The book Beyond Politics, an outline of systematic ideology, calls attention to the analysis, observation and study of opposites. It is a dialectical book about dialectics. It is intended to explain the ideological structure of today’s society. It is in vogue nowadays to write and talk about the end of history, the end of the… read more »
‘MORE recently, historians have tended to see the [English] Revolution [of 1640] in terms less of horizontal divisions between classes and more of vertical divisions, cultural and ideological, running through all strata of society.” (John Miller, TLS 14 December) REVIEWING The New Cambridge History of India Vol IV Pt 1, by Paul R. Brass, Geoffrey… read more »
Winner, 2013 George Walford International Essay Prize. In an evolutionary context, a belief in the supernatural is costly. Evolutionary cost refers to anything that reduces an individual’s eventual reproductive success from what that individual would otherwise achieve. Such cost includes unnecessary practices that either neglect or consume resources that otherwise could be used provision oneself… read more »
HEGEL was a humourist. Must have been, since Terrell Carver writes of his “post-humorously collected lectures”. The remark comes from Friedrich Engels, his, life and thought (MacMillan 1989 p. 71) and apart from one transposition of Hegel’s Christian names is the only misprint in the book. ENGELS to Marx: “What the proletariat does we know… read more »
Ideologists (a term used in IC to mean students of ideology) have to be interested in enquiries into the sources from which knowledge is derived, and in his essay entitled “Logic, Mathematics and Knowledge of Nature,” [1] Hans Hahn distinguishes two possible ones: observation and thinking. Comments are to be made, but first some of… read more »
The ideological mode of domination-submission appears in various connections, some of them less easy to recognise than others; the power wielded by the universities, for example, comes mainly from this source although it is easily (and often) mistaken for a consequence of superior rationality. In a letter to the Editor of the TLS Nicolas Walter… read more »
Since 1979 spending on criminal justice has leapt from £2 to £5 billion; an increase of 50 per cent in real terms. The number of police has increased by 13 per cent and of prison staff by 50 per cent; 49,000 prisoners are now managed by 33,000 warders. 28 new prisons are being prepared, with… read more »
Books which make an impression get absorbed into the general trend of thought. Only in this way can they play their full part, but some are worth returning to, among them Maine’s Ancient Law or, to present it in its full glory, Ancient Law, its connection with the early history of society and its relation… read more »
SECRET SCIENCE Leo Strauss died in 1973; some of his books are now being re-issued. He thought advanced political ideas valuable but also dangerous; the Enlightenment led to Hitler. His answer was to keep scientific and philosophical thinking secret from the general body of ordinary people. (TLS 1 Dec 89). Such caution hardly seems called… read more »
SUBSCRIPTIONS Contrary as usual, IC reduces its subscription charges. Beginning with this number a subscription for one year (six issues) will cost £2 including postage. Subscriptions outstanding at the old rate will be extended to compensate. (No subsidy yet from the CIA, let alone MI5 or MI6, but we keep hoping.) WHY ANARCHISM? When correspondents… read more »