Truth, Half-Truth, and Post-Truth: Lessons from William James

Engels @ 200

“…54 Artisans were ruined, and workers lost »the last vestiges of independent activity,« resulting in the blocking of mobility for the middle social strata. 55 This situation forces us to think, to become aware, and opens up, for the first time, the possibility for the proletariat to begin an independent movement, concludes our author.…”

“…54 Sometimes there would be »different historical environments leading to totally different results,« and in these cases, it must be said, Marx disagreed with Engels on this point about Russia: while Engels took India and Russia together, that is not what Marx did in Capital, which was emphatic about the prospect of a distinct development of Russia, which had the possibility of a direct transition to socialism from the rural commune. 55 The Russian situation would be different in that the peasantry itself would not be marked by private ownership of the means of production. In England, »in the final analysis, there is a transformation of one form of private property into another form of private property.…”

“…54 Regardless of such criticism, Marx and Engels were in favor of nationalism as well, as long as it was directed towards their favored goals, e. g. the unification of Germany and Italy or Polish independence from Russia. 55 Regardless of such aspects related to the revolutionary thoughts of the two men, it was the experience of 1848 / 49 that first and foremost defined the theoretical reflections of Marx and Engels, who, due to the outcomes of the European revolution in these years, accepted the lessons and necessities for a new and inevitable revolutionary attempt in the near future: »Equally inevitable [as another revolution] was the violent nature of this revolution. This inevitability of the revolution and its violent nature was determined by the very structures of the bourgeois system.…”

“…By bringing together people with diverse tribal affiliations and geographical origins, Nurhaci's conquest set in motion a remarkable political integration of Jurchen society. 55 As Nurhaci's military conquests progressed successfully, the niru organizations, originally hunting organizations, extended to other areas of Jurchen lives and gradually became a principal institution that worked to reconfigure Jurchen society and to rationalize the management of the Jurchen population. In 1616, the functions of niru companies extended to civilian areas.…”

“…His work on The Peasant War in Germany (1850) 53 was »a small but nice attempt to interpret the central European peasant rebellions of the 16th century in a materialist way.« 54 Regardless of these approaches and the wish to understand revolutions much better, Engels, like Marx as well, was not in favor of so-called revolutionaries by profession. 55 In their works, the two men rather addressed questions of their times, which is why German political scientist Georg Fülberth correctly called them »operative intellectuals.« 56 Regardless of his many works, while in exile, Engels also had to work for the company of his father, which he could not leave before 1869 due to financial necessities; consequently, until then, he had to live a double life as a businessman and an intellectual. 57 However, between 1870 and 1895, he could focus on the latter.…”