Maurice Cornforth
Encyclopedia
Maurice Campbell Cornforth (28 October 1909 – 31 December 1980) was a British Marxist philosopher. When he began his career in philosophy in the early 1930s, he was a follower of Wittgenstein, writing in the then current style of analytic philosophy
. He later became a leading ideologist of the Communist Party of Great Britain
.
He is noted for his attack on the aesthetic theories of Christopher Caudwell
, and for his later partial engagement with the linguistic philosophy
of Oxford origin of the 1940s and 1960s. He also wrote a defence of Marxism against Karl Popper
, whose thought he heavily criticized.
His In Defense of Philosophy attacks, in their relationship to science
, empiricist philosophies of many kinds, such as those of Rudolf Carnap
(linguistic analysis) and William James
(pragmatism
), on the "materialist
" grounds that they divorce science and scientific investigation from the search for truer understanding of the really existing universe. In this book there is a combination of Marxism with deep insights into the interrelations of the various sciences and the philosophical conundrums produced by the empiricist attempt to reduce science to the collection and correlation of data. Both the insights are based on the theory of the primacy of physical work and tools (thus, "materialism") in the development of specifically human traits such as language
, abstract thought, and social organization, and the essential role of the external world in the increasingly complex development of forms of life. These latter ideas are remarkably consistent with the most current evolution
ary thinking in biology
and anthropology
.
Analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century...
. He later became a leading ideologist of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
.
He is noted for his attack on the aesthetic theories of Christopher Caudwell
Christopher Caudwell
Christopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg , a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.He was born into a Catholic family living at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney district, south-west London...
, and for his later partial engagement with the linguistic philosophy
Linguistic philosophy
Linguistic philosophy describes the view that philosophical problems are problems which may be solved either by reforming language, or by understanding more about the language we presently use. The former position is that of ideal language philosophy, the latter the position of ordinary language...
of Oxford origin of the 1940s and 1960s. He also wrote a defence of Marxism against Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
, whose thought he heavily criticized.
His In Defense of Philosophy attacks, in their relationship to science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, empiricist philosophies of many kinds, such as those of Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap was an influential German-born philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism....
(linguistic analysis) and William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
(pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
), on the "materialist
Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
" grounds that they divorce science and scientific investigation from the search for truer understanding of the really existing universe. In this book there is a combination of Marxism with deep insights into the interrelations of the various sciences and the philosophical conundrums produced by the empiricist attempt to reduce science to the collection and correlation of data. Both the insights are based on the theory of the primacy of physical work and tools (thus, "materialism") in the development of specifically human traits such as language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, abstract thought, and social organization, and the essential role of the external world in the increasingly complex development of forms of life. These latter ideas are remarkably consistent with the most current evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary thinking in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
.
Works
- Food and Farming for Victory, Communist Party Pamphlet (1942)
- Science Versus Idealism: An Examination of "Pure Empiricism" and Modern Logic (1946)
- Dialectical Materialism and Science (1949)
- In Defense of Philosophy - Against Positivism and Pragmatism (1950)
- Science for Peace and Socialism (c.1950) with J. D. BernalJ. D. BernalJohn Desmond Bernal FRS was one of Britain’s best known and most controversial scientists, called "Sage" by his friends, and known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.-Origin and education:His family was Irish, of mixed Italian and Spanish/Portuguese Sephardic Jewish origin...
- Dialectical Materialism (1952) Vol 1: Materialism & the Dialectical Method, Vol 2: Historical Materialism, Vol 3: Theory of Knowledge, and later editions
- Readers' Guide to the Marxist Classics (1952)
- Rumanian Summer: A View of the Rumanian People's Republic (1953) with Jack LindsayJack LindsayRobert Leeson Jack Lindsay was an Australian-born writer, who from 1926 lived in the United Kingdom, initially in Essex. He was born in Melbourne, but spent his formative years in Brisbane...
- Philosophy for Socialists (1959)
- Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy (1965)
- The Open Philosophy and the Open Society: A Reply to Dr. Karl Popper's Refutations of Marxism (1968)
- Communism and Human Values (1972)
- Rebels and Their Causes: Essays in honour of A. L. Morton (1978) editor
- Communism & Philosophy: Contemporary Dogmas and Revisions of Marxism (1980)
See also
- Dialectical materialismDialectical materialismDialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...