Peace, Force & Joy

Dictionary of New Humanism

MACHIAVELLIANISM. Political doctrine of the Italian writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), who advises the use of bad faith when necessary to advance the policies of a state. His position is known for the maxim, "the ends justify the means." The carrying out of diplomacy through cunning, duplicity, and treachery is also regarded as M. Insofar as it concerns itself only with the utility of results, M. is considered a form of pragmatism.

MANIPULATION. (F, from manipule, apothecary’s handful; der. L. manipulatio, pp. of manipulare from manipulus, handful of soldiers belonging to the same standard, company; from manus, hand, and the root of plere, to fill). Action and effect of deceiving or applying moral coercion. System of psychological pressure to apply duress to the behavior of others. The methodology of m. is quite varied and runs from exploitation of the most fundamental human necessities and most irrational fears to the creation of illusory expectations generated within a system without choices. The use of mass media (press, radio, TV, film, etc.) always has the character of m. when the people have no option to interact with them. At the present time, limitations on m. by the media are provided by rating systems, but this in turn is frequently manipulated in various ways. N.H. considers m. an inhumane practice that violates freedom of choice.

MARGINALIZED PEOPLE. (from margin: L. margo (-inis), edge, border). A term used in contemporary sociology to characterize a large social group made up of persons who have ceased to belong to the castes or estates of traditional society, but who have not yet become integrated into the classes or strata of modern society. They occupy an intermediate position, and maintain family, economic, social, and cultural ties with the traditional groups of their origin.

By m.c. we mean persons who only partially or at times possess rights that are common to the rest of the population, and who suffer from inadequate social conditions.

In sociology the concept "marginal strata" is often identified with social parasitism. Such an interpretation incorrect; as a general rule those who are marginalized are engaged in productive but occasional activity, since they lack a profession, economic means of their own, decent housing, etc. Neither can all those who live in ghettos and slums be classified as "marginal strata", because in these areas there is enormous social differentiation. It is not only the marginalized who live there but also laborers, employees, professionals, merchants with modest resources, and even criminals who engage in illegal activity.

MARXISM-LENINISM. Marxism is a theory whose initial formulation is credited to Karl Marx. The writings of most of the exponents of this current or movement form a body of doctrine known as M-L., which was articulated over a substantial period of time with contributions from a number of authors. Thus, there is a philosophy known as Marxism that corresponds to the specific writings of Karl Marx, and a Marxist-Leninist or Marxist school that consists of writings by the initial author as well as Engels, Lenin, and others. In N.H., this ideology is considered a single movement, even though it may be possible to analyze it in detail by author or by various critical positions (*Marxist humanism, philosophical humanism, philosophical anti-humanism).

Here we will review M-L. as it was officially presented in the USSR, including some relevant points from the article "Marxism-Leninism" in the Dictionary of Scientific Communism published in Moscow in 1984. In the following excerpts from that Dictionary, the author’s expansion of the text of the Marxism-Leninism entry is in italics.

Marxism-Leninism [is] "a scientifically-based system of philosophical, economic and socio-political views; the doctrine of the cognition and transformation of the world, of the laws according to which society, nature and human thinking develop, of the ways of the revolutionary overthrow of the exploiting system and the building of communism; the world outlook of the working class and its vanguard, Communist and Workers’ Parties.

Marxism emerged in the 1840s. The needs of social development, which revealed the fundamental vices inherent in the capitalist system and the entire system of exploitation, the awakening of the proletariat to political struggle, the great discoveries in the natural sciences and advances in historical and social studies confronted social thought with the task of elaborating a new, genuinely scientific theory capable of responding to the pressing, cardinal questions raised by life. This historic task was fulfilled by Marx and Engels. Lenin started on his scientific and revolutionary activities at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when capitalism, which has entered its last stage, imperialism, had begun to collapse and socialist society had emerged. He defended Marxism from attacks by its enemies, analysed the latest achievements in science from a theoretical point of view, and summed up the new experience gained in the class struggles. He enriched the theory of Marxism and raised it to a qualitatively new level.

