Evald Vassilievich Ilyenkov (russian: link=no, Э́вальд Васи́льевич Илье́нков; 18 February 1924 – 21 March 1979) was a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
author and
Soviet philosopher.
Biography
Evald Ilyenkov did original work on the materialist development of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
's
dialectics
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...
, notable for his account of concrete universals. His works include ''Dialectical Logic'' (Russian, 1974; English trans. 1977), ''Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism'' (Russian, 1980 (posthum.); English trans. 1982) and ''The Dialectics of the Abstract and Concrete in Marx's Capital'' (Russian, 1960; English trans. 1982). Ilyenkov committed suicide in 1979.
David Bakhurst wrote in his article; "Meaning, Normativity and the Life of Mind":
An abridged version of his article, "Marx and the Western World," was published in English in a book of the same name in 1967, but this work is little known.
On the other hand, Ilyenkov's work (especially his masterpiece, the study on ''Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx's Capital'' from 1960, and the collection of essays entitled ''Dialectical Logic'' from 1974) deeply influenced the reception of Marx' economic writings from the 1960s onwards, in the Soviet Union and the GDR as well as in the West. His influence can be witnessed in the international research effort concerned with the publication of Marx' economic manuscripts (in Marx/Engels: ''Gesamtausgabe'', or MEGA, section II, 1976 ff.). His influence is also evident in the intense debates on economic reform that was going on in the Soviet Union in the 1970s (e.g., in the works of
A. K. Pokrytan).
Ilyenkov's works have been published in about 20 languages. His ''Dialectical Logic'' (1974) was published in English by Progress Publishers in Moscow in 1977. A German translation of his ''Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx’s Capital'' (1960), was published by the same publisher in 1979 (and simultaneously by ''Das europäische Buch'',
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
); an English translation of the book was published by Progress Publishers in Moscow in 1982. ''Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism'' (first published in Russian in 1980) was published by New Park Publications in 1982.
Bibliography (English translations)
Books:
*2018
Intelligent Materialism: Essays on Hegel and Dialectics*1960
*1974
*1979
Articles:
*1974
*1974
*1974
*1974
A Contribution to a Conversation About Esthetic Education*1975
A Contribution to a Conversation About Meshcheriakov*1975
*1976
Dialectics of the Ideal*1977
*1979
*1979
Materialism Is Militant and Therefore Dialectical*Date unknown
Psychology*Date unknown
Our Schools Must Teach How to Think!*Date unknown
A Contribution to the Discussion on School Education*Date unknown
On the Nature of Ability*Date unknown
The Biological and the Social in Man*Date unknown
A Contribution on the Question of the Concept of “Activity” and Its Significance for Pedagogy*Date unknown
Knowledge and Thinking*Date unknown
Ideals (Social, Esthetic, Moral)*Date unknown
Mind and Brain (An Answer to D. I. Dubrovskii)*Date unknown
The Question of the Identity of Thought and Being in Pre-Marxist Philosophy
See also
*
Philosophy in the Soviet Union
Philosophy in the Soviet Union was officially confined to Marxist–Leninist thinking, which theoretically was the basis of objective and ultimate philosophical truth. During the 1920s and 1930s, other tendencies of Russian thought were repressed ...
*
Aleksandr Zinovyev
Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev ( Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Зино́вьев; October 29, 1922 – May 10, 2006) was a Soviet philosopher, writer, sociologist, and journalist.
Coming from a poor peasant fami ...
*
Merab Mamardashvili
Merab Mamardashvili ( ka, მერაბ მამარდაშვილი, russian: Мера́б Константи́нович Мамардашви́ли; September 15, 1930 – November 25, 1990) was a Georgian philosopher.
Biography
He ...
*
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
*
Lev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (russian: Лев Семёнович Выго́тский, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; be, Леў Сямёнавіч Выго́цкі, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on ps ...
*
Bertell Ollman
Bertell Ollman (born April 30, 1935, in Milwaukee) is a professor of politics at New York University. He teaches both dialectical methodology and socialist theory. He is the author of several academic works relating to Marxist theory.
Ollman att ...
References
* Ilyenkov, E.V., The Ideal in Human Activity, includes "Dialectical Logic" and essays on the ideal and activity, such as “The Universal,” "Activity and Knowledge" and “The Concept of the Ideal,” published by Erythrospress, se
Erythrospress.com/Ilyenkov
Further reading
*Dialectics of the Ideal: Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism (Historical Materialism Book Series) by Alex Levant
*Evald Ilyenkov's Philosophy Revisited, (Kikimora publications) by Vesa Oittinen (Dec 2000)
*Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov, by David Bakhurst (Jun 28, 1991)
E. Ilyenkov and the Deaf-Blind Children:Soviet Psychologists Show Pavlov the Door, by Susan Welsh (1977).Spinoza, Ilyenkov & Western Marxism – meeting the challenges of the global crisis, by Corinna Lotz and Penny Cole (2012).
* ttp://www.aworldtowin.net/resources/Ilyenkov.html A philosopher under suspicion, by Sergey Mareev (1990)br>Review of E.V. Ilyenkov, "The Ideal in Human Activity", by Alex Levant (2011)
* ttp://caute.ru/ilyenkov/cmt/jones.htm Ideality, Symbols, and the Mind(Response to David Bakhurst), by Peter Jones (1998?)br>Re-reading Soviet philosophy: Bakhurst on Ilyenkov, by Brendan Larvor (1992)
*Lessons from Ilyenkov, by David Bakhurst (1995)
Review-essay: From the History of Soviet Philosophy: Lukacs-Vygotsky-Ilyenkov, by Alex Levant (2011)
*From the History of Soviet Philosophy: Lukács – Vygotsky – Ilyenkov, by Sergey Mareev, Moscow:Kul’turnaia revoliutsiia, 2008 ussianbr>About_the_Last_Soviet_Marxist,_by_Aleksey_Tsvetkov_(2013)_[Russian
/nowiki>.html" ;"title="ussian">About the Last Soviet Marxist, by Aleksey Tsvetkov (2013) [Russian
/nowiki>">ussian">About the Last Soviet Marxist, by Aleksey Tsvetkov (2013) [Russian
/nowiki>br>E.V. Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Theory: An Introduction to Dialectics of the Ideal, by Alex Levant (2012)Evald Ilyenkov’s Cosmology: The Point of Madness of Dialectical Materialism, by Slavoj Žižek
*Finding Evald Ilyenkov: How a Soviet philosopher who stood up for dialectics continues to inspire, by Corinna Lotz (2019)
External links
Evald Ilyenkov Archive at Marxist Internet Archive
*International Friends of Ilyenkov https://ilyenkovfriends.org/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilyenkov, Evald
1924 births
1979 suicides
20th-century Russian philosophers
Materialists
Marxist theorists
Russian communists
Russian Marxists
Russian people of World War II
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Soviet philosophers
Suicides in the Soviet Union
Spinoza scholars
Spinozist philosophers
1979 deaths