Joining Hegel and Ilyenkov in “the realm of thinking”

A presentation by Corinna Lotz on 15 December 2022 to the Third International scientific conference “Hegelian studies” in Kyiv[i]

Hello dear colleagues and comrades

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you from London and for organising your conference under the constant threat of missile attacks by Putin’s regime on your country’s citizens and infrastructure.

For the International Friends of Ilyenkov and myself Ilyenkov has been an inspirational figure, in particular his championing of Hegelian dialectics from a materialist standpoint.

Evald Ilyenkov opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. I am sure he would also have opposed Russia’s invasion and ongoing war against Ukraine.

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In search of lost thinking with Evald Ilyenkov

Sunday/Sontag 12 December 18:00 €5

ExHuman: The Post-Apocalyptic Late Night Show invites you to join the conversation once a month. Each month’s theme asks about the exception that proves the rule, about accelerated repetition, about dead dogs and prevented, forgotten, embodied thinking. It is borrowed from philosophy, history, socio-culture, art and literature and opens the discussion using an example (person, novel, film, album, event, etc.). Angie Volk and Sascha Freyberg will be moderating, with Stefan Paul Trzeciok standing by in the background.

ExHuman: Die postapokalyptische Late Night Show lädt einmal im Monat zum Gespräch. Das jeweilige Monatsthema fragt nach der Ausnahme, die die Regel bestätigt, nach der beschleunigten Wiederholung, nach toten Hunden und dem verhinderten, vergessenen, verkörperten Denken. Es wird der Philosophie, Geschichte, Soziokultur, Kunst und Literatur entlehnt und eröffnet anhand eines Beispiels (Person, Roman, Film, Album, Event etc.) die Diskussion. Die Moderation übernehmen Angie Volk und Sascha Freyberg, Stefan Paul Trzeciok steht im Hintergrund zur Seite.

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Zaira Rodríguez Ugidos

The name Zaira Rodríguez Ugidos is barely known outside the Latin American and Spanish-speaking world. And yet she was a charismatic Marxist thinker at a time when philosophy in general, and Marxist philosophy in particular, rarely included a woman. International Friends of Ilyenkov co-organiser Corinna Lotz interviewed Cuban philosopher Rogney Piedra Arencibia about his discovery of this outstanding woman thinker, who died tragically young at 44 in 1985.

Her focus on dialectical logic was inspired by the work of Evald Ilyenkov, who was still alive when she studied in Moscow during the late 1960s.

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Engels in the crosshairs

A statue of Engels in Manchester, salvaged by artist Phil Collins depicted on a tea towel

Review-article by Corinna Lotz

Frederick Engels was Karl Marx’s closest friend and collaborator. In the light of the ongoing ecological crisis and Covid-19 pandemic, Engels’ Dialectics of Nature takes on a new significance.

So it is good that Kaan Kangal, currently a philosophy scholar at Nanjing University in China, has made a new study of Engels’ work.

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