Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy

Maurice Cornforth

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 15

I
Empiricism and Logic

1 PRINCIPLES FOR SCIENCE AND PRINCIPLES FOR GOVERNMENT

1 Man the interpreter of nature 21
2 Discourse on method 22
3 Body and sense 24
4 The object of knowledge 27
5 The appearance becomes the object 29
6 The social contract 32
7 Appearance and reality 35
8 The bourgeois dilemma 37

2 SCEPTICISM AND CONSERVATISM

1 The abolition of matter 40
2 The road to solipsism 44
3 Knowledge, belief and superstition 48
4 Justification by faith 50
5 Morals and reason 52
6 Improving the ancient fabric 55

3 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

1 Francis Bacon was right 57
2 Dialectical materialism 58
3 The analysis of sensations 60
4 A misfit 62
5 Science and society 66
6 Positivism: methodology for social science 69

4 PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA

1 Mathematical analysis 74
2 Mathematics and logic 78
3 The system of "Principia Mathematica" 80
4 The flaws in the system 83
5 The interpretation of logical and mathematical analysis 86
6 Logical and mathematical necessity 88
7 The object of analysis 89
8 Analysis and philosophy 91

5 IN SEARCH OF THE RIGHT ANALYSIS

1 Our knowledge of the external world 94
2 The uses of a razor 98
3 Common sense gets into difficulties 100
4 "Principia Ethica" 102
5 The refutation of idealism 106

6 A SPOT OF NONSENSE

1 The verification principle 111
2 The pictorial theory of propositions 114
3 Nonsense 116
4 Insight, therapy, analysis 118
5 The return to solipsism 120
6 A crop of difficulties 1121
7 Logical positivism 125

II
Linguistic Philosophy

1 A THERAPY FOR THEORIES

1 Second thoughts about language 133
2 No theory—but a cure for theories 138
3 Words and their meaning 140
4 A programme for philosophical investigations 145
5 Stating what everyone admits 149

2 PHILOSOPHY AND ORDINARY LANGUAGE

1 The uses of philosophy 155
2 Informative and uninformative statements 158
3 Some very peculiar uses of language 161
4 Verifiability 164
5 Unanswered questions 165

3 THE ACTUAL USE OF LANGUAGE

1 Language and thought 170
2 Uses of words and what they have in common 173
3 Conventions of language and their uses 178
4 Words and what we do with them 181
5 Fact and fancy 185

4 LANGUAGE AND LOGIC

1 Meaning and logical necessity 189
2 Principles of formal logic 191
3 The formalism of logic 195
4 The logical behaviour of categories 198
5 Category of word and category of concept 201
6 Dilemmas of the category list 204
7 Categories, category-mistakes and informativeness 207

5 THE LANGUAGE OF MORALS

1 Morals and reason 211
2 The nature of moral reasoning 215
3 The problem of conflicting interests and ideals 219

6 LIBERALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM

1 The argument from universalisability 223
2 Principles and interests 224
3 Men as men 228
4 "I" questions and "we" questions 230
5 Choosing the worse 234
6 The social nature of morality 235
7 Individual and social questions 236
8 Social organisation and personal behaviour 238
9 Interests and reasons 239
10 Wanted—a materialist philosophy of man 244

7 A PLACE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT

1 Criticism of linguistic philosophy 245
2 The revolution in philosophy 248
3 Theorylessness 250
4 The logic of scientific discovery 253
5 Professionalism and specialisation 257
6 A class ideology 260
7 A place in the establishment 262

III
Marxism

1 THE DIALECTICAL MATERIALIST APPROACH

1 A clean break 267
2 A scientifically based view of man 271
3 No final certainty 274
4 Methodology 276
5 The circularity and the test of dialectical materialism 282

2 THE LAWS OF THOUGHT

1 Formal logic 285
2 Categories 287
3 Dialectics 291
4 The laws of dialectics 294
5 Dialectics and materialism 298

3 SOCIALIST HUMANISM

1 Man and the universe 303
2 Social production 305
3 Human relations 307
4 Division of labour and private property 310
5 Alienation and the depersonalisation of human relations 313
6 Religion 317
7 Capitalism and socialism 320
8 Communism 324
9 The contemporary philosophy of man 330

4 COMMUNISM AND HUMAN VALUES

1 Science and evaluation 334
2 Human values and class interests 338
3 Ends and means 341
4 Freedom, necessity and obligation 345
5 Morality, intelligible and unintelligible 349

5 COMMUNISM AND MORALITY

1 Morality as an alienation effect 352
2 Morals and politics of class struggle 356
3 The empirical foundation of moral and political judgment 359

6 COEXISTENCE AND CONTROVERSY

1 The contemporary war of ideas 365
2 Communism and the technological revolution 370
3 Marxism and the linguistic philosophy 375

INDEX 379

SOURCE: Cornforth, Maurice. Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy. 2nd ed. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1967 (orig. 1965). Contents, pp. 5-8. See also the complete book offsite.

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