The Basic Marxism-Leninism Study Guide video playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLXUFLW8t2sntNn5jQO8vF7ai9x0fna3PV.html This audio on Spotify: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/socialismforall/episodes/Ludwig-Feuerbach-and-the-End-of-Classical-German-Philosophy-1886-by-Engels--Marxist-Audiobook-e26968m This audio on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/socialismforall/ludwig-feuerbach-and-the-end-of-classical-german-philosophy-1886-by-engels-marxist-audiobook
I love how Engels writes in a very basic and plain way (for the most part). Really makes it a joy to read and listen too. Marx for all his accolades can be a little hard to follow for a layman. Maybe I’m trippin though.
@@SocialismForAll oh wow. Yeah, hopefully at some point you could do that! Maybe in parts or something. I'm planning on picking up the book, and usually I just read along with your audios to help. Really works.
Thanks as usual for recording! On the topic of organizing, I've only entered an organization like 5 months ago and while on the one hand it is quite motivating to do things together (handing out flyers, discussing current events, etc) instead of alone (e. g. I had been collecting trash to clean the environment on my own previously), it is great to make contacts with likeminded people and to have an opportunity to talk about and put into praxis what I listen to here, on the other hand it can also be agonizing to see how little theory is being read and everybody gets scared about names like Stalin. It often feels like my party is just wandering about without a concrete goal, simply creating short term goals for elections and the likes (which obviously are important, but there should be more to it imo). My party is also hyperfocusing on the topic of housing, while ignoring gender equality or climate change. But in the end it is up to each and everyone of us to counteract against such revisionism and put in the work. I often feel like Engels works are much easier to comprehend than Marxs, so it was interesting to hear himself say that Marx alone would've understood it just as well and that he was just assisting him. I feel like he underrates himself by that. At the very least he did great work in explaining, interpreting and publishing Marxs thoughts. A bit like you recording and commenting on these works now do :)
this is one of my favorites. Other strong philosophical works are "Dialectical Materialism" and "Examples of Dialectics" both by Mao. Currently working through Lenin's Materialism and Emperio-Critcism
I love Engles. I never thought I would be so engaged in non-fiction works like this. Ok, so if he said that everyone is born an idealist as humans, then what is atheism? Is it a process of undoing illogical and religious frameworks inside ones own psyche? Much in the way that you can not be "not racist" but rather anti racist in that racism can stem from you and is in you, but you fight it? Or is it an identity? Or what? Maybe someone who has dealt with these subjects longer than I have help me here. I feel I was born idealist, I have had hallucinations and for my brain and body the spiritual stuff comes easy, and is social glue for relationships in my family which can be a mode of engaging members in my family in a positive healthful way which barring major personality overhauls would be impossible otherwise. Why be anti idealist? For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry, and then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues." Idk. Can anyone relate? Can I be a good Marxist and hold out spiritual beliefs?
"Ok, so if he said that everyone is born an idealist as humans" Not really. This is rhetorical and part of a criticism of Starcke. Engels wrote: "In the second place, we simply cannot get away from the fact that everything that sets men acting must find its way through their brains - even eating and drinking, which begins as a consequence of the sensation of hunger or thirst transmitted through the brain, and ends as a result of the sensation of satisfaction likewise transmitted through the brain. The influences of the external world upon man express themselves in his brain, are reflected therein as feelings, impulses, volitions - in short, as “ideal tendencies”, and in this form become “ideal powers”. If, then, a man is to be deemed an idealist because he follows “ideal tendencies” and admits that “ideal powers” have an influence over him, then every person who is at all normally developed is a born idealist and how, in that case, can there still be any materialists?" The key phrase here is, "If, then..." meaning that, if this is what makes an idealist, then we would all be idealists, with no other possibility, but that's not what makes an idealist.
"Why be anti idealist? For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry, and then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues." Idk. Can anyone relate? Can I be a good Marxist and hold out spiritual beliefs?" You raise a lot of complicated topics here which are difficult to address in a comments section without a lot of additional discussion. "Why be anti idealist?" Marxism is fundamentally materialist and scientific, which is addressed head-on in part 4 of this text. "For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry" That's between you and your mother, I guess? "then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues."" There are effective, non-religious ways of coping with mental health challenges. The short answer to your last question is, not really, but "spiritual beliefs" is vague. See: ua-cam.com/video/mKMlcPb1ttw/v-deo.html | ua-cam.com/video/Sf9o4H48CvU/v-deo.html
@SocialismForAll Hmmm tough. I want to be in service of world proletarian revolution but Christianity is how I relate to those close to me in a pretty fundemental way. Maybe compartmentalizing is the way.
