Suchergebnisse

Classical liberals, disciples of F. A. Hayek, are described as the most interesting among the Polish dissenters of the 1980s. By 1987 liberals had become the most influential & dynamic intellectual group, contributing to a change in the intellectual climate with a shift in the focus of attention from politics to economics, & a way from a political radicalism rooted in the leftist tradition to a broadly defined New Right. New developments in Poland are considered, & the liberal opposition is described as arguing for the liquidation of socialism without changing its name or infringing on the interests of its ruling elite. The shift to the Right visible in the ranks of the new opposition is explored, & the thinking of two of the chief ideologists, Bronislaw Lagowski & Miroslaw Dzielski, both of the Jagiellonian U of Cracow, is explored. Polish liberals can be accused of extremism in praising the free market & dismissing the merits of mixed economies; this extremism is seen as a sound reaction against the realities that surround them. In an afterword, it is noted that the defeat of the government's program of economic & political reforms in the referendum of 29 Nov 1987 has been a defeat for the liberals & has helped rehabilitate the term socialism. F. S. J. Ledgister

An examination of the ideological development of Karl Marx's philosophy of freedom. Marx was a critic of the liberal definition of freedom -- ie, independence of the arbitrary will of others. In his own philosophical conception, stressing collectiveness & positivity over individuality & negativity, Marx viewed freedom as a process of liberating people from the domination of things. His notion of freedom is vital to understanding his philosophy of history because freedom allowed transcultural appraisals, which are the only means for measuring historical progress between differing social systems. R. Logsdon