1.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
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Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
3.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism. He achieved wide renown in his day and, while primarily influential within the tradition of philosophy, has become increasingly influential in the analytic tradition as well. Although he remains a figure, his canonical stature within Western philosophy is universally recognized. His philosophy of spirit conceptually integrates psychology, the state, history, art, religion and his account of the master–slave dialectic has been highly influential, especially in 20th-century France. Hegel has been seen in the 20th century as the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad, however, as an explicit phrase, Hegel has influenced many thinkers and writers whose own positions vary widely. Hegel was born on August 27,1770 in Stuttgart, in the Duchy of Württemberg in southwestern Germany, christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig, was Rentkammersekretär at the court of Karl Eugen, Hegels mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa, was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court. She died of a fever when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father caught the disease but narrowly survived. Hegel had a sister, Christiane Luise, and a brother, Georg Ludwig, at the age of three Hegel went to the German School. When he entered the Latin School two years later, he knew the first declension, having been taught it by his mother. In 1776, Hegel entered Stuttgarts gymnasium illustre, during his adolescence Hegel read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. Authors he read include the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment, such as Christian Garve, Hegels studies at the Gymnasium were concluded with his Abiturrede entitled The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey. At the age of eighteen Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift, where he had as roommates the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, sharing a dislike for what they regarded as the restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each others ideas. All greatly admired Hellenic civilization, and Hegel additionally steeped himself in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and they watched the unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy, Hegel at this time envisaged his future as that of a Popularphilosoph, i. e. Having received his certificate from the Tübingen Seminary, Hegel became Hofmeister to an aristocratic family in Bern. During this period he composed the text which has known as the Life of Jesus
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Political philosophy
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In a vernacular sense, the term political philosophy often refers to a general view, or specific ethic, political belief or attitude, about politics, synonymous to the term political ideology. Chinese political philosophy dates back to the Spring and Autumn period, Chinese political philosophy was developed as a response to the social and political breakdown of the country characteristic of the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. The major philosophies during the period, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, Agrarianism and Taoism, philosophers such as Confucius, Mencius, and Mozi, focused on political unity and political stability as the basis of their political philosophies. Confucianism advocated a hierarchical, meritocratic government based on empathy, loyalty, Legalism advocated a highly authoritarian government based on draconian punishments and laws. Mohism advocated a communal, decentralized government centered on frugality and ascetism, the Agrarians advocated a peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. Legalism was the dominant political philosophy of the Qin Dynasty, but was replaced by State Confucianism in the Han Dynasty, prior to Chinas adoption of communism, State Confucianism remained the dominant political philosophy of China up to the 20th century. Western political philosophy originates in the philosophy of ancient Greece, where political philosophy dates back to at least Plato, ancient Greece was dominated by city-states, which experimented with various forms of political organization, grouped by Plato into four categories, timocracy, tyranny, democracy and oligarchy. One of the first, extremely important classical works of philosophy is Platos Republic. Roman political philosophy was influenced by the Stoics and the Roman statesman Cicero, Indian political philosophy evolved in ancient times and demarcated a clear distinction between nation and state religion and state. The constitutions of Hindu states evolved over time and were based on political and legal treatises, the institutions of state were broadly divided into governance, administration, defense, law and order. Mantranga, the governing body of these states, consisted of the King, Prime Minister, Commander in chief of army. The Prime Minister headed the committee of ministers along with head of executive, chanakya, 4th century BC Indian political philosopher. Another influential extant Indian treatise on philosophy is the Sukra Neeti. An example of a code of law in ancient India is the Manusmṛti or Laws of Manu, the early Christian philosophy of Augustine of Hippo was heavily influenced by Plato. Augustine also preached that one was not a member of his or her city, augustines City of God is an influential work of this period that attacked the thesis, held by many Christian Romans, that the Christian view could be realized on Earth. Thomas Aquinas meticulously dealt with the varieties of law, according to Aquinas, there are four kinds of law, Eternal law Divine positive law Natural law Human law Aquinas never discusses the nature or categorization of canon law. There is scholarly debate surrounding the place of law within the Thomistic jurisprudential framework. Aquinas was an influential thinker in the Natural Law tradition
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Marxists Internet Archive
