’t get no relief” (Dylan) Where do incorrect ideas come from? In What is to be Done? Lenin argues that “the spontaneous development of the working-class movement […]

“I know, I was planning to attend. Do you have the keys to his place?” She reached into her coat and took out the keys and a well-thumbed edition of The Story of Philosophy. “What are you doing with that?” I asked. “Just boning up for Daddy’s lecture. Phone me when you find out anything.” […]

–: I Social and Philosophical Understanding – an example John Paley it is genetically unsound? Meanwhile, belief in the moral reprehensibility of masturbation continues, despite the fact that we have so far been unable to provide a replacement for the view that it causes insanity. Research, however, continues. Warnock’s “The Object of Morality” As far […]

his way of obviating the “victories of an excessive relativism” was to resort to the possibility of explaining diverse views. But if ‘explanation’ is to be understood as legitimation, he is no better off. The ‘relativist’ is perfectly prepared to admit differenc&,f of legitimation and characterisation co-ordinate with differences in moral view. Finally, he might […]

noTES A REACTION TO RADICAL PHILOSOPHY J.M.Hinton No one, I believe, can yet say with any confidence to what extent the ‘mere’ attempt to uproot perennial forms of falsehood from our ways of thinking may itself change the world. If only for this reason, it is a mistake to reach the conclusion that contemporary British […]

REUIEWS stand them can be ‘on the way to being a philosopher’. Perhaps this doesn’t matter much, though. Yesey assures us: VESEY DOES IT! Jonatban Ree “Philosophers are not a breed apart. They merely have a peculiarly well developed taste for arguing about rather abstruse topics. If you enjoy intellectual games, you will enjoy the […]

– REPORTS CAMBRIDGE Opening Moves This term has seen, hopefully, the beginnings of a new era in Cambridge philosophy. The event which sparked off this new beginning was the sit-in of February 3rd to 5th, when university premises were occupied in protest against the university’s handling of the proposals for exam reform put forward by […]

People who don’t know anything about philosophy courses are likely to be astonished and dismayed by their effects. The main thing they will notice is that the philosophy student acquires a very mannered way of speaking and a knack of shrugging off serious ideas with half frivolous complaints about the words in which they are […]

reason for the present neglect of metaphysics, ethics and politics is the relatively exaggerated veneration accorded to logic and theory of meaning. Like Jonathan Ree, I have ungrudging admiration for modern achievements in this field’ but i~ is a.disaster ~hat so many regard it as the primary fi~ld wIth whlch the phIlosopher should concern himself. […]

on SEEIIIIi tHlnliS DIFFEREmlY RiEhard Donnan •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Some moral disagreements are more fundamental than others. This is obvious. In particular, some moral disagreements are so fundamental that t~ey are to be regarded not simply as conflicts between particular moral beliefs hut as conflicts between distinct moralities. This, though less ohvious, has heen increasingly recognised hy […]

Now it does seem to me that Norman does trade on this “rationalist” view in his discussion of Tolstoy. For he does say “Andrew’s ‘discovery’ is in each case”‘the acquisition of an enlarged and clearer view of human nature and of man’s relation to the world” (p.9) “The ‘way of seeing the world’ (the “religious […]

lU[IEn IiOlDmAnn 15 THERE AmARHI5T 50[IOl06Y? Translated and IntradlHed bV Ion the socially relevant, like so many practitioners of the ‘sociology of literature’. When Lucien Goldmann’ s essay , Is There a Marxist Sociology?’ first appeared in Les Temps Modernes in 1957, it made an important contribution to the revival of a serious consideration of […]

grasp Marx’s thought ‘did not succeed in the r intentions,’ above all because they ‘approached Marx ones dely,’ and deliberately ‘isolated the economist, the ph losopher, or the historian,’ etc. Of course there is an element of truth in these remarks, since all scientific work is necessari ly partial and needs to be complemented by […]

support to this non-Cartesian posItIon which one can find, for instance, in both Hegel and Wi ttgenstein – authors whom Laing has read. In Hegel’ s Phenomenology of Spirit, in the section on the dialectic of Master and Slave, the non-Cartesianism is perfectly clear: ating morally would render their children morally dependent. When Laing and […]

REUIEWS m KINDS DF MWIS! only with ‘scientistic’ Harxism.” (4) The exact opposite is true. However often these two things co-exist in practice they are theoretically inconsistent. If Marxism is just a subdivision of natural science there is no place, not only for the cadre but for any self-conscious activity at all, since the revolution […]

REPORTS HEm ~!……Discussion Weekend at Universi t..L..£.f2 ent , ,?2::.?Z__ .:!..~e first, insofar as its ‘problems’ arc emplr ~~l’: _ l,rohlems (knowledge of the external world, causality, other minJ~, personal identity, etc.), and secondly, insofar as it retain the same ideological orientation as classical empiricism. Epistemology is by its very nature prescriptive; it is for […]

COMMENTARY Coming in Lesbian and gay politics in the nineties Angela Mason A s the countdown to the general election begins, there is a rising tide of expectation among lesbians and gay men in Britain. This time we can surely expect a new government to sweep away discrimination and finally give lesbians and gay men […]

Gilles Deleuze and the redemption from interest Peter Hallward Deleuze writes a redemptive philosophy. In conjunction with its mainly artistic allies, it is designed to save its readers from a situation contaminated by ʻconsciousnessʼ, ʻrepresentationʼ, ʻanalogyʼ, ʻrepressionʼ, ʻlackʼ, and ʻthe Other [autrui]ʼ. Redemption from these things, according to Deleuze, provides immediate access to a very […]