The emergence of M.-L. was a genuine revolution in the history of social thought. It is a direct continuation and development of the achievements of social thinking in philosophy, political economy and socialism. With M.-L. there arises for the first time a doctrine that provides an integral and thorough reflection of objective reality, which offers not only the possibility of explaining the world, but also of indicating the pathways for its transformation; there arises for the first time a science that discovers, within society itself, the force capable of carrying out said radical transformation with the guidance of this scientific theory.

[M.-L.] is a consistent, integral scientific doctrine, made up of three basic component parts: (a) philosophy – dialectical and historical materialism; (b) political economy; and (c) scientific communism . . . M.-L. imparted new ideas to other social sciences, too. Each of its component parts falls, in turn, into several independent sections, or disciplines. As people accumulate knowledge in the corresponding sphere, they gradually develop into independent sciences (for example, the political economy of socialism). [In this realm] . . . the founders of Marxism focused attention on the analysis of the laws of development and collapse of the capitalist social-economic system, leaving us with only a few guiding propositions to serve as points of departure concerning the economy of socialist society; today, the political economy of socialism is an independent branch of Marxist political economy.

All the component parts of M.-L. are permeated with principal, fundamental ideas, such as consistent materialism, i.e., a materialist approach to all real phenomena (society included), and the dialectical method of cognising these phenomena. All the component parts of M.-L. are characterised by a critical, active, revolutionary spirit and a creative nature.

An important place in M.-L. is occupied by the theory of scientific communism; it reveals socio-political patterns, ways of transforming society along communist lines, and is a graphic embodiment of the active, transformative principle that is typical of M.-L. The central place in scientific communism, as well as in the whole of M.-L., is occupied by the teaching on the historic mission of the proletariat . . . as the force called on to crush the power of capital and lead the building of a new, communist society.

M.-L. is a partisan, militant doctrine; it is the ideology of the proletariat and expresses the vital needs of all working people. Its proponents do not refuse to collaborate with those who adhere to other progressive theories in the name of democracy and peace; they are prepared to ally themselves with people who hold anti-scientific, backward views in order to achieve these vital goals. But they absolutely reject reconciliation with hostile ideologies. As a revolutionary doctrine, M.-L. is opposed to reformism . . . While recognising the need for a struggle to effect reforms under capitalism, it has never refuted its revolutionary programme and tactics. M.-L. won its positions and evolved in the struggle against opportunism . . ., which camouflaged its deviation from M.-L. by recognising it in word only and calling for its "development" in such a way as to discard its fundamental propositions as "obsolete."

Marxism has traversed a long road, almost a century and a half. Its first stage was that of the formation and growth of the working class in advanced countries and the initial combination of scientific socialism with the workers’ movement, and the emergence and consolidation of Marxist working-class parties. Its second stage is connected with the working class passing to a new and higher stage of development as the era of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and socialist transformations sets in. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia was a genuine triumph for M.-L.; it has passed the decisive historical test in the fire of revolutionary practice.

Each period of the history of M.-L. is subdivided, in turn, into a series of stages. In each stage, one integrating part or another undergoes notable development and takes center stage. Thus we see that Marx during the 1850s and 60s focused his theoretical activity on the study of economic theory, while in the works and letters written by Engels during the 1880s and 90s the elaboration of philosophical concepts takes priority. During the imminent preparations for the socialist revolution in Russia, Lenin placed great emphasis on the elaboration of the Marxist theory of the State, and the theory of proletarian social revolution. Under contemporary conditions, special importance in the socialist countries attaches to further creative development of the Marxist-Leninist economic theory, investigation of socio-political, ideological and theoretical problems that face the scientific management of society [and other aspects of developed socialism.] M.-L. is unencumbered by sectarianism in the sense of a closed, rigidified doctrine. The primary factor conditioning the progress of M.-L. is the practical experience in the struggle for communism accumulated from country to country. Assimilation, the generalization of this experience by the Marxist-Leninist parties, enriches M.-L. with new scientific concepts. New knowledge accumulated by humankind in all areas of scientific activity has continued to affect the development of M.-L. Thus, the great discoveries of the natural sciences (in modern physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) influence the elaboration of the philosophical theory of matter, enriching the dialectical method throughout the world.

