The dissertation is following both theoretical and practical sides of Victor Burgin's early work. The structure of this thesis mainly reflects a hybrid attitude of the artist/theorist - the text digress from theoretical comments to related art works which are arranged chronologically. The principal focus lies in Burgin's concers for ideological, social and cultural impacts of photographic advertising practice in Great Britain during the 1970s which he assesed through theories derived from marxism, semiology and psychoanalysis. Keywords: Victor Burgin, photography theory, minimal art, conceptual art, cognitive science, semiotics, modernism, postmodernism, LEF (Left Front of the Arts), marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism

Die vorliegende Arbeit skizziert eine materialistische Antwort auf die Frage, welche gesellschaftliche Bedeutung Sprache hat, in welchem Sinne sie Bedingung für und inwiefern sie in Abhängigkeit von gesellschaftlichen Strukturen ist. Den Rahmen bildet die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung und Gesellschaftstheorie. Sie wird zunächst in ihrer Ausarbeitung durch Marx und Engels ohne Verbindung mit einer entwickelten materialistischen Sprachtheorie eingeführt. Es folgt ein Gang durch sprachtheoretische Fragestellungen, die unterhalb der gesellschaftstheoretischen Ebene angesiedelt sind: Wittgensteins Auffassung der Sprache als Regelfolgepraxis wird als Idealismuskritik des Abbildungsparadigmas in der Sprachphilosophie gedeutet, anhand der Kulturhistorischen Schule der russischen Psychologie wird Sprache als Orientierungsmittel und materielle Basis komplexerer Zwecksetzungen bestimmt und schließlich an Brandoms pragmatistischer Rekonstruktion der logischen Gliederung der Sprache die Stellung innersprachlicher Regelstrukturen diskutiert. Die gesellschaftliche Ebene wird im letzten Kapitel anhand von materialistischen Gesellschaftstheorien der Sprache (Gramsci), der Ideologie (Projekt Ideologietheorie) und des Diskurses (Fairclough) wieder aufgenommen und mit den Resultaten der vorangegangenen Kapitel vermittelt. Dabei wird die zuvor entwickelte Bestimmung der Sprache als Mittel der Orientierung und Zwecksetzung im Verhältnis zu nichtsprachlichen gesellschaftlichen Strukturen und ihrer historischen Besonderung entfaltet. / The text provides an outline of a materialist answer to what significance language has in relation to society, in which sense it is a condition for and in how far it is dependent on social structures. The materialist notion of history and materialist social theory serve as theoretical framework. They are first introduced as developed by Marx and Engels without any relation to a full-fledged materialist language theory. In a second step problems of language theory below the level of social theory are tackled: Wittgenstein‘s concept of language as a praxis of rule-following is interpreted as a critique of the idealism that informs the representation paradigm in language philosophy; following the cultural-historical psychology language is defined as means of orientation and material basis for complex goal setting; Brandom‘s pragmatist reconstruction of the logical structure of language serves as background for discussing the status of immanent rule structures of language. The social level is then taken up again and mediated with the results of the discussion of sub-social language theories by drawing on materialist social theories of language (Gramsci), of ideology (Projekt Ideologietheorie), and of discourse (Fairclough). The definition of language as a means of orientiation and goal setting is developed in its relation to non-language social structures and their historical specificity.

