6. Mechanism as a Tendency

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Studies of the Russian Institute VI
3. Contents VII
4. Preface IX
5. Part One. The Pre-Revolutionary Heritage
6. 1. Orthodox Marxism and Natural Science 3
7. 2. Lenin and the Partyness of Philosophy 24
8. Part Two. The Soviet Setting 1917–1929
9. 3. Intra-Party Politics and Philosophy 47
10. 4. The Cultural Revolution and ‘Bourgeois’ Scientists 62
11. 5. The Cultural Revolution and Marxist Philosophers 76
12. Part Three. The Anomalous Rejection of Positivism
13. 6. Mechanism as a Tendency 93
14. 7. The First Challenges to Mechanism, 1922–1924 107
15. 8. The Formation of Factions, 1924–1926 119
16. 9. The Mechanist Faction: Propagandists and Philosophers 132
17. 10. The Mechanist Faction: Natural Scientists 150
18. 11. Deborin and His Students 170
19. 12. Deborinite Natural Scientists 184
20. 13. Social Theorists in the Deborinite Faction 198
21. 14. Closing the Controversy, 1926–1929 205
22. 15. ‘Classical’ Authority and the Cultural Revolution 215
23. Part Four. The Great Break 1929–1932
24. 16. The Great Break for Natural Scientists 233
25. 17. The Great Break for Philosophers 250
26. Part Five. Physics and Biology in the First Phase 1917–1932
27. 18. The ‘Crisis’ in Physics 275
28. 19. The Crisis in Biology 296
29. 20. Conclusion 311
30. Abbreviations 316
31. Notes 317
32. Bibliography 391
33. Index 423