The Inertia Of Fear And The Scientific Worldview Valentin Turchin Guy Daniels by Valentin Turchin; Guy Daniels 9780231894593, 0231894597 instant download after payment.

Written by a Soviet dissident, this book looks at the way to live in a society and the confrontation between totalitarianism and freedom with its effect on mankind.

I would like to stress that although written by a Soviet dissident, this book is not α book on Soviet dissent; neither is it a book on the Soviet Union primarily. I take the situation in the USSR only as a starting point for discussing much more general things, which should be important to every human being: the meaning of life, the way to live in a society, and the present confrontation between totalitarianism and freedom with its effects on the future of mankind. I approach these problems from the positivistic viewpoint, relying on contemporary philosophy of science, and using general concepts of cybernetics (systems theory). In Russia, it seemed natural and important to write (and read!) a book on this theme. In America, it hardly occurs to anybody that this may be the theme. Thus the readers for the publishing houses were figuring out: will the book be interesting to Sovietologists? I tried to have this published in English through the kind help of Mr. Hedrick Smith when I was still in Moscow. The book was rejected by the first publisher approached with the following conclusion by the expert whom that publisher consulted: In sum, I think it is a good and interesting manuscript, certainly deserving of publication—even demanding publication—but my guess is that a university press would be more suitable. . . . The reason for this verdict was, that je had been asked to evaluate the book from a very narrow angle. One reads on in the review: 

I do not believe that Turchin's book will attract as much attention as Roy Medvedev's On Socialist Democracy (which was probably only modestly successful). It is a more theoretical work than the latter, more scientific in orientation by far. It is also probably more important. Turchin asks hard questions which Medvedev avoided, and tries to give independent answers