Book Review: Fact and Fiction by Bertrand Russell

Betrand Russell belonged to an influential family of England. His grandfather had once been the Prime Minister of Britain. This book is a compilation of Bertrand Russell’s essays. The first section is on the books which influenced Russell during his youth. The second section is on politics and education. The last section is on divertissements and parables. This section also includes some rare descriptions of Russell’s dreams.    

Russell discusses how the Bactrian Greeks were ‘separated from their mother-country by deserts and alien monarchies, losing gradually most of their Hellenism, and finally subdued by less civilized neighbors, but passing on as they faded away some part of the cultural heritage of Greece in the Buddhist sculpture which they inspired’ (p. 38). 

Russell states that toleration of what you dislike is what characterizes the liberal attitude (p. 56). Writing about mental freedom Russell states that ‘education should not be such as to make its victim incapable of ever thinking an original thought’ (p. 57). Writing on freedom the writer discusses the Doukhobors, who were disliked by the Czarist Government, because on religious grounds, they refused military service. Tolstoy, as a pacifist, took up their cause and they were allowed to emigrate to Canada (p. 60). On page 61, he further writes that only those who enjoy an independent income are free from this slavery. Here slavery refers to the dependence for livelihood. Continuing the same chapter Russell states that new ideas are unpleasant to the majority of mankind. They disturb habits (p. 63).

Russell believes that in the field of Mathematics a lot of work was done in Mesopotamia (p. 63). In ancient Greece there was no powerful bureaucracy to place obstacles in the way of the popular will (p. 74). I found it very interesting to read about the whole process of MADT (refer to page 74-75). 

Writing about the story of colonization, Russell writes that various agencies have been favorable to the growth of civilization. He thinks that the most important have been military conquest, commercial intercourse, and missionary zeal (p. 111). In regard to all three a very important part has been played by colonies, which form the themes of these talks. A colony, as the word was understood by the Greeks, consisted of a small group of sea-faring men accompanied by their families, all coming from some one Greek city and settling on the sea-coast of some comparatively uncivilized country (p. 111).

While discussing education, the author advocates for the teaching of a course on history. According to the author, such a course should deal with the history of Man, not with the history of this or that country. It should include things from archaeology and anthropology (p. 148). Russell says that one may say that Plato’s Academy was the first university (p. 150). Russell is of the view that men and women should inculcate an undogmatic temper, a temper of continual search and not of comfortable certainty (p.156). 

Regarding truth, the author mentions that ‘Truth is a shinning goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable’ (p. 156).

On publicity and propaganda, the author opines that both these things have such an influence that the majority in any powerful country is pretty sure to believe whatever its government wishes it to believe (p. 217-218). He also adds that in America books giving truthful information about Russia are banned from public libraries (p. 219). 

In the chapter on Psychology and East-West tension, Russell writes that ‘the dangerous state of the world is caused, I repeat, by the dangerous passions of ordinary men and women, which have been inflamed by unwise propaganda on both sides. It is these widespread passions that must be assuaged if we are to be no longer exposed to the imminent risk of total annihilation’ (p. 220). Russell states that ‘Man has risen to mastery over external dangers, but he has not risen to mastery over the internal dangers generated by his own passions of hate and envy and pride (p. 276).

Russel has also discussed Turgenev’s invention of the word ‘nihilist’ (p. 20), age of universal ugliness, agriculture, serfdom, oppression, invention of concentration camps by the British (p. 222) and other themes in this book.

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Book Review: Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary- Essays and Interviews (Edited by Martin Thomas)

The essays and the interview collected in this booklet discuss the ideas and the politics of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), especially in the light of a major recent study of Gramsci, Peter Thomas's book The Gramscian Moment. They argue that Gramsci's ideas are best and most loyally understood as a contribution to working-class revolutionary socialist battle against the capitalist system, which as the financial crash of 2008 and its sequels show, is as much a system of class exploitation and social destruction as ever.

Italy stayed out of World War I (p. 6). The workers defeat opened the way for the rise of fascism. Mussolini took power in 1922 (p. 8).  Mussolini consolidated his power in 1926 (p. 8). Mussolini was a former member of the Socialist party (p. 9). 

Gramsci spent much of his life building a Marxist party (p. 13). For some time he operated from Vienna. Gramsci was developing themes first sketched by Antonio Labriola, a late 19th century philosopher who gradually, as a maverick on the fringes of the socialist movement, developed a supple and imaginative version of Marxism as "philosophy of practice" (p. 74)

In chapter two, Peter Thomas writes that 'we need to reaffirm that deepening the conception of politics and political organization- and linking that with a Marxist critique of political economy- remains at the absolute center of Gramsci's project the entire way through (p. 19).

In the third chapter Peter Thomas says that 'for a proletarian hegemony , Gramsci argues that a politics of truth is necessary. He states on many occasions that the precondition for doing mass politics in the working classes need to speak the truth (p. 22). Politics, for Gramsci, was not conceived of as a moment of administration or command from above, but always in terms of the transformative dimensions of a social  formation or relations between social formations (p. 24).

Peter Thomas says that Gramsci 'came to the view that it is only by acknowledging the always-already-practical nature of philosophy that it is possible not only to criticize previous forms of philosophy (including, crucially, the criticism of previous conceptions of Marxist philosophy), but also to go further and attempt to develop a new form of philosophical practice that would arguably be more genuinely philosophical than the contending and rival positions, if we are to understand philosophy as always a practice, as "love of wisdom", in the classic sense' (p. 37-38).

Moreover, Peter Thomas mentions that 'the "democratic philosopher", for Gramsci, became the philosopher who was mature enough to acknowledge the foundation of their thought in the common every day practices of the people, a philosopher who was open to the capacity for transformation of those instances, and sought himself or herself to contribute to their transformation through his or her intervention in linguistic, conceptual, or political forms' (p. 39). He believes that the democratic philosopher means an active citizen.

