DJP
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I doubt theoretically the book will come to much, but I also think that a few years ago it is unlikely that such a book would have been popular or been featured in the Guardian. Perhaps the winds are turning in our favour?
ALB wrote:I don't know what or where "the red button" is.It's literally that. If you have freeview of digital TV it's the red button on your remote. I guess if you press it when viewing any BBC channel you'll get the options. I don't have a TV at the minute…
alanjjohnstone wrote:Would this be any use to ourselves i wonder?Not unless we or they have a change of politics…
alanjjohnstone wrote:If only we could get such coverage for free accessAll these articles are PR for the brand new Penguin Classics edition of "The Conquest Of Bread"
As a warm up for Sundayhttp://zero-books.net/blogs/zero/james-heartfield-and-me-debating-marx-on-facebook/
LBird wrote:For starters, then, you do know that Marx wasn't a 'materialist'?If the term 'materialism' is applied to Marx's thought, then it's entirely correct to add 'idealism', too.In that sense, Marx was an 'idealist-materialist'.In all seriousness surely you've got to ask yourself why no-one else has said that, ever…
Paul Scivier wrote:Someting wrong there dont you think?No.Paul, it's time to stop believing in the tooth fairy.
We've already asked him a similar question here:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2014/no-1316-april-2014/relevance-marxian-economics-today
Quote:What is metaphysical materialism?In this case I was refering to the kind of materialism that is concerned with answering the metaphysical question 'what is the nature of the universe?' Metaphysics means 'before physics'. Before you can do physics you have to have some assumptions about what the physical is.So we have claims about what exists (these are called Ontology, a branch of metaphysics) and claims about what can be known (these belong to Epistemology). Most mistakes in discussions about this kind of thing come down to confusing the two.'Ontological Materialism' could more properly be called 'Realism' or 'External Realism' meaning 'there is a world that exists independently of our representations of it'.
Dave B wrote:I think you could make the argument that the enlightenment Bentham and his utilitarianism and the related consequentialism was materialist.Bentham may or may not have been a materialist, but utilitarianism is a way of approaching ethics "the greatest good for the greatest number", not metaphysics. It's not really relevant to the discussion in hand.Also the word "materialism" can be used to describe the desire to accumulate material goods but that is a quite seperate usage again not related to what we are talking about…
I've not yet read the article that Robbo mentions. However I read Marx for his analysis of capitalist social relations not for his metaphysics. Marx never wrote much on his metaphysics anyhow. The 'materialism' in the 'materialist conception of history' seems more to do with grounding historical processes in (material)social relations rather than a metaphysical enquiry into the nature of the universe and reality.I think there is some scope in discussing the metaphysics of materialism but this is best done by looking at texts other than Marx. Also 'materialism' can mean many different things depending on who the writer is…
