DOCSLIB.ORG

Towards a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Towards a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility Syracuse University SURFACE Philosophy - Dissertations College of Arts and Sciences 2013 Towards a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility Kelly Anne McCormick Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/phi_etd Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation McCormick, Kelly Anne, "Towards a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility" (2013). Philosophy - Dissertations. 75. https://surface.syr.edu/phi_etd/75 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy - Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract: Revisionism is the view that we would do well to distinguish between what we think about moral responsibility and what we ought to think about it, that the former is in some important sense implausible and conflicts with the latter, and so we should revise our concept of moral responsibility accordingly. There are three main challenges for a successful revisionist account of moral responsibility: (i) it must meet the diagnostic challenge of identifying our folk concept and provide good reason to think that significant features of this concept are implausible, (ii) it must meet the motivational challenge and explain why, in light of this implausibility, our folk concept ought to be revised rather than eliminated, and (iii) it must meet the prescriptive challenge and provide an account of how, all things considered, we ought to revise our thinking about moral responsibility. In order to meet (iii) revisionism must provide a prescriptive account of responsibility that is free of the problematic features of our folk concept identified in meeting the diagnostic challenge, is naturalistically plausible, normatively adequate, and justifies our continued participation in the practice of moral praising and blaming. So, while the first of these three challenges is primarily concerned with the nature of our concepts, the latter two move to questions about whether or not, to use Dennett’s terms, we can defend and accept an account of moral responsibility “worth wanting.” In my dissertation I raise a new problem for revisionism, the normativity-anchoring problem. The heart of this problem is that the methodological commitments used to motivate revisionism and distinguish the view from conventional theorizing about moral responsibility make it uniquely difficult for revisionists to justify our continued participation in the practice of moral praising and blaming. Following Manuel Vargas, who has thus far developed and defended the view most rigorously, revisionists endorse the following skeptical claim: it is possible that our intuitions fail to inform us about what responsibility is, and furthermore we lack good epistemic reasons for thinking that they ever do. For conventional theorists, the fact that a particular account of responsibility best aligns with our refined intuitions, beliefs, and theoretical commitments is reason enough, ceteris paribus, to endorse that view. But revisionists who endorse the skeptical claim must find some alternative method for arguing that their prescriptive account is one that we should in fact endorse. One alternative, suggested by Vargas himself, is to show that the prescriptive account in question justifies our continued participation in the practice of moral praising and blaming, and preserves the “work of the concept.” However, I argue that Vargas’ own claim that the prescriptive account he offers promotes an independently valuable form of agency fails to bridge the gap between axiological claims about value and normative claims about how we should treat responsible agents. Moreover, bridging this gap looks to be a serious problem for any form of revisionism which shares the methodological commitments used to motivate the view thus far, and so further development of revisionism requires having a solution to the normativity-anchoring problem in hand. I go on to develop a new revisionist strategy that avoids the normativity-anchoring problem. I propose and defend a new methodological assumption (hereafter referred to as MAP) that I argue revisionists can and should accept, capable of preserving the skeptical spirit of revisionism while identifying a particular class of intuitions about moral responsibility as having a privileged epistemic status. In particular, I argue that revisionists can and should accept that widespread judgments about responsibility generated by concrete cases which elicit a strong affective response in the person making the judgment have a privileged epistemic status in our responsibility theorizing. My arguments in support of this assumption depend on an analogy between the responsibility judgments in question and the kinds of paradigmatic judgments which constrain our ethical theorizing more generally. Having established this analogy I then offer a series of companions in guilt style arguments for the claim that the epistemic status of these two kinds of judgments should stand and fall together. I conclude that the responsibility judgments in question should ultimately share the privileged status of the paradigmatic ethical judgments in question, and thus play an evidentiary role in our theorizing about moral responsibility. If these arguments are successful then acceptance of the methodological assumption I defend allows revisionists to avoid the normativity-anchoring problem while preserving the unique methodological spirit which motivates revisionism and sets it apart from conventional theorizing about moral responsibility. TOWARDS A REVISIONIST ACCOUNT OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY Kelly McCormick B.A. Colgate University 2006 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy Syracuse University June 2013 Copyright © Kelly Anne McCormick 2013 All Rights Reserved vi Acknowledgment There are a great many mentors, colleagues, and friends without whom what follows would not be what it is (or perhaps ever have come into existence in the first place). First and foremost I would like to thank my advisor, André Gallois for the countless hours spent discussing what must have at first blush seemed like a number of very crazy ideas, for the wealth of invaluable feedback he provided on first, second, third, ad infinitum drafts, and for his constant support and encouragement. This project and my development as a philosopher have both benefited in ways impossible to do credit to here from the time he invested in them. Next, a big thanks to Manuel Vargas for the helpful and insightful feedback provided on drafts of this project at all of its many stages. Thanks to Ken Baynes, Ben Bradley, Mark Heller, and Derk Pereboom for their excellent comments and questions in my dissertation defense, and for an all-around engaging and productive discussion of this project. The faculty and graduate students of the Syracuse University philosophy department provided helpful feedback on early drafts of parts of this work (especially Chapter Three) in both ABD workshops and informal discussions. Special thanks are due to the following colleagues and dear friends in particular: Kirsten Egerstrom, Jake Greenblum, Matthew Koehler, Amy Massoud, Rachel McKinney, and Aaron Wolf. Finally, thanks to my loving and supportive family for never once asking, “Shouldn’t you think about getting a real job,” and for keeping me going every step of the way. vii Table of Contents Chapter One Revisionism: Goals and Challenges…………………………………………….1 Chapter Two Meeting the Three Challenges…………………………………………………..22 Chapter Three Anchoring a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility……………………...56 Chapter Four Ordinary Judgments about Moral Responsibility: Experimental Philosophy, Empirical Data, and Individual Influences……………………………………..75 Chapter Five The Abstract/Concrete Asymmetry……………………………………………...123 Chapter Six Defending a New Methodological Assumption: MAP…………………………..147 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..191 1 Chapter One Revisionism: Goals and Challenges Introduction As the “new kid on the free will block,” revisionism does not benefit from the same degree of familiarity as many of its competitors (Vargas 2009, 46). Nor is it always clear exactly how best to characterize where the view is situated dialectically in the contemporary free will debate. In order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of revisionism and to attempt to defend and develop the view further it is therefore helpful to first clarify what revisionism is, and where it stands in relation to the other influential views considered to be the main players in this debate. I begin this chapter with a brief overview of the contemporary philosophical discussion of free will and moral responsibility. This overview is not intended to be comprehensive, nor does it provide an exhaustive account of the different views one might hold on the topic. Rather, it is a characterization that I take to be the most instructive in mapping out where revisionism stands in relation to some of its most prominent competitors. In Section 2 I turn to revisionism itself. I first discuss how revisionism differs from other traditional accounts of free will, and the various ways one might motivate revisionism. I then identify three challenges that any revisionist view must meet: the diagnostic, motivational, and prescriptive challenges. The majority of Chapters 1-3 will be devoted to discussion of these three challenges
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Throughout His Writing Career, Nelson Algren Was Fascinated by Criminality
    RAGGED FIGURES: THE LUMPENPROLETARIAT IN NELSON ALGREN AND RALPH ELLISON by Nathaniel F. Mills A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in The University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Alan M. Wald, Chair Professor Marjorie Levinson Professor Patricia Smith Yaeger Associate Professor Megan L. Sweeney For graduate students on the left ii Acknowledgements Indebtedness is the overriding condition of scholarly production and my case is no exception. I‘d like to thank first John Callahan, Donn Zaretsky, and The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust for permission to quote from Ralph Ellison‘s archival material, and Donadio and Olson, Inc. for permission to quote from Nelson Algren‘s archive. Alan Wald‘s enthusiasm for the study of the American left made this project possible, and I have been guided at all turns by his knowledge of this area and his unlimited support for scholars trying, in their writing and in their professional lives, to negotiate scholarship with political commitment. Since my first semester in the Ph.D. program at Michigan, Marjorie Levinson has shaped my thinking about critical theory, Marxism, literature, and the basic protocols of literary criticism while providing me with the conceptual resources to develop my own academic identity. To Patricia Yaeger I owe above all the lesson that one can (and should) be conceptually rigorous without being opaque, and that the construction of one‘s sentences can complement the content of those sentences in productive ways. I see her own characteristic synthesis of stylistic and conceptual fluidity as a benchmark of criticism and theory and as inspiring example of conceptual creativity.
