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Searchable PDF Format X(= *JfrRelscr)tl c*.**"-* 'l'beodore )izerman DIALECTI CAL MATERIATI$M alrdtheHIST0RY 0f Ptllt0s0PHY ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY OF PHITOSOPHY EE Progrex PrfiI i t he rc N ucou Trrnrlrtod lrom tho f,urtlan by Dmltrt Eeltavskg col{tEtvls Dodgnod bY Vadlm Kulethou ' Page T. Oftaepuar Inl,roduction t5 E M AT JII43 M AI4AJI ttTI4rIECIt[fi !]PI,IA ,t IA IICT OPI4fr @IIJIOCOOI4I4 I'IIOI]LEMS OF METHOD IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Ha aruanufrcnot a,aufre t7 Ihe.History oI ?hilosophy-the Development of philo- sollrcal tlrowledge . l9 Ilialectical Materillism and Hegel's phiiosoply' oi in.' Histo_ryof Philosophy. .... 4t A Contribution to the Critique of the Latest pluralistic Concept of the History of Philosoohv 62 'l'ho Dialectical-Materialist View of " ttre philosophical !yqlom 83 l.'}hilosophy and Everyday Consoiousness . 100 2 I)IALIJ.CTICAL MATERIALISM AND DIALECTICAL IDEAL IgM ttg lmrnrnuoltmnrnnuol Kaut and l?th-Century philojophicalphilosophical Ration_ tlhtrr t2t I(ant'r Dootrlno o[ "Thlnge ti thenjetvos;' and ilou-;o; 136 I'ho l)lalootloal trtoailrmif Johann Gb*iiel-ricnte l-.-l 154 I,lrlloroplry of tho powei of neas-on . 'l'holLofot'; .- tgt Soolll Morinlhc of Hecel' 204 Dlaloctlcal Matoriafism anil' (Jnlvorsality tlthe Hegeliin-Concept of ihd of Practice . 'of' 22!. Lonin.on ihe .Hegelian ioncept the'Coiutia'enie'oi ulalocttcs,_ Logic and Epistemology-Dialectic.il- . - 242 Dialoctical Miterialism,'Oiat.oticifMaterialism. IaeaUsm'ldcrti"- andonrt Conrem_nan+aa porary Coutem- @ I,Iagatelrcrno <Mncur,l, 1979 Bourgeois Consciousness (In Lieu of a Conctirii6ul 26t IIII]LIOGRAPHY . 276 English translation @ Progress Publishers 1982 NAMD INDEX. 2fi SIIBJECT INDEX Prtnted in the Unton ol Souiet Socialist Republi,cs 283 ouffffi38-82 0302000000 INTRODUCTION 'l'Itese essays on the history of philosophy deal, above nll with methodology. They also examine world outlook, Irocause a Marxist study of the history of philosophy must lnalyze the relation of dialectical materialism to the phi- losophy that preceded it. The Marxist approach to the development of pre-Marx- inn philosophy first of all singles out classical German plrilosophy, one of the theoretical sources of Marxism. 'l'herefore, this book poses a number of important although rrot yot sufficiently analyzed issues, related to the historical lspoct of the emergence and development of dialectical irlonlism, whose outstanding role as the precursor of dia- locl,ical materialism was repeatedly stressed by the found- lrs of Mnrxism. 'l'ltis book supplements my monographs Problems ol the lllatory ol Philosophy (Moscow, 1969; English translation prrbllxhorl in l{)73, German in 1962 and 1979, and French Irr 1tl7;l) nnd Malor Trends in Philosophy (Moscow, lll7l), rrnd dlflcusses issuos that wore not sufficiently lxnmlnorl ln tlrom. Oorrsoquontly, this book omits the top- icn wlrlch, nlt,hough very important, were discussed at Irrngth in thosc monographs. 'l'lro principal objective of this book is to use the study of cortain aspects of methodology and of dialectical ideal- ism to outline the fundamental role the dialectical-mate- rinlist theory of the history of philosophy plays in shap- ing the world outlook. A comprehensive analysis of that t,lroory is certainly relevant, and its importance transcends l,lrc bounds of a purely historical study of philosophy. As Frederick Engels emphasized, the history of theo- rt'tical thinking, and consequently the history of science, lrc inseparable from the history of philosophy. According l,o Ilngels, the rejection of philosophy as "the science of scicnces" that is opposed to specifig soiences is inseparable lrom r orlttorl cveluatlon ol the legacy of philosophy, process boo-auls I nocessary logical expression of the historical "the art ol worklng wlth coicoits is not iniorn deueloprnent knowledge-only because I am and ako h not givon witti ordinary overyday rrf tlrc of conscious- lrying to define the role of the history 9l philosophy in the .nets but req-uires roal thought,-iristory, and . ttrii ttiought simi- kngw larly haa ompirical ng,, old development of theoretical thinking. We a long not more andl not less pre-Marxian philosophers saw thal ompjrical natural l,liirt even the greatest of the scip,ncs. Only by learning to as- rro between the development of knowledge and the similate the results of the development of philosoffry arr- link past -it rlovclopment of the ability to think in concepts. For exam- ing- -the two and a half thousand years wiit rid ability exercise judgment (to itself on the one hand natural phiiosophy lrlr', Kant said that the to of any standing data the more general concepts and cat: apart from it, outside and above irrnke empirical fit it it, and bn- the othei ogories) was an inborn quality, and that no or hand also of its own limited method' of thought, which _education was inheritance tinining could make up for the absence of that essential its from English empiricism."