A Select Bibliography Michael McMahon Sheehan Jacqueline Murray. 16 Ritual and Iconography 134 12-14c Studies in Medieval Domestic Architecture ed M.J. Swanton (London 1975). [English aristocratic housing] 135 11-12c WEDZKI,...

Karl Marx states in Capital that “man, if not as Aristotle thought a political animal, is at all events a social animal” (Marx, 1992, 444). That Marx draws from Aristotle’s work has been long-recognized, but one could argue that Marx’s very conception of man—what he calls “species-being”—is a derivative of Aristotle’s theory of the good life. This article explores the Aristotelian underpinnings of Marx’s political philosophy and argues that Marx’s theory of species-being and human emancipation supervenes upon Aristotle’s theory of (...) eudaimonia. The consequence of such a rethinking suggests that the Aristotelian good life itself is possible only in the communist society of Marx’s imaginings and, as such, is a state that must be realized—whether by nature or revolution—for human flourishing. Inspired by Aristotle’s assertion that “friendship exists to the extent that what is just exists” (Aristotle, 1991a, 527), this article draws from several of Aristotle’s and Marx’s texts to situate man as an inherently social being, whose need of other men serves both to edify and realize a common end toward which the state is oriented: the life of virtuous activity performed by and in an association of equals. (shrink)

The article reports on some preliminary findings of an ongoing research initiative investigating the pragmatics of daily interaction, cross-culturally and trans-nationally. Phase one of the initiative looks into the specifics of how cultural differences impact on cultural values, social categories and, ultimately, communicative styles, focusing initially on address forms. More specifically, the article looks into the current status of the ideology-based address form comrade, its pragma-semantic profile and rules governing its usage in post-Communist Eastern-European societies, looking primarily into selected instances (...) of public communication and media language in modern-day Serbia. Having identified and contextualised key usage patterns of the ideology-based forms of address clustering around the title comrade and the set of options associated with it, the article concludes by suggesting future parameters of research. (shrink)

In the United States there have been brilliant examples of anti-racist struggle-black soldiers in the Civil War, coal miners of Alabama, and especially the anti-racist working-class struggles led by the Communist Party. Yet racism persists: Jim Crow replaced racial slavery, and mass incarceration has replaced Jim Crow. Why? Paul Gomberg argues that racism is functional for capitalism, supplying low-wage, vulnerable labor and driving down conditions for all workers. How can anti-racists put an end to racist society? Gomberg argues for (...) race-centered Marxism: anti-racism must lead working-class struggle, but racism will end only in a communist society that creates opportunity for all. (shrink)

ExcerptEvery new Chinese leader considers it his duty to make his contribution to state administration theory, which, while formally considered to be Marxist, is moving ever further away from the classical doctrines of Marx and Engels and from their Soviet, Leninist-Stalinist version. Chinese party theoreticians explain that it is the changing situation and specific nature of Chinese society, and not just the ambitions of the country’s leaders, that create the need for new theories. It is no coincidence that a (...) whole section of Xi Jinping’s report to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was devoted to the “Sinification” (中国化) and “modernization” (时代化) of Marxism, which, together, are acknowledged as one of the CPC’s most important achievements in the field of theory. (shrink)

Included in the 2005 cyberethics bibliography update is an annotated list of more than fifty recent books; each has a publisher's date of 2002 or later. This list expands upon the books identified and annotated in cyberethics bibliography included in the June 2003 issue of ACM Computers and Society Magazine. For information about selected books published between 1998 and 2002, see the June 1999, June 2000, June 2001, and June 2002 issues of Computers and Society; and (...) for a comprehensive list of books and articles published before 1997, see my Computing, Ethics, and Social Responsibility: A Bibliography. (shrink)

