Reason in Revolt

by Grant, Ted; Woods, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780875861562
• ISBN10: 0875861563
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Algora Pub

Author Biography

Ted Grant joined Britain's Independent Labour Party in 1934 and in 1938 helped found the Workers International League. He is a major contributor to the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal Alan Woods has been involved in the Marxist movement worldwide, especially in Spain, where he participated in the struggle against the Franco dictatorship

Table of Contents

Author's Preface to the North American Edition	1	(1)
Marxism and the United States	1	(1)
The Importance of Dialectics	2	(2)
Marxism and Religion	4	(1)
The Big Bang	5	(2)
Marxism and the Future	7	(4)
Authors' Foreword	11	(1)
Engels' Role	12	(3)
Part One: Reason and Unreason	15	(84)
Introduction	15	(10)
Lag in Consciousness	16	(3)
``Reason Becomes Unreason''	19	(3)
Science and the Crisis of Society	22	(3)
Philosophy and Religion	25	(14)
Do We Need Philosophy?	25	(2)
Role of Religion	27	(5)
Division of Labor	32	(3)
Materialism and Idealism	35	(4)
Dialectical Materialism	39	(38)
What is Dialectics?	39	(2)
``Everything Flows''	41	(2)
Quantity and Quality	43	(3)
Mendeleyev's Periodic Table	46	(3)
Phase Transitions	49	(2)
The Electromagnetic Spectrum	51	(1)
Order Out of Chaos	51	(3)
Whole and Part	54	(2)
Complex Organisms	56	(3)
The Molecular Process of Revolution	59	(2)
The Unity and Interpenetration of Opposites	61	(2)
Positive and Negative	63	(2)
Nuclear Fission	65	(1)
Polar Opposites?	66	(2)
Attraction and Repulsion	68	(5)
The Dialectics of Capital	73	(4)
Formal Logic and Dialectics	77	(22)
What is a Syllogism?	81	(3)
Does Logic Teach How to Think?	84	(1)
Limits of the Law of Identity	85	(6)
Logic and the Subatomic World	91	(2)
Modern Logic	93	(6)
Notes Part One	97	(2)
Part Two: Time, Space and Motion	99	(126)
Revolution in Physics	99	(8)
Waves or Particles?	100	(2)
Quantum Mechanics	102	(1)
Disappearance of Matter?	103	(2)
``Bricks of Matter''?	105	(2)
Uncertainty and Idealism	107	(27)
The Uncertainty Principle	107	(4)
Objectivity Versus Subjectivism	111	(3)
Causality and Chance	114	(3)
Mechanism	117	(2)
The 19th Century	119	(4)
Is Prediction Possible?	123	(2)
Hegel on Necessity and Accident	125	(4)
Determinism and Chaos	129	(3)
Marxism and Freedom	132	(2)
Relativity Theory	134	(36)
What is Time?	134	(4)
Time and Philosophy	138	(2)
Newton and Hegel	140	(3)
Relativity	143	(3)
The General Theory of Relativity	146	(3)
Relations Between Things	149	(3)
The Measurement of Time	152	(3)
Problem Not Resolved	155	(2)
Idealist Interpretations	157	(3)
Mach and Positivism	160	(3)
Boltzmann and Time	163	(4)
Relativity and Black Holes	167	(3)
The Arrow of Time	170	(7)
The Second Law of Thermodynamics	170	(3)
Order Out of Chaos	173	(4)
The Big Bang	177	(48)
Cosmology	177	(2)
The Doppler Effect	179	(1)
How the Theory Evolved	180	(3)
The ``Inflation'' Theory	183	(1)
Dark Matter?	184	(3)
The Neutrino to the Rescue!	187	(4)
Constant Headaches, or Hubble Trouble	191	(4)
This is the End	195	(1)
A ``Plasma Universe''?	196	(3)
Einstein and the Big Bang	199	(1)
Neutron Stars	200	(3)
Stephen Hawking	203	(4)
Do Singularities Exist?	207	(4)
An Empty Abstraction	211	(4)
Thoughts in a Vacuum	215	(4)
The Origins of the Solar System	219	(6)
Notes Part Two	223	(2)
Appendix I	225	(20)
What the Human Genome Means for Socialists	225	(1)
An Epoch-making Discovery	225	(1)
The Puzzle of the Missing Genes	226	(4)
``Race Has No Meaning in Science''	230	(2)
Creationism Exploded	232	(1)
Science and Dialectics	233	(3)
The Human Genome and Big Business	236	(3)
Limitless Possibilities	239	(6)
Appendix II	245	(1)
A Tribute to a Great Scientist, Stephen Jay Gould, Who Died on May 20, 2002	245	(4)
Bibliography	249	(4)
Glossary of Terms	253