Socialist Re Yvonne Groseil View, and I Was Quite Impressed by It
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Tvvo Vievvs on the Dialectics of Nature To William F. Warde tal to Sartre and Hyppolite. There is and I hope it will precipitate in this I have just read your article, "Is Na one point in your article, however, with country a greater appreciation of the ture Dialectical?" in the Summer 1964 which I would take some exception. problem and wide discussion of it. That is when you argue against the issue of the International Socialist Re Yvonne Groseil view, and I was quite impressed by it. anti-dialecticians by pointing out the Although I must plead guilty to a advances made in science, especially by November 15, 1964 rather superficial knowledge of Marx Oparin, through the use of dialectical ism, I am very interested in Hegel's method. Dialectical logic may help the Reply work. During my study of Hegel, I have scientist reach some useful hypotheses Here are some comments on the main come to the conclusion that the ques for later investigation, but this is not questions of theoretical interest raised tion of the philosophy of nature is a the essential point here. by this friendly letter. crucial one. In my opinion, Hegel's I t seems to me that the method or 1. Would knowledge of the method of philosophy falls apart into a dualism of means by which scientific discoveries the materialist dialectic, which is based mind and matter instead of being the are made is secondary in this argument. on the most general laws of being and synthesis he desired just because of the What is really vital is the fact that only becoming, assist the physical scientist failure of his philosophy of nature. a dialectical view of nature can provide in his investigations of nature? This failure is not, I submit, a failure an adequate framework in which these Up to now almost all scientists have of the dialectical method, but the re new discoveries can be seen in their carried on their work without conscious sult of the lack of sufficient scientific total relationship. That is, how one gets understanding of the dialectical laws knowledge at Hegel's time plus Hegel's to the discovery is not so important as of universal development just as most insistence on bending the inadequate the realization that this new "fact" can people speak very well without know knowledge he did have into his philos only be thoroughly explained and relat ing the history or grammar of their lan ophic system. It is the latter fault that ed to the rest of our knowledge through guage, breathe without awareness of makes his philosophy of nature appear a dialectical viewpoint. the physiological processes of respira downright silly to-day; but it is only tion, and acquire the necessities of life to-day that we are beginning to attain Pierre Teilhard de Chardin without comprehending the principles of the scientific knowledge that makes a There is one other point that seems political economy. dialectical view of the facts the only appropriate to this discussion: I read Western philosophers and scientists reasonable one. recently that Roger Garaudy was to almost unanimously believe that the This part of Hegel's philosophy has write an introduction to a Russian trans dialectical view of nature is false, ir been largely neglected, but I consider lation of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's relevant and even positively harmful it vital to a serious consideration of his Phenomenon of Man. Now Teilhard cer in the theory and practice of science. thought today. Therefore, your article tainly is not a dialectical materialist in This prejudice, rooted in our predom on the dialectics of nature was a very any sense of the word. However, be inantly empirical and positivist intel welcome piece of writing to me. On the neath the theological portion of his lectual traditions, has been reinforced whole, I agree with your position - thought, one finds a view of evolution by the arbitrary and ignorant interfer the laws of dialectics apply to nature that is certainly dialectic - in a ence of the Stalinist bureaucrats with as well as man. Hegelian, if not a Marxist, sense. And scientific theory along with their nar The scientific knowledge available Teilhard's work seems to have been a rowly schematic, distorted and dogmatic now can only be understood thorough little too "materialistic" for the Roman interpretation of Marxist method. ly by the use of dialectics. This ap Catholic Church. (Continued on Page 30) pears most obviously in the realm of Teilhard's work in itself deserves stu evolution and biology in general, but the dy, but simply in connection with the inter-relationship of all aspects of our question of the dialectics of nature, it world means that it is applicable to the seems to me that it may be a sign that other sciences as well. we are approaching a higher synthesis of thought. The static conceptions of THE MILITANT Existentialist Position "idealism" and "materialism" may give The existentialist position would way to a newer, more adequate realiza A four-month trial subscription to create a complete alienation between tion of their inter-dependence through man and the world, and would destroy out the whole sphere of nature. That The Militant for only $1.00. Send can only be achieved if we recognize the objectivity of our knowledge and this coupon with payment to: thus our ability to act. Sartre's position, the objective character of dialectics - as described in your article - that man that it applies to nature as well as to The Militant, 116 University Place, can never attain to the "reality" of history. The perpetuation of alienation things, that our knowledge and the laws between "mind" and "matter," man and New York 3, N.Y. of our (dialectical) logic apply only to the world, nature and history, can serve man and human society, etc. - sounds no good purpose, but only leads to frag like that of a resuscitated Kant. mentation and confusion in philosophy and action. It can only lead to a divided world Name ................................................. view, a denial of the possibility of true Dialectics by its nature has to be an knowledge and, ultimately, to excesses "open" system which not only allows for of subjectivity rather than creative ac the addition of new knowledge but also tivity. The existentialists may begin admits man's freