(OPE-L) Evald Ilyenkov

[glevy@xxxxxxxxx]

Hi again Andy.

> The disappointing thing is that
> Ilyenkov is very little known -- Bhaskar forever makes grand
> claims about the entire Marxist tradition yet is entirely
> ignorant of Ilyenkov, it seems. But it is difficult to
> generalise. Ilyenkov indirectly is very influential on modern
> value theory via the influence of Ilyenkov on Geoff Pilling.
> Some critical realists are deeply impressed by Ilyenkov,
> and have been for years -- Steve Fleetwood, for example.
> Ilyenkov gets entirely different interpretations from serious
> scholars. Chris A. has a  brief go at Ilyenkov in a footnote
> of his recent book, yet his interpretation is somewhat at
> odds with my own!

Thanks to the Internet, his ideas should become more widely
known among Marxists. See the "Evald Ilyenkov Archive" at
http://www.marxists.org/archive/ilyenkov/index.htm
(btw, there is a link to Pilling's book as well.)

In any event, why are you surprised that a Soviet philosopher
from the 1970's isn't generally taken seriously?

Wasn't Ilyenkov an advocate of dialectical materialism (sometimes
called 'diamat')?  If so, why then do you invert the expression by
saying "materialist dialectics"?

In solidarity, Jerry