This bibliography records the initial publication of each original work by C.G. Jung, each translation, and significant revisions and expansions of both, up to 1975. In nearly every case, the compilers have examined the publications in German, French and English. Translations are recorded in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Greek Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. It is arranged according to language, with German and English first, publications being listed chronologically in each (...) language. The _General Bibliography_ lists the contents of the respective volumes of the_ Collected Works_ and the _Gesammelte Werke_, published in Switzerland, and shows the interrelation of the two editions. It also lists Jung's seminars and provides, where possible, information about the origin of works that were first conceived as lectures. An index is provided of all the titles in English and German, and all original works in the other languages. Three specialist indexes, of personal names, organizations and societies and periodicals, complete the work. The publication of the _General Bibliography_, together with the _General Index_, complete the publication of the _Collected Works of C.G. Jung _in English. (shrink)

During the three decades since Albania overthrew the communist dictatorial system and began its democratic changes, the existence of a line of thought in Albanian society has been noted, which tends to explain the behaviour of Albanian politicians during the transition period based on the assumption of a “communist mentality” carried by them. This line of thought has often been dominant and has been reflected in the Albanian media and public space as a form of “main” explanation to show (...) many of the failures that Albanian democracy has faced during these 30 years, the authoritarian behaviour of political elites, the “state capture” by political parties, the crisis of state institutions, etc. Applying the concept of “communist mentality” in the Albanian media and public space and explaining through it (almost) any kind of negative phenomenon, problem, or behaviour that contradicts the idea of democracy or prevents it from developing, is very problematic, therefore it has served as an impetus in undertaking this study. In this paper, a critical approach will be offered to this discourse that has often dominated the Albanian media and public space, questioning whether is this “communist mentality” the determining factor for the behaviour of Albanian politicians and the failures of Albanian democracy or there are other factors that may explain these phenomena. (shrink)

In the Critique of Gotha Programme, Karl Marx famously argues that a communist society will be characterised by the principle, ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!’ I take up a question about this principle that was originally posed by G.A. Cohen, namely: what makes communism (so conceived) possible for Marx? In reply to this question, Cohen interprets Marx as saying that communism is possible because of limitless abundance, a view that Cohen (...) takes to be implausible for ecological reasons. I develop a new interpretation of Marx's position. On this interpretation, people in communist society achieve self-realisation through providing others with the goods and services required for their self-realisation. Coupled with a reasonably high (but not immense) development of productive power, self-realisation generates conditions in which people can produce according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. I defend this view as an interpretation of Marx and I argue that it represents a more plausible account of what makes communism possible than Cohen's interpretation in which technological advance and limitless abundance play the predominant role. (shrink)

L'article se propose d'étudier la Francophonie dans la lumière de la transition post-communiste. L'objectif est d'opposer à l'approche quantitative, qui mesure souvent l'impact de la Francophonie dans les pays non francophones de l'Europe de l'Est par le nombre d'élèves, une autre approche qui cherche le lien entre la Francophonie et les problèmes stratégiques du développement des pays respectifs. Le prisme est moins celui de la diversité culturelle que celui de la démocratisation. L'article est structuré en trois parties. La première analyse (...) le volontarisme et l'incohérence de la politique d'adhésion à la Francophonie, la seconde étudie les nouvelles modalités et la dernière les acteurs émergents de la société civile qui remplacent l'État dans la réalisation de la Francophonie locale.The article aims to study Francophony in the light of the post-communist transitional period. The objective is to develop a different approach in opposition to the common quantitative one which consists of measuring the impact of Francophony by the number of students, an approach that focuses on its relations with the strategic problems of the respective countries. The prism is more the one of democratization rather than of cultural diversity. The article is structured in three parts. The first analyses voluntarism and the incoherence of the politics of adherence to Francophony, the second studies the new modalities and the last part deals with the emerging figures in civil society who are replacing the State in the implementation of Francophony locally. (shrink)

In the corpus of Marxist and Communist theory, there exists no complete analysis of what the future society will look like. Marx, himself, was skeptical about the possibility of providing such an analysis. Nevertheless, most Marxist theoreticians have alluded to this future society and have indicated some of its general characteristics. Analyzing the relevant writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin and Stalin, the author attempts to present a description of the communist future society according to Communist (...) doctrine. A brief evaluation is given in the final chapter but it is too brief to be very helpful. This book fills an important gap in the study of Communist ideology.—R. J. B. (shrink)

