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Socialism (and Darwin): *
In the 18th century socialists activists and theorists emerged & began to influence French labour movements. After the French Revolution such ideas became more common & militant. Babeuf (1760-97) a French agitator was an advocate for the poor, democracy & the abolition of private property. In the UK Thomas Paine (1737-1809) put forward a plan to tax property owners to pay for the poor; Charles Hall (1740–1825) denounced capitalism's effects on the poor. Utopians socialism emerged. One such visionary was Thomas Spence (1750-1814) who advocated the common ownership of land. Saint-Simon (1760–1825) coined the word Socialism & was a founder of utopian socialism. He condemned liberal individualism for failing to address social concerns including poverty, oppression & vast inequalities in wealth. By the first quarter of the 19th century more self-conscious socialist movements developed. Chartism in the UK drew mass support; Chartist leaders advocated an equitable distribution of income & better living conditions for the workers. The first trade unions & cooperative societies were born. The Frenchman Proudhon (1809--65) famously declared “property is theft”. The German political philosopher Karl Marx (1818-83) added teeth to the movement writing The Communist Manifesto in 1848 & later Das Kapital (1867–1883). He advocated the violent overthrow of capitalism thru revolution. In the 1864 the First International was founded in London aiming to unite the diverse stream of political currents including Proudhon socialists, English TUs, Marxists & Social Democrats. The movement split: the Marx versus Bakunin who differed on the proposed strategies to achieve socialism.
Socialism in Germany is a political movement which evolved from a militant party in 1869 towards a reforming force by 1910. Germany’s SPD founded in 1869 was Europe’s first & most successful socialist party. Its roots were radical & it attracted state repression. Initially led by & heavily influenced by Marxist revolutionary principles, in 1875 the party moved towards moderation with the Gotha programme (which Marx heavily criticised & reiterated the need for dictatorship of the proletariat). It began to deviate from strict Marxist ideology. As the 19th century ended a reformist viewpoint was introduced by SPD leader Bernstein. From 1896 to 1898 he published a series of articles (“Problems of Socialism") which sparked a debate on revisionism & was the origins of a reformist trend within Marxism. He argued that winning reforms under capitalism would be enough to bring about socialism; he rejected significant parts of Marxist theory that were based upon Hegelian metaphysics and rejected the Hegelian dialectical perspective. He spoke of a “mature Marxism”. In 1899 he wrote “Evolutionary Socialism: A Criticism and Affirmation”. Bernstein was fiercely attacked by Lenin & Rosa Luxembourg & the party on paper rejected his proposals. Despite the apparent militancy the SPD was successful in achieving reforms for workers & promoting legislation incorporating social reform, outlawing child labour & improving working conditions and wages. The party became the model for socialist parties in Europe.
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Hegel (and development): *
Marx played a prominent role in the evolution of Socialism, from an inarticulate Utopian movement towards a concrete political party, the SPD. He gave the movement teeth & theoretical legitimacy. Marx, who was originally a “Young Hegelian” borrowed the dialectic from Hegel. Like Hegel he beleived the purpose and promise of history was the total negation of everything conducive to restricting freedom & reason. Some Young Hegelians attacked religion. Marx however focused on the ownership of capital which he believed lay at the heart of the establishment's power. Where Hegel saw history as Spirit becoming aware of itself, Marx was much more concrete & materialist. Like Hegel, whose dialectic marches thru history towards freedom, so too Marx’s dialectic marches thru history, but it is the history of economics, not ideas. It is the history of class struggle. He named his philosophy dialectical materialism.
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Goethe (development): *
The natural science of the 18th century Enlightenment was based on a mechanical perspective of the universe & a linear view of progress; it was reductionist, quantitative & committed to mathematical models & analysis. It promoted specialization (thereby fragmenting knowledge). The reductionist approach tended to abandon observation & first develop an abstract hypothesis. This hypothesis was then tested via experiments to determine if could be verified. The scientist was meant to be a neutral observer of the object. This science was focused on function. It worked well with inert nature but was less successful in understanding vital nature.
Goethe was critical of this approach. His alternative used the scientist’s imagination, a holistic approach, seeking patterns behind change rather than simply noting change, finding hidden relationships between developing parts. His development was observed from inside rather than externally. He developed an alternative methodology called morphology, based on form rather than function. Morphology in biology deals with the study of the form & structure of organisms, their specific structural features to include outward appearance (shape, structure, colour, pattern, size), as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs. This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function. His method examined nature from both external-sensory angles & from an internal angle in which thinking, feeling, intuition, imagination & inspiration contributed to conclusions. For Goethe, the collection of new knowledge was inseparable from a history of thinking and conceptualization; knowledge is about association as well as separation. While arranging material phenomena in logical linear sequence was valid, it had to be done within a humanistic organizing idea, grounded in nature & often bounded by multiple, lawful pairs of polarity. The experimenters need to seek out the natural, lawful organizing ideas or archetype behind specific natural phenomena. First they must immerse themselves in living interaction with the phenomena to be studied, using all available senses. His experimenter would use a more living, humane approach aspiring to enter into the living essence of nature, as perceived in the phenomenon studied. Success meant penetrating to the crucial, underlying, invisible (to the sense) archetype-pattern: the Urphänomen. The Experimenter aimed to allow the phenomena to reveal itself, its inherent order & lawfulness. While often invisible, this lawfulness is objective, not subjective, not invented by the experimenter. Goethe’s research was qualitative & broke down the barrier between the subject & object; it aimed at a global understanding of nature globally, experiencing it as a kind of living organism of whose changing dynamics the observer was a part. This approach became known as phenomenology.
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karma (Buddhism & Vedic): *
Hindus/Vedic karma
Salvation comes in realizing that everything is one, all in union with Brahman, one’s soul is the same as the universal soul. The word Karma originates in the Vedic texts; it concerns the fate of the individual after death, a system where beneficial effects come from past beneficial actions, harmful effects from past harm, actions & reactions throughout a soul's reincarnated lives, forming a cycle of rebirth; the word means action, and more broadly identifies the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, it is not fate, for we act with conditioned free will creating our own destinies; it is the totality of our actions & the concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. Not all karmas rebound immediately, some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other lifetimes. Since karma refers to ritual action and because the Brahmin caste had direct access to the gods through rituals, their role & position was elevated.
Buddhist karma
the Buddha taught that there was no self, therefore no need to attach the self to Brahman. He defined karma was an ethical action, its significance (good or bad) lay in the intention. Intentions are the determining factor in the kind of rebirth in the cycle of rebirth. Karma explain how our intentional actions keep us tied to rebirth the cycle; the Buddhist path shows the way out of cycle. By making karma an ethical act focusing on intent, the Buddha relegated Brahmanical rituals. Anyone who understood the teachings of the Buddha could achieve salvation, no longer were the Brahmin caste a privileged class; salvation is gained through the understanding reality according to the Buddha’s Dharma. Once enlightened the individual can reach a state of nirvana, the extinguishment of suffering by escaping the continuous cycle of rebirth.