Plekhanov on Cognition: The Epistemological Grounds for the Bolshevik Programme?
| Date | 01 February 1986 |
| Published date | 01 February 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.1986.tb00159.x |
| Author | Iain Hampsher Monk |
| Subject Matter | Article |
30.
Peter
Abrriss
the
more efficient'. This
was
then further extended
so
that a handicap
now
includes 'any encumbrance
or
disability that weighs upon effort and
makes success more d
i
f
f
i
cu
1
t
'
(OED)
.
-
References
Fry,
E
(1985a), 'The Concept
of
Discrimination', Politics, 5(1), 17-21.
Fry,
E
(1985b), Discrimination and Disabled Peoplen, The Spastics Society,
Occasional Paper
No
3).
Harris,
A
and Buckle,
J
R
(1971), Handicapped and Impaired in Great Britain
Street,
H,
Howe,
6
and Bindman,
G
(1967), Street Report on Anti-Discrimination
(London,
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.
Legislation (London, Fol
i
tical and Economic Planning).
PNKtW4OV
brl
COGNITION:
THE
EPISTIYDLOGICAL
GROUJDS
FOR
THE
BOLSHEVIK PROGFWPIE?
IAIN
HMSHER
MONK
Reading Engels, Plekhanov and Lenin in close succession
purposes has drawn my
unnoticed conceptual
1
of cogni
t
ion and Lenin
acquisition of revolut
I
do not for the
for teaching
ttention to a rather neat and,
I
think hitherto
nk between a certain ambivalence in Plekhanov's account
s
account of the role of the party in the proletariat's
onary consciousness.
moment wish to claim any direct historical connection
between their
two
views. But
it
seems clear that Plekhanov's account
of
cognition points in at least
two
directions, and that these provide such good
grounds for differentiating the means
of
acquiring political awareness in
intelligentsia and proletariat that
it
would be surprising
if
such an
historical connection could not be shown to exist. The two directions referred
to involve a conception
of
revolutionary knowledge based on sensuous experience
of working
class
life, and therefore inseparable from the working class itself;
and on the other hand a conception of revolutionary knowledge reached through
the application of an abstract and generalised notion
of
dialectical method,
and therefore attainable, in principle, by anyone who has grasped that method,
of whatever background.
It
is
a
commonplace that Engels's attempt to
'fill
out' Marx's theory of
historical development into an inclusive system embracing both natural science
and traditional philosophic concerns with epistemology were very influential
during the Second International. Georgii
V
Plekhanov (1856-1917) was an early
enthusiast
for
Engels and had learnt German in order
to
read Anti-DGhring by
1880; he met him in 1889 and the reputedly haughty Plekhanov was positively
obsequious (see Baron, 1963). He also translated Engels's Feuerbach and the
End of Classical German Philosophy.
Plekhanov opens his own Russian class Fundamental Problems of Marxism
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