In chapter six, Martin Thomas states that 'the last 25 years prove that a battle for democratic forms is ineffectual if not tied together with a socialist battle to reorganize the working-class as an assertive, militant combatant for its own interest, as the champion of democracy, and as the leader of all the oppressed and plebeians' (p. 65).

Further themes in the book include hegemonic apparatuses, Gramsci's analytical developments, neo-liberalism and class organization (p. 35), 'democratic philosopher', Marx, French Communist party philosopher Louis Althusser, cosmopolitan academic and Eurocommunist. This booklet discusses a major recent study on the Notebooks- Peter Thomas's The Gramscian Moment- and argues that the Notebooks were in fact a powerful contribution to the working-out of revolutionary working-class strategy in developed capitalist societies. 

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Book Review: Critical Theory and Society: A Reader (Edited with an Introduction by Stephen Eric Bronner and Douglas Mackay Kellner)

The Frankfurt School was the first Marxist-oriented research institute in Europe. Its members made an effort to revise both the Marxian critique of capitalism and the theory of revolution, as after the death of Marx new social and political conditions had evolved. The broad themes included in this book are social psychology, cultural criticism, philosophy and political theory. During World War II Marcuse and others went to USA to work for the US government. Horkheimer and Adorno went to California where they worked on theory.

Erich Fromm states that 'what psychoanalysis can bring to sociology is the knowledge- though still imperfect- of the human psychic apparatus, which is a determinant of social development alongside technical, economic, and financial factors, and deserves no less consideration that the other factors mentioned' (p. 38). Erich Fromm writes that 'every form of society has not only its own economic and political, but also its specific libidinous structure, and psychoanalysis can finally explain certain deviations from the course of development expected on the basis of the economic preconditions (p. 216).

Leo Lowenthal says that 'a genuine, explanatory history of literature must proceed on materialistic principles' (p. 44). He further says that 'psychology must be considered as one of the principal mediating processes, particularly in the field of literary studies, since it describes the psychic processes by means of which the cultural functions of a work of art reproduce the structures of the societal base' (p. 45). Lowenthal critiques social research as it 'takes the phenomena of modern life, including the mass media, at face value. It rejects the task of placing them in a historical and moral context' (p. 191). In the same chapter the author states the popular culture has its own characteristics of standardization, stereotypy, conservatism, mendacity, manipulated consumer goods (p. 195).

Horkheimer writes that an existing society is increasingly endangered by its internal tensions, the energies spent in maintaining an ideology grow greater and finally the weapons are readied for supporting it with violence (p. 55). Writing on the Jews and Europe Horkheimer states that 'whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism' (p. 78). In the same chapter on page 79, the interesting connection between the market economy and the advertising signs is presented. Further in the chapter he critiques liberalism,  writes about Mandeville's view on fascism and Kant's categorical imperative. Horkheimer says that 'not ideas but utility are decisive for the bourgeoisie' (p. 88). He further writes that 'someone who can only play at politics should keep away from it' (p. 93).

On state capitalism, Pollock writes that 'the genuine problem of a planned society does not lie in the economic but in the political sphere, in the principles to be applied in deciding what needs shall have preference, how much time shall be spent for work, how much of the social product shall be consumed and how much used for expansion, etc. (p. 99).

Marcuse writes that civilization is man's subjugation to work (p. 125). On the same page he writes that satisfaction is postponed and enjoyment sacrificed. Writing on philosophy and critical theory Marcuse is of the view that 'critical theory is, last but not least, critical of itself and of the social forces that make up its own basis' (p. 72). Marcuse writes that the proletariat's quality of being  'potentially revolutionary force' is definitive of its very existence (p. 288). In the chapter, The reification of the proletariat, Marcuse is of the view that 'within the global system, the multinational corporations keep the competitive conflicts from becoming explosive' (p. 291).

Adorno mentions that 'the power of the culture industry is such that conformity has replaced consciousness' (p. 133). Critical Theorist Walter Benjamin opines that 'discretion concerning one's own existence, once an aristocratic virtue, has become more and more an affair of petit-bourgeois parvenus' (p. 174).

Jurgen Habermas writes about the public sphere in which he traces the link between the newspaper and public opinion (p. 140). In the last chapter Jurgen Habermas writes that 'In the past decade or two, conflicts have developed in advanced Western societies that deviate in various ways from the welfare-state pattern of institutionalized conflict over distribution. They no longer flare up in domains of material reproduction; they are no longer channeled through parties and associations; and they can no longer be allayed by compensations. Rather, these new conflicts arise in domains of cultural reproduction, social integration, and socialization; they are carried out in substitutional - or at least extra parliamentary- forms of protest; and the underlying deficits reflect a reification of communicatively structured domains of action that will not respond to the media of money and power' (p. 305). 

Habermas mentions about the 'old politics' and the new politics. New politics find strong support among new middle classes, among the younger generation, and in groups with more formal education (p. 305). The old politics has strong support base among employers, workers, and the middle-class tradesmen.

In this book there is discussion on the differences between between Horkheimer and Marcuse, Adorno's views on Jazz- which he considers "utterly impoverished" (p. 14), Marcuse's marginal groups theory, points in favor of state capitalism, scarcity economy, French Enlightenment, Adorno on Lyric poetry and society, Adorno's view on Jazz in Europe, Erich Fromm's critique of Marcuse, Marcuse's critique of Marx and Marcuse's mention of the surplus consciousness.

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Book Review: The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (with an Introduction by John Skorupski)

This work of Bertrand Russell was originally published in 1912. In this he covers many interesting themes. Some of them include subjects, such as the distinction between appearance and reality, the existence and nature of matter, idealism, knowledge by the acquaintance and by description, induction, and the limits and the value of philosophical knowledge. I have tried to cover of the points in the book review.

