Homenaje al historiador británico Eric Hobsbawm

¿Merecía la pena romper tantos huevos por esa tortilla? El número de muertos causados por las hambrunas, las masacres y otras catástrofes provocadas por el hombre bajo los regímenes comunistas se encuentra entre los ochenta y cinco y cien millones. En Camboya, se liquidó a la práctica totalidad de la población instruida. Mao Zedong fue responsable de unos treinta millones de muertes solo en el lunático Gran Salto Adelante. Las fauces oscuras y heladas del gulag de Stalin se tragaron a millones de personas. Y los habitantes de Corea del Norte siguen muriendo de hambre en la actualidad.

Para permanecer en un partido comunista hasta finales de la década de 1980, había que conservar, en algún sitio, el residuo de la convicción de que había merecido la pena, o de que al menos habría merecido la pena si los tiranos que gobernaron en nombre del comunismo no lo hubieran hecho tan mal. No muchos intelectuales británicos se mantuvieron fieles tanto tiempo. Eric Hobsbawm, el eminente autor de Historia del siglo XX, entre otros libros célebres, lo hizo: no siempre como miembro activo, y durante mucho tiempo como un miembro escéptico, pero sí como un camarada. En Historia del siglo XX, escribe sobre la “inhumanidad sin precedentes” de la Rusia de Stalin, y dice que “el proyecto comunista ha demostrado su fracaso y ahora sé que estaba condenado al fracaso”. Pero eso hace que su tenacidad resulte más desconcertante.

En su último libro, una autobiografía titulada Tiempos interesantes. Una vida en el siglo XX, Hobsbawm intenta explicar por qué. Por qué se mantuvo fiel a la línea del partido en 1939, cuando la Alemania nazi firmó un pacto de no agresión con la Unión Soviética, o durante las farsas judiciales de finales de la década de los cuarenta y comienzos de los cincuenta, e incluso después de 1956, el año de la insurrección en Hungría. Abundan palabras como “orígenes”, “generación” y “antifascismo”. Pero también “orgullo”: el rechazo jurado a abandonar un rumbo emprendido con nobles intenciones.

Al margen de las opiniones que uno tenga del comunismo, la autobiografía de Hobsbawm es un fascinante relato personal sobre una idea que atrajo a mucha gente por las mejores razones y aportó una excusa para algunos de los crímenes más horribles de la historia de la humanidad. Hobsbawm era, como dice en el prólogo del libro, “un observador partícipe”, un historiador además de un activista político. Es un hombre decente que sirvió a una causa sangrienta.

Central Park Five -New Film On How Police Abuse, Media Frenzy Led to Jailing of Innocent Teens

An explosive new documentary looks at a case once referred to as "the crime of the century”: the Central Park Five. Many people have heard about the case — but far too few know that innocent men were imprisoned as a result. The film tells the story of how five black and Latino teenagers were arrested in 1989 for beating and raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. Media coverage at the time portrayed the teens as guilty, and used racially coded terms like "wolf pack" to refer to the group of boys accused in the attack. Donald Trump took out full-page ads in four city newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty so they could be executed. However, the convictions of the five were vacated in 2002 when the real rapist came forward and confessed to the crime, after the five defendants had already served sentences of almost seven to 13 years. New York City is refusing to settle a decade-long civil lawsuit brought by the men. And now, lawyers for the city are seeking access to footage gathered for the new film.  

Kevin Phillips on the Roots of American Revolution and Future of U.S. Politics

In 1969 Kevin Phillips wrote the groundbreaking book, "The Emerging Republican Majority."  Newsweek described the book as the “political bible of the Nixon administration.”  After a series of best-selling books on the Bush family, Wall Street and the American theocracy, Phillips is looking back at the roots of the American Revolution in his new book, "1775: A Good Year for Revolution.”  “What happened that set the United States in motion in the mid 1770s is still relevant in some ways because what it showed was that you sometimes have to have a lot of very disagreeable politics to make progress.  That you don’t get anywhere by having all kinds of nice slogans and by trying to barter every difference with a cliche and pretend thats all’s well and the United States is in wonderful shape,” Phillips says.  “The United States is not in wonderful shape and it needs to get back some of that spunk that it had when people were willing to talk very bluntly about harsh and tough measures.” 

The Development of Wittgenstein‘s Philosophy of Psychology

Peter Hacker 

Anthony Kenny has, over the last half a century, been one of the leading Wittgenstein 

scholars in the world, and one of the pioneers in applying Wittgenstein‘s ideas and methods 

to novel domains and problems. I was fortunate to have met Tony when I was a Junior 

Research Fellow at Balliol more than forty years ago. The depth of his thought, the breadth of 

his knowledge, the clarity and incisiveness of his writings have inspired me throughout my 

professional life. In his paper ‗Wittgenstein‘s Early Philosophy of Mind‘, Tony was the first 

to delve beneath the surface of the Tractatus to disclose the hidden philosophico- 

psychological presuppositions of the book.1 The following essay, a small token of gratitude 

for all that I have learnt from Tony, begins from the same point and tells the subsequent tale 

of the development of Wittgenstein‘s philosophy of psychology. 

Wittgenstein and Naturalism- Anthony Kenny

Which Wittgenstein? Which Naturalism?

Video

Anthony Kenny -Wittgenstein

This revised edition of Sir Anthony Kenny’s classic work on Wittgenstein contains a new introduction which covers developments in Wittgenstein scholarship since the book was first published. 
 * Widely praised for providing a lucid and historically informed account of Wittgenstein’s core philosophical concerns. 
* Demonstrates the continuity between Wittgenstein’s early and later writings. 
* Provides a persuasive argument for the unity of Wittgenstein’s thought. * Kenny also assesses Wittgenstein’s influence in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Climate Change -Chasing Ice

Seeing is believing