In Society as a Department Store Ryszard Legutko wrestles with the emancipatory ideology promulgated by postmodernists, libertarians, and liberal thinkers. Legutko argues that modern Western liberals have embraced a revolutionary ethic; they have turned their backs on their own cultural heritage, and used its political and ideological apparatus to destroy classical metaphysics and epistemology. The book considers the paradoxical implications of this state of affairs for Eastern European intellectuals arguing that, with the triumph of liberalism over communism, these (...) intellectuals feel compelled to digest an ideology that shares many elements with the oppressive system from which they just liberated themselves. Based on hubris rather than genuine humane concerns, Legutko mourns not simply the loss of faith in classical Western culture, but the way in which that loss is becoming a central point of identity. (shrink)

The article explores gender roles in Czech society during the 1990s, seeking in them continuity with the socialist past as well as divergence from it. The state-socialist construction of social space brought women, in the course of 40 years, into a post-feminist situation - they got beyond the second-wave claim of the public sphere for women. The communist epoch gave birth to an illusory gender equity while it preserved a specifically modified public/private divide and ’empowered’ attitudes of the population (...) that were characteristic of pre-feminist consciousness. This complex legacy has been used by the political power of Czech ’neoliberal’ democracy post-1989, while it has disadvantaged women, who have been becoming rapidly unequal to men. The article examines whether Czech accession to the EU will enhance gender equality in a post-communist society. Feminist action, the study concludes, is needed more than ever. (shrink)

In their work The German Ideology, the founders of Marxism assert that the prerequisite of post-capitalist (defined by them as communist) society is the universal development of human abilities and all social relations. But then on the same page, contrary to this statement, it is alleged that the abolition of private property is not only highly topical but it is also an imperative history-making task. In Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels explain that economic crises recurrently shaking (...) capitalist society expose an apparent contradiction between the productive forces and the capitalist relations of production – therefore, these relations must be eliminated for the preservation of society. Nonetheless, the same treatise affirms that the bourgeoisie cannot exist without revolutionizing not only the productive forces but also the relations of production. But in this case it stands to reason to recognize that there is no conflict between productive forces and production relations, and, therefore, there is no crisis of the capitalist system, either. Paradoxes in the communist theory of Marxism stem not merely from erroneous conceptions but reveal the fact that Marxism as an ideology comes into conflict with its scientific social theory. Hence, these paradoxes disclose the relative independence of the social theory of Marxism from its ideological postulates. (shrink)

What does ‘communism’ mean in Walter Benjamin’s writing? It has been used in some quarters to claim that Benjamin has a quasi-Marxist theory of communist society. This paper will argue instead that Benjamin’s communism is framed by his distinctive conception of experience and that it is understandable only through that conception. Benjamin’s image of ‘communist society’ refers to a specific type of experience rather than a type of social organization. The paper discusses the conceptual background of (...) that image and also points out a number of the difficulties that Benjamin’s conception of collective experience faces given its genesis in a model of individual experience. (shrink)

Tax Revenues of Post - Communist E.U. Member Countries This article aims to analyze and evaluate tax policy of 10 post communist countries of the EU, especially the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic, during the their first 5 years in the community through the development of their tax revenues. Data to analyze are the data of the European Commission for the years 2003 to 2008. The subject of analysis is the total tax burden and the tax structure, i.e. direct and (...) indirect taxes, VAT, excise tax, environmental taxes, personal income tax and corporation tax. The analysis uses charts of the development of the monitored values.Overall, it is possible to say that although the 10 post-communist countries joined the European Union in the same period, and although in general these countries face similar problems in the economic and tax policies, their response to internal and external influences in area of tax revenues and mix are very often different. This is due to both their historical and cultural traditions, so the current specifics. (shrink)

Communist morality already occupies the dominant position in Chinese society, but influences of the old morality of the landowning, bourgeois class still remain. In this situation, we must first of all clearly understand, What ultimately are the differences between the new morality and the old morality? In what areas do their fundamental differences appear?

