"My view that tolerance and rationality are intimately connected is not merely an a priori thesis. The transformation of Marxism from a rationally held into an irrationally held body of theory is a transformation which was the result of Marxists cutting themselves off from possibilities of criticism and refutation. The use of state power to defend Marxism as the one set of true beliefs in the Soviet Union produced the atrophy of Marxism and the irrationality of Soviet Marxism. This use of state power was not only repressive in respect of tolerance; it was the instrument of a minority who took up towards the majority an attitude very similar to that which Marcuse advises his minority elite to take up to the majority. The majority was in the Soviet Union the passive object of re-education in the interests of its own liberation. What Marcuse invites us to repeat is part of the experience of Stalinism."
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Academics from ScotlandPhilosophers from ScotlandHistorians from Scotland20th-century philosophers21st-century philosophers
Original Language: English
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"On Marcuse", New York Times Review of Books, October 23, 1969. (Reprinted in Marcuse (1970), pp. 91-92.)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_MacIntyre
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Alasdair MacIntyre
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (12 January 1929 – 21 May 2025) was a Scottish-American philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in the history of philosophy and theology.
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