How Do We Know Things? The Marxist Theory of Knowledge

For millennia, religions have argued that some aspects of existence are fundamentally “unknowable.” Even today, some scientists have called into question whether the physical world exists at all, and if it does, whether we can know anything about it. 

But the history of human society has proven in practice that humanity can gain an understanding of the material world. Over centuries and millennia, humans have achieved an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the world around us—which has now laid the economic basis for a society of superabundance. This discussion will give an overview of the Marxist theory of knowledge, and explain the vital role of philosophy in the struggle for the socialist revolution.

This discussion will be introduced by Jarrett Brown, a leading member of the RCA in New York City.

Reading list:

Books

Introductory

• Reason in Revolt – Alan Woods and Ted Grant
• History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective – Alan Woods

Intermediate

• Materialism and Emprio-Criticism – V.I. Lenin

Articles

• Dialectical Materialism and Science – Leon Trotsky
• In Defence of Materialism – Alan Woods
• What is Truth? – Alan Woods
• New Scientist vs. Reality – Joe Attard
• On the Significance of Militant Materialism – V.I. Lenin
• Theses on Feuerbach – Karl Marx
• Marx’s Revolution in Philosophy: Reflections on the Theses on Feuerbach – Alan Woods