The stream of literary production from the Marxological industry apparently has no end or diminution. It is a stream with a variety of currents fed from Marx’s voluminous and varied writings. A unique addition to this variety is the book in hand by a professor of philosophy in Glasgow University.

As though echoing recent organizational moves among American philosophers to insure pluralism of viewpoints, Marxism and Alternatives undertakes to show the special thrust, as well as interaction and overlapping, of four different philosophies precisely designated in the subtitle. Further, the four main sections of the book consider, often in detail, major themes in other current perspectives, such as linguistic analysis and logical empiricism, as they present, with considerable uniformity, answers to essential questions on man, society, epistemology, and ontology. The common (...) pattern of exposition and the amount of interrelating indicate that the authors’ collaboration must have been very close, no mean achievement in a vocation where the practitioner is often described as “one who thinks otherwise.”. (shrink)

As though echoing recent organizational moves among American philosophers to insure pluralism of viewpoints, Marxism and Alternatives undertakes to show the special thrust, as well as interaction and overlapping, of four different philosophies precisely designated in the subtitle. Further, the four main sections of the book consider, often in detail, major themes in other current perspectives, such as linguistic analysis and logical empiricism, as they present, with considerable uniformity, answers to essential questions on man, society, epistemology, and ontology. The common (...) pattern of exposition and the amount of interrelating indicate that the authors’ collaboration must have been very close, no mean achievement in a vocation where the practitioner is often described as “one who thinks otherwise.”. (shrink)

This is a timely book in its central theme, appearing as it does in the midst of the bicentennial celebration of the U. S. Constitution and also a time of spirited controversy over the substance of the Constitution in relation to the Supreme Court and the Executive. It is also a philosophical book of more permanent interest in its careful elucidation of meanings as it closely documents supporting grounds and arguments in a clear, pointed style without the preachy rhetoric of (...) politicians, ecclesiastics, and even Supreme Court decisions. In motivation and achievement the book reflects its author’s membership on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union chairing its Church-State Committee, his work as Professor of Social Ethics at St. Paul School of Theology, and his previous publications on education and the politics of liberation. (shrink)