    [Show full text]
  • Production Modes, Marx's Method and the Feasible Revolution
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by European Scientific Journal (European Scientific Institute) European Scientific Journal November 2016 edition vol.12, No.31 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 Production Modes, Marx’s Method and the Feasible Revolution Bruno Jossa retired full professor of political economy, University ”Federico II”, Naples doi: 10.19044/esj.2016.v12n31p20 URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n31p20 Abstract In Marx, the production mode is defined as a social organisation mode which is typified by one dominant production model which confers significance on the system at large. The prominence of production modes in his overall approach provides clues to the identification of the correct scientific method of Marxism and, probably, of Marx himself. The main aim of this paper is to define this method and to discuss a type of socialist revolution which appears feasible in this day and age. Keywords: Marx’s method, producer cooperatives, production modes, socialism Introduction It is not from scientific advancements – Gramsci argued – that we are to expect solutions to the issues on the traditional agenda of philosophical research. Fresh inputs for philosophical speculation have rather come from notions such as ‘social production relations’ and ‘modes of production’, which are therefore Marx's paramount contributions to science.1 In a well-known 1935 essay weighing the merits and 1 For quite a long time, Marxists used to look upon the value theory as Marx’s most important contribution to science. Only when the newly-published second and third books of Capital revealed that Marx had tried to reconcile his value theory with the doctrine of prices as determined by the interplay of demand and supply did they gain a correct appreciation of the importance of the materialist conception of history.
    [Show full text]
  • Defeating Revisionism, Reformism and Opportunism
    Jose Ma. Sison (Amado Guerrero) Defeating Revisionism, Reformism and Opportunism Selected Writings, 1969 to 1974 International Network for Philippine Studies The Netherlands and Aklat ng Bayan, Inc. Philippines Copyright © 2013 by International Network for Philippine Studies (INPS) Published by International Network for Philippine Studies (INPS) and Aklat ng Bayan, Inc. ISBN 978-1-62847-921-8 Cover design by Janos J.L.L. Sison Book design by Alvin Firmeza Contents Editor's Note ix Author's Preface 1 Carry the Struggle against Modern Revisionism through to the End 5 The Lava Revisionist Renegades Are Counterrevolutionaries 7 On the Reformists 11 A Seminar of Landlords on "Land Reform" 11 Masaka Factions Quarrel over Ople 11 Soviet Social-Imperialists Cooperate with US in Defence-Aerospace Program 12 The Treachery of Taruc as a Negative Example 15 Taruc-Sumulong Gangster Clique Is Desperately Isolated 25 Fake Controversy Concocted to Obscure Fundamental Issues in Church 27 Reformist Organizations Beg for Land Reform from Reactionary Government 29 Reactionary "Labor" Confederations "Unite" behind Management and Marcos 33 Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Inc. Admits It Enjoys State Protection 35 Expose and Oppose the Vicious Crimes of the Monkees-Armeng Bayan-Masaka (Lava) Gang 39 On the Counterrevolutionary Line of the Lava Revisionist Renegades 43 On the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism 51 Against the Wishful Thinking of a Revisionist Puppet of US Imperialism 59 I. Capitulation to US Imperialism and the Domestic Ruling System 59 II. Abandonment of Revolutionary Struggle 67 On the Pretended Capture of Sumulong 77 On the Philippine Business for Social Progress 79 Cast Away the Labor Aristocrats! 83 Kidnapping and Murder of Carlos B.