Marxist-Leninist ideas were formulated and developed under capitalism, when education and scientific activities were the prerogative of the ruling, exploiting classes. Today, M.-L. is the prevailing ideology in the USSR and the other socialist countries; it is the banner that rallies hundreds of millions of people the world over. M.-L. continues to win over new partisans, and its social significance grows without abating. The truth and irrevocability of the fundamental propositions of Marxist-Leninist theory have been proved by the possibility of successfully applying it under the diverse and constantly changing conditions obtaining in different countries and by its use by millions upon millions of people. This in no way signifies that every tenet put forward by Marxists is an absolute truth in its final form. To ensure the further development of M.-L. and its existence as a science, which predicts the future and paves the road to it, certain propositions should be modified to conform to changing conditions.

M.-L. is internationalist by nature. The preaching of "national communism" and attempts to establish some kind of "national Marxism" are incompatible with it. It has now spread throughout the world, and its propositions are omnipotent; yet they cannot be applied automatically in any country: for that, the national, historical and other specific features should be scrupulously studied and an in-depth analysis be made of the concrete situation. (italics added).

MARXIST HUMANISM. (See etymology at human being). A form of philosophical humanism (*). M.H. was developed through the work of a group of philosophers, especially in the years following the Second World War. The most noted exponents were Ernst Bloch in Germany, Adam Shaff in Poland, Roger Garaudy in France, Rodolfo Mondolfo in Italy, and Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse in the United States. These authors tried to recover and develop the humanist aspect which, in their interpretation, constituted the very essence of Marxism. Previously, Engels had argued in his famous letter to Bloch (1880) that Marxism had been misunderstood, and that it had been a mistake to infer an absolute and unilateral determinism of productive forces on human consciousness and societal superstructures. Consciousness, he explained, reacts in turn on the structure, and this reaction is necessary for the revolutionary comprehension of the changes or mutations in the structure and of contradiction between productive forces and social relations.

Marxist humanists stressed the importance of the texts of Marx’s youth, especially the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology, and the Critique of Hegel’s "Philosophy of Right," as well as others from his maturity such as Theories of Surplus Value. These philosophers endeavored to reinterpret the thought of Marx in a way that was not strictly economics or materialism (*). They placed greater emphasis on his youthful writings, then only recently rediscovered in the 1930s, than on the works of his maturity such as Das Kapital. They focused, for example, on the passage in the 1844 Manuscripts in which Marx writes: ". . .man is not merely a natural being: he is a human natural being. That is to say, he is a being for himself, and after that a species being, and has to confirm and manifest himself as such both in his being and in his knowing" (1844 Mss, 182). Therefore ". . . human nature, too, taken abstractly, for itself – nature fixed in isolation from man – is nothing for man" (1844 Mss, 191). At the beginning of his exposition of his anthropology in the Manuscripts, Marx writes: ". . . we see how consistent naturalism or humanism distinguishes itself [from both] idealism and materialism, constituting at the same time the unifying truth of both" (1844 Mss, 181).

Mondolfo explains that:

"In reality, if we examine historical materialism without prejudice, just as it is given us in Marx's and Engels' texts, we have to recognize that it is not a materialism but rather a true humanism, [and] that it places the idea of man at the center of every consideration, every discussion. It is a realistic humanism (Reale Humanismus), as its own creators called it, which wishes to consider man in his effective and concrete reality, to comprehend his existence in history, and to comprehend history as a reality produced by man through activity, labor, social action, down through the centuries in which there gradually occurs the formation and transformation of the environment in which man lives, and in which man himself gradually develops, as simultaneously cause and effect of all historical evolution. In this sense, we find that historical materialism cannot be confused with a materialist philosophy (*philosophical anti-humanism and Marxism-Leninism)."

