An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, by Bertrand Russell

[p047] An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth. By Bertrand Russell. Penguin Books, 6s. Lord Russell, it will be recalled, is the man who thought he stopped a nuclear war last October, by writing letters to Kennedy and Khrushchev. For a long time now, he has been explaining how words relate to each other. But he is also convinced that, LABOUR REVIEW—Winter 1963 somehow, they ought to relate to reality. At the beginning of the century, he was an enthusiastic leader of the attempt to dissolve philosophy in a bath of logical symbols. The methods of pure logical analysis were used to break down everything, from number and sense-perception to the Russian Revolution, into the tiniest fragments visible to the naked brain. This enterprise was centred on Vienna and Cambridge, later shifting to the U.S.A. An intricate analytical apparatus was constructed which, it was hoped, would so clarify any problem presented to it, that the difficulty would not longer be seen at all. However, when this vast machine had completed its tests in the philo- sophical workshops, it was found impossible to get it through the door, into the outside world. In any case, no one could remember what it was for. An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth consists of the William James lectures which Russell delivered in Harvard in 1940. It is mainly a discussion with Carnap, who, taking positivism to its conclusion, had decided that only statements about syntax really had any meaning. Philosophy had vanished into its own fundamental postulate. Russell was anxious to prove that words could refer to something. Carnap, Tarski and others had shown that, to avoid the paradoxes of formal logic, a ‘hierarchy’ of langu- ages was necessary. The truth of a statement in one language could only be asserted in a ‘meta-language’ higher up the ladder. Russell proposed an ‘object lan- guage, in which the real world could be talked about. Some readers, perhaps, will prefer plain English, French, German, etc. This book is written with the traditional clarity of English phifo- sophers. But this lucidity hides more than the worst obscurities of any German, for it evades all the important questions by pretending that no gentleman could ever ask them. CS. Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (T.U.), r.o. 180 Clapham High Street, London, $.W.4,

[p048] For Marxist classics write for free booklist to: ublications 186A Clapham High St London SW 4 Tel: MAGaulay 7029 The New Course By Leon Trotsky A collection of articles written in 1923 during the lull before the great storm of persecution which was later to overwhelm Russian Bolshevism. Here Trotsky, analyses the incipient stages of the degeneration of the Communist Party, uncovers its causes and proposes measures for combating its further decline. He here analyses the party in a historical, that is dialectical way, the relationships between generations, social strata, groups, factional forma- tions, tradition and the multitude of factors that go to make a revolutionary party. 111 pages, 3/6 This document is a landmark in the development of 20th century Marxism. It sums up the experience of an entire period of struggle against the Soviet bureaucracy. This Platform also represents the highest point in the fortunes of the Joint Opposition (Trotskyist-Zinovievite) to Stalin. It is the programme of the last of the Bolshevik-Leninists who insisted that they remained communists despite all the per- secution, jailings, violence and slander inflicted on them. ‘Left 0 But this document also represents a watershed—the end of GIL ppo one phase and the beginning of another—in the evolution of meee ‘Trotskyist politics. 112 pages, 5/- The Draft Programme of the Communist International by Leon Trotsky — This is part of the author’s criticism of the draft programme submitted by the Executive Committee of the Third (Communist) International to the 6th Congress of the Comintern which was held in July 1928. The manuscript of that criticism was written by Trotsky during his exile in Alma-Ata (Central Asia). It was sent to the Congress in Moscow together with an appeal for reinstatement into the party from which he had been expelled a few months before by the Stalinist faction in 1927. Stalin and his supporters had invented the theory of ‘Socialism in one country’, which was made party policy in 1925 and converted into an article of faith to be defended by the world institutions of Stalinism. It is this theory which Trotsky criticises in these pages. 64 pages, 1/- This is a polemic against Radek in 1928. Trotsky examines the arguments against his pre-war theory of the permanent revolution (as expounded in Results and Prospects) and takes up the history of his differences with Lenin before 1917, of which Stalin and his henchmen made so much. Trotsky shows that it was Lenin’s criticisms of his attitude to the centralised Marxist party, which he afterwards understood and accepted, that kept them apart, and not their differences on the permanent revolution. 254 pages, 15/- soft cover, 25/- hard cover This is the basic programmatic document of the world The death agony i} movement founded by Leon Trotsky and his comrades. By 1938 the revolutionary Marxists had found it necessary to capitalism lay the foundations of the Fourth International in order to restore working-class leadership after the defeats prepared by and the the Stalinist bureaucracy in control of the Third (Communist) tasks th International. The defeat of the German Revolution in oF tne 1923, of the British General Strike in 1926, and of the Chinese Revolution in 1927, followed by Hitler’s victory over the German working class in 1933, finally ruled out the 4th interyational amen § Perspective of transforming the Communist International by internal opposition. 60 pages, 1/-

