Jan,
Could I use your quote from Bakhurst in the biography of Ilyenkov on the
Marxist Internet Archive?
Andy Blunden
At 12:43 04/09/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>I've been reading and thinking of answers to queries. This is a very
>difficult area because many of the terms used have different meanings to
>those in common usage. It's difficult to respond quickly.
>
>However a quick reply can be made to Helena's request for info on Ilyenkov.
>I've copied a paragraph from an article by David Bakhurst below. I have
>heard Felix Mikhailov (a close friend and colleague speak on Ilyenkov) talk
>about the very difficult conditions that they were working under. When
>meeting to discuss philosophy they would know that within their group there
>would be a member of the KGB. As a result writings cannot be taken at face
>value given the difficult climate in which they were produced. Jan
>
>Jan Derry
>www.edu.bham.ac.uk/SAT/Derry.html
>
>
>Helena writes,
>
>Where can I find out who Ilyenkov was, why he was writing this in 1977,
>whose work was he arguing with, who was his audience, etc?
>
>David Bakhurst writes in his article; ‘Meaning, Normativity and the Life of
>Mind’ in Language and communication, 17 (1), 33-51
>
>‘Ilyenkov was important in the revival of Russian Marxist philosophy after
>the dark days of Stalinism. In the early 1960s, he produced significant work
>in two main areas. First he wrote at length on Marx’s dialectical method
>(‘the method of ascent form the abstract to concrete’). This work, though it
>now seems obscure , has an important political sub-text: its critique of
>empricism is aimed at the positivism and scientism that Ilyenkov thought
>prevalent in Soviet political and intellectual culture. Second, Ilyenkov
>developed a distinct solution to what he called ‘the problem of the ideal’;
>that is, the problem of the place of the non-material in the natural world.’
>The latter involves a resolute defence of the objectivity of ideal
>phenomena, which are said to exist as aspects of our spiritual culture,
>embodied in our environment. …there are important continuities bewteen
>Ilyenkov’s ideas and controversies in Soviet philosophy and psychology in
>the 1920s and ‘30s, particularly…with Vygotsky’s socio-historical
>psychology. ….After the insightful writings of the early 1960s, his
>inspiration diminished as the political climate became more oppressive. … He
>died in 1979, by his own hand.’
>
>
>
>
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