-(8; 20) perfectly way his systeir Theoretical thinking essdntialty l,r'uit. frant's view fitted in the is firi"t<in! irr'"Lr".f,ts, rrnderestimated role of the history of science, partic'u- and it develops by perfecting conceptual-scientific the the sys- lnrly the history of philosophy. Had Kantian criticism been tem, creating new concepts caiegories. Theoreti- -by and capable of grasping the heuristic importance of the_ history cal thinLing operates with concepts greatly in -knowledge, that vary of would probably have concluded that quality. Some concepts register special qualities Kant iharalter- not exercise judgment but also the pro- istic of certain group objecls, qualities only the ability to a of the that are rluctive power imagination (whose role in cogqi- gJryped by sense perception and singled -emphasized)of the out by abstract l,ion he could be consciously developed only thinkin-g. Others-generalize processes and relationj perceived t,lrrough a critical and systematic study of the history of only through theoretical thinking. Stil1 others'have a strictly heuristic value-that science. is, they express operations While admitting that inborn intellectual abilities do by the perceiving subjoct and not the qrGhties of things or the general qualities oxist, Engels, unlike Kant, accords priority, to, the study of objective ieality. Such, for o[ it e history of culture, and particularly to example, is the concept of the infinitesimal in mathemat- hit--the ics. Another, conscious and scientifically sound study of the even more graphic example of a heuristic of the concept-that is, l,ory of cognitive thinking, especially the results one discharging an operational function- two and half thousand years of philosophy. Devel- is the identification abstraction l6gic. of i in This listing rrping concept his Dialectics ol Natare, Engels {,ypes of concepts from complete. this in - is far However, il is of" history philosophy-t-he enough to demonstrate conceptuai stresies that the stwd,y the of the nature of theoretical experience accumulated in the thinking and inevitable runderstanding of th; its links with the history of philos- philosophy's development-is truly a school of ophy and with the creative conceptual course of effort. itrint<ing. The lattei, as he put it, is an "innate Theoretical thinking is not confined ready-made l,heoretical to con- quality only as regards natural capacity. This natural oa- cepts. The actual study process d,euelops concepts:-limits it dif- pacity must be developed, improved, and for its imp_rove- ferentiates between them, binds them iogether, and than study of enriches them, unites them incnt there is as yet no other means the into definite systems, coordi- 42-43) Naturally, one must not nates, subordinates, extrapolates, generalizes lrrovious philosophy". (9; and develops iose sight of the fact that Engels wrote this when natural them, _etc. Nor_ does cognitive theoretical thinking stop Hence his Irere. Research discovers phenomena, seiencJ was still poorly developed theoretically. new laws and oblects century elapsed since the appear- of cognition, therefore presupposes "ns yet". The that has and it the formulation Nature has- wit- of new categorics even rrtrcc of Anti-Diihrireg and Dialectics ol and new systems of categories great advancei field, and they have played (within a specific field of study). n(lsscd in this nn important part in the development of philosophy, and I am speaking here about the d,euelopment ol concepts o[ [heoretical thinking in general, 0 (;' j" E- ir, ;; ,, . ',: l Engels described the great discoveries of natural science objective: that of revealing the laws that govern the_ d-evel- in the mid-l9th century (the discovery of the cell and its opment of the given sum-total of phenomena in a definite formation, the law of energy transformation, Darwin's lristorical frame,work laid down in the study. The latter theory of evolution) as revolutionary turning points in the case is thus a logical reconstruction of the process in ques- historical shaping of theoretical natural science and as l,ion. KarI Marx's Capital is a classic example. the scientiflc foundation of dialectical materialism. In this According to Engels, the logical method "is indeed noth- connection Engels formulated the law of the creative de- ing but thJhistoricil method, only stripped of the historical velopment of materialist philosophy: "With each epoch- torm and diverting chance occurrences. The point whe-re making discovery even in the sphere of natural science it this history beginJ must also be the starting point of the [materialism] has to change its form; and after history also l,rain of thought, and its further progress will be simply was subjected to materialistic treatment, a new avenue of the reflection, . in alstract and theoretically consistent development was opened here too." (3; 3, 349) In the [orm, of the historical course. Though the reflection is early 20th century V. L Lenin in his Materialism and.
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