Clandestine Epistemology: The Problem of Dialectics in the Work of Evald Ilyenkov

This thesis offers a critical reconstruction of the philosophical project of the Soviet Marxist Evald Ilyenkov (1924-1979). Situated within the post-Stalin “Thaw” and “Stagnation” periods, Ilyenkov’s work sought to revitalize dialectical materialism by developing a theory of the “ideal.” He conceived of thought not as a mere reflection of “reality” but as an objective social process, a form of material activity irreducible to individual psychology or physiology. While scholarship often presents Ilyenkov as a pre-critical ontologist or a Kantian-style humanist, this study argues that his ambition was to synthetically fuse ontology and epistemology. The thesis explores Ilyenkov’s heterodox readings of Spinoza, Hegel and Marx, which redefine thinking as a mode of action of matter itself. Through a sociohistorical analysis of key Soviet philosophical debates, the work contextualizes Ilyenkov’s interventions.