Word: schaff
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Trailing by four points, the Crimson had to have a victory from star grappler Fred Periera at 167 to stay in the match. But Yale's Dave Schaff topped Periera with a 12 to 4 score on a near...
...skepticism to the jester. Between them there is eternal struggle. "Both violate the mind," writes Kolakowski, "the priest by strangling it with catechism; the jester by harassing it with mockery." Kolakowski favors the jester, who "mistrusts the stabilized world, denounces as doubtful what appears as unshakable." Another philosopher, Adam Schaff, who recently visited the U.S., remains more loyal to Marxism, but recognizes that individual principle sometimes conflicts with group discipline. Marxism, he writes, should tolerate such clashes because of its "methodological skepticism...
...first thought," said Schaff, " Is he baiting me?' But when I looked at the student and saw hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me attentively, I understood: this is serious. It was confirmed by the silence with which my explanations were followed. I admit that I was thinking out loud, and very feverishly. Until then I had rejected such subjects as so much blah-blah...
Thinking less feverishly over the following months, Communist Schaff singled out what he decided was the reason for this philosophical blind spot and did his best to indicate the cure. Communism historically has no time or place for the individual because Marx saw society as the solvent for all individual problems. Private ethical dilemmas were submerged, first because the revolution had no time for such niceties, later because they were tainted by association with "idealistic" ideologies. But Philosopher Schaff recognizes that "as long as people die, suffer, lose their loved ones, just so long will questions about the meaning...
Values Needed. Marxists, says Schaff, must work out a system of morality on a "scientific" basis rather than accept something like the Ten Commandments because it is the will of God. A typical "scientific" criterion: one should aim for "the greatest possible happiness of the large masses-only in this way may one implement the desire for personal happiness." What if organizational discipline-the state-requires an action that the individual believes to be morally wrong, that is, against "the greatest possible happiness of the masses...