Lucy Keer

@Meaningness Have you read anything on Lenin's epistemology? This paper looks interesting: https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/10726/1/fulltext.pdf … . Especially the folowing quote from the introduction:

"Essentially, this theory consists of two assertions: (1) a world exists "independent" of and "external" to consciousness, and (2) knowledge consists of approximately faithful "reflections" of that world in consciousness"

At first reading, this sounds like what had been the mainstream philosophical view for centuries before Lenin? (Cf. Rorty's _Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature_.)

That is very likely, after all it didn't fall from the sky. I have just come in contact with Leninist thought, so I don't know it well enough to point out some interesting differences. I haven't read that Rorty book, I'll look into it, thanks.

The Rorty book is a classic. It was the main way the mid-20th-century German and French understanding of the limits of traditional epistemology was revealed to American analytic philosophy.

If you aren’t familiar with the previous mainstream view, it’s probably better to understand that first, since it’s what Rorty was reacting to. Something like Bertrand Russell maybe.

Yeah, I think I know the broad outline of the previous mainstrim view from a variety of sources. It will still be interesting to read Rorty, to see this view fully articulated and criticized.