Partisanship, Universalism, and the Dialectics of Moral Consciousness

Abstract

Upon the collapse of the Socialist governments of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, there was very quickly manifested a rash of nationalisms, parochialisms, racisms, and other forms of fiendishness. However, there was also a somewhat gentler manifestation that took the form of abandoning Marxist philosophy and bringing East European and Russian philosophy into a closer alignment with what might be called the more standardized philosophical traditions of the capitalist world. One example of this change was the formation of the International Society for Universalism in Poland, which grew out of the group of Marxist humanists who published the journal Dialectics and Humanism, the name of which was altered to Dialogue and Humanism. The purpose of this group was that of identifying and codifying a set of universal values. It is against this background that we have written this paper.