Vesa Oittinen is Professor at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki. His research focuses on the history of modern philosophy, especially German, Scandinavian, and Russian philosophy.Andrey Maidansky, Ph.D. (1993), Professor, Belgorod State University, Russia, published monographs and articles on Spinoza, Marx, and Soviet philosophy, and the anthology Spinoza: Pro et contra (St Petersburg: RHGA, 2012).

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• IntroductionAndrey Maidansky and Vesa Oittinen1. Activity and the Search for True MaterialismDavid Bakhurst2. ‘Praxis’ as the Criterion of Truth? The Aporias of Soviet Marxism and the Activity-ApproachVesa Oittinen3. Reality as Activity: The Concept of Praxis in Soviet PhilosophyAndrey Maidansky4. The Category of Activity in Soviet PhilosophyInna Titarenko5. The Activity-Approach and MetaphysicsEdward M. Swiderski6. Abstract and Concrete Understanding of Activity: ‘Activity’ and ‘Labour’ in Soviet PhilosophySergey Mareyev7. The Kiev Philosophical School in the Light of the Marxist Theory of ActivityElena Mareyeva8. The Evolution of Batishchev’s Views on the Nature of Objective Activity, and the Limits of the Activity-ApproachAlexander Khamidov9. The Activity-Approach in Soviet Philosophy and Contemporary Cognitive StudiesVladislav Lektorsky10. The Concept of the Scheme in the Activity-Theories of Ilyenkov and PiagetPentti Määttänen11. The Ideal and the Dream-World: Evald Ilyenkov and Walter Benjamin on the Significance of Material ObjectsAlex LevantBibliographyIndex