"I want to be in service of world proletarian revolution but Christianity is how I relate to those close to me in a pretty fundemental way. Maybe compartmentalizing is the way." Listen to the two videos I linked. Maybe it will help you sort it out. Try this one too, maybe even as the first of the three: ua-cam.com/video/b78lwj_TNVI/v-deo.html The bottom line is that you can't fundamentally believe both in a materialist/scientific worldview and also that our reality is shaped by an immaterial deity or deities existing somewhere "outside" of materiality. These are logically incompatible notions, and continuing to believe in the latter will hold you back. But while thinking about this, you also don't have to run out tomorrow and declare all of it to your mother.
Listened to the whole thing, but ill have to listen a second time. This is too philosophical for me to fully grasp while im working, the car ride home on the other hand..
47:36 A big issue I have with the discourse surrounding AI is that many people make no distinction between AI and automation - automation already has a bad rap for some people, but there is a lot of pretty advanced automation that materially enriches our lives, creativity, and productivity, moreso than people realize, and some people are so caught up in what AI is doing to art for example, that even trying to make this distinction is met with hostility, as though you are trying to defend AI generated art (danger: incoming rant). And speaking of which, AI in this context, like automation does for some workers under capitalism, can indirectly destroy the careers of artists - but again, _under capitalism_ ...it seems like it is happening at a vastly accelerated rate, with a much more black-to-white transition and no gradient. Its as if an unstoppable force is trying to obsolesce art altogether such that nobody attempts to pursue it anymore. All AI is automation, but not all automation is AI. The overwhelming majority of automation, in fact, is not AI (at least, not as most people understand "AI" - more on this in a sec). Mechanical automation and a great deal of digital automation are based on extremely simple propositional calculus (AKA sentential logic or zeroth order logic - basic if/then/else and boolean stuff) - and many amazing things can be and are done with this type of automation, both in industry but also creatively. Past this, we have things based in 1st order logic that allows for quantification and relationships between variables, on which even more advanced automation is based (that I'm also not as knowledgeable about). This encompasses things like finite-state machines and pushdown stuff (types of automata or "self-operating machines"), none of which is new and have been utilized by some programmers and developers for years now. What people are having a fit about is "machine learning" and "turing machines", which are the uppermost 1% of 1% of automata, and frankly the jury still ought to be out on whether these aren't pernicious merely due to the current capitalist system in which they are developing. And its so bad that if you use (exceedingly simple) automation via say, a computer application, for an artistic or creative project, and attempt to present this as evidence of necessary nuance needed in the AI discussion, people literally think you're championing the completely dehumanized AI-generated art that is running human artists out of business. On that note, don't get me started on the fact that these discussions revolve around _career/professional_ artists, and utterly, 100% disregard the overwhelming majority of artists who are every bit as prolific, if not moreso, but never get the privilege of making money from it, or the fact that because of the need to work "real" jobs, it stands to reason these artists are more likely to learn automation techniques and implement them into their creative process in order to accomplish more in their relatively limited time (anecdotal evidence, but I certainly do). But discourse surrounding AI contains pretty much none of this nuance. People discuss it with such gravity and austerity, but in complete layman's terms. They've come to fear AI more than automation, while being unable to differentiate between the two. This is problematic for reasons I used to think were obvious. What is obvious is that even though we have much more established science, research, and implementation of "non-AI" automation, people seem oblivious to the fact that said automation is reaching a socialized state insofar as it being something individuals can utilize in their day-to-day lives, with beneficial results 99% of the time, and anyone reading this has likely used automation of this sort multiple times since you woke up today, without realizing it. We've been enjoying the benefits long enough to have forgotten we're doing it.
The Basic Marxism-Leninism Study Guide video playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLXUFLW8t2sntNn5jQO8vF7ai9x0fna3PV.html
This audio on Spotify: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/socialismforall/episodes/Ludwig-Feuerbach-and-the-End-of-Classical-German-Philosophy-1886-by-Engels--Marxist-Audiobook-e26968m
This audio on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/socialismforall/ludwig-feuerbach-and-the-end-of-classical-german-philosophy-1886-by-engels-marxist-audiobook
Thanks again for everything you do comrade! Love listening to these at work.
Banger 🔥🔥🔥🔥
This is a super educational recording, and the commentary is so helpful. Thank you, S4A!
Workers stand with the oppressed peoples of the world, unite!
I love how Engels writes in a very basic and plain way (for the most part). Really makes it a joy to read and listen too. Marx for all his accolades can be a little hard to follow for a layman. Maybe I’m trippin though.