All our knowledge, both knowledge of things and knowledge of truths, rests upon acquaintance as its foundation (p. 26). The chief importance of knowledge by description is that it enables us to pass beyond the limits of our private experience (p. 32).

The author also writes about the controversy between the empiricists and the rationalists. He states that the 'empiricists- who are best represented by the British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume- maintained that all our knowledge is derived from experience the rationalists- who are represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially Descartes and Leibniz- maintained that, in addition to what we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate principles', which we know independently of experience' (p. 41).

Russell says that 'minds do not create truth or falsehood. They create beliefs, but when once the beliefs are created, the mind cannot make them true or false, except in the special case where they concern future things which are within the power of the person believing, such as catching trains' (p. 75).

According to the author the main characteristic of philosophy which makes it distinct from science is criticism. Philosophy 'examines critically the principles employed in science and in daily life; it searches out any inconsistences there may be in these principles, and it only accepts then when, as the result of a critical inquiry, no reason for rejecting them as appeared' (p. 87).

The author writes that 'the value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age of his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason' (p. 91). Further on the same page Russell states that ' philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free the from the tyranny of custom' (p. 91).

Russell suggests that 'philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good' (p. 94).

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Book Review: In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

This collection of Russell contains different essays on social questions in which he scrutinizes many aspects of modern life. Spread over fifteen chapters, Russell makes interesting points, some of which I mention in this book review. 

Russell believes that formerly there was 'a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency' (p. 22). He also says that the more we know the more harm we can do each other (p. 151). Regarding fruits he adds that apricots and peaches were first cultivated in China (p. 35).

Writing about America Russell states that America is a man-made world; moreover it is a world which man has made by means of machinery (p. 143). In America 'educational commissions point out that fifteen hundred words are all that most people employ in business correspondence, and therefore suggest that all others should be avoided in the school curriculum' (p. 29).

Russell stresses on the need to introduce a communal element into architecture (p. 44). He further adds in the same chapter, that it is marriage and the family that introduce the instinct of privacy (p. 47). Russel enforces that the world needs two things. One is socialism and the other one is peace. Both are contrary to the interest of the most powerful men of our time (p. 80). He claims that in Germany and Italy Fascism arose out of Socialism, by rejecting whatever was anti-nationalistic in the orthodox program (p. 86).

Russell says that many modern inventions tend to make people silly (p. 136). He further says that 'the effect of mass production and elementary education is that stupidity is more firmly entrenched than at any other time since the rise of civilization' (p. 138). Russell writes that uniformity in matters of  thought and opinion is much more dangerous (p. 144). Regarding writers that author is of the view that it requires 'unusual firmness of character to produce good work and remain poor' (p. 106).

Russel also states that 'science and industrialism are nowadays the distinctive marks of western civilization' (p. 120). Russell says that he is afraid that Europe, however intelligent, has always been rather horrid, except in the brief period between 1848 and 1914 (p. 131). 

Overall in the book the author writes about superstition, power, economics, common characteristics of fascism, industrialism, war, socialism, skepticism, belief, civilization, science, peace, cinema, language, power, modernity, and many other ideas. 

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Book Review: Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Frederick Engels

 

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Frederick Engels along with the Communist Manifesto is one of the indispensable books for any one desiring to understand the modern socialist movement. The author Engels says that the industrial production since the Middle Ages can be divided into three periods. First, handicraft, second manufacture and third modern industry.

Engels says that ‘tradition is a great retarding force.’ Engels observed that the working class in England was moving slowly, like all things in England. He stresses that the triumph of the European working-class does not depend upon England alone. It can only be secured by the co-operation of, at least, England France, and Germany. He further states that in both these countries the working –class movement is well ahead of England. According to Engels, modern Socialism is a logical extension of the principles laid down by the great French philosophers of the eighteenth century.

Engels quotes Fourier, who according to him was the first to declare that in any given society the degree of women’s emancipation is the natural measure of the general emancipation. He further quotes Fourier. Fourier says that ‘that the civilized stage raises every vice practiced by barbarism in a simple fashion, into a form of existence, complex, ambiguous, equivocal, hypocritical’’—that civilization moves in  “”a vicious circle,’’ in contradictions which it constantly reproduces without being able to solve them; hence it constantly arrives at the very opposite to that which it wants to attain, or pretends to want to attain, so that, e.g., “under civilization poverty is born of superabundance itself.’’

Engels mentions Robert Owen. He says that Owen had adopted the teaching of the materialistic philosophers; that man’s character is the product, on the one hand, of heredity, on the other, of the environment of the individual during his lifetime, and especially during his period of development. According to Owen the three obstacles in social reform are private property, religion and the present form of marriage.

According to Engels the Socialism of the earlier days certainly criticized the existing capitalistic mode of production and its consequences. But it could not explain them, and, therefore, could not get the mastery of them. It could only simply reject them as bad, the more strongly this earlier Socialism denounced the exploitation of the working-class, inevitable under Capitalism, the less able was it clearly to show in what this exploitation consisted and how it arose. Engels admits that the materialistic conception of history and the revelation of the secret of capitalistic production through surplus-value belongs to Marx. With these discoveries Socialism became a science.

In medieval society especially in the earlier centuries, production was essentially directed towards satisfying the wants of the individual. It satisfied only the wants of the producer and his family.no exchange was involved and the products did not assume the character of commodities.  Only when the family of the peasant began to produce more than was sufficient to supply its own wants and the payments in kind to the feudal lord, only then did it also produce commodities. This surplus, thrown into socialized exchange and offered for sale, became commodities.

