Evald Ilyenkov

Evald Vasilievich Ilyenkov (; 18 February 1924 – 21 March 1979) was a Soviet philosopher.

Biography

Early life

Evald Ilyenkov was born in to the family of Soviet writer and teacher Vasily Ilyenkov. When he was four years old, the family moved to Moscow. In his youth, Evald became interested in the music of Wagner and the philosophy of Spinoza. He continued his studies at the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History; but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II during which he fought in the Red Army as an artillery commander.

After the end of the war, he served as part of the contingent of Soviet troops in Germany until August 1945. After he was demobilized he continued his studies in the Faculty of Philosophy of the Moscow State University and joined the Communist Party in 1950. In their opinion, "philosophy is the science of scientific thinking, its laws and forms". In February and March 1955, at the Faculty of Philosophy of the MSU, an inspection was carried out on them by the commission of the department of science and culture of the CPSU Central Committee. In the commission's report, the theses of Ilyenkov and Korovikov were assessed as "a relapse of Menshevik idealism, which was long defeated and condemned by the party” and It was found that “some students and graduate students have a desire to move away from pressing practical problems into the area of "pure science", "pure thinking", divorced from practice, from the politics of our party. Some students admitted that they had not read newspapers for a long time”. After checking the state of affairs at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University by a commission of the CPSU Central Committee, Ilyenkov’s views were defined as "a perversion of the philosophy of Marxism".

On 25 and 29 March, the Academic Council of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University was held, at which the theses of Ilyenkov and Korovikov were discussed, as a result they were accused of Hegelianism and were deprived of the right to teach at Moscow State University. He was buried besides his father at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Philosophy

Evald Ilyenkov did original work on the materialist development of Hegel's dialectics, notable for his account of concrete universals. His works include Dialectical Logic (Russian, 1974; English trans. 1977), Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism (Russian, 1980 (posthum.); English trans. 1982) and The Dialectics of the Abstract and Concrete in Marx's Capital (Russian, 1960; English trans. 1982).

David Bakhurst wrote in his article; "Meaning, Normativity and the Life of Mind":

An abridged version of his article, "Marx and the Western World," was published in English in a book of the same name in 1967, but this work is little known.

On the other hand, Ilyenkov's work (especially his masterpiece, the study on Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx's Capital from 1960, and the collection of essays entitled Dialectical Logic from 1974) deeply influenced the reception of Marx' economic writings from the 1960s onwards, in the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as well as in the West. His influence can be witnessed in the international research effort concerned with the publication of Marx' economic manuscripts (in Marx/Engels: Gesamtausgabe, or MEGA, section II, 1976 ff.). His influence is also evident in the intense debates on economic reform that was going on in the Soviet Union in the 1970s (e.g., in the works of A. K. Pokrytan).

Ilyenkov's works have been published in about 20 languages. His Dialectical Logic (1974) was published in English by Progress Publishers in Moscow in 1977. A German translation of his Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx’s Capital (1960), was published by the same publisher in 1979 (and simultaneously by Das europäische Buch, West Berlin); an English translation of the book was published by Progress Publishers in Moscow in 1982. Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism (first published in Russian in 1980) was published by New Park Publications in 1982.

Bibliography (English translations)

Books:

2018. Intelligent Materialism: Essays on Hegel and Dialectics
1960. Dialectics of the Abstract & the Concrete in Marx’s Capital
1974. Dialectical Logic, Essays on its History and Theory
1979. Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism

Articles:

1974. Activity and Knowledge
1974. From the Marxist-Leninist Point of View
1974. The Universal
1974. A Contribution to a Conversation About Esthetic Education
1975. A Contribution to a Conversation About Meshcheriakov
1975. Humanism and Science
1976. Dialectics of the Ideal
1977. Concept of the Ideal
1979. The problem of contradiction in logic (fragment)
1979. Materialism Is Militant and Therefore Dialectical
Date unknown. Psychology
Date unknown. Our Schools Must Teach How to Think!
Date unknown. A Contribution to the Discussion on School Education
Date unknown. On the Nature of Ability
Date unknown. The Biological and the Social in Man
Date unknown. A Contribution on the Question of the Concept of “Activity” and Its Significance for Pedagogy
Date unknown. Knowledge and Thinking
Date unknown. Ideals (Social, Esthetic, Moral)
Date unknown. Mind and Brain (An Answer to D. I. Dubrovskii)
Date unknown. The Question of the Identity of Thought and Being in Pre-Marxist Philosophy

Notes

External links

Evald Ilyenkov Archive at Marxist Internet Archive
Biography including Archive of Writings in English/Russian
Evald Ilyenkov in the Gallery of Russian Thinkers
A Philosopher Under Suspicion by Sergei Mareyev
International Friends of Ilyenkov