Als eine der ersten ihrer Art außerhalb Europas war die Kommunistische Partei Indiens (CPI) bei der Ausbreitung des Marxismus jenseits des europäischen Rahmens vorne mit dabei. Zu ihren prägenden Einflüssen zählten die sowjetische Praxis der Revolutionsjahre und zeitgenössische radikale Spielarten des Nationalismus in Britisch-Indien. Von Beginn an musste sie sich unter Bedingungen behaupten, denen in der Theorie wenig Beachtung zugekommen war – zuvorderst der ungebrochenen Bedeutung von Religion und Gemeinschaft für das politische und soziale Leben des Subkontinents. Die Arbeit untersucht zunächst anhand der Werke von Marx, Engels und Lenin sowie der Komintern den theoretischen und organisatorischen ‚Überbau‘ der CPI auf den Stellenwert von Religion in einem parteikommunistischen Emanzipationsgefüge. In der Folge widmet sie sich den oft biografisch eingefärbten Ansätzen und Strategien der Partei und ihrer Mitglieder, unter dem Primat der ‚Politik für die Masse‘ mit den Verhältnissen auf dem Subkontinent umzugehen. Sie beleuchtet kommunistische Perspektiven auf Revolution anhand konkreter Fälle wie dem passiven Widerstand Gandhis, dem Moplah-Aufstand, der Arbeiterschaft, religiösem Kommunalismus und dem erstarkenden Gemeinschaftsgefühl religiöser Gruppen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Partei beständig zwischen qualifizierter Ablehnung und bedingter Unterstützung religiöser Kultur schwankte, die schematisch zwei divergierende und seit der russischen Revolution erkennbare revolutionäre Paradigmen bilden: ein westliches und ein östliches. Der in Letzterem kondensierte Strang politischer Tradition ermöglichte es schließlich, dass der Partei die Unterstützung für die Pakistanforderung der Muslim League in den 1940er Jahren plausibel erschien. / Among the eldest of its kind in Asia, the Communist Party of India (CPI) pioneered the spread of Marxist politics beyond the European arena. Influenced by both Soviet revolutionary practice and radical nationalism in British India, it operated under conditions not provided for in Marxist theory—foremost the prominence of religion and community in social and political life. The thesis analyzes, first, the theoretical and organizational ‘overhead’ of the CPI in terms of the position of religion in a party communist hierarchy of emancipation. It will therefore question the works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin on the one hand, and Comintern doctrines on the other. Secondly, it scrutinizes the approaches and strategies of the CPI and individual members, often biographically biased, to come to grips with the subcontinental environment under the primacy of mass politics. Thirdly, I discuss communist vistas on revolution on concrete instances including (but not limited to) the Gandhian non-cooperation movement, the Moplah rebellion, the subcontinental proletariat, the problem of communalism, and assertion of minority identities. I argue that the CPI established a pattern of vacillation between qualified rejection and conditional appropriation of religion that loosely constituted two diverging revolutionary paradigms characterizing communist practice from the Soviet outset: Western and Eastern. The specific tradition condensed in the latter eventually would render it plausible to the party to support the Muslim League’s Pakistan demand in the 1940s.

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2002.

In my thesis I will pursue the ideological foundations of the Frankfurt School, a significant social philosophical group of the 20th century. Marxist and psychoanalytic basis will be reflected in conjunction with a critical theory of society and a phenomenon of culture industry. The purpose of this work is to present influences which formed a theoretical work of the Frankfurt School, its research in a modern society and a contribution to the so-called commodification of culture and art related to the expansion of mass culture.

This diploma thesis brings the description of life and work one of the foremost intellectuals of twentieth century, philosopher Karel Kosík (1926-2003). Karel Kosík was a philosopher, who holds an idea of ``Open Marxism``. This intellectual trend was practically one and only system, which could in time of communism totality ask for dialogue with other intellectual movements. Except philosophy of history Kosík´s work go beyond to the areas of history, sociology, philosophical anthropology and literature. Kosík became the front ideological representative of Prague Spring. Kosík abid his ideals of ``socialism with human face`` even in the totalitarian times during years 1970-1989, when he was as enemy of regime removed from the academical world. After year 1989, when he returned for short at Charles University (1990-1992) he stayed devoted for the ``Open Marxism`` as a leading left-wing philosopher. He was forced to leave his position at university in 1992, allegedly because of his age. Diploma thesis is divided in five chapters. The first chapter describes Kosík´s philosophy in the contemporary context of marxism, the second one gives facts about Kosík´s life story, the third is focused on analysis of Kosík´s work, the fourth inquires into contemporary reception of the Kosík´s person and fifth chapter is intent on Kosík´s relevance and legacy for our presence and future. In Appendix are added copies of some archival materials provided by Literature archive of Museum of Czech Literature in Prague and Archive of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague.

