References
We restrict our consideration to Dialectical Materialism since, according to current Soviet doctrine, Historical Materialism is Diamat as found in society. SeeOsnovy Marksistskoj filosofii. Moskva. 1958. (p. 349f.)
M. M. Rozental' is currently the leading Soviet methodologist. Among his works in this domain:Marksistskij dialektičeskij metod. Moskva. 1947.Voprosy dialektiki v “Kapitale” Marksa. Moskva. 1955.Veliki vklad v marksistskuju teoriju poznanija. VF 1959, 5, 18–32.
Glezerman, G. E.:Bazis i nadstrojka v Sovetskom obščestve. Moskva. 1954.
Aleksandrov, G. F.:Dialektičeskij materializm. Moskva. 1953.
Pancxava, I. D.:Dialektičeskij materializm. Moskva. 1958.
During his lifetime, I. V. Stalin occupied the privileged position of “classic” and “official interpreter of the ‘classics’”. Since the 20th Party Congress he has ceased to figure in the litany of the “classics”. Nevertheless, as recently as October 1959, his “Marxism and the National Question” figures under the rubric “Works of the Classics of Marxism” in Voprosy's list of “New Books for Philosophy and Sociology” (see VF 1959, 10, 182).
Osnovy marksistskoj filosofii. (editor) F. V. Konstantinov. Moskva. 1958. Henceforward: Osnovy.
See Osnovy p. 3.
See J. M. Bocheński:Contemporary European Philosophy. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1956.
By “dogma” we mean a proposition which is accepted on the basis of an extra-philosophic authority, in function of a sort of faith. By “meta-dogma” we mean a proposition which is not only itself a dogma but also is the reason why the dogmata of a given system are accepted on faith. It should be noticed that a sufficiently developed dogmatic system generally has at least three classes of propositions, we might say three levels of discourse. There are the dogmata properly so-called, which state a fact and no more. Then there are what might be called the “first-level meta-dogmata”, which are propositions which deal with the competence of an authority to prescribe belief in the dogmata. Finally, there are propositions which could be called “second-level meta-dogmata” or, more precisely, meta-dogmata in the full sense of the term.
The rejection of the Mendel-Morgan theory of “genes” and of Einstein's theory of relativity are only the more famous cases of denial of scientifically fruitful hypotheses on purely ideological grounds. In reference to the theory of relativity, see S. Müller-Markus:Einstein und die Sowjetphilosophie. Krisis einer Lehre. I (Sovietica Abhandlungen 1). Dordrecht. 1960 and the summary thereof in the present volume.
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Blakeley, T.:Soviet Scholasticism (Sovietica Monographs). Dordrecht (in print).
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Blakeley, T. Method in Soviet philosophy. Studies in Soviet Thought 1, 17–28 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02412994
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02412994