Engels quotes Marx that machinery becomes the most powerful weapon in the war of capital against the working-class; that the instruments of labor constantly tear the means of subsistence out of the hands of the labourer; that the very product of the worker is turned into an instrument for his subjugation. Engels quotes Marx from ‘Capital, Vol.I’. Marx says that the accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time, accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.

Engels states that in capitalistic society the means of production can only function when they have undergone a preliminary transformation into capital, into the means of exploiting human labor-power.

Engels suggests that to accomplish the act of universal emancipation is the historical mission of the modern proletariat. To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart to the now oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge of the conditions and of the meaning of the momentous act it is called upon to accomplish, this is the task of the theoretical expression of the proletarian movement, scientific Socialism.

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Book Review: Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography by Curtis Cate

 

Friedrich Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran clergyman with a modest bourgeois background. He disliked Middle-class conformity and favored ‘aristocratic radicalism’. His aphorisms and statements are quite puzzling. They can be better understood within the context of his agitated life. In this biography Cate provides the reader with an interesting account of Nietzsche’s life. It makes it easier for the reader to understand his viewpoints. This includes experiences from his early life, relationships with his family members, time spent at boarding school, education, university teaching, friendships, travels and books.

Nietzsche was fascinated by Arthur Schopenhauer. He did not read Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, nor read Karl Marx’s works, other than Communist Manifesto. Nietzsche says that the German language gives him no pleasure. What Nietzsche most disliked and despised in any human being- a smug hypocrite. Nietzsche says that ‘I live as though the centuries were nothing, and I pursue my thoughts without thinking of newspapers or the date’ (p. 301). He also condemned romantic affectivity, excessive emotionalism and spiritual hysteria (p. 306).

Nietzsche met a Russian lady named Lou Salome, whom he wanted to marry for two years. Things were not smooth between them. Nietzsche’s sister played a big role in furthering their divide. Nietzsche’s sister Elisabeth discovered that Lou had been showing around a photograph in which Lou herself was seated in a little cart by her two harnessed ‘workhorses’. One of the work horses was Nietzsche and the other one was Paul Ree. Elisabeth got really upset.

Cate quotes Ida Overbeck, who writes about Nietzsche in the following words: ‘He knew how to listen and take in, but he never revealed himself completely or clearly. To hold himself back in concealment was for him a necessity; it was not truly a distrust towards others, rather it was a distrust towards himself and the response he encountered’ (p. 331). Nietzsche himself once wrote that ‘I am only too happy to leave my plans in concealment.’ Nietzsche believed that the value of any civilization or culture depends on the number of geniuses and masterpieces it can produce. He also regarded every kind of involuntarily accepted work as a form of slavery. He disliked businessmen and industrial magnates because of their ‘swaggering self-importance’ and ‘loud-mouthed vulgarity’ (p. 361).

Nietzsche ‘conceived his mission as a thinker to be that of the herald of a new ‘dawn’ in philosophical thinking, the prophet of a new, more honest, less visionary morality, purged and purified of a vast accretion of moral, political, social and metaphysical prejudices and misconceptions which had reduced the vast majority of his contemporaries to a collective condition of sheep-like stupidity’ (p. 400). In Zarathustra’s tenth discourse he writes: ‘If you cannot be the saints of knowledge, at least be its warriors’. On page 409 the author quotes Nietzsche, who says that ‘Man should be educated for warfare, and woman for the relaxation of the warrior: everything else is folly’.

Nietzsche’s work had a lot of symbolism. He used to carry a notebook when he would go for walks. He believes that most original thoughts occurred at night. He rejects moral system because according to him this system rejects the vital need for order of rank, on which all healthy cultures of the past were based. He believes that ‘From Woman comes every mischief in the world’ (p. 532). He also considers Christianity a stupid and anti-intellectual religion.

Nietzsche lost control over his senses. He was taken to Jena. His mother looked after him. When she passed away his sister Elisabeth took the charge. Meta Von Salis agreed to buy a house where Nietzsche was to live for the rest of his life. Throughout his life Nietzsche suffered because of weak eyesight, violent headaches and bouts of nausea. He died on the 25^th of August after a heart attack.

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Book Review: One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

 

In 1940s there were two tendencies within the history of Critical Theory. First, the philosophical-cultural analysis of the trends of Western civilization developed by Horkheimer and Adorno in Dialectic of Enlightenment. Second, the more practical-political development of Critical Theory as a theory of social change proposed by Marcuse and Neumann. For them, Critical Theory would be developed as a theory of social change that would connect philosophy, social theory, and radical politics- precisely the project of 1930s Critical Theory that Horkheimer and Adorno were abandoning in the early 1940s in their turn toward philosophical and cultural criticism divorced from social theory and radical politics.  Horkheimer and Adorno had neglected the theory of social change. It is exactly what Marcuse and Neumann were focusing on.

One-Dimensional Man was first published in 1964. It critiques the new modes of domination and social control. As capitalism and technology developed, advanced industrial society demanded increasing accommodation to the economic and social apparatus and submission to increasing domination and administration. Marcuse writes that independence of thought, autonomy, and the right to political opposition are being deprived of their basic critical function in a society. According to him, political power asserts itself through its power over the machine process and over the technical organization of the apparatus.

He distinguishes between true and false needs.  According to him, the need to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs. The distinguishing feature of advanced industrial society is its effective suffocation of those needs which demand liberation- liberation also from that which is tolerable and rewarding and comfortable- while it sustains and absolves the destructive power and repressive function of the affluent society.

The means of mass transportation and communication, the commodities of lodging, food, and clothing, the irresistible output of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole. The products indoctrinate and manipulate. They promote a false consciousness. The indoctrination becomes a way of life. Thus, emerges a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior.

Technology rationality reveals its political character as it becomes the great vehicle of better domination, creating a truly totalitarian universe in which society and nature, mind and body are kept in a state of permanent mobilization for the defense of this universe (p.20).  