    [Show full text]
  • In Defense of Revisionism
    DOCOHBiT BBSOB1 ED 141 254 SO 010 139 AOTBOB Grabiner, Gene IITLB In Defense of Revisionism. PUB BiTB 7 4pr 77 BOTB 39p.; Portions of this paper Here presented at Annual Beeting of the American Educational Besearch Association (Men Tork," Hew lork. April 3-8, 1977) under the title "The Limits of Educational Bevisionism"; Not available in 'hard cop; doe to poor xeproducibility of original docuient BDBS PBICB HF-$0.83 Plus Postage. BC lot Available from EDBS. DESCBIETOBS *AcadeMic Pteedoi; Analytical Criticism; Authors; Critical Beading; Educational History; Educational Besearchers; 'Historiography; *Literary criticism; Political Attitudes; Political Influences; *Besearch Bethodology; Besearch Skills; Social Attitudes; Social -Class; Social Science Besearch; Social Stratification;' Socioeconomic 'Influences; textual Criticism IDBHTIFIIBS *Bevisionism ABSTBACT Ihis paper discusses -the Misuse of historical data in attacks on educational revisionist and describes, the contributions *ade by revisionists. Baintaining that the works of historical revisionists Must be critically analyzed and their inadegnacies 'recognized if they are to have lasting -value, the author presents a textual criticisi of a recent work which contains all of the complaints which conservative scholars generally level against vorks by revisionists. The book, by Columbia education professor Diane Bavitch, is entitled "The Revisionists Bevised: Studies in the Bistoriography .of American Education." The review describes Havitch's technique as one which discovers presumed errors in the works of revisionist authors and attempts to discredit the* on grounds of poor Scholarship and/or incorrect interpretation. The author Maintains that Bavitch clouds issues raised by. revisionists by refusing to recognize conttibntions made by progressive writers on social and occupational Mobility,.
    [Show full text]
  • Identity Politics: a Marxist View
    Class, Race and Corporate Power Volume 8 Issue 1 Article 5 2020 Identity Politics: A Marxist View Raju Das York University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower Part of the Geography Commons Recommended Citation Das, Raju (2020) "Identity Politics: A Marxist View," Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. DOI: 10.25148/CRCP.8.1.008921 Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol8/iss1/5 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Class, Race and Corporate Power by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Identity Politics: A Marxist View Abstract This article has three main sections. In section 1, I discuss what identity politics is and what are its theoretical presuppositions. I also talk about the nature of the political action in identity politics, and about its limits. In section 2, I present my views on Marxist politics, which is centered on the theory and the politics of class, combined with the class-theory and class-politics of anti-oppression. I unpack what I consider are the Marxist notions of ‘the common ground’ and of ‘the majority’, as important components of Marxist politics. The majority, in the Marxist sense, are those who are objectively subjected to class- exploitation. And in terms of the common ground for politics, there are two aspects: a) the majority of people experience one common fate, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Revisionist History and the Contradictions of the Neoliberal Welfare State
    Tulsa Law Review Volume 52 Issue 3 Book Review Article 23 Spring 2017 Revisionist History and the Contradictions of the Neoliberal Welfare State Sanford F. Schram Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Sanford F. Schram, Revisionist History and the Contradictions of the Neoliberal Welfare State, 52 Tulsa L. Rev. 599 (2017). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr/vol52/iss3/23 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized editor of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Schram: Revisionist History and the Contradictions of the Neoliberal Welf REVISIONIST HISTORY AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE NEOLIBERAL WELFARE STATE Sanford F. Schram FELICE BATLAN, WOMEN AND JUSTICE FOR THE POOR: A HISTORY OF LEGAL AID, 1863-1945 (CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 2015). PP. 250. HARDCOVER $98.00. PAPERBACK $33.99. EVA BERTRAM, THE WORKFARE STATE: PUBLIC ASSISTANCE POLITICS FROM THE NEW DEAL TO THE NEW DEMOCRATS (UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS 2015). PP. 336. HARDCOVER $75.00. The welfare state as we know it was never quite what it was idealized to be, and now even that ideal is under assault. Today, a neoliberal political economy has eroded important features of the liberal welfare state. The welfare state ideal was in many ways the crowning achievement of liberal political economy as theory. And that ideal informed progressive policy change. From the Progressive Era of the late ninetieth century and early twentieth century, to the New Deal of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, through to President Lyndon Baines John- son’s Great Society of 1960s, periodic advances were made to expand the govern- ment’s efforts to address issues of poverty and inequality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Withered Root of Socialism