MATERIALISM. (from material: LL. materialis, of or pertaining to matter, from L. materia, matter; from mater, mother). A term first used in 1674 by the English physicist-chemist Robert Boyle. Philosophical doctrine that considers the material to be the sole reality constitutive of the real world. According to this view, matter in its higher forms (organic matter) is capable of changing and developing. Sensation, consciousness, and ideas are therefore no more than expressions of matter in its most organized forms. Material existence is primary while consciousness is secondary.

The antithetical division between "materialists" and "idealists" (*idealism) has been widely accepted, given its simplicity, by the worldview of modernity. However, in light of the new conceptions of the human being and science that are emerging today, such positions now find themselves subject to extensive revision.

With regard to the human and social sciences, many materialists view economic factors as playing the governing role in the development of society, determining the interests and possibilities of human beings and organizing their lives and actions. For such thinkers, the materialist conceptions of the State and property, war and the progress of nations, classes and class struggle, help illuminate the reasons for such opposition and conflicts, providing guidance in the practice of politics. At the same time, a crude m. takes the view that the power of economic factors is absolute, starting from the principle of the determinism and causal conditioning of all phenomena.

The term m. came into use in the seventeenth century as the physical doctrine regarding matter, and in the eighteenth century as an antonym of philosophical idealism.

In ancient Greek philosophy, the concept of materia prima or prime matter referred to a substance not subject to further or infinite divisibility. In the Middle Ages, Thomism saw in matter the "principle of passive potency" which, in union with the substantial form, constitutes the essence of every body, remaining in all substantial transmutations that underlie each succeeding form. Secondary matter refers to the compound of materia prima and form as substance, that is to say, that which is subject to accidental determination. In modern times, until the appearance of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, matter was conceived as that which is subject to the law of gravity. Subsequently, in modern physics, the concepts of matter and energy have become closely linked and in some ways identical.

In the philosophy of history, the designation m. is applied to those doctrines that, in interpreting the historical process, reduce it to material causes, regarding the social structure as determined above all by economic necessities and laws.

METALANGUAGE. (from meta-, L. meta-; Gr. meta-, in the midst of, among, between, after, according to; also Gr. met, transference; meta and language: a language used to talk about another language). 1) A specialized language used to describe a natural language. 2) A formal language that employs special symbols to describe the syntax of computer programming languages.

METALINGUISTICS. Study of the interrelationships between the language and culture of a given people.

METHOD. (Gr. methodos, a going after, pursuit, system; meta, after, beyond, and hodos, way; i.e. a way that leads beyond). Means of investigation, knowledge; mode of reaching an objective. Set of operations for practical or theoretical knowledge of reality; procedure followed in the sciences to verify or to teach a concept. Orderly arrangement of the principal elements of an art.

In scholarly terms, a distinction is made between the analytical m., which involves breaking down the complex into the simple, and the synthetic m., which proceeds in the opposite direction. The two directions frequently overlap and are enriched by the application of deductive or inductive judgment and experimental approaches. The use of statistical mathematical procedures which reveal certain constants or trends that cannot be observed in individual cases is also considered a form of m.

Each of the sciences, on establishing its specific mode of investigation, also elaborates its own m. of study or methodology. A methodology is a doctrine concerning the structure, organization, logic, and procedures of a corresponding activity; it is also a set of methods followed in scientific research or a doctrinal exposition.

MIDDLE STRATA. (a particular aspect of the notion of social level, from Sociology). A sociological category designating an important part of the social structure of modern society and societies in transition between traditional and modern. Comprises the sectors situated between the upper and lower levels of the social pyramid, and contributes to social stability.