Just as people know or feel that advertisements and political platforms must not be necessarily true or right, and yet hear and read them and even let themselves be guided by them, so they accept the traditional values and make them part of their mental equipment. Domination has its own aesthetics, and democratic domination has its democratic aesthetics. It is good that almost everyone can now have the fine arts at his fingertips, by just turning a knob on his set, or by just stepping into his drugstore. In this diffusion, however, they become cogs in a culture-machine which remakes their content.

The rulers of the world are losing their metaphysical features. Their appearance on television, at press conferences, in parliament, and at public hearings is hardly suitable for drama beyond that of the advertisement, while the consequences of their actions surpass the scope of the drama (p.74). Free election of masters does not abolish the masters of the slaves (p.10).

The established societies themselves are changing, or have already changed the basic institutions in the direction of increased planning. In Marcuse’s view the power of reason and freedom are declining in the late industrial society. With the increasing concentration and effectiveness of economic, political, and cultural controls, the opposition in all these fields has been pacified, coordinated, or liquidated. One-dimensional man means conforming to existing thought and behavior and lacking a critical dimension and a dimension of potentialities that transcend the existing society. ‘’One-dimensional man’’ has lost, or is losing, individuality, freedom, and the ability to dissent and to control one’s own destiny.

Marcuse was one of the first theorists to analyze consumer society through analyzing how consumerism, advertising, mass culture, and ideology integrate individuals into and stabilize the capitalist system. One-dimensional man does not know it’s true needs because its needs are not its own- they are administered, superimposed, and heteronomous; it is not able to resist domination, nor to act autonomously, for it identifies with public behavior and imitates an submits to the powers that be. Lacking the power of authentic self-activity, one dimensional man submits to increasingly total domination (xxviii).

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Book Review: Friedrich Nietzsche Why I am so Wise translated by R.J. Hollingdale

 

Nietzsche lived from 1844 to 1900. This book has been compiled by including excerpts from Ecce Homo and Twilight of the Idols. The author says that the overthrowing idols is his business. According to him, philosophy is a voluntary living in ice and high mountains- a seeking after everything strange and questionable in existence, all that has hitherto been excommunicated by morality.

Nietzsche says: ‘It also seems to me that the rudest word, the rudest letter is more good-natured, more honest than silence.’ He believes that he has a right to wage a war on Christianity because he has never experienced anything disagreeable from them. Furthermore, he states that he does not speak to the masses because he fears that he would be pronounced holy. He does not want to be a saint. He thinks there is nothing more mendacious than saints.

Moreover, in the book the author considers himself as an immoralist. This immoralist involves two denials. First, denial of the man who has been counted as the highest and second, denial of Christian morality. In Maxims and Arrows, the author clearly states his mistrust of all systematizers and says that ‘the will to a system is a lack of integrity.’

Nietzsche states that he knows his fate. He writes: ‘One day there will be associated with my name the recollection of something frightful- of crisis like no other before on earth, of the profoundest collision of conscience, of a decision evoked against everything that until the had been believed in, demanded, sanctified. I am not a man, I am dynamite.’

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Book Review: Buddha or Karl Marx by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar

 

The editorial committee of this book found three different typed copies of an essay on Buddha and Karl Marx in loose sheets. The essay is divided into sub topics. This includes basis of the ideas of Buddha and Karl Marx. With that, the author compares Buddha and Marx. Furthermore, in the book withering away of the state is also discussed.

Marx and Buddha were divided by 2381 years. Ambedkar believes that having read both Buddha and Marx, a comparison is what he should do. The author believes that Buddha was born a democrat and died a democrat. He stresses that Buddha was of the view that ‘each man should be morally so trained that he may himself become a sentinel for the kingdom of righteousness.’ Ambedkar says that the communists themselves admit that their theory of the state as a permanent dictatorship is a weakness in their political philosophy. He further says that Russians do not seem to be paying any attention to Buddhism as an ultimate aid to sustain Communism when force is withdrawn.

Buddha’s method was to change the mind so that whatever he does is without force of compulsion. Ambedkar believes that Russian dictatorship would be good for all backward countries, but this is no argument for permanent dictatorship. This form of dictatorship he believes, paid no attention to spiritual values. Ambedkar stresses that man must grow materially and spiritually. He opines that equality will be of no vale without fraternity or liberty. Ambedkar concludes that all three can coexist if one follows the way of Buddha.

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Book Review: The Procession By Kahlil Gibran

 

This unique work of Gibran is unique in the sense that it is his first major work in verse. It was originally written in Arabic and translated into English by Dr. George Kheirallah. A biographical introduction has also been added by Kheirallah. This introduction puts light on the poet’s life and his perception in his native land. His mystical drawings have also been added in the book.

Gibran arrived in the United states with his mother and siblings. They went to Boston where other people of their town had settled. Gibran’s father was a shepherd. After some education in the U.S Gibran’s half-brother Peter now wanted Gibran to go back to Beyrut and learn his native language Arabic. He also wanted him to learn French. Gibran returned to America after four years of study. Upon his return to Boston he discovered that Sultana had died on April 4, 1902. Peter and Gibran’s mother passed away. Gibran and his sister Mariana left the plague-ridden house. Mariana sewed and Gibran wrote. By early 1904 Gibran had twenty drawings to offer. No gallery would receive his imaginative and mystical drawings. Mary Haskell became a close friend of Gibran who assisted him in writing English. She also prevailed upon him to accept her aid and to go abroad for study.

From 1908 to 1910 Gibran worked at his art in Paris under the guidance of older artists. After that he returned to Boston, but in 1912 he moved to New York where he lived for the rest of his life. A fatal ailment was gnawing in his body, but he kept his work going. On April 9, 1931, a friend came to see him and found him in pain and illness. He did not wish to be removed to a hospital. Next morning, he was taken to the hospital where he died on 10 April 1931, at the age of forty-eight. Mariana brought back her brother body to his native land. People flocked in large numbers to pay their respect to Gibran.