November 9, 2009 will mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the monumental event that signaled the beginning of the end of Communism in the former Soviet Union. Yet, why was this collapse of Communism considered final, but the many failures of capitalism are considered temporary and episodic? In _The Idea of Communism_, Tariq Ali addresses this very question. The idea of Communism, argues Ali, was simple and noble. _The Communist Manifesto_, which advocated the (...) creation of a society based on the principle of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” rather than a system based on greed and profit, appealed to millions all over the globe. However, Ali argues that the vision of society adumbrated by the founders of Communism was a far cry from what became known as actually existing socialism in the Soviet Union and China. The Communist system that developed ignored Engels’s belief that a workers’ movement and its victory were inconceivable without freedom of the press and assembly. This freedom, Engels insisted, “is the air it needs to breathe. Here, in a thought-provoking re-evaluation, Ali argues that a new form of socialism and global planning is vital to save the planet from capitalist and environmental degradation. (shrink)

The long duration of the Communist regime cannot be explained without closely looking at the manners of creating shared meanings and agreement on explanations on the shared historical context. Narratives of legitimation, some easier to depict than others, were almost as important as the use of force in imposing the specific values of the regime. In other words, soft power was the buttress of hard power. But the nuances are numerous, once we put this otherwise obvious remark under closer scrutiny. (...) The case studies presented in this issue of the yearbook underline the practice of combining soft power with hard power: that is, legitimating narrative discourses transmitting sets of values and beliefs, backed up by policies of various forms of violence. (shrink)

The essay is the critical reflection on the current state of global politics. It points to the importance of reconnecting politics with more substantial “human affairs”. The search for new understanding and conceptual tools is necessary on both sides of the political spectrum, however, the left should press for its lost identity more urgently. But what is even more urgent is the planetary vision based on reflexive rationality and a politics of dialogue, respect for the environment and civil society, (...) overcoming obsolete and pointless political strategies and forms of life. Knowledge and nature are to be taken as public assets. (shrink)

Promises of communism, traces of communism, outlines of communism, islets of communism: Althusser’s metaphors for communism emerging at the margins of existing social forms point towards important open questions for any rethinking of a strategy for communism: Is communism just a political project or a political design for a post-capitalist society or is the projection, elaboration, and expansion of social forms already appearing within contemporary capitalist society as a result of collective (...) struggles, resistances, and experimentations that bring out the collective ingenuity of the subaltern classes and groups? Can a political project for radical social transformation simply be a generalisation of the dynamics emerging within contemporary social dynamics? How can we think the political and organisational labour needed to turn these elements into new social forms? The aim of this paper is to attempt to revisit and rethink the tensions of Althusser’s thinking of communism emerging at the margins or interstices of capitalist society. (shrink)

The debate concerning the legitimacy of awarding reparations for historical injustices focuses on the issue of finding a proper moral justification for granting reparations to the descendants of the victims of injustices which took place in the remote past. Regarding the case of Romanian communism as a more recent injustice, and analyzing the moral problems entailed by this historical lapse, within this paper I argue that overcoming such a legacy cannot be carried out, as in the case of historical (...) injustices situated more remotely in time, through the means of selective reparations, such as restitutions or compensations. For, even though they are justified from the perspective of rectificatory justice, selective reparations do not fulfill the requirements of social justice. Rather, I argue that the fall of the Romanian communist regime should have been followed by an equal distribution of all properties illegitimately seized by the state, to all adult Romanian citizens at that time, in order to attain the imperative of equal distribution of property among all citizens. The equal distribution thesis is the only way through which the Romanian society could have complied, at that moment of political and social renewal, with the requirements of justice. I also aim at explaining why other principles of justice, which either have or could have been implemented, cannot be properly justified. Finally, I analyze two main objections which could be invoked against my thesis, namely the economic efficiency objection and the legal realist objection. (shrink)

