Philosophy and Religion, Part 1
Soul of Socialism
In the Progress Publishers
(Moscow) Dictionary of Philosophy (1984 English edition) the Fundamental
Question of Philosophy is defined as: “the
question of the relationship of consciousness to being, of thought to matter
and nature, examined on two planes, first, what is primary – spirit or nature,
matter or consciousness – and second, how is knowledge of the world related to
the world itself, or to put it differently, does consciousness correspond to
being, is it capable of truthfully reflecting the world?”
The Communist University
takes this to mean the relationship of Subject to Object, (or in other words,
of mind to matter) of which the Subject – meaning ourselves, Humanity – is our
primary concern and source of value, and therefore our source of morality.
We take it from Christopher Caudwell that freedom
is the good that contains all good, and we take it from Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto that the free
development of each is the precondition for the free development of all. We
will contrast this view with the contradictory view, which is that matter can
be held as primary, and that human consciousness can be treated as derivative
of the material that contains it.
The principal dialectic of
this set will proceed in this way, without dogma and without closure.
Socialism’s Soul
Oscar Wilde [an image of him
is above], perhaps with assistance from the Communist Manifesto, saw that only
from the free development of each could come the free development of all, and
that the purpose of Socialism is therefore, as he put it, Individualism. Oscar
Wilde’s “The Soul of Man Under
Socialism” (MS-Word format download linked below) is a very good text
to discuss, if people are ready for discussion. It is not necessary to read the
whole sixteen pages, but it is very rewarding to do so. Here are a few lines:
“The
personality of man will be very wonderful. It will be as wonderful as the
personality of a child.
“In its
development it will be assisted by Christianity, if men desire that; but if men
do not desire that, it will develop none the less surely. For it will not worry
itself about the past, nor care whether things happened or did not happen. Nor
will it admit any laws but its own laws; nor any authority but its own
authority. Yet it will love those who sought to intensify it, and speak often
of them. And of these Christ was one.
“‘Know
thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of
the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written. And the message of Christ to man
was simply ‘Be thyself.’ That is the secret of Christ.
“When Jesus
talks about the poor he simply means personalities, just as when he talks about
the rich he simply means people who have not developed their personalities.”
This is altogether a
wonderful piece of writing, full of wit, charm and surprising truth. It
represents much of what the Communist University aspires towards. May it please
you to persevere with it.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: The Soul of Man under
Socialism, 1891, Wilde.
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