[p049] For Marxist classics write for free booklist to: We ark ublications 186A Clapham High St London SW 4 Tel: MAGaulay 7029 The New Course By Leon Trotsky A collection of articles written in 1923 during the lull before the great storm of persecution which was later to overwhelm Russian Bolshevism. Here Trotsky, analyses the incipient stages of the degeneration of the Communist Party, uncovers its causes and proposes measures for combating its further decline. He here analyses the party in a historical, that is dialectical way, the relationships between generations, social strata, groups, factional forma- tions, tradition and the multitude of factors that go to make a revolutionary party. 111 pages, 3/6 ; This document is a landmark in the development of 20th e * century Marxism. It sums up the experience of an entire period of struggle against the Soviet bureaucracy. This Platform also represents the highest point in the fortunes of the Joint Opposition (Trotskyist-Zinovievite) to Stalin. It is the programme of the last of the Bolshevik-Leninists who insisted that they remained communists despite all the per- secution, jailings, violence and slander inflicted on them. sys “But this document also represents a watershed—the end of Left Opposition one phase and the beginning of another—in the evolution of —— ‘Trotskyist politics. 112 pages, 5/- The Draft Programme of the Communist International by Leon Trotsky This is part of the author’s criticism of the draft programme submitted by the Executive Committee of the Third (Communist) International to the 6th Congress of the Comintern which was held in July 1928. The manuscript of that criticism was written by Trotsky during his exile in Alma-Ata (Central Asia). It was sent to the Congress in Moscow together with an appeal for reinstatement into the party from which he had been expelled a few months before by the Stalinist faction in 1927. Stalin and his supporters had invented the theory of ‘Socialism in one country’, which was made party policy in 1925 and converted into an article of faith to be defended by the world institutions of Stalinism. It is this theory which Trotsky criticises in these pages. 64 pages, 1/- This is a polemic against Radek in 1928. Trotsky examines the arguments against his pre-war theory of the permanent revolution (as expounded in Results and Prospects) and takes up the history of his differences with Lenin before 1917, of which Stalin and his henchmen made so much. Trotsky shows that it was Lenin’s criticisms of his attitude to the centralised Marxist party, which he afterwards understood and accepted, that kept them apart, and not their differences on the permanent revolution. 254 pages, 15/- soft cover, 25/- hard cover This is the basic programmatic document of the world The death agony i\™ movement founded by Leon Trotsky and his comrades, By a my «|: 938 «the revolutionary Marxists had found it necessary to capitalism wena = =olay the foundations of the Fourth International in order to restore working-class leadership after the defeats prepared by and the Mere the Stalinist bureaucracy in control of the Third (Communist) tasks of th International. The defeat of the German Revolution in ASKS OF tie 1923, of the British General Strike in 1926, and of the Chinese Revolution in 1927, followed by Hitler's victory over the German working class in 1933, finally ruled out the 4th Interpational ioimmemenn §Perspective of transforming the Communist International by internal opposition. 60 pages, 1/-