This article invites the view that the Europeanization of an antitotalitarian “collective memory” of communism reveals the emergence of a field of anticommunism. This transnational field is inextricably tied to the proliferation of state-sponsored and anticommunist memory institutes across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but cannot be treated as epiphenomenal to their propagation. The diffusion of bodies tasked with establishing the “true” history of communism reflects, first and foremost, a shift in the region’s approach to its past, one (...) driven by the right’s frustration over an allegedly pervasive influence of former communist cliques. Memory institutes spread as the CEE right progressively perceives their emphasis on research and public education as a safer alternative to botched lustration processes. However, the field of anticommunism extends beyond diffusion by seeking to leverage the European Union institutional apparatus to generate previously unavailable forms of symbolic capital for anticommunist narratives. This results in an entirely different challenge, which requires reconciling of disparate ideological and national interests. In this article, I illustrate some of these nationally diverse, but internationally converging, trajectories of communist extrication from the vantage point of its main exponents: theanticommunist memory entrepreneurs, who are invariably found at the helm of memory institutes.Inhabiting the space around the political, historiographic, and Eurocratic fields, anticommunist entrepreneurs weave a complex web of alliances that ultimately help produce an autonomous field of anticommunism. (shrink)

Indigenous knowledge is the dynamic information base of a society, facilitating communication and decision-making. It is the cornerstone of many modern-day innovations in science and technology. It is also a ready and valuable resource for sustainable and resilient livelihoods, and attracts increasing public interest due to its applications in bio-technology, health, bioprospecting, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food preparation, mathematics and astronomy. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF NAMIBIA is a fascinating compendium aimed at a wide readership of academics and students, government officials, policy makers, (...) and development partners. The 17 chapters examine the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants for treating HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer, and other microbial infections of humans and livestock; indigenous foods; coping and response strategies in dealing with human-wildlife conflicts, floods, gender, climate change and the management of natural resources. A new rationalisation of adolescent customary and initiation ceremonies is recommended in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and a case study of the San people of Namibia speaks to the challenges of harmonising modern education with that of indigenous people. (shrink)

The Isis bibliography of the history of science has been published continuously since the first issue of the journal in 1913. This essay examines how information practices used to produce the bibliography have shaped, and were shaped by, the evolving discipline of the history of science. We first focus on the intellectual endeavors of George Sarton, who used the bibliography to help define and create a new academic field: the history of science. Next, we outline the administrative (...) struggles of the History of Science Society (HSS) as it tried to continue the project after Sarton’s retirement. Finally, we examine the technological aspects of producing a bibliography by focusing on the transition from analog to digital technologies over the last fifty years. In this overview, we show the central place the Isis bibliography played in the HSS community and argue that information practices surrounding the bibliography are an underutilized resource for studying the history of the discipline. (shrink)

Under today's conditions, when the Soviet Union is successfully engaged in the comprehensive construction of a communist society, and the prospect of uniform advancement toward communism seems possible for the socialist countries, the theoretical problems relating to the transition from socialism to communism acquire major importance. In our day, problems of scientific communism are resolved in practice, in the creative activity of tens and hundreds of millions of people. The success of the construction of communism (...) depends to a very large degree upon the correct theoretical solution of these problems. (shrink)

During the last decade a new utopian horizon has emerged from the radical left: that of a future postcapitalist society in which technological progress and renewable energy finally take care of our material needs while robots do most our work for us, making paid employment a thing of the past. Instead, we can focus on fulfilling our desires and dreaming up new ones, leading lives of luxury and ease. This utopia, often called “fully automated luxury communism," could be (...) reached through opportunistically accelerating features of the existing neoliberal capitalist system. -/- However, behind this vision of a bright, sustainable future lurks a worrying political prospect. I show how the post-capitalist’s philosophical prejudice against work comes at a high political cost. By painting productive activity as mere drudgery that machines will emancipate us from, they also end up giving up on work as the root of radical democratic agency. The luxury communist proposal ends up resembling an extreme case of the neoliberal hegemony that it claims to be fighting against, a centrally ruled world completely focused on private enjoyment of luxury and devoid of any shared understanding of human flourishing on which democratic public life could thrive – a political dystopia. (shrink)