Maurice Cornforth MARXISM AND THE LINGI-JISTIC PHILOSOPHY This is a book about the problems of contemporary British philosophy. It con- tains a searching examination of the whole train of thought that has led from the be- ginnings of British Empiricism, through the development of mathematical Iogic and analytic philosophy, to the present pre- occupation of British philosophers with questions about language. Mr Cornforth has sought to begin a dialogue between Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy. He makes a positive assessment of the contribution of such thinkers as Wittgenstein, Austin, Ryle and Hare, agreeing u'ith them that investi- gation of the uses of words is of fundamental importance for right thinking. At the same time he makes an energetic criticism both of their underlying assumptions and of many points of their analysis of "the logic oF language". Several chapters are devoted to questions of Logic and questions of Ethics, as raised in contemporary philosophy, and an alternative approach to these questions is attempted. The last part of the book con- tains a restatement, in the light of the pre- ceding discussion, of the Marxist point of view on questions of dialectics and the laws of thought, the laws of development of society, and human purposes and values. Mr Cornforth writes with clarity and humour, and with an easy mastery of technicalities. This book will be of value both to those specially interested in trends of academic philosophy, and to those con- cerned with wider questions of contempor- ary life and thought. 55s. net MARXISM AND THE LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY •W MARXISM AND THE LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY by MAURICE CORNFORTH 1967 LAWRENCE & WISHART LONDON Copyright © Maurice Cornforth, 196J First Edition 1965 Second Edition 1967 FftlNTBD AND BOUND IN BNO&AND BT HAZBLt. WATSON AND VINBT LTD AYLBSBUBT, BUCKS Contents page foreword 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 15 I Empiricism and Logic 1 PRINCIPLES FOR SCIENCE AND PRINCIPLES FOR GOVERNMENT 1 Man the interpreter of nature 21 2 Discoiurse 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 6^ 4 PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA 1 Mathematical analysis 74 2 Mathematics and logic 78 3 The system of "Principia Mathematica" 80 b CONTENTS 4 The flaws in the system 83 5 The interpretation of logical and mathematical analysis 86 6 Ixtgical and mathematl^ 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 remtation of idealism 106 6 A SPOT OF NONSENSE 1 The verification principle iii 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 121 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 meories 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 unintormative 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 CONTENTS 4 LANGUAGE AND LOGIC 1 Meaning and logical necessity 189 2 Principles of formal logic ^9^ 3 The formalism of logic _ ^95 4 The logical behaviour of categories 198 5 Category of word and category of concept aoi 6 Dilemmas of the category list 204 7 Categories, category-mistakes and informativeness 207 5 THE LANGUAGE OF MORALS 1 Morals and reason 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 ^8 4 "I" questions and "we" questions 230 5 Choosing the worse ^34 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 2^ 7 A place in the establishment 202 III CP Marxism I THE DIALECTICAL MATERIALIST APPROACH 1 A clean break 267 2 A scientifically based view of man 271 3 No final certainty 274 4 Mediodology 276 5 The circularity and the test of dialectical materialism 282 8 CONTENTS 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 ^05 3 Human relations 307 4 Division of labour and private property 210 5 Alienation and the depersonalisation of human relations 313 6 Reli^on 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 3^5 5 Morality, intelligible and unintelligible 349 5 COMMUNISM AND MORALITY 1 Morality as an alienation effect 352 2 Morals and politics of class struggle 3^6 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 yjo 3 Marxism and the linguistic philosophy 375 INDEX ® 379 Foreword to Second Edition This book sets out to criticise one branch of contemporary philosophy from the point of view of Marxism. At the same time its aim is to discuss what can be learned from this philosophy. The Marxist stand point which I try to maintain against all comers is not a stationary one, since Marxist ideas must always be developing and be formulated for our own times and problems. That is why as much as a third of this book deals with Marxism itself, and discusses Socialist Humanism, Marxist views on Ethics, the significance of the present- day scientific and technological revolution, and Materialist Dialectics. I have been criticised for putting all this in about Marxism, as irrele vant to the critical purpose of the book. But it was essential to my purpose. For I do not think one should separate criticism of other views from development of one's own. There was once an idea among Marxists, which I shared, that there is an impassible gulf between "us" and "diem". This is only a part- truth. One would not propose to water down Marxism by adopting ideas opposed to it. But that is no reason to condemn everything that is not Marxist as wholly reactionary and false. If something is false one must prove that it is false; that it is not Marxist does not constitute such a proof. And honest criticism of ideas one does not accept often shows that they are neither so reactionary nor so false as might have been originally suggested. In reviewing contemporary ideas there are factors to take into account.One is the growing influence of a scientific approach not only in natural science but in social and philosophical studies. Another is that individual thinkers of any originality are intelligent, well-educated and sincere; they see much wrong with the status quo and are seeking how to change it, so that to impute re actionary motivations to their work is often to mistake them gready. These are all reasons why I finished this book with some observations about "Co-existence and Controversy". One must not compromise in ideas, but one must discuss, understand and learn. As for the contemporary philosophy which is discussed and criticised in this book, Wittgenstein once said: "Philosophy is not lo MARXISM AND THE LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY a theory but an activity." I wanted to try to understand better the sort of activity now being done in the philosophy departments of British and some American universities—^the so-called "Linguistic Philosophy". The name is in one respect misleading, for there exists no set doctrine or theory of "Linguistic Philosophy". As I have said in the course of this book, it is not so much a theory as a method of discussing and criticising theories. It is distinguished from other methods of discussion in philosophy by its concern with questions about uses of language. For linguistic philosophy, every philosophical problem concerns the use of words, and is therefore to be solved by the method of in quiring into the uses of words. This is the "activity" Wittgenstein recommended to philosophers.