Barbora Skálová Whose side are you on? Radical Left in postwar Finland - on the phenomenon of Marxism-Leninism outside the Eastern Bloc Abstract The dissertation aims to explore the phenomenon of a radical left movement - Taistoists - which at the turn of the 60s and 70s for a short period of time dominated the student and cultural circles in Finland. The dissertation strives to shed light on the reasons for the uprise of the - in European context unique - pro-Soviet, Marxist-Leninist and "anti-anti- establishment" youth movement, and on its influence on home and foreign policy of Finland in terms of so-called Finlandization. The work also puts the movement into the Czechoslovakian context, mainly in relation to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. The dissertation discusses the theoretical anticapitalistic background of the movement and compares it to the theoretical background and political practice of coeval New Left movements in Europe and the USA. The experience of the members of the movement has been elaborated in the oral history part based on personal interviews. The oral history chapter aims to offer an explanation and a broader perspective of the taistolaiset phenomenon presented by direct witnesses and participants of the movement.

The Political Thought of Karl Jaspers - Abstract The aim of the dissertation was to interpret the thinking of Karl Jaspers as an endeavour to clarify the connecting lines between the basic characteristics of human being and its historical and political dimensions. In the book we reconstructed Jaspers' spiritual development from systematic-theoretical research to the engagement of a public intellectual. As his main legacy are shown the importance of the inseparability, of a mutual cultivation and prove of philosophical foundation and historical being as well as exploration. Jaspers is presented as an important participant in the discussions about the problems of German society from the 1930s to the 1960s, whose contribution laid not in a philosophically "more abstract" analysing of problems, but in discovering that social and political being cannot do without philosophical self-reflection of man, of the structure of human existence and knowledge and of the principial values derived from it. In his confrontations with the situation of German culture, politics and society, Jaspers enriched the public debate by cultivating the philosophical and methodical consciousness. He emphasized the distinctions between the nature and instruments of the different spheres of human spirit (of sciences, religion, philosophy...

This study examines the specific aspects of the reception of Russian formalism and the development of the Formal method in Soviet Ukrainian culture in the 1920s - the beginning of 1930s. Russian formalism in the process of reception becomes an important tool for the "modernization" of national culture and, as a result, an instrument for a new phase in the construction of national cultural identity. On that basis, the cultural-historical and ideological context of the development of Ukrainian literary criticism, criticism and (partially) literature of the late 19th - first decades of the 20th century is consistently reconstructed in eight chapters of the work. The first chapter highlights theoretical aspects of the study, reviews critical literature, reconstructs the history of reception of Russian formalism in Russian and Western criticism and the history of literature. The second chapter addresses the historical and theoretical premises of the reception of Formal theory in Ukrainian culture. The next chapter discusses historical and political context of the development of literature and literary criticism in 1917-1920 using the example of multinational post-revolutionary Kiev; a brief review of the theoretical and historical works of the 1920s also appears here. A special focus is put on the...

TITLE: The Philosophy of Louis Althusser in his ‚theoreticist' period AUTHOR: Petr Kužel DEPARTMENT: Social Sciences and Philosophy, Department SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Michael Hauser Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The thesis focuses on a philosophy of Louis Althusser in his "teoreticist" period, i.e. 1960-1967. The work is divided to four essentials sections: epistemology, ontology, psychoanalyse and ideology. We put accent on epistemological problematic, which is in this period of a development of Althusser's philosophy unequivocally dominant. In introduction of this text is explained historical and political context, in which Althusser realized his "theoretical intervention". The thesis treat on Althusser's conviction, that inadequate theory leads to deformed political practice and that Marxist theory exists till now in his "applied form", notably in The Capital. According to Althusser this Marxist theory wasn't adequately theoretically formed. Our work characterises Althusser's tentative to create and theoretically formulate this theory. This Althusser's tentative is connected with an effort to draw a "line of demarcation" between the Marxism and the pre-Marxist idealist notions, which are foreign to authentic Marxism. Althusser's critique focuses on Stalinism, "theoretical humanism", empiricism and Hegelianism. In present...