Amazing video. Learning so much. Have you done a video on "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" by Engels?
I haven't yet but will at some point. It's really long, like over 8 hours long.
@@SocialismForAll oh wow. Yeah, hopefully at some point you could do that! Maybe in parts or something. I'm planning on picking up the book, and usually I just read along with your audios to help. Really works.
I’m reading Origins after making my way through Anti-Dühring! Using your audiobooks too!!
@@SocialismForAllFinbol has a human read of it, but it's always good to hear your discussion
Engels, what a guy
1:14:24 damn, I envy Marx here. With a friend like Engels, who needs _friends?_
As always, thank you for your hard work, comrade! ❤❤❤
Thanks as usual for recording!
On the topic of organizing, I've only entered an organization like 5 months ago and while on the one hand it is quite motivating to do things together (handing out flyers, discussing current events, etc) instead of alone (e. g. I had been collecting trash to clean the environment on my own previously), it is great to make contacts with likeminded people and to have an opportunity to talk about and put into praxis what I listen to here, on the other hand it can also be agonizing to see how little theory is being read and everybody gets scared about names like Stalin. It often feels like my party is just wandering about without a concrete goal, simply creating short term goals for elections and the likes (which obviously are important, but there should be more to it imo). My party is also hyperfocusing on the topic of housing, while ignoring gender equality or climate change. But in the end it is up to each and everyone of us to counteract against such revisionism and put in the work.
I often feel like Engels works are much easier to comprehend than Marxs, so it was interesting to hear himself say that Marx alone would've understood it just as well and that he was just assisting him. I feel like he underrates himself by that. At the very least he did great work in explaining, interpreting and publishing Marxs thoughts. A bit like you recording and commenting on these works now do :)
First Marx/engels work I’ve ever read the second part is phenomenal
I never really thought about science this way b4
This comment is for the algorithm, and also Al Gore has rhythm lol 🎶🕺
Who doesn't like the "quick comments"? I enjoy the additional insight and thoughts, a lot of times it helps with understanding the preceding text.
this is one of my favorites.
Other strong philosophical works are "Dialectical Materialism" and "Examples of Dialectics" both by Mao. Currently working through Lenin's Materialism and Emperio-Critcism
So glad you’re doing this!
Good vid
I love the critique of Feuerbach's "love everywhere"
Done. One of my favorites so far.
Yeah this was very clarifying IMO
This is one of the best texts by the founder of marxism. Really good stuff.
I love Engles. I never thought I would be so engaged in non-fiction works like this.
Ok, so if he said that everyone is born an idealist as humans, then what is atheism? Is it a process of undoing illogical and religious frameworks inside ones own psyche? Much in the way that you can not be "not racist" but rather anti racist in that racism can stem from you and is in you, but you fight it? Or is it an identity? Or what? Maybe someone who has dealt with these subjects longer than I have help me here.
I feel I was born idealist, I have had hallucinations and for my brain and body the spiritual stuff comes easy, and is social glue for relationships in my family which can be a mode of engaging members in my family in a positive healthful way which barring major personality overhauls would be impossible otherwise.
Why be anti idealist? For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry, and then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues." Idk. Can anyone relate? Can I be a good Marxist and hold out spiritual beliefs?
"Ok, so if he said that everyone is born an idealist as humans"
Not really. This is rhetorical and part of a criticism of Starcke. Engels wrote:
"In the second place, we simply cannot get away from the fact that everything that sets men acting must find its way through their brains - even eating and drinking, which begins as a consequence of the sensation of hunger or thirst transmitted through the brain, and ends as a result of the sensation of satisfaction likewise transmitted through the brain. The influences of the external world upon man express themselves in his brain, are reflected therein as feelings, impulses, volitions - in short, as “ideal tendencies”, and in this form become “ideal powers”. If, then, a man is to be deemed an idealist because he follows “ideal tendencies” and admits that “ideal powers” have an influence over him, then every person who is at all normally developed is a born idealist and how, in that case, can there still be any materialists?"
The key phrase here is, "If, then..." meaning that, if this is what makes an idealist, then we would all be idealists, with no other possibility, but that's not what makes an idealist.
"Why be anti idealist? For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry, and then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues." Idk. Can anyone relate? Can I be a good Marxist and hold out spiritual beliefs?"
You raise a lot of complicated topics here which are difficult to address in a comments section without a lot of additional discussion.
"Why be anti idealist?"
Marxism is fundamentally materialist and scientific, which is addressed head-on in part 4 of this text.
"For me, flipping aetheist would mean making my mother cry"
That's between you and your mother, I guess?
