Parallels, Perpendiculars and Imaginary Quantities. Reading the Book by V.I. Tolstykh We Were. The Soviet Man as He Is

In: Voprosy filosofii: naučno-teoretičeskij žurnal, S. 175-181

Abstract

In the article, using the example of the book by V.I. Tolstykh, some characteristic features of "comfortable Marxism" are considered. Firstly, it is an unspoken non-theoretical convention of separating theory from reality, and two phenomena are at its core – the "right to misunderstanding" and the "right to ignorance". Sec­ondly, the substitution of reality as the subject of theory with ideological, utopian phantoms. Thirdly, the construction of the theory of society as a logically im­maculate system of statements that soars above reality and avoids contact with real problems – both social and theoretical-cognitive.