Fundamental Problems of the Sociology of Thinking.

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book
• Author: Megrelidze, Konstantin.
• TeilnehmendeR: Brandist, Craig.
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : BRILL,, 2022.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Materialism Book
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (457 pages)

"Written at the height of the purges, but unpublished for decades, Megrelidze's text is arguably the most significant, erudite and wide-ranging work of Marxist philosophy written in the USSR at the time. Discussing the emergence and development of human consciousness from the origins of humanity to the rise of capitalism, Megrelidze discusses the major achievements of contemporary cognitive science, sociology, philosophy and linguistics in the light of the works of Marx and Engels that were being published at the time. Far from the rigidities of official 'diamat', the book provides an insight into the important debates in Soviet intellectual life that led to the works of figures such as Vygotsky and the 'Bakhtin Circle'"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Intro -- ‎Contents -- ‎Introduction. Konstantin Megrelidze and His Fundamental Problems of the Sociology of Thinking (Brandist) -- ‎Acknowledgement -- ‎From the Editor of the Russian Edition -- ‎Fundamental Problems of the Sociology of Thinking -- ‎Foreword -- ‎General Exposition of the Question of Thinking -- ‎Part 1. -- ‎Chapter 1. Material Conditions and Social Preconditions Necessary for the Rise of the Human Level of Consciousness -- ‎Working Life Activity -- ‎Relations of Consumption and Production -- ‎Labour and the Product of Labour -- ‎The Product of Labour: Material Mediator of Social Relations -- ‎Labour and Society: Mutual Dependence -- ‎Chapter 2. From the Animal Level of Consciousness to Human Thinking -- ‎The Biological Roots of Consciousness -- ‎Instincts and Reflex Responses -- ‎The Intellectual Activity of Animals -- ‎Shortcomings of Physiological Psychology and Classical Psychology -- ‎On Gestalt Psychology -- ‎The Manifestation of Consciousness in Animals -- ‎Distinguishing Characteristics of Human Consciousness -- ‎Interaction in the Animal World and Social Interaction -- ‎The Ideational Content of Consciousness -- ‎The Essential Particularities of Human Consciousness -- ‎Preliminary Results -- ‎Chapter 3. Material Culture and Thinking -- ‎Labour Activity and Thinking -- ‎The Materialisation of Ideas in the Process of Labour Activity and the Acquisition of Ideational Content by Things -- ‎Embodied Reason and Its Social Significance -- ‎The Qualitative Particularity of Social Relations -- ‎The Instrument of Labour - the Hand - Reason -- ‎The Cognitive Significance of Mediated Activity -- ‎The Tale of How 'the Transcendental Is Made Immanent' and 'the Immanent Is Made Transcendental' -- ‎Chapter 4. The Problem of Perception in the Field of Marxist Philosophy -- ‎The Perspective of Classical Psychology and Philosophy.

‎Sensation Is Not the Basic Mental Atom -- ‎Sensation Is Not a Symbol, but the Reflection of Reality -- ‎The Relational Dependence of Sense Data -- ‎From the History of the Perception of Colours -- ‎The Marxist Perspective on the Question of Sensory Perception -- ‎Chapter 5. The Question of a Subject's Self-Awareness -- ‎Objects Are Perceived Primarily according to Their Social Significance -- ‎Self-Awareness Is Historically a Much Later Phenomenon Than the Perception of Objects of Activity -- ‎An Individual Subject's Perception Was Historically Preceded by the Perception of the Collective Subject -- ‎Part 2. -- ‎Chapter 6. The Rise of the Idea -- ‎47. -- ‎Comprehension. The Concept -- ‎The Concept and the Notion [predstavlenie] -- ‎The Particular and the General -- ‎The Doctrine of Existence and Concept -- ‎The Doctrine of the Concept in the Empiricists and in Kant -- ‎The Place of the Concept in the System of Rationalist Views -- ‎Chance and Necessity -- ‎Three Pictures of the World -- ‎Concept and Reality -- ‎The Self-Contained Structure -- ‎Self-Contained Structure and Concrete Concept -- ‎On Mathematical Concepts -- ‎Generalisation and General Concepts -- ‎The Formation of Concepts -- ‎Chapter 7. The Sociogenesis of Ideas -- ‎The Social Character of Individual Thinking -- ‎On the Question of Parallelisms and Convergences -- ‎The Theory of Dispersion -- ‎The Theory of Borrowing -- ‎The Theory of the Identity of the Human Mind -- ‎The Geographical Theory -- ‎Shortcomings of the Existing Hypotheses -- ‎Questions of Parallelisms in the Marxist Interpretation -- ‎On the Origin of the Tinderbox -- ‎Parallelisms in the Sphere of Calculating Time -- ‎Convergences in the Realm of Types of Thinking -- ‎Social Existence and Social Consciousness -- ‎The Individual and Society -- ‎The Social Genesis of Ideas.

‎Chapter 8. The Process of the Social Circulation of Ideas -- ‎The Propagation of Ideas -- ‎Social Circulation of the Products of Mental Creativity -- ‎On Popular Creativity -- ‎On Borrowing -- ‎Social Consciousness -- ‎The Composition and Content of Social Consciousness -- ‎Chapter 9. The Social Implementation of Ideas -- ‎The Material Support of Ideas -- ‎Needs and Interests -- ‎The Construction of Social Interests -- ‎The Domination of Fetishistic Relations -- ‎Surplus Product and Private Property -- ‎Proprietary Alienation and Its Liquidation -- ‎The Concept of the Collective Social Field of History -- ‎Class Interests -- ‎Ideas Are Derivatives of Social Interests -- ‎The Character of Conformity to the Laws of History in an Antagonistic Society -- ‎The Social Implementation of Ideas -- ‎Class Consciousness -- ‎Ideological Changes and Social Changes -- ‎Chapter 10. Testing Ideas in the Process of Their Implementation -- ‎What Is Experience -- ‎Testing Ideas by Experience, Practice -- ‎Pragmatism and Marxism -- ‎A Thesis on Practice in Its General Philosophical Meaning -- ‎Concluding Observations -- ‎Supplement. Nikolai Iakovlevich Marr and the Philosophy of Marxism (Translated by Brandist) -- ‎Glossary of Names -- ‎References -- ‎Index.