Philosophy and Science in the Writings of L. Trotsky, by Constantine Skordoulis

Philosophy and Science in the writings of L Trotsky, (ФІЛОГОФІА КАІ ЕПІЕТНМН ZTA KEIMENA TOY TPOTZKI) by Constantine Skordoulis, 1995, IAMOS (Athens, Greece) This Greek-language work approaches the philosphical thought of L. Trotsky as it emerges in Philosophical Writings 1933-35 and his writings on science while President of the Soviet Commission for Industry and Technology (1925). In the first chapter the author presents Trotsky's writings on philosohy and science and evaluates his contribution in these fields. Skordoulis criticises the Stalinist "theory of two sciences", and Althusser's views. The second chapter examines the philosophical foundations of the Theory of Permanent Revolution. The law of combined and uneven development appears as a specific expression of the law of transformation of quantity to quality, whose presence is dominant in Trotsky's writings on the theory of evolution and Darwin. Skordoulis then discusses the crisis and subsequent collapse of the USSR and other "post-capitalist" societies, and tries to re-establish the relevance of theories on the class nature of these states and their potential evolution which are based on Trotsky's theoretical approach. The final chapter presents the first translation into Greek of a number of Trotsky's writings on science, including Philosophical Writings 1933-35 (published in English in 1986), "Dialectical Materialism and Science" (published in English in The Age of Permanent Revolution, I. Deutscher and G. Novack (eds.) and "Dialectics and the Immutability of Syllogism" (published in English in Writings of Leon Trotsky 1939-40, Pathfinder, New York). Constantine Skordoulis lectures on the philosophy of physics at the University of loannia, Greece. This book is dedicated to the memory of Christos Anastasiadis (1910-1987), lifelong member of the Greek section of the Fourth International. *