The internal structure of the m.s. is quite contradictory. Its most dynamic and modern sector is composed of the levels that emerge with progress in the areas of science and technology and information science (entrepreneurs in small companies, agriculture, commercial and service industries, skilled workers, professionals, etc.).

Another sector is formed of those drawn from industrial society with specialized skills and trades (workers, employees, farmers, etc.). An important segment of the m.s. is made up of public employees (teachers in schools and other educational institutions, salaried medical personnel, non-executive bureaucrats, etc.). There are also parts of the m.s. drawn from traditional society (artisans, tradespeople, teachers, proprietors of small businesses, transportation and service sectors, small farmers, etc.).

In modernized countries the m.s. make up the framework of civil society, assuring its democratic development and social and political stability, and contributing to the national consensus. These strata form an active, dynamic force that is open to innovation (*).

In societies in transition the role of the m.s. is contradictory, and the social and political conduct of its members cannot be characterized as homogeneous. While in many situations the more modern (and less numerous) sectors of the m.s. manifest dynamism and democratic tendencies, the traditional sectors embody a tendency toward fundamentalism and radicalism of both the right and left.

In periods of crisis, the traditional m.s. can form the social base for autocratic and even totalitarian tendencies, harboring a mentality that is corporativist (*corporativism), chauvinist (*chauvinism), and statist. Their conduct corresponds to a pattern of patronage. This case involves members of the m.s. who are poor, humiliated, and unqualified, and who have also acquired personal experience in the practice of violence (*) in the armed forces or paramilitary groups. Their conduct is a consequence of participation in wars of conquest or military occupation, colonialist adventures, civil wars, ethnic or religious conflicts, etc. At the same time, other parts of the m.s. are the most disposed to assimilate humanist traditions and to repudiate violence and injustice in all their manifestations.

The conduct of the m.s. in any given situation is not inevitable or rigidly predetermined by their social condition, but is rather the result of personal choices and of the correlation of political and ideological forces.

MODERNIZATION. (from modern: Fr. moderne; LL. modernus, just now, of the present time, from L. modus, measure, manner). Conferring a modern form or appearance on something. To improve, to change something according to present-day demands and tastes.

In contemporary sociology m. denotes the process of transformation of a traditional society, which is closed and static and averse to change, into an open society with well-developed communications and a high degree of social mobility, organically incorporated into the international community not as a marginal appendix but as an active subject with full and equal rights in international relations. At times, m. (with crudely concealed vested interests) is defined solely as extending "western culture" to other areas, with the consequent displacement of indigenous cultures and languages.

The process of m. is due not so much to external factors as to the internal needs for progress in traditional societies seeking to mobilize their resources and societies to accelerate development, to overcome their lack of development, which is not only technological but social and informational as well. These societies are attempting to overcome their marginality by integrating into the contemporary global process.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THEME. (L. thema; Gr. thema, what is laid down; hence, subject or topic). An expression in N.H. alluding to one’s personal placement (*) and approach to life. This theme involves knowing whether and in what conditions one wants to live (*personal placement).

MOVEMENT OF NONALIGNED NATIONS. A movement of states that have declared their foreign policies as based on non-participation in military or political blocs. This movement condemns colonialism, neo-colonialism, and racism, defends the independence and sovereignty of all countries, and advocates peaceful coexistence, nuclear disarmament, and the reorganization of international economic relations.

The first conference was held in September 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and included twenty-five nonaligned states. One hundred and two nonaligned nations took part in the 1989 conference.

The Humanist Movement's Distant Adoption Program for Kenya.
If you have questions or comments about this Web site, contact webmaster

About us | Joining Humanist  | News & Events | Sitemap | Other Links

Contact us | Our Guest Book | Terms & Conditions | Home | New @ Humanist Kenya

 © 2001 The Humanist Movement, Kenya.  All Rights Reserved. Site Developed by Lawrence Waithaka