Soviet Marxism and Natural Science: 1917-1932

by David Joravsky

Overview

Originally published in 1961. Russian Marxist philosophy of science originated among men and women who gave their whole lives to rebellion against established authority. The original tension within Marxist philosophy between positivism and metaphysics was repressed but not resolved in this first phase of Soviet Marxism. In this volume the author correlates the development of ideas with trends in the Cultural Revolution and against this background it is possible to understand why debates over general philosophy gave way to conflicts over specific sciences in the aftermath of the first Five Year Plan and why there was a genuine crisis in Soviet biology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415474863
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/18/2008
Series:	Routledge Library Editions: History & Philosophy of Science
Pages:	466
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Part One: The Pre-Revolutionary Heritage. Part Two: The Soviet Setting, 1917-1929. Part Three: The Anomalous Rejection of Positivism. Part Four: The Great Break, 1929-1932. Part Five: Physics and Biology in the First Phase 1917-1932. Notes. Bibliography. Index