Markar Melkonian is a nonfiction writer and student of philosophy with the usual surfeit of college degrees, culminating in a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  His books and articles have been about social and political philosophy, America's "New Middle East," and the travails of the incalculably glorious post-Soviet Republic of Armenia. Melkonian has not yet visited Antarctica, but if he does soon, he will probably be among the top twelve philosophers of science on that continent.  In his spare time he devises biographical blurbs that sound as though someone else wrote them. 

I would like to think that this website is not a vanity project. It is certainly not a personal archive—it is much more selective than that, and more audience-forward. Nor is it a writer’s showcase: its chief aim is not self-expression. Nor is its main purpose, despite all appearances, to sell books. Its chief aim, rather (at the risk of sounding supercilious, is educational, and that accounts for its topical organization. More about that in the next paragraph, but first a few defensive words about the writing included here. They are mostly reprints of occasional pieces, written over the course of decades This creates a spotty impression, which is a drawback for educational purposes. But I calculate (perhaps I am mistaken about this) that there is an upside that overridesthis drawback, and is conducive to my educational intent: I hope the reader will register that in multiple conjunctures over decades, the writer, writing as events have unfolded, has identified folly that the punditry had ignored—and in most cases, does not acknowlege to this day. Some of these writings have been presecient on important issues of the day.

Education: this website is intended to be a handy one-stop source for additional information, much of it out of print, about a certain interpretation of Marxism, which the author, tongue only halfway-in-cheek, calls lean, mean Marxism.

What is that?

It is a consistently naturalistic version of Marxism--one stripped of common but superfluous assumptions about History, human nature, common sense, “government,” civil society, Law, and life. That is a lot of ballast overboard. This author hopes that each of the items included here, within the narrow limits of its initial occasion and however fragmentary, will provide a peek at a critical, open, evolving science of the social history of our species, a science that complements adjacent fields, from Earth science, human ecology and paleoanthropology to neuroscience.

Visitors to this site might notice that the views presented, however flawed, partial, and occasionally repetitive, have been pretty much borne out in the years since they were written. They have been borne out even as events have refuted the opposing views of well-funded experts.