In this book Gibran addresses the themes of religion, justice, science, knowledge, freedom, happiness, hope, love youth, death, will and capitulation of the sage. I quote Gibran below:

• Life is but a sleep disturbed.
• As though religion were a phase of commerce in their daily trade; should they neglect it they would lose- or preserving would be paid.
• Yea, death and prison we mete out to small offenders of the laws, while honor, wealth, and full respect on greater pirates we bestow.
• To steal a flower, we call mean, to rob a field is chivalry; who kills the body he must die, who kills the spirit he goes free.
• For man is happy only in his aspiration to the heights; when he attains his goal, he calls and longs for other distant flights.
• For in nature we the children hold the sane as strange.
• Have you taken to the forest, shunned the palace for adobe?
• Have you ever bathed in fragrance, dried yourself in sheets of light? Ever quaff the wine of dawning, From ethereal goblets bright?
• Ever bedded in the herbage, quilted by a heavenly vast, unconcerned about the future, and forgetful of your past?

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Book Review: Between Morn and Night By Kahlil Gibran

 

The magnetism of Kahlil Gibran is seen in this work where he brings different themes under his microscope. The Tempest, slavery, satan, the mermaids, the poet, and we and you are some of the chapters in the book. Gibran shifts between poetry and prose bringing out the deep meanings of topics which remain close to his heart. I personally found his writings on slavery very amazing. His definition of blind, mute, deaf, lame, ugly, subtle, twisted, bent and black slavery are really worth reading for anyone. 

Under the chapter We and you he says:

When you ridicule us your taunts mingle

With the crushing of the skulls and the

Rattling of the shackles and the wailing of the

Abyss. When we cry, our tears fall into the

Heart of life, as we dew drops fall from the

Eyes of Night into the heart of Dawn; and

When you laugh, your mocking laughter pours

Down like the viper’s venom into the wound.

We cry, and sympathize with the miserable

Wanderer and distressed widow; but you rejoice

And smile at the sight of resplendent gold.

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Book Review: Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work by Muḥammad Abdullah Enan

 

The author of this book presents a study on Ibn Khaldun, one of the distinguished personalities in the history of Muslim thought. Although western scholars benefited from Ibn Khaldun, but the author believes that in the East he is still not fully appreciated. The early chapters of the book cover the early life period of Ibn Khaldun and his adventures, whereas the latter part focuses on his intellectual and social legacy.

Born in 1332 in Tunis, Ibn Khaldun belonged to a prominent influential family of Andalusia (Muslim Spain). He was the descendant of an old and learned family. At an early age he learned Quran by heart, studied Hadith and jurisprudence.  Khaldun became a seal barrier, shifted sides when under danger. He travelled, studied and became an outstanding personality in the history of the states of North Africa. He was appointed at the court of Fez. Other than that he also got involved in political intrigues. Sultan Abu Enan kept Khaldun in prison for two years.

The author considers Khaldun as an opportunist for whom ‘end justified means’. Under Sultan Abu Salem Khaldun was secretary and chamberlain. After that he was appointed as Chief Justice. The author continues that Khaldun occupied the same status of a thinker and writer in the states of North Africa, as Ibn al-Khatib had in Andalusia.

Under Sultan of Bougie, Khaldun served as a Hajib (manager of all the affairs of the state). When Khaldun returns to North Africa he resumes his relations with Abu Hamu. He starts to write his historical work. Later, Khaldun arrives in Egypt. Firstly, he is appointed as a professor in the Kamhiah School and later as a Maliki judge. The Egyptian writers oppose and criticize him. Khaldun’s family dies during a journey when a storm hits their ship. This book mentions the circumstances under which Khaldun is relieved from his position as a judge. Furthermore, his study, research, and his efforts for the improvement of relations between Egyptian court and the courts of North Africa are also mentioned. His journey to the holy land is also briefly covered.

Ibn Khaldun descends from the walls of Damascus and reaches the camp of Timur, who is ready to invade. He interviews the invader Timur. For twenty-three years Khaldun lives in Egypt. He keeps away from politics and works on his literary works. Egyptian writers greatly oppose him and attack him in their writings, but a few also support him. Some of them include Al-Makrizi who was influenced by his thoughts and theories.

The second part on the book revolves around the legacy of Ibn Khaldun. This includes both social and intellectual legacy. Under this section Khaldun’s compression of subjects such as history, sociology and political economy are praised. The author discusses Khaldun’s views on state, sovereignty and social phenomena. Ibn Khaldun considered history as a science worthy of study- not as a narrative merely recorded. While discussing the Arabs Khaldun opines that they are a ‘savage nation whose conquests are made for pillage and devastation’.

Western research considers Khaldun a philosopher, historian, a scholar of sociology and political economy. Dutch, French, Italian and Russian scholars have praised Khaldun’s work. Comparing Khaldun and Machiavelli the author believes that the Muslim thinker was richer in material than the Italian thinker. The author states that: “The opinions and theories of Machiavelli are inspired by the events of ancient history, particularly by the events of his time which he witnessed and studied, and from which he concludes certain general laws, in the same manner as Ibn Khaldun who makes similar conclusions by studying society.”

The author leaves the reader with the possibility that Machaivelli might have heard of Ibn Khaldun and his Prolegomena towards the end of his life, ten years after writing the Prince. In the concluding paragraphs Inan says that ‘Prince was a great conquest in the thought of the Renaissance as the Prolegomena was a great conquest in Muslim thought’. This book stands out as a great effort by the author in highlighting Ibn Khaldun’s achievements and his work. Every person interested in history, politics and sociology should give this a read.

