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Vital Problems In Social Evolution
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections
such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact,
or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works
worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition
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Vital Problems In Social Evolution
Arthur Morrow Lewis
C. H. Kerr & company, 1911
Socialism
such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact,
or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works
worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
++++
The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition
++++
Vital Problems In Social Evolution
Arthur Morrow Lewis
C. H. Kerr & company, 1911
Socialism
196 pages, Paperback
Published May 13, 2012
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October 28, 2021
A very interesting work that proves the Socialist Party of America could be very theoretically component at times, especially when their squabbling leaders weren't involved.
Lewis's work is divided into ten chapters and provides a fairly concise but able exposition of Marxist ideology. The first chapter is dedicated to the materialist conception of history and manages to elucidate it quite well. The second chapter is dedicated to the necessity of violent revolution in overthrowing the capitalist system (placing Lewis decidedly on the Left of the SPA's factional spectrum). The third chapters deals with the inevitability of capitalist crisis and the Marxist analysis of the cause thereof; it is from this chapter that my favorite quote in the work originates:
"That which is self-contradictory must be transitional; a house divided against itself cannot stand. Change is the law of all things, and the only thing in the universe that never changes is the law of changes. Everywhere in the cosmos new combinations arise."
Lewis makes an able critique of Bernstein's revisionism, but ascribes the cause of crisis solely to overproduction and makes no mention of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The fourth chapter is dedicated to a history of the Paris Commune drawing upon both Marx and Engels's comments upon it. The fourth chapter is somewhat difficult for a modern reader to place, as it is a critique of an otherwise unremarkable figure in American history, the Catholic Bishop John Lancaster Spalding. Spalding had played a key role in mediating the 1902 Coal Strike, and had recently been preaching temperance and the rest of the absurdities of his doctrinal faith. Another interesting quote figures here:
"The enjoyment of poetry and beauty needs a material foundation. The wolf of hunger must not be snarling at the door if we are to have that serenity of spirit which the good bishop finds so deplorably lacking..."
Chapter six is an interesting jump to a quick analysis of the American Revolution and Thomas Paine. Lewis provides a good critique of patriotism, but his analysis of the American Revolution neglects to mention slavery or capital's involvement in it. His characterization of Paine as the most progressive of the American bourgeois revolutionaries is essentially correct, and his critique of Paine's philosophical ideas as simply limited by his time is also well done.
Chapters seven and eight are dedicated to a simple explanation of Engels's dispute with Duhring as well as an explanation of the materialist dialectic. Lewis falls prey to that characterization of the period that dialectics was equal to a mechanical evolution, but despite this he manages to make an able exposition of the transitions of quantity-quality as well as the negation of the negation. The ninth chapter is dedicated to explaining the basic economics of Marxism, including the labour theory of value, surplus-value, etc. Chapter nine is a rundown of Marx's dispute with Proudhon, albeit with an unfortunate acceptance by Lewis of Comte's absurd theory of intellectual development.
While this work is very interesting, and excellent in relation to other publications within the SPA at the time, everything past the first two chapters seems stitched onto the book as a disconnected Frankenstein; there could have been far better editing and ordering of the chapters of this work.
Lewis's work is divided into ten chapters and provides a fairly concise but able exposition of Marxist ideology. The first chapter is dedicated to the materialist conception of history and manages to elucidate it quite well. The second chapter is dedicated to the necessity of violent revolution in overthrowing the capitalist system (placing Lewis decidedly on the Left of the SPA's factional spectrum). The third chapters deals with the inevitability of capitalist crisis and the Marxist analysis of the cause thereof; it is from this chapter that my favorite quote in the work originates:
"That which is self-contradictory must be transitional; a house divided against itself cannot stand. Change is the law of all things, and the only thing in the universe that never changes is the law of changes. Everywhere in the cosmos new combinations arise."
Lewis makes an able critique of Bernstein's revisionism, but ascribes the cause of crisis solely to overproduction and makes no mention of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The fourth chapter is dedicated to a history of the Paris Commune drawing upon both Marx and Engels's comments upon it. The fourth chapter is somewhat difficult for a modern reader to place, as it is a critique of an otherwise unremarkable figure in American history, the Catholic Bishop John Lancaster Spalding. Spalding had played a key role in mediating the 1902 Coal Strike, and had recently been preaching temperance and the rest of the absurdities of his doctrinal faith. Another interesting quote figures here:
"The enjoyment of poetry and beauty needs a material foundation. The wolf of hunger must not be snarling at the door if we are to have that serenity of spirit which the good bishop finds so deplorably lacking..."
Chapter six is an interesting jump to a quick analysis of the American Revolution and Thomas Paine. Lewis provides a good critique of patriotism, but his analysis of the American Revolution neglects to mention slavery or capital's involvement in it. His characterization of Paine as the most progressive of the American bourgeois revolutionaries is essentially correct, and his critique of Paine's philosophical ideas as simply limited by his time is also well done.
Chapters seven and eight are dedicated to a simple explanation of Engels's dispute with Duhring as well as an explanation of the materialist dialectic. Lewis falls prey to that characterization of the period that dialectics was equal to a mechanical evolution, but despite this he manages to make an able exposition of the transitions of quantity-quality as well as the negation of the negation. The ninth chapter is dedicated to explaining the basic economics of Marxism, including the labour theory of value, surplus-value, etc. Chapter nine is a rundown of Marx's dispute with Proudhon, albeit with an unfortunate acceptance by Lewis of Comte's absurd theory of intellectual development.
While this work is very interesting, and excellent in relation to other publications within the SPA at the time, everything past the first two chapters seems stitched onto the book as a disconnected Frankenstein; there could have been far better editing and ordering of the chapters of this work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review