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References
This compares with 19 books and 27 articles in 1962, 20 books and 24 articles in 1961, 21 books and 29 articles in 1960, 11 books and 17 articles in 1958, 7 books and 7 articles in 1955. For additional data see my ‘Bibliography of Soviet Ethics’,SST III, 1, 83–84.
Il'ičev, L. F., Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, ‘Current tasks of the Party's Ideological Work’. June 18, 1963. This appeared inPravda, July 19, pp. 1–6. My references are to the English translation, published inCurrent Digest of the Soviet Press, July 3, 1963.
Šiškin, A. F.:Osnovy marksistskoj étiki. Moskva, Izd. IMO. 1961. p. 14; alsoFilosofskij slovar’. 1963. p. 530.
Šiškin, p. 7. The description in theFilosofskij slovar' (p. 280) is circular including in it the term ‘ethical’.
Filosofskij slovar', p. 530.
‘Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, Two, V, 1 (c). InThe Road to Communism: Documents of the 22nd Congress of the CPSU. Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House. 1961. p. 566.
Primernyj učebno-tematičeskij plan i programma po osnovam marksistsko-leninskoj étiki (dlja narodnyx universitetov kul'tury ili fakul'tetov étiki). Moskva, Znanie. 1962.
‘A Philosophy of Man’.The Monthly Review Press. New York. 1963. p. 83.
Lewis Feuer has recently claimed on the basis of a four and a half month stay in the Soviet Union that among the younger philosophers there are some “existentialist Marxists” (Slavic Review, March 1964, p. 118;Survey, April 1964, pp. 13ff.). Their writings, however, never see print.
Il'ičev, p. 5.
Program..., Two, V, 1 (c), pp. 565–566.
Il'ičev, p. 10.
Program..., Two, V, 1 (c), pp. 565–566 and Two III, 2, p. 556.
Ibid., Part Two (Intro.), p. 509.
The standard explanation is that these are “remnants of capitalism”. A. B. Saxarov. in ‘Stroitel'stvo kommunizma i ukreplenie obščestvennogo pravoporjadka’ (VF 1962, 9), claims these remnants are the result of the lag of consciousness behind being, the presence of the capitalist camp, and the result of mistakes such as made under the rule of the cult of personality (pp. 41–42).
Ibid., pp. 43–45.
Trofimov, N. A.: ‘O perspektivax razvitija morali i prava v ix vzaimnom otnošenii’VF, 62, 5, p. 24.
Ibid., p. 25–26; M. S. Danieljan,Nekotorye voprosy m-l étiki (Erevan, 1962), pp. 52–54.
O Kommunističeskoj étike (Leningrad, 1962), p. 334.
Laptin, M. N.:V. I. Lenin o material'nyx i moral'nyx stimulax k trudy. Moskva. 1962. p. 147.
Volčenko, L. B.:‘Marksistsko-leninskaja étika o sovesti’. VF 62, 2, p. 142.
Naumova, N. F.: ‘Dva Mira — Dva Otnošenija k trudy’.VF 1963, 1, p. 23.
Žuravkov, M. G.: ‘XXII S" ezd KPSS i nekotorye voprosy étiki’.VF 62, 2, p. 9.
Korolev, Ju. A.: ‘Vzaimodejstvie morali i prava v bračno — semejnyx otnošenijax’.VF, 63, 11, 75–85.
Program ..., Two V, 1 (c), p. 566. The means of inculcating morality are education, and the forming of public opinion through collective work, literature, science, art, and mass media such as the newspapers, movies and the like. Questions of the most effective techniques of spreading morality, of forming consciences, and of molding public opinion are being raised and discussed by such social psychologists as A. I. Gorjačeva (‘O vzaimootnošenii ideologii i obščestvennoj psixologii’,VF 63, 11, 57–65) and N. V. Kol'banovskij (‘Nekotorye aktual'nye problemy obščestvennoj psixologii’,VF 63, 12, 16–25). Ideally the process should be one of conditioning a response to the concept of duty such that once the statement is made that “x is your duty” there is an automatic response in the form of a desire to dox. However such conditioning is far from being on a scientific footing with respect to populations as a whole. Kol'banovskij claims that the central problem of social psychology is the theoretical analysis of the interrelation of people in a collective (op. cit., p. 18). The effects of imitation, ‘psychological infection’, etc. are still to be worked out, though Makarenko and Pavlov both have much to contribute, and though there is the broad experience of practice in the Soviet Union to fall back on. To change the principles of the moral code into habitual norms of action, Kol'banovskij indicates, means not only teaching the principles but convincing people of them; and this may be a long and painful process. There is to my knowledge no discussion of whether certain means of achieving such conviction are themselves moral; nor of the distinction between personal conviction as a result of conditioning and personal conviction as a result of rational choice.
See, for example, Šiškin, p. 409–417.
For a discussion of the basis of moral values see my paper, ‘Value Theory in Soviet Philosophy: A Western Confrontation’,The Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Philosophy, 1963, Vol. IV, pp. 133–143.
Šiškin, p. 512.
Supra; alsoO Kommunističeskoj étike, p. 37.
O Kommunističeskoj étike, p. 37; Arxangel'skij, L. M.: ‘O Kommunističeskom nravstvennom ideale’.VF 1961, 11, 126–137. A slightly different interpretation, however, is given by G. M. Gak, ‘O moral'nom kodekse stroitelija Kommunizma’ inVoprosy teorii i praktiki kommunističeskogo vospitanija (Moskva, 1962), p. 26.
Arxangel'skij, p. 133. The moral code as an ideal suffers from the same defects that Communism itself as an ideal — moral or otherwise — suffers. As a supposedly real ideal it is one which will be realized, though not inevitably. It will be realized if (1) it is a realizable end, which (2) man desires, and which (3) he choses the proper ways and means of obtaining (Afanaseev, V. G.: ‘Ponjatie zakona v marksistsko-leninskoj filosofii’.VF 63, 9, 146–158). Here I am following not the deterministic interpretation of Marx but the voluntaristic one which seems to be the present Soviet view. But (1) whether the ideal is realizable is an open question. If we mean realizable by some men, it may have already been realized. If we mean realizable by all men, then clearly it has not been. While I do not think the ideal can be shown to be inherently contradictory, on the basis of certain views of man it seems unlikely that all men will subordinate their own interests to those of society whenever there is a conflict of personal and social interests. But it cannot be shown at the present time that the ideal can be realized. And if this is a necessary criterion for a real ideal, then the code (and Communism) cannot be shown to be real ideals. (2) That the ideal is desired is part of the present problem. It is desired by some, but it is not desired by all men, and not even by all Soviet men. The aim of the Party is to inculcate by proper education, propaganda and conditioning, a desire for the ideal in all Soviet citizens. Whether this aim will be achieved remains to be seen, and so again the basis for calling the ideal a real ideal is questionable. (3) If the realization of an ideal is not automatic but involves choices of means, then in any given conditions alternatives are possible. Alternatives allow for the possibility of error. The cult of personality shows that even the Party can err. Thus it is possible to choose wrongly and in fact not attain the ideal. Once again, therefore, the ideal cannot be shown to be real, though believing that it is may help achieve it.
Program..., Two, V, 1 (c), p. 566.
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This is a slightly revised version of a speech read on April 9, 1964 at a conference on “Philosophy, Ideology and Society in the Soviet Union” held at theOsteuropa Institut of theFreie Universität in West Berlin.
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de George, R.T. Soviet ethics and Soviet society. Studies in Soviet Thought 4, 206–217 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00831950
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00831950