Notes on Books

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 1912


MIA-bannière.gif
Written: 1912-1916 (See each Note for publishing information)
Source: Lenin Collected Works, 4th Edition, Moscow, 1976, Volume 38, pp. 392-400
Publisher: Progress Publishers
First Published: 1933-1938 (See each Note for publishing information)
Keywords : Book review, Natural science, Philosophy, Rudolf Hilferding, Science

Notes on Books


F. Raab, Die Philosophie von R. Avenarius. Systematische Darstellung und immanente Kritik, Leipzig, 1912 (164 p.).

5 Mk.

Perrin, Les atomes, Paris (Alcan).[1]

Written not earlier than 1912

First Published in 1938 in Lenin Miscellany XXXI

Published according to the manuscript


From books on philosophy in the Zürich Cantonal Library[2]

Gideon Spicker, Über das Verhältnis der Naturwissenschaft

zur Philosophie (especially versus Kant and Lange’s His-

tory of Materialism). Octavo. Berlin, 1874. IV. W. 57 K.

Hegel, Phänomenologie (hrs. Bolland, 1907). IV. W. 165 g.

Written in 1915

First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXII

Published according to the manuscript



(Cantonal Library in Zürich[3]

(Signatur: K. b i.)

Flugschriften des deutschen Monistenbundes. Heft 3:

Albrecht Rau. “Fr. Paulsen über E. Haeckel.”

2-te Aufl. Brackwede, 1907, (48 SS.)

A very sharp criticism of Paulsen from the stand-

point of Feuerbach. A “Mohican” of the bourgeois

enlightenment!
NB

Written in 1915

First published in 1933 In Lenin Miscellany XXII

Published according to the manuscript



Section III. (“Works of informative and scientific content”)[4]:

Theories of Origin... 1914.

(Present-day Culture III, IV).

F. Haeckel, Gott-Natur, Leipzig, 1914... Sch. 480 N 24.


Uhde, Feuerbach, Leipzig, 1914 ... XVI. 906.

A. Zart, Bausteine des Weltalls: Atome, Moleküle..

Stuttgart, 1913.

Written in 1916

First published in 1934 in Lenin Miscellany XXVII

Published according to the manuscript


Ruttmann, Die Hauptergebnisse der modernen Psycholo-

gie, Pe. VII. 3551.

Suter, Die Philosophie von Richard Avenarius, 1910 (Diss).

St. Bro. 11.341

Written in 1916

First published in 1936 in Lenin Miscellany XXIX

Published according to the manuscript



ON THE REVIEW OF JOH. PLENGE’S BOOK

MARX AND HEGEL[5]


Joh. Plenge, Marx and Hegel, Tübingen, 1911.

(184 SS.) (Mk. 4).

An unfavourable review by O. Bauer in Vol. 111, 3rd

number of Archiv für Geschichte des Sozialismus.

Written in 1913

First published in 1938 in Lenin Miscellany XXXI

Published according to the manuscript



ON THE REVIEW OF R. B. PERRY’S BOOK

PRESENT PHILOSOPHICAL TENDENCIES[6]


Mind. 1913. April. Review by F. C. S. Sculler of Ralph

Barton Perry’s Present Philosophical Tendencies: a Critical

Survey of Naturalism, Idealism, Pragmatism and Realism,

together with a Synopsis of the Philosophy of William

James, London and New York. (Longmans & Co.). 1912.

383 pages.

Schiller is against Perry’s “realism” and makes the charge

that “his mind is so preoccupied with the metaphysical

antithesis between realism and idealism that he is always

trying to reduce all other issues to this.”

It is to be noted that Schiller quotes the following pas-

sage from Perry: “The organism is correlated with an en-

vironment, from which it evolved and on which it acts.

Consciousness is a selective response to a pre-existing and

independently existing environment. There must be some-

thing to be responded to, if there is to be any response”

(p. 323 in Perry’s book). And Schiller raises the objection:

“Unless the question is begged in the ‘independently exist-

ing environment’” (Schiller’s italics), “nothing is here

proved except the correlation of the mind and its ‘environ-

ment’”... (p. 284).

