Evald Ilyenkov's Marxian Critique of Epistemology and Education

Based on the concepts of “activity” and the “ideal,” Ilyenkov's critique of epistemology follows the Marxian conceptualization of knowledge as the product of the metabolic relation between human and social nature. Accordingly, one specificity of the human being is her “object-oriented activity,” which in essence means changing the world. Ilyenkov criticizes views that reduce knowledge to a system of propositions. This conceptualization of knowledge produces not critical thinkers but automatons, and is determined by the logic and needs of capital. “Critical pedagogy,” e.g. , that of Paulo Freire, fails to provide a genuine alternative to capitalist education, as it considers knowledge a mental entity, ignoring the fact that the education system is an integral part of capitalist relations of production. Communist reorganization of the education system should aim at providing every individual with access to the totality of human cultural wealth, artefacts, and means, along with the capability to deploy them.