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Book Review: Principles of Social Reconstruction by Bertrand Russell

 

Principles of Social Reconstruction is a compilation of lectures written by Bertrand Russell in 1915 and delivered the very next year.  Based on eight chapters this book covers themes of growth, state, war, property, education, marriage, religion and the potential of the human race.

Russell says that ‘without understanding and sympathy it is impossible to find a cure for the evil from which the world is suffering’.  He further adds that all human activity springs from the two sources: impulse and desire. Russel thinks that men not only need material goods, but more ‘freedom, more self-direction, more outlet for creativeness, more opportunity for the joy of life, more voluntary co-operation, and less involuntary subservience to purposes not their own. The author says that public opinion is largely created by the state with the help of oratory and the influence of the press. Moreover, he adds that ‘public opinion is as great an enemy to liberty as tyrannous laws’.  Both for internal; and external affairs the worst enemy of freedom is considered war by Russell.

In the third chapter war as an institution is discussed. Power or wealth are the two objects identified by Russell, which are desired by groups which make war. Russell believes that a ‘large proportion of mankind have impulse to conflict rather than harmony. This is same in the case of private lives and relation of states. In this chapter a suggestion is provided which says: “If the world is to be saved, men must learn to be noble without being cruel, to be filled with faith and yet open to truth, to be inspired by great purposes without hating those who try thwart them’.

In the chapter on property the author says that political institutions can play an important part by helping ‘individual creativeness, vigor, vitality, and the joy of life’. Russell opines that the evils in the current system result from the difference in the interest of consumer, producer and the capitalist. Chapter five of this book is on education. The author says: “Education is, as a rule, the strongest force on the side of what exists and against fundamental change: threatened institutions, why they are still powerful, possess themselves of the educational machine, and instill a respect for their own excellence into the malleable minds of the young”. He espouses that education should provide children with the knowledge and mental habits required for forming independent opinions. Russell says that ‘almost all education has a political motive.’ Preserving independence and impulse is more needed than instilling obedience and discipline by a teacher, says Russell. More money should be spent to secure teachers with more leisure and natural love of teaching. In addition to that the author says that men fear thought more than anything else on earth.

In chapter six the author addresses the question of marriage as a political institution. More and more women find motherhood unsatisfying, more and more there comes to be a conflict between their personal development and the future of the community, says the author. Russell states that: “It is the combination of love, children, and a common life that makes the best relation between a man and a woman. In chapter on religion and the churches, he is not in favor of professional priesthood. He is of the view that curiosity is the primary impulse out of which the whole edifice of scientific knowledge has grown. A reconciliation of instinct, mind and spirit is essential for men to remain whole. It is instinct that gives force, mind that gives the means of directing force to desired ends, and spirit that suggest impersonal uses for force of a kind that thought cannot discredit by criticism. He concludes chapter seven by saying that for those people who once enter the world of thought, it is only through spirit that happiness and peace can return.

In the last chapter titled ‘what can we do’ Russell explores the insecurities and possibilities of man on this planet. He says that ‘it is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly’. In the same chapter he further states that: “Education, marriage, and religion are essentially creative, yet all three have been vitiated by the intrusion of possessive motives”.  Russell is of the view that economic systems play an important role in promoting or destroying lives. According to him, after slavery, the present industrial system is the most destructive of life that has ever existed.

In this compilation of essays Bertrand Russell argues that impulse has more effect than conscious purpose in crafting men’s lives. Life built on creative impulses, according to him is the best life. Liberation of creatives should be the principle of reform both in politics and in economics. This conviction led Russell to the writing of these lectures.

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Book Review: The Idea of History Through Ages by Tahir Kamran

Tahir Kamran, the author of this book helps the reader understand important aspects of historiography. Various theoretical forms are discussed in this work. In the introduction of this book history as a subject is discussed. Whether history is a science or art is debated. The historical method of history is given which divides into a). Preliminaries, b). Analytical method and c). Synthetic method. Detailed classification of historical evidence is also covered in the first chapter.

The second chapter is regarding the Greco-Roman historians. The definition of myth, legend and epic is covered. Starting from Herodotus, Greek historiography is briefly explained. Muslim historians of the medieval times are enclosed in the third chapter. Starting with Al- Tabari and closing with Saqi Mustaid Khan of Aurangzeb’s time period, many historians are included. This includes writers of Arab, Turk, Central Asian and Indian origin. Ibn-e-Khaldun’s views on history, political sociology, geography, education and economics is discussed. His significance and knowledge is also presented before the reader. With that, under historiography many writers who worked under Mughal rule have also been included.

Chapter four brings to light the re-emergence of history in Europe. Vice, Montesquieu, Edward Gibbon and Leopold Van Ranke are under discussion. Their influence, arguments, biases and errors are also mentioned. Historians of Europe in the nineteenth century is the fifth chapter. Under this five schools of history are mentioned. Prussian School of History, Romantic School of History, Political School of History, Oxford School of History and Cambridge School of History are briefly discussed. The writers affiliated with these schools are also reflected upon. The limitations of various works by scholars under different schools are also addressed by the author.

The sixth chapter is on History and Dialectics. Hegel and Marx are explained by the author. How Marx uses Hegel’s method to devise his own ideas is mentioned. Their different methods are also mentioned. The last chapter is about Spengler and Toynbee. Spengler demonstrated that world history is city history and that great cultures are town cultures. Moreover, he writes about civilization. Toynbee has worked on the genesis, growth, and breakdown and disintegration of civilization. This book is certainly a good read as it provides a good overview of the idea of History through ages, as the book title suggests.

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Book Review: Fallen Leaves- Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God by Will Durant

Some of the commentators espouse that this book was basically a reply to the challenge posed by Will Durant’s readers. Fallen Leaves addresses questions related to religion, morality, war, women, politics and art. Only if one reads this short book one would observe how easily the author brings down complex subjects into simple language for the readers to comprehend. 

