Dr. Daniel Tutt: Kołakowski and The Currents of Marxism

Philosophy in the Spotlight on Twitter Spaces
Co-hosts Christopher Satoor and Elisabeth Schilling
Guest: Dr. Daniel Tutt
Recorded: October 1, 2022

[hegellogicanddialectic]

Excellent episode on Marxism. Thank you the organizers of “Philosophy in the Spotlight” and thank you Dr. Daniel Tutt.

I liked what you said about the fact that “Proletariat is the heart and philosophy is the head of the revolution” and “The heart of Marxist philosophy is the liberation of the man with the union with Absolute” and “the idea of the left” and therefore the necessity “of polemics that Marxist left have” to have “with themselves” and the necessity of “the centrality of ideas in … political dissentions and debates”. There are very important points.

To my opinion one of the very important shortcomings of all Marxists after Marx, is their underestimation of importance of philosophy in general and their total misunderstanding about Hegelian Dialectic and the importance of “Idea” for the purpose of revolutionary change. To the question of dialectic, Marx is not immune from some criticism as well. Because what Marx called his version of Dialectic and he used it in this Das Kapital, is a scientific method of investigation of what a system – in this case, the capitalist mode of production – IS. Hegelian dialectic is not the method of investigation of what a system IS, it is a method of changing what IS toward the realization of what it OUGHT TO BE. Therefore, Hegelian Dialectic is more revolutionary than even what Marx called his dialectic. The Hegelian Dialectic is the spirit and logic of change, of revolutionary change. But what is prevalent among all Marxist is Engelsian so called three laws of “dialectic” which is codified by Stalin. Even Leon Trotsky was not able to liberate himself of Engels-Stalin’s interpretation of Dialectic.
According to Hegel, the dialectic “is the process of its own becoming, the circle that presupposes its end as its goal, having its end also as its beginning; and only by being worked out to its end, is it actual." -Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit
You start from the immediate thing at hand – the empirical reality, the objective fact - through the sense-certainty and perception to find out the properties of the thing. Then, you go to Understanding phase which is the highest stage of Consciousness in order to discover the potentiality inherent in the thing at hand. This is the process of reflection-into-itself. This will give the Essence, the Truth, or the Ideality, the Goal, or the Identity of the thing at hand which is something Universal (being-in-itself). Then you go to Difference which is the reflection-into-another, which in turn is the Particular (being-for-another). Here the opposition and contradiction appear. For the contradiction to be resolved, it got to lead to the essential unity between the Identity and Difference which is the purpose and it constitutes the Final Cause for the resolution of this contradiction. This Final Cause, is Self-Consciousness (being-in-and-for-itself). It is the Subject. The purpose, the final cause, must fuse with the Will to Destiny by an individual and it should turn into focused Passion. That should lead to Reason. Reason is Purposive Activity. Reason is composed of Negative Dialectical Reason and Positive Speculative Reason. Reason in its act, sublate the immediate being and the new being is a sublated reality, which is called the Actual. Sublation is the unity of three acts: negation, preservation and sublation. Actual is the End. This whole movement is called dialectical or rational movement which is also the unity of Subject-Object.

[mandys]

omg this is great🎉 the roots in plotinus... and speaking of the critiques of stalinism.... i love it

[nicko]

it is ironic to say that Kolakowski's experience of communism clouded his vision. This was explicitly commented on by Kolakowski in his open letter to E.P. Thompson around his break with Marx, where he said (to paraphrase) that his experience of "really existing communism" meant that the intellectual fantasies of Western academics were understandably not as appealing. Reality often clouds the vision of fantasy and vice versa.