"then I would have to pretend not to pray when I have "the blues.""
There are effective, non-religious ways of coping with mental health challenges.
The short answer to your last question is, not really, but "spiritual beliefs" is vague. See: ua-cam.com/video/mKMlcPb1ttw/v-deo.html | ua-cam.com/video/Sf9o4H48CvU/v-deo.html
@SocialismForAll That's clear now. Perhaps I will start reading along while listening for added clarity.
@SocialismForAll Hmmm tough. I want to be in service of world proletarian revolution but Christianity is how I relate to those close to me in a pretty fundemental way. Maybe compartmentalizing is the way.
"I want to be in service of world proletarian revolution but Christianity is how I relate to those close to me in a pretty fundemental way. Maybe compartmentalizing is the way."
Listen to the two videos I linked. Maybe it will help you sort it out. Try this one too, maybe even as the first of the three: ua-cam.com/video/b78lwj_TNVI/v-deo.html
The bottom line is that you can't fundamentally believe both in a materialist/scientific worldview and also that our reality is shaped by an immaterial deity or deities existing somewhere "outside" of materiality. These are logically incompatible notions, and continuing to believe in the latter will hold you back. But while thinking about this, you also don't have to run out tomorrow and declare all of it to your mother.
I am reading capital so I stop reading other books for a while. here is a comment for the algorithm.
Listened to the whole thing, but ill have to listen a second time. This is too philosophical for me to fully grasp while im working, the car ride home on the other hand..
47:36 A big issue I have with the discourse surrounding AI is that many people make no distinction between AI and automation - automation already has a bad rap for some people, but there is a lot of pretty advanced automation that materially enriches our lives, creativity, and productivity, moreso than people realize, and some people are so caught up in what AI is doing to art for example, that even trying to make this distinction is met with hostility, as though you are trying to defend AI generated art (danger: incoming rant).
And speaking of which, AI in this context, like automation does for some workers under capitalism, can indirectly destroy the careers of artists - but again, _under capitalism_ ...it seems like it is happening at a vastly accelerated rate, with a much more black-to-white transition and no gradient. Its as if an unstoppable force is trying to obsolesce art altogether such that nobody attempts to pursue it anymore.
All AI is automation, but not all automation is AI. The overwhelming majority of automation, in fact, is not AI (at least, not as most people understand "AI" - more on this in a sec). Mechanical automation and a great deal of digital automation are based on extremely simple propositional calculus (AKA sentential logic or zeroth order logic - basic if/then/else and boolean stuff) - and many amazing things can be and are done with this type of automation, both in industry but also creatively. Past this, we have things based in 1st order logic that allows for quantification and relationships between variables, on which even more advanced automation is based (that I'm also not as knowledgeable about). This encompasses things like finite-state machines and pushdown stuff (types of automata or "self-operating machines"), none of which is new and have been utilized by some programmers and developers for years now.
What people are having a fit about is "machine learning" and "turing machines", which are the uppermost 1% of 1% of automata, and frankly the jury still ought to be out on whether these aren't pernicious merely due to the current capitalist system in which they are developing. And its so bad that if you use (exceedingly simple) automation via say, a computer application, for an artistic or creative project, and attempt to present this as evidence of necessary nuance needed in the AI discussion, people literally think you're championing the completely dehumanized AI-generated art that is running human artists out of business.
On that note, don't get me started on the fact that these discussions revolve around _career/professional_ artists, and utterly, 100% disregard the overwhelming majority of artists who are every bit as prolific, if not moreso, but never get the privilege of making money from it, or the fact that because of the need to work "real" jobs, it stands to reason these artists are more likely to learn automation techniques and implement them into their creative process in order to accomplish more in their relatively limited time (anecdotal evidence, but I certainly do).
But discourse surrounding AI contains pretty much none of this nuance. People discuss it with such gravity and austerity, but in complete layman's terms. They've come to fear AI more than automation, while being unable to differentiate between the two.
This is problematic for reasons I used to think were obvious. What is obvious is that even though we have much more established science, research, and implementation of "non-AI" automation, people seem oblivious to the fact that said automation is reaching a socialized state insofar as it being something individuals can utilize in their day-to-day lives, with beneficial results 99% of the time, and anyone reading this has likely used automation of this sort multiple times since you woke up today, without realizing it. We've been enjoying the benefits long enough to have forgotten we're doing it.
1:05ish -1:13ish is such a powerful critique of Feuerbachian morality.
Cool nice video great video very informative wow
Engels the materialism Major
the comment on the role of historians and priests being to justify the contemporary horrors is poignant
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36:40🌈
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