Based on twenty-two short chapters this book is based on personal experiences which provides a gist of Durant’s thinking. Durant wants the youth to experience and cherish love. He emphasis on the need for moral development. Furthermore, the authors stresses that there are numerous problems which he highlighted in the book. This includes breakdown of marriage, breakdown of family, loosening of morals, crime in society and the decline of moral fabric of society by the cruelty of war. The solution which Durant suggests is that of mutual understanding. The younger generation with its innovation should have the support of the aged who have the experience. This method would help in creating solutions with a much better for the future generations.

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Book Review: The Greatest Minds and Ideas by Will Durant

Before reading the page of contents I came across a wonderful quote by Will Durant. He says: “If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life”. This particular book has been divided into six chapters. ‘A shameless worship of heroes’ is the first chapter of the book that expounds that now to acknowledge in life or history any genius bigger than ourselves has become unfashionable.  In addition, the author writes that the real history of man is not of the common man but that of the lasting contributions made by geniuses to the sum of human civilization and culture.

Durant makes his case by saying that “the history of civilization has been the adventure of human reason”. The criteria set by the author in gauging the greatest minds and ideas of all times is the extent and persistence of influence upon the lives and minds of men. Starting from number one Confucius, followed by Plato, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant and Charles Darwin. Those excluded from the list include Marcus Aurelius, Spinoza, Nietzsche and many others. The author believes that many other lists could also be formed and the lists made by him is not the final.

The criteria set for the ten greatest poets by the author is to record men who have brought him that strange mixture of music, emotion, imagery, and thought, which is poetry. Homer, David, Euripides, Lucretius, LI-PO, Dante, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Walt Whitman. He quotes many different poems of various poets categorized by him.

While categorizing the best hundred books for an education, the author provides a list of the hundred books categorizing them under different themes. The author says in the fourth chapter: “If you have studied with life rather than with courses, it maybe as well; the rough tutelage of reality has ripened you into some readiness to know great men. The first book on the author’s list is The Outline of Science. After that he suggests reading William James book Principles of Psychology.  Durant is of the view that even if a one does not agree with an author one should ‘nevertheless carry on reading, toleration of differences is one mark of a gentleman’.

Chapter five is about ten peaks of human progress. Defining ‘progress’, the author mentions that it is the “increasing control of the environment” and by environment he means “all the circumstances that condition the coordination and the realization of desire”. He briefly writes about the peaks, starting from Speech, followed by fire, the conquest of the animals, agriculture, social organization, morality, tools, science, education and writing. Moreover, the author adds that ‘never was our heritage of civilization and culture so secure and never was it half so rich’. The sixth, which is the last chapter of this book briefly explains the twelve most vital dates in world history. They are as follows:

·         

• 4241 B.C- The Introduction of the Egyptian Calendar
• 543 B.C.- The Death of Buddha
• 478 B.C.- The Death of Confucius
• 399 B.C.- The Death of Socrates
• ? B.C.- The Birth of Christ
• A.D. 632- The Death of Mohammed
• 1294- The Death of Roger Bacon
• 1454- The Press of Johannes Gutenberg (at the Mainz on the Rhine) issues the first printed documents bearing a printed date
• 1492- Columbus Discovers America
• 1769- James Watt brings the steam engine to practical utility
• 1789- The French Revolution

The author concludes the book hoping that the reader makes his own list, which shall

help him in clarifying human development.

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Book Review: Readings in Liberalism by Detmar Doering

Detmar Doering, the Director of Liberal Institute in the introduction of the book argues that liberalism represents the finest of western tradition and the greatest of what constitutes modernity. He has very smartly summarized the main ideas discussed in this book. He writes that there is no complete definition of liberalism. One reason that he suggests is that politics continuously brings new challenges that require new liberal answers.

This book is an attempt to show the diversity within the tradition of liberalism. Texts included in this volume span the period from the 17^th century writings of John Locke, through liberalism’s peak in the 19^th century (represented here by Frederic Bastiat, for example), to contemporary authors such as Popper, Gray and Nozick. 

Various topics are under discussion in the book. John Stuart Mill’s thought on education, David Hume on justice, Wilhelm von Humboldt on the purpose of man, John Prince Smith on the free- are some of the examples. Names such as Adam Smith and the American thinker William Leggett are also present. The philosophical positions of various thinkers are presented. They have one thing in common. All of them help to establish the liberal idea of freedom.

John Locke’s work on the individual’s rights that predate the state, Hume’s political thought on the assumption that freedom and justice appear only with the cultural development that draws its dynamism from the individual’s striving for benefit are also mentioned in the book. This position, in turn, is taken to an extreme by Ludwig von Mises, who admits only the individual and his capability for economic calculation, thus rejecting any ideas of natural rights that predate the state. In the final analysis, all three arrive at the same conclusion, that the protection of property is one of the most liberal constitutional state’s most important tasks.

While Mill and Ortega y Gasset discern possible danger to freedom even in democracy, Leggett considers democracy to be freedom’s essential philosophical basis.  But all these approaches have one thing in common: They support liberalism’s idea of freedom. They support the idea that all power must be tied to the freedom of the individual. They both serve the struggle against every open form of totalitarianism and reinforce the warning against the creeping dismantling of freedom taking place through well-meaning state interventionism. Many approaches become apparent that all lead to the same goal. This goal is the open and liberal society that is based on the ideal of the freedom of the individual and on the principles of the constitutional state and the free market economy. Consideration of the bases of such a society (the present collection is intended to provide food for thought in this regard) is always a relevant task. As Friedrich August von Hayek once stated, “The guiding principle that a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy remains as true today as it was in the 19^th century.”

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