    THE WITHERED ROOT OF SOCIALISM: SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC REVISIONISM AND PARLAMENTARISMUS IN GERMANY, 1917-1919 Owen Walter York Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of History, Indiana University June 2010 Accepted by the Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ____________________________ Kevin Cramer, Ph.D., Chair ____________________________ Daniella Kostroun, Ph.D. Master’s Thesis Committee ____________________________ Giles R. Hoyt, Ph.D. ii To Melissa iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend the deepest thanks to Dr. Kevin Cramer, the chair of my thesis committee, for his support and guidance throughout this process and for diligently reminding me of the difficulties inherent in the study of German history. I express my gratitude to the members of my committee, Dr. Daniella Kostroun and Dr. Giles R. Hoyt, whose comments and suggestions have been immensely helpful. I would also like to thank Dr. Claudia Grossman for her assistance with translations. Additionally, I would like to thank the Max Kade German-American Center for its generous support. Last, but not least, I would like to thank friends and faculty in the IUPUI History Department. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………….………………………………………1 Chapter 1: Historical Context……………………………………………………….…….8 The German Question…………………………………………………....………10 WWI and Democratization……………………………….……………………...20
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Revisionism the Reinterpretation of History in Contemporary Political Debate
    06 transfer // 2011 Giovanni C. Cattini Historical revisionism The reinterpretation of history in contemporary political debate 28 II In his famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, george orwell (1903-1950) expresses a very clear concept by giving chapter 19 an incipit that reads: “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future”. This phrase sums up, in an unquestionably very biting tone, the reality of the Ministry of Truth in the fictional novel, but we can say that this attempt to control history also characterises the world we live in, as every society needs to construct a version of its own past. We should therefore not be surprised that much of contemporary political debate is strongly historicist by nature and vocation. 30/31 II Historical revisionism Giovanni C. Cattini Revisionism and the Quest foR HegeMony in Political RHeToric When we speak of historical revisionism we have to tread very carefully, as the academic world is one thing and the use that, at times, the falsification and the openly party political use of the past can take on in the political debate is another. In fact the word “revisionist” became fashionable at the end of the 19th century as an insult used by Lenin (1870-1924), when calling the socialist reformer Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932) a traitor. He had distanced himself from the master Karl Marx (1818-1883) by considering changing Marxist theory in the light of the latest tendencies in Western capitalist society, and thus theorising about the usefulness of the reformist path over the revolutionary, whose high point came after 1917.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party
    ON THE IDEOLOGY OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY BY LldriEge Cleaver The following article introduces a new series of articles on the ideology of the Black Panther Party by our Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver. "ONE OF THE GREAT CON- TRIBUTIONS OF HUEY P. NEWTON IS THAT HE GAVE THE BLACK PAN- THER PARTY A FIRM IDEO- LOGICAL FOUNDATION THAT FREES US FROM IDEOLOGICAL FLUNKEY- ISMANDOPENS UP THE PATH TO THE FUTURE." Eldridge Cleaver Minister of Information Black Panther Party U.S.A. ON THE IDEOLOGY OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY (Part 1) By Eldridge Cleaver We have said : the ideology of the Black Panther Party is the historical experience of Black people and the wisdom gained by Black people in their 400 year long struggle against the system of racist oppression and economic exploitation in Babylon, interpreted through the prism of the Marxist-Leninist analysis by our Minister of Defense, Huey P . Newton. However, we must place heavy emphasis upon the last part of that definition -- `interpreted. .. by our Minister of Defense. .' . The world of Marxism-Leninism has become a jungle of opinion in which conflicting interpretations, from Right Revisionism to Left Dogmatism,foist off their reactionary and blind philosophies as revolutionary Marxism-Leninism . Around the world and in every nation people, all who call themselves Marxist-Leninists, are at each other's throats . Such a situation presents serious problems to a young party, such as ours, that is still in the process of refining its ideology. When we say that we are Marxist-Leninists, we mean that we have studied and understood the classical principles of scientific socialism and that we have adapted these principles to our own situation for ourselves .
