| | In one of the essays in his book Philosophy and an African Culture, Kwasi Wiredu, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ghana, Legon, 'attempts to provide the fundamental explanation of the tendency to authoritarianism hitherto noted in many Marxist regimes' (p.86). I will not discuss here what relation, if any, regimes which call themselves, or are called, 'Marxist' have to Karl Marx's theory. It is obvious enough that Wiredu wrongly assumes that a demonstration that Marx's view is authoritarian is an explanation of the authoritarianism of some regimes called 'Marxist' . My aim, in this review is simply to deny that the Marxist doctrine itself ... has an authoritarian trait which can . . . be traced to the conception of philosophy to be found in Marx and Engels (p.70). |
