Return to Socialism; and Marx

This chapter explores Jack Lindsay’s transformation from aesthete to activist, particularly the influence of Giordano Bruno, through whose work he refines his notions of unity and interconnection. He proposes a dialectics based on the notion of wholeness within which all is in flux, constantly interacting and creating new forms of connection, which also means that knowledge is radically contextual. He also refines his notion of abstraction, describing it as problematic only when de-contextualised and fetishised. His study of religion begins a life-long study of the power of ideology to influence, affect, and control people, and discusses the use of Freud’s work to explore human consciousness. Finally, he deconstructs the opposition of nature and society, identifying them as ‘a unity within which act and knowledge fuse’.