    [Show full text]
  • Bernstein's Heirs
    Sheri Berman, The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe’s Twentieth Century review Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2006, £16.99, paperback 240 pp, 978 0 521 52110 9 Ashley Lavelle, The Death of Social Democracy: Political Consequences in the 21st Century Ashgate: Aldershot 2008, £60, hardback 234 pp, 978 0 7546 7014 8 Dylan Riley BERNSTEIN’S HEIRS Two opposing predictions about the fate of social democracy developed in the nineties. The first argued that, freed of the Stalinist (sometimes also extended to ‘Marxist’) incubus, social democracy would now flourish, at least in its European homeland. The second held the project of reforming capitalism was likely to enter a period of steep decline with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the long boom. This debate is now mostly over as the crisis of the welfare state becomes increasingly obvious. The question now is how to explain this outcome, and to assess its likely conse- quences. Two books that have appeared in recent years provide stimulating if sharply different accounts: The Primacy of Politics by Sheri Berman, a ris- ing star in the American academy and frequent contributor to Dissent, and The Death of Social Democracy by Ashley Lavelle, a tough-minded Australian Trotskyist. Berman’s crisply written and engaging book suggests that social democracy—not liberalism or Marxism—was the real victor of the ‘age of extremes’; but the left’s amnesia about this historical triumph has led to a debilitating loss of will. Lavelle’s forceful and intelligent book holds, in contrast, that social democracy’s achievements even in the favourable envi- ronment of the long boom were extremely modest.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Particularities of Contemporary Pro-Soviet Revisionism
    Some Particularities of Contemporary Pro-Soviet Revisionism —Partido Comunista Revolucionario de Chile [Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile] The growing decay of bourgeois society and the restoration of bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the capitalism in a series of socialist countries, among them the proletariat. "Opportunism today, as represented by its principal USSR, have led to a series of new features in contemporary spokesman, the ex-Marxist Karl Kautsky," wrote Lenin in 1917 in revisionism. These changes do not alter the essence of revisionism State and Revolution, "fits in completely with Marx's characterisa• i.e., "bourgeois castration of Marxist truths," as Lenin defined tion of the bourgeois position quoted above, for this opportu- it, aimed at defending the system of exploitation. The essential nism limits recognition of the class struggle to the sphere of bour• role of the revisionists as servants of bourgeois rule continues in geois relations. (Within this sphere, within its framework, not a full force, for their principal task continues to be that of single educated liberal will refuse to recognise the class struggle preventing revolution and preserving the bourgeois state. 'in principle'!) Opportunism does not extend recognition of the Moreover, the present features of revisionism make it a political class struggle to the cardinal point, to the period of transition and ideological movement even more openly reactionary and from capitalism to communism, of the overthrow and the dangerous than
    [Show full text]
  • State and Law: Soviet and Yugoslav Theory, by Ivo Lapenna
    Indiana Law Journal Volume 40 Issue 1 Article 6 Fall 1964 State and Law: Soviet and Yugoslav Theory, by Ivo Lapenna Vaclav L. Benes Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons Recommended Citation Benes, Vaclav L. (1964) "State and Law: Soviet and Yugoslav Theory, by Ivo Lapenna," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 40 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol40/iss1/6 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BOOK REVIEWS choice.' The constitutional justification for such aid could also be stated as the theory that parochial schools carry part of the burden of universal compulsory education; that this is a lay purpose in our society, and that any incidental aid to religion no more renders the whole unconstitutional than some incidental inhibition of religious orthodoxy renders unconsti- tutional a well-rounded public school course in history. In judgment Mr. Katz and I come out together. Our respective rea- soning would not be entirely alike, which is probably not very important. My difficulty with "neutrality" as a guiding principle is that, for me, it does not guide very well. A good many governmental activities affecting religion seem to me tolerable as a matter of constitutionality, and reason- ably sound in policy, but do not seem neutral in effect.
    [Show full text]