Mikhail Bakunin: The Philosophical Basis of His Anarchism

Bakunin as Philosopher? The first English-language philosophical study of Mikhail Bakunin, this book examines the philosophical foundations of Bakunin's social thought. It is concerned not so much with the explication of his anarchist position, as such, as with the basic philosophy which underpins it, and focuses on two central components: a negative dialectic or revolutionary logic; and a naturalist ontology, a naturalistic account of the structure of being or reality. But a preliminary question is begged, relating to the very significance of Bakunin as a philosophical thinker, the very significance of this apparent philosophical "non-entity" (Karl Marx's judgment). Is Bakunin worthy of philosophical consideration?McLaughlin offers an interpretation of Bakunin's philosophy and, in part, a defense of it against Marxist and liberal scholarship to date. Indeed, he argues that there has as yet been no satisfactory philosophical treatment of Bakunin in the English language. A wave of renewed interest in Bakunin is reflected in the release of the first complete collection of Bakunin's writings: Oeuvres Completes CD-ROM (Amsterdam: International Institute for Social History) in 2000; the first multi-volume collection of Bakunin's writings in English translation is forthcoming (AK Press of Edinburgh/San Francisco). This book casts light on an important aspect of Bakunin's thought and can only serve to heighten such interest.Paul McLaughlin is a scholar of political philosophy at the National University of Ireland. His research on Bakunin and European and Russian anarchists has taken him to the University of Zielona Gora (Poland) and the Institute of Philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland).