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Philosophy usually is a much more important discipline in the left wing tradition than in the tradition of power elites, which regard a worldview only as impractical speculation. For the political Left philosophy as a rule represents an arsenal of ideas and is correctly appreciated as a considerable potential force because the Left can rely not on power, but only on the strength of reason, ideas, and judgment. Philosophy is the natural ally of the political Left. This is true of the democratic tradition of humanism, the tradition of the working class movement, and also of the first phase of revolutionary Communism in the U.S.S.R. In this last instance, however, philosophy was negated in a peculiar way during the Stalin era because it was transformed into both an instrument for controlling the masses and an irrational mythology.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-1870-8_3

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