Marxism and the Objectivity of Man: The Relevance of Ilyenkov’s Ideas About Man and Consciousness

Abstract

The article was written in connection with the centenary of the outstanding Soviet philosopher Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov (1924–1979). It talks about the significance of Ilyenkov’s ideas in the history of philosophy, about his place within the framework of Marxist philosophy, the authentic form of which was developed in the Soviet Union by the school of dialectics, and then by the school of Ilyenkov. The main attention is paid to Ilyenkov’s ideas about man and consciousness. The idea of combining dialectical logic with human philosophy (philosophical anthropology) is proposed as promising. The role of the category “object” and the method of dividing the whole in the knowledge of a person and his individuality is emphasized. It is concluded that Ilyenkov revealed the well-known Marxian definition of the essence of man in accordance with the instructions of Marx himself as a concrete-universal concept that allows us to lay a philosophical foundation for the understanding of man as an active creative individuality. Ilyenkov's ideas about consciousness are considered, and the prospects of the procedural understanding of consciousness and the approach to it as a double relationship to an object are discussed - an attitude to a relationship, a constantly renewed dimension of objective activity. Applied consequences from Ilyenkov’s interpretation of man and consciousness are noted. They relate, firstly, to Ilyenkov’s criticism of the constructivist style of thinking, which he designated by the term “positivist,” and which, despite the terminological appearance created, displaces science as knowledge of the laws of nature. Secondly, Ilyenkoym’scriticism of technocratic conceit, which, promising man a “consumer paradise” with the help of electronic civilization, naturally transformed into transhumanism, returning man from the freedom of social creativity to the order of biological evolution of species.