DISCUSSION or ON ‘ON PRACTICE’ Richard Norman Rip Bulkeley’s criticisms of Mao’s ‘On Practice’ (Radical Philosophy 18) raise again issues which were discussed by Peter Binns and Andrew Collier in R P4 and 5 (and indeed, as far as I can make out, his position seemS to ~e very close to that put forward by […]

AN EDITOR SPEAKS J onathan Ree’ s ‘Editorial’ in R P2 0 des cribes itself as a ‘farewell performance’ written to mark his retirement as the magazine’s editorial secretary. Since the piece is a personal, occasional statement, it may seem officious to take up further space merely in order to indicate that this Editorial’s views […]

REVIEWS A MARXIST MATERIALISM? David Hillel Ruben, ~~~~~~~~~~~~, Marxism and Materialism Harvester /Humanities, £10.50 David Ruben sets out to contest ‘those idealist distortions that have managed to find their way into the theory and practice of Marxism”, in his opinion, over the past fifty years – roughly, since the publication of Luka.cs’ History and Class […]

NEWS Althusser. the Party, Marxism (1) Since the defeat of the left in the recent legis1ative elections, a wi:iesprea:i :iebate has developed within the French CP, reflecting the dissatisfaction felt by many militants with the lea:iership’s conduct of the electoral campaign. Although this debate is by no means confine:i to the party’s intellectuals, they provide […]

NLB, are a token of this continuing diffusion.) Sec oodly, as Patton,,-shows, Althusser t s critics have been heavily selective in their lines of approach. Professor Julius Gould, whose Report on the radical The (once talismanic) Althusserian concept of ‘threat’ to higher education is examined in the news theoretical practice is here analysed in depth […]

The atlack on civilrighlS in Wesl Germany Claudia van Braunmuhl Introductory note equated with ‘sympathy for terrorism’, protest against the policy has not been silenced, but continues to grow. The various groups in West Germany struggling to defend and recover basic democratic rights have repeatedly appealed for support and solidarity from other countries, noting the […]

ALTHUSSBR’S BPISTBMOLOGY: Ihe limils of Ihe Iheo..y of Iheo..elical p ..aclice PaulPatton concepts and theses which would permit the demarcation of science from other kinds of theoretical discourse. Dialectical materialism, then, was thought to be the philosophical theory Within which the scientific character of historical materialism could be demonstrated. Althusser’s marxist philosophy, however, was no […]

that needs to be put into question. For Althusser only repeats in Spinozist form the operation which is common to all epistemological theories of demarcation of science from other kinds of theoretical discourse. That is, to attempt to provide a philosophical justification for a particular social selection and hierarchical distribution of theoretical discourses, a certain […]

Kall. as a JRoblelD to.. Ma..xislD Martin Barker ,The relation between the thought of Immanuel Kant and the Marxist movement has been a distinctly problematic one. Kant, as the founder of the German idealist school, was recognised by Marx as one important precursor of his own theory in a general sense. But his understanding of […]

. a-evlews ~ The philosophy of opp..ession .Rip Bulkeley Hodge., Struckmann and Trost, Cultural Bases of Racism and Group Oppression, California, Two Riders Press, 1975 In the orthodox tradition of Philosophy, which we not our concern. We examine past and present patterns and thoughts tl) get an understanding of the basic ingredients of Western culture […]

NEWS Local groups There is little to be said tulder this heading at ,present. Bristol group seems to have declined as nobody from there has yet replied to requests for information, although it is known that the only staff participant in the group has recently decided to withdraw from active involvement in Radical Philosophy because […]

EDITORIJlL I have been secretary and coordinator of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy since 1973. In September last year I decided to resign, though I hope to continue to work as an ordinary member of the collective. With some miSgivings, the editors have allowed me to offer some reflections on the magazine’s past and […]

POST-MARXIST M I ‘) .. or PRODUCTION According to whoever wrote the editorial ‘notes’ for Radical Philosophy 17, ‘The present upsurge of fundamental Marxist researches may indicate an exit route from the circle of philosophy’s –deaths and re births , via which the problem of the specificity of “the philosophical” might be both subverted and […]

R2~ If I believed in the imminent collapse of capitalism from forces internal to the economy (falling rate of profit etc), then my evaluation of movements would be affected by this. But Hindess and Hirst, while pointing this out, insist that my calculation of consequences; is itself a function of my political position (evafuation). So […]

aCRlTlOUl or AUTlllNTICITY Roger ‘Wa.terhouse Central to the philosophy of Heidegger and Sartre is the call to be authentic. (1). They say ‘Examine your life; jon It you fool people, mislead them, hide yourself, live a lie? Don’t you fool yourself, pretend you are being altruistic, cover up your motives, hide from your own guilt? […]

NOTE ON TBllCllNTlnClTYOr rRlUD’IINTERPRlTATlON OrDREAMI KateSoper In Chapter I of Conjectures and Refutations, K. Popper raises the question of the scientificity of certain theories, which he then proceeds to reject as unscientific on the basis of the now celebrated criterion of falsifiability. Freud’s is one of these theories. (Those of Marx and Ad1er are the […]

Rims DEBIUlY IN ‘PRISON~ ON IllS CLASS a HIS COMMITMENT This article is not about what you will expect. It does not consider the theory of foci, the specificity of the class struggle in South American countries, or the role of the peasantry. All these things pose important theoretical questions. Moreover, it is for his […]

HERMENEUTICS Bc BEYOND Dilthey: Selected Writings, edited, translated and introduced by HP Rickman, CUP, £8.75 The main philosophical project of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833 -1911) was to establish the possibility of knowledge in the human sciences, or ‘human studies’ as Rickman prefers to translate the term Geisteswissenschaften, thus marking a difference between these and the natural […]

I¥ternational the notion that western societies were the only model for the building of socialist society. Lenin wished to adopt the hl.rgel scale industry of Western countries, to catch_ up and surpass them. He argued (as did Trotsky) that there .w~ no need to invent Some original way of organIzIng labour as capitaUs m had […]