[illegible]

Written later than April 1913

First published in 1938 in Lenin Miscellany XXXI

Published according to the manuscript


ON THE REVIEW OF A. ALIOTTA’S BOOK

THE IDEALIST REACTION AGAINST SCIENCE[7]

Antonio Aliotta: La reazione idealistica contro la sciensa.

1 vol. 8°. XVI + 526 pages. Palerme. Casa editrice Optima,

1912.

Review in Revue Philosophique (Ribot). Paris, 1912,

No. 12, pp. 644--646, by J. Segond, who states:

“He” (Aliotta) “shows us in agnosticism all the latest

sources of contemporary reaction; he shows how it de-

velops through German (Riehi) and French (Renouvier)

neo-criticism, the empirio-criticism of Mach and Avenarius,

and English neo-Hegelianism; he describes and exposes the

intuitionism of Bergson and Schmitt, the Anglo-American

pragmatism of W. James, Dewey and Schiller, the philos-

ophy of values and the historicism of Rickert, Croce, Mün-

sterberg and Royce,” etc. (645), and so on up to Schuppe,

Cohen and others.

In the second part the author examines the energetics

of Ostwald and “the new physics des qualités”[8] of Duhem

and the “theory of models” of Hertz, Maxwell and Pastore.

The author particularly dislikes, he says, mysticism (includ-

ing that of Bergson), etc.

The point of view of the author is stated to be “the spir-

it of the happy mean of truly rational intellectualism,

that of M. Aliotta and of M. Chiapelli.” (645)

Written in 1913

First published in 1938 in Lenin Miscellany XXXI

Published according to the manuscript



REMARKS ON HILFERDING’S VIEWS ON MACH

(IN FINANCE CAPITAL)[9]

Hilferding: Finance Capital. (“The Latest Phase in the Development of Capitalism”). Moscow, 1912

Published in German in 1910 (III Band Marx-Studien)
A very sharp criticism of Paulsen from the stand-

point of Feuerbach. A “Mohican” of the bourgeois

enlightenment!
NB
An unfavourable review by 0. Bauer in Vol. 111, 3rd

number of Archiv für Geschichte des Sozialismus.

“Unless the question is begged in the ‘independently exist-

ing environment’” (Schiller’s italics), “nothing is here

proved except the correlation of the mind and its ‘environ-

ment’”... (p. 284).

[illegible]
muddle...p. 13—“According to E. Mach” “the ‘ego’

is only the focus in which the infinite

incorrect

not “in the

same way”
incorrect		threads of sensation meet most closely....

In exactly the same way money is the focal

point in the network of social connec-

tions....”p. 71, note. “Only our perception gives

things the form of space” (a Kantian).

Written not later than June 1916

First published in 1934 in Lenin Miscellany XXVII

Published according to the manuscript

  1. ↑ The entry on the books by Raab and Perrin was made in a notebook entitled “Austrian Agricultural Statistics, etc.” not earlier than 1912.
  2. ↑ The entry on the books under the heading From Books on Philosophy in the Zürich Cantonal Library was made in the first notebook (notebook “α”) on imperialism in 1915.
  3. ↑ The entry under the heading Cantonal Library in Zürich was made in the first notebook on imperialism (notebook “α”) in 1915.
  4. ↑ The entry under the general heading Section III. (Works of informative and scientific content), containing reference to the books by Haeckel, Uhde and Zart, was made in a notebook on imperialism (notebook “ε”) in 1916.
  5. ↑ Note on the Review of Johann Plenge’s book “Marx and Hegel” was written in 1913, amidst bibliographical excerpts on various questions, in the notebook “Austrian Agricultural Statistics, etc.”
  6. ↑ Remarks on the Review of R. B. Perry’s book “Present Philosophical Tendencies”—written after April 1913 in the notebook “Austrian Agricultural Statistics, etc.”
  7. ↑ Remarks on the Review of A. Aliotta’s book “The Idealist Reaction Against Science”—written in 1913 at the end of the notebook “Austrian Agricultural Statistics, etc.”
  8. ↑ of qualities—Ed.
  9. ↑ Remarks on Hilferding’s Views on Mach (in “Finance Capital”)—contained in notebook “θ”on imperialism.
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