Main currents of Marxism
by Leszek Kolakowski · first published 1978
7mentions
1recommended by
6HN commenters
2016–2024first – last mentioned
17% recommend83% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…framework exploited by the dictatorships to justify their deeds. The communism practiced behind the iron curtain was a perfect valid interpretation of his work. I recommend a really big book called 'Main Currents of Marxism' by the late ex-communist polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski.
…to be as if the discipline keeps things well hidden in an obscurantist conspiracy. [2] If you don't care for a sympathetic overview of Marxism, Kolakowski, one of Marxism's harshest critics, wrote The Main Currents of Marxism. [3] Example: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3468758 and https://econpapers.repec.org/article/fisjournl/19s0102.htm and https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/030981681985277...…
on “Brown Political Review Interviews Paul Graham” ↗I am seeing a lot of debate here about what Socialism is or is not. Lots of interesting points but none of them come close to this article by the Leszek Kolakowski (Polish Philosopher and author of Main Currents of Marxism) It was written in 1956 but was seized by the censor and the student journal for which it had been written was closed down. The essay was then pinned up on a bulletin board at Warsaw University until…
on “Every company should be owned by its employees” ↗…is a difference between the two. I've read some left-leaning literature (Marx's Capital I, his "German Ideology" and other younger writings of his, Lenin's "What Is to Be Done?", Kołakowski's 3-volume "Main Currents of Marxism", some Lukács, Jacques Rancière's "Nights of Labor: The Workers Dream in Nineteenth Century France") and no-where in those volumes there was a clear distinction made between "communism" and "socialism".…
on “My Venezuela Nightmare: A 30-Day Hunt for Food in a Starving Land” ↗True, not every totalitarianism is communism, but, as Leszek Kołakowski proved in "Main Currents of Marxism" monography, totalitarism is deeply ingrained in communism ideology. Every single country that was ruled by communists long enough ended up being totalitarian regime. There are no known examples of country…
I've been reading some old books lately including: * From Atomos to Atom * From Alchemy to Chemistry * The Main Currents of Marxism Part 1 (not about Marxism - just a bunch of, mostly Christian, philosophers) * The Skeptical Chemist * Some of Descartes' work I've noticed two notable things. First, the early Christian thinkers were…
on ““Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans”” ↗…undergraduate curriculum on nothing but those primary sources? There’s just too much material and so many of those constructs have failed to accurately describe reality. To use Marxism as an example, Main Currents of Marxism is probably on par with From Atomos to Atom. Both Science and Philosophy could benefit from teaching from currents vs. primary sources (philosophy) and compilations of “facts” (science).
on “I argue that studying the history of philosophy is philosophically unhelpful” ↗