Synopses & Reviews
Written nearly fifty years ago, at a time when the world was still wrestling with the concepts of Marx and Lenin, The Illusion of the Epoch is the perfect resource for understanding the roots of Marxism-Leninism and its implications for philosophy, modern political thought, economics, and history. As Professor Tim Fuller has written, this is not an intemperate book, but rather an effort at a sustained, scholarly argument against Marxian views.”
Far from demonizing his subject, Acton scrupulously notes where Marxs account of historical and economic events and processes is essentially accurate. However, Acton also points out that Marx is generally right about things that were already widely known and accepted in his own time and indeed had been long understood in the nineteenth century. On the other hand, Acton shows that in many cases Marx either is simply wrong or has stated his views so as to render his theories immune to disproof. Acton also explains why the embodiment of Marxist-Leninist theory in an actual social order would require coercive support if it were not, sooner or later, to collapse of its own contradictions.
H.B. Acton (19081974) taught at Bedford College (London), the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Chicago; was editor of Philosophy, the influential journal of the British Royal Institute of Philosophy; and wrote, among other books, The Morals of Markets (1971; Liberty Fund, 1993) and The Philosophy of Language in Revolutionary France (1959).
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Synopsis
The Illusion of the Epoch helps readers to understand the roots of Marxism-Leninism and its implications for philosophy, modern political thought, economics, and history. As Professor Tim Fuller has written, this "is not an intemperate book, but rather an effort at a sustained, scholarly argument against Marxian views."
H. B. Acton (1908-1974) taught at Bedford College (London), the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Chicago.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Introduction ix
PART ONE. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
I Marxist Realism 3
1. Idealism and Phenomenalism 3
2. Marxist Criticisms of Idealism and Phenomenalism 12
3. Phenomenalism, Idealism, and the Religious Outlook 13
4. Lenin’s Criticisms of Phenomenalism 17
5. The Marxist Account of Perception 28
II Marxist Naturalism 44
1. Basic Ideas of Marxist Naturalism 44
2. Science, Philosophy, and Practice 47
3. Science and the Supernatural 57
4. Marxist Dialectics 63
5. ‘‘Metaphysics’’ 66
6. Nature’s Changefulness 69
7. The Law of the Transformation of Quantity into Quality 72
8. Contradiction and the Negation of the Negation 85
9. Status of the Dialectical Laws 91
10. Marxism and Formal Logic 93
PART TWO. SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM
I Historical Materialism 99
1. Anti-metaphysical, Positivistic Aspect of Historical
Materialism 99
2. Feuerbach’s Theory of Religion and the Marxist Theory of
‘‘Ideologies’’ 108
3. The Materialist Conception of History in Outline 124
4. Examination of the Materialist Conception of History 132
5. The Ideological Superstructure 162
II Marxist Ethics 169
1. Marxist Social Science as a Form of Social Regeneration 169
2. Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History 181
3. Marx and Eugène Sue 194
4. Marxism and Moralism 201
5. Man’s Lost Unity Restored 211
6. The Supersession of the State 223
Conclusion 237
Reading List 259
Index 261