• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Brock Theses
    • Masters Theses
    • M.A. Critical Sociology
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Brock Theses
    • Masters Theses
    • M.A. Critical Sociology
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of BrockUCommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsProfilesView

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    Display statistics

    Dialectical Naturalism: Studies in Marxist Social Ontology

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    Tims MA Thesis.pdf
    Size:
    1.057Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Description:
    Brock_Hayslip_Tim_2021.pdf
    Download
    Author
    Hayslip, Tim
    Keyword
    Marx, Ilyenkov, philosophy, dialectics, Durkheim
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15081
    Abstract
    This thesis develops the thought of Marxist philosopher Evald Ilyenkov. Ilyenkov is notable for his efforts to challenge Soviet orthodoxy by locating ‘ideality’ within a classically Marxist, materialist ontology. The main argument presented here is Ilyenkov’s interpretation of Marx is one that can be constructively employed in debates within contemporary sociology and social theory. Ilyenkov’s framework is developed over the first three chapters. The second half of the introduction critiques the orthodox interpretation of the famous base – superstructure metaphor, arguing that it should be understood as referring to both the natural processes through which the human species develops its understanding of the world and how these understandings evolve as humans transform the world. The second chapter concerns Ilyenkov’s description of the philosophical development that led from Kant’s ontological dualism which recognized the importance of an ‘intellectual war’ to the advancement of science through Fichte’s individualistic but dialectical ontology to Hegel’s dialectical-idealist monism. The third chapter locates Ilyenkov’s ‘ideality’ within the Marxist social ontology of Murray Smith. This framework is then used to explore and critique the methodological development of a social scientist who moved from a ‘radical social constructionist’ position to a project of synthesizing discrete ‘social’ and ‘natural’ factors over the course of his career. The fourth chapter locates and describes the role of Ilyenkov’s ‘ideality’ within the history of global economic development and argues that a form of class warfare from above will persist into the future. The fifth chapter compares and contrasts Ilyenkov’s ‘ideality’ and Durkheim’s ‘conscience collective’. As both concepts represent attempts to describe similar but often misunderstood phenomena, they evince definite parallels but Ilyenkov’s ‘ideality’ seems more comprehensive and its location within a Marxist framework offers much greater explanatory potential than Durkheim’s system. In particular, Marxism better explains the limitations of the postwar effort to construct a more humane capitalism. The concluding chapter reviews the preceding chapters and ends not with a prediction of a utopia to come but with an optimistic call for the development of a revolutionary leadership capable of leading humanity’s creation of a socialist society.
    Collections
    M.A. Critical Sociology

    entitlement

     
    DSpace software (copyright © 2002 - 2022)  DuraSpace
    Quick Guide | Contact Us
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.