The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism

by Mikhail Bakunin, Grigori Petrovitch Maximoff (Editor)

vintage books, anarchism, anarchists

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Russia, Nonfiction

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Russian anarchist and political theorist Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, imprisoned and later exiled to Siberia for his considered revolutionary activities, escaped to London in 1861, opposed Communism of Karl Marx.

People often called Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Баку́нин), a philosopher, the father of collectivism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail...

Reviews

[Sami Eerola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of the key writings of Anarchist thinker and revolutionary
Michael Bakunin. This was a enjoyable read. Easy to understand and with the footnotes the historical references do not go over the head.

Even if you do not agree with the principles of Anarchism and revolutionary violence, Bakunin´s observations that state capture through violent revolution would corrupt the revolutionaries was proven right by history itself. In his time, Bakunin had observed how the French revolution degenerated to dictatorship, terror and imperialism. So he extrapolated that even a purehearted humanitarian socialist would be corrupted by absolute state power.

Reading this book, you understand why Bakunin was an anarchist. he believed that the state in itself would corrupt and degenerate its elites, so for him the solution was the abolition of the state.

[Matthew Quest]

The best selection of the writings by the anarchist Bakunin I am aware. Maximoff, as editor, has organized his writings thematically. For those familiar with Bakunin, who was not a formally trained intellectual and wrote in run on sentences with no easy demarcations, this IS somewhat of an accomplishment. This presentation makes it much easier for a scholar to consider Bakunin's views not merely on the state and religion, but on science and political philosophy more broadly.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction gives an ok overview of Bakunins life if you don't have much of a background on him already. He definitely wasn't the most original speculative philosopher and is highly moralistic but his polemics on science, intellectuals, society, the social contract, inequality, inheritance, suffrage, the revolutionary role of the peasantry, etc are all very compelling.

[Jay Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good for an all-in-one collection from someone with like 80 pamphlets and one unfinished book to his name. A lot of good explanations are given of the ideas in his many writings. It is broken into sections about his philosophy & outlook (I), critique of existing society (II), alternatives ("The System of Anarchism") and lastly, tactics for practical change (IV). Particularly the sections on 'freedom' and his philosophical influences were the ones I found most useful. The distinctions between idealist and materialist schools and critiques of how the scientific method is bound up with hierarchy and abuse are very clever and approachable. There are some sections later on that get a bit preachy and or hard to digest, but because this is true of Bakunin's work this is actually a step away from that on the whole. The entire book is pretty thorough and well-crafted. The way different parts overlap (namely the moral ideas and scientific method introduced early on are repeated throughout the course of the third and fourth parts of the book, albeit kind of crudely) makes the thing a bit richer and more whole. Great stuff.