ABSTRACT
Historical rationality may be retained since it is human intentionality which constitutes the real. A culture is a looking-glass in which the dominant social group seeks its features; and the astonishing thing about the bourgeoisie is that it is compelled to use the mirrors of the by-gone cultures, since its own great artists have generally refused to take it seriously. In Stalinism, the communication is ineffective because it takes place indirectly by the way of the dogma—the rulers become despositories of the Truth (things), rather than participants in a common effort (acts). Logical positivism came into being as a reaction against idealism which had a tendency to take words for the things. The positivists insisted that propositions should be susceptible to correlation with fact, and they dreamed of working out a system which would guarantee that this was always done.