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The collection is maintained by volunteers, and is based on a collection of documents that were distributed by email and newsgroups, later collected into a single gopher site in 1993. It contains over 53,000 documents from over 600 authors in 61 languages, in 1993 the accumulated text was posted on a gopher site at csf. colorado. edu. Volunteers joined and helped spread and mirror the main archive, however, the main site and its mirrors were hosted on academic servers and by the end of 1995 almost all had been shut down. By 1996 the website, Marx. org, was hosted by a commercial ISP and this was followed by an increased activity from the volunteers. In the following years, however, a conflict developed between the working on the website and Zodiac, who retained control of the project. As the scope of the expanded, Zodiac feared that the opening toward diverse currents of Marxism was a slippery slope toward sectarianism. The volunteers who had been undertaking the work of transcribing texts resented having little influence over the way in which the archive was organized, in early 1998 Zodiac decided that Marx. org would return to its roots and that all writers other than Marx and Engels would be removed. In July 1998 the present form of the Marxists Internet Archive was created by transferring files and archives from Marx. org. This led to a increase in activity and an enlargement of the scope of the archive. As for Marx. org, Zodiac closed it down in 1999, and in 2002 he gave up the domain name, along with marx. org and marxists. org, the MIA can be reached by two other domain names, lenin. org and trotsky. org. The site, and the group of working on it, has dramatically changed since its early beginnings. By 2014 it had grown to encompass 62 volunteers in 33 different countries, today the Marxists Internet Archive is a recognized repository for both Marxist and non-Marxist writers. It is listed in the OCLC WorldCat catalog, and has selected for archiving by institutions such as the British Library. As with many politically oriented internet sites, MIA has had problems with malicious attacks from online sources, beginning in November 2006, the Marxists Internet Archive faced a number of serious denial-of-service attacks, attempting to exploit a misconfiguration in their servers operating system. By January 2007 the attacks had crippled much of the archive, in an email in late April 2014, L&W asked MIA to delete the contested material from their website by the end of April or face litigation. MIA chose to follow the request, an online petition was started against the L&W decision, and had the support of more than 4,500 people by the end of the month. The author of the petition, Ammar Aziz, was quoted in Vice magazine, privatization of Marx and Engels writings is like getting a trademark for the words socialism or ‘communism. A representative of MIA, Andy Blunden, did not dispute that L&W has copyright over the material and he was quoted in the Washington D. C
6.
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
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The essay is a synthesis of Lenins modifications and developments of economic theories that Karl Marx formulated in Das Kapital. In turn, such financial behaviour leads to the division of the world among monopolist business companies, therefore, imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, requiring monopolies and the exportation of finance capital to sustain colonialism, which is an integral function of said economic model. Lenins socio–political analysis of empire as the stage of capitalism derived from Imperialism. The core–periphery model of global capitalist exploitation, developed by Lenin in the early 20th century, in 1916, Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, in Zürich, during the January–June period. The essay was first published by Zhizn i Znaniye Publishers, Petrograd, after the First World War, he added a new Preface for the French and German editions, which was first published in the Communist International No.18. Editions Владимир Ленин, Империализм, как Высшая Стадия Капитализма, Петроград, vladimir Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, London, Lawrence and Wishart
7.
Ludwig Feuerbach
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An associate of Left Hegelian circles, Feuerbach advocated liberalism, atheism, and materialism. Many of his philosophical writings offered an analysis of religion. His thought was influential in the development of historical materialism, where he is recognized as a bridge between Hegel and Marx. Feuerbach was the son of the eminent jurist Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach, brother of mathematician Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach. After 2 years, the Hegelian influence began to slacken, theology, he wrote to a friend, I can bring myself to study no more. I long to take nature to my heart, that nature before whose depth the faint-hearted theologian shrinks back and these words are a key to Feuerbachs development. He completed his education at Erlangen, at the University of Erlangen with the study of natural science and he earned his habilitation from Erlangen on 25 July 1828 with his thesis De ratione una, universali, infinita. His first book, published anonymously, Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit, contains an attack on personal immortality and these principles, combined with his embarrassed manner of public speaking, debarred him from academic advancement. His most important work, Das Wesen des Christentums, was translated by Mary Ann Evans into English as The Essence of Christianity. Feuerbachs theme was a derivation of Hegels speculative theology in which the Creation remains a part of the Creator, when the student Feuerbach presented his own theory to professor Hegel, Hegel refused to reply positively to it. In part I of his book Feuerbach developed what he calls the true or anthropological essence of religion, treating of God in his various aspects as a being of the understanding, as a moral being or law, as love and so on. Feuerbach talks of how humankind is equally a conscious being, more so than God because humans have placed upon God the ability of understanding, humans contemplate many things and in doing so they become acquainted with themselves. Feuerbach shows that in every aspect God corresponds to some feature or need of human nature, as he states, In the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature. Instead, Feuerbach concludes, If man is to find contentment in God, he claims, thus God is nothing else than human, he is, so to speak, the outward projection of a humans inward nature. This projection is dubbed as a chimera by Feuerbach, that God and the idea of a higher being is dependent upon the aspect of benevolence. Feuerbach states that, “a God who is not benevolent, not just, not wise, is no God, ” and continues to say that qualities are not suddenly denoted as divine because of their godly association. The force of attraction to religion though, giving divinity to a figure like God, is explained by Feuerbach as God is a being that acts throughout humans in all forms. God, “is the principle of salvation, of good dispositions and actions, consequently own good principle and nature
8.
Materialism and Empiriocriticism
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Materialism and Empiriocriticism is a philosophical work by Vladimir Lenin, published in 1909. Lenin argued that human perceptions correctly and accurately reflect the external world. The book, whose title is Materialism and Empiriocriticism. The original manuscript and preparatory materials have been lost, the index lists in excess of 200 sources for the book. In December 1908, Lenin moved from Geneva to Paris, where he worked until April 1909 on correcting the proofs, some passages were edited to avoid tsarist censorship. It was published in Imperial Russia with great difficulty, Lenin insisted on the rapid distribution of the book and stressed that not only literary but also serious political obligations were involved in its publication. The book was written as a reaction and criticism to the three-volume work Empiriomonism by Alexander Bogdanov, in June 1909, Bogdanov was defeated at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris and expelled from the Central Committee, but he still retained a relevant role in the Partys left wing. He participated in the Russian Revolution and after 1917, he was appointed director of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences, Materialism and Empiriocriticism was published in over 20 languages and acquired canonical status in Marxist–Leninist philosophy. Alan Woods, Bolshevism, The Road to Revolution,1999, part Three, The Period of Reaction available online. Vladimir Lenin bibliography Anti-Dühring Materialism and Empiriocriticism by Vladimir Lenin at the Marxists Internet Archive
9.
What Is To Be Done?
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Burning Questions of Our Movement, is a political pamphlet written by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in 1902. Its title is inspired by the novel of the name by the 19th century Russian revolutionary Nikolai Chernyshevsky. Lenin argues that the class will not spontaneously become political simply by fighting economic battles with employers over wages, working hours. To convert the class to Marxism, Lenin insists that Marxists should form a political party, or vanguard. The pamphlet precipitated in part the split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party between Lenins Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, Lenin first confronted the so-called Economist trend in Russian Social Democracy, who followed the line of Eduard Bernstein. He explained that Bernsteins positions were opportunist, a point expressed by the French socialist Alexandre Millerand, against the Economists demand for freedom of criticism, Lenin advanced the position that the orthodox Marxists had the same right to criticize in return. He goes on to argue that to understand politics you must understand all of society, not just workers and their economic struggles with their employers. The sphere from which alone it is possible to obtain this knowledge is the sphere of relationships to the state and the government, the sphere of the interrelations between all classes. Socialist theory, however, in Russia, as elsewhere in Europe, was the product of the representatives of the propertied classes. Lenin states that Marx and Engels themselves, the founders of modern scientific socialism. Lars T. Lih has suggested that Lenins pamphlet has been widely misinterpreted partly by mistranslations of key used by Lenin. Second, Lenins outlook is a revision of orthodox Marxism. Lenin is quite ready to reinterpret Marx, while claiming, of course, third, the book where this profound innovation is set forth What Is to Be Done. is therefore the founding document of Bolshevism and the key text for understanding communism. Lih argues that if we examine the controversial passages in What is to be Done. We misunderstand them if we are not alive to the meanings of the words used, some of these have been translated in such a way as to confuse or even to draw readers to the opposite of what Lenin’s real views were. Vladimir Lenin bibliography What Is To Be Done. by Vladimir I
10.
The State and Revolution
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Bukharin had emphasised the withering aspect, whereas Lenin insisted on the necessity of the state machinery to expropriate the expropriators. Today, the bourgeoisie and the opportunists within the labour movement concur in this doctoring of Marxism and they omit, obscure, or distort the revolutionary side of this theory, its revolutionary soul. They push to the foreground and extol what is, or seems, all the social-chauvinists are now ‘Marxists’. Thus, following Marxs conclusions on the Paris commune, which Lenin took as his model Lenin declared that the task of the Revolution was to smash the State, but Lenin also called the state the armed and ruling proletariat so McLellan asks whether this, too withers. Yes, according to McLellan, in so far as it was in any way a separate from and opposed to. This is what constitutes the most profound distinction between the Marxist and the petty bourgeois. This is the touchstone on which the understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested. Vladimir Lenin bibliography The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin at the Marxists Internet Archive Original Russian text Summary and significance
