Mikhail Bakunin : the philosophical basis of his theory of anarchism

Bakunin As Philosopher? The First English-language Philosophical Study Of Mikhail Bakunin, This Book Examines The Philosophical Foundations Of Bakuninocos Social Thought. It Is Concerned Not So Much With The Explication Of His Anarchist Position, As Such, A McLaughlin is concerned not so much with an explication of Bakunin's anarchist position, as such, as with the basic philosophy which underpins it. He focuses on two central components: a negative dialectic, or revolutionary logic; and a naturalist ontology, a naturalistic account of the structure of being or reality. Bakunin scholarship, he notes, falls into two camps: Marxist and liberal. Both, he says, tend to be hostile. McLaughlin discredits one by one the analyses (published, usually, as part of a work on Marx et al.) by Francis Wheen ("schoolboy wit, idiocy of tone, poverty of content"), George Lichtheim ("completely misreads Bakunin") and Oxbridge scholar Aileen Kelly ("personality assassination, perverse, slanderous"), while upholding Eric Voegelin. Perhaps this book will spark a small revolution of its own. Scholars interested in Bakunin have had few resources available in English, and none of them, until now, presented a credible study of the man's philosophy Content: pt. 1. Bakunin's dialectic and the critique of speculation -- pt. 2. Bakunin's naturalism and the critique of theologism.