Socialist Reasoning: An Inquiry in the Political Philosophy of Scientific Socialism

Socialist Reasoning stands apart from currently fashionable post-Marxist debates to offer an eloquent defence of the classical Marxist concept of scientific socialism.

ANDREW COLLIER sets out to define the ways in which it is possible to argue for socialism. He suggests that the understanding of concrete capitalist societies is itself a case for socialism - otherwise socialism becomes either an unhistorical ideal or a subjective preference, vulnerable to utopian and ultimately elitist distortions. He demonstrates that the ideas of Engels and Luxemburg continue to be of value in this age of modern technology, providing a key to understanding the problems raised by nuclear weaponry, ecological dangers and 'existing socialism'. In discussing the aims of socialism as set out in the works of the classical Marxists, the author argues that present-day socialists are gravely mistaken in their growing tendency to ignore them.

Socialist Reasoning identifies the distinction between utopian and scientific socialism, contending that utopian politics is essentially elitist and laden with totalitarian and terrorist potentialities. It is precisely as a result of adopting a utopian style of political thought that socialist movements have in the past created difficulties for themselves.

The author returns to Lenin's maxim that the heart of the socialist case must always be the 'concrete analysis of the concrete situation', uncovering whatever contradictions there are in that situation, and showing how they could be resolved with existing resources and by existing groups of people. Socialist Reasoning is a major contribution both to political philosophy and current debates on the Left.

ANDREW COLLIER is lecturer in philosophy at Southampton Univers- ity. He was previously lecturer in philosophy at the universities of Warwick, Sussex and North Wales, Bangor. Publications include: R.D. Laing: The Philosophy and Politics of Psychotherapy (1977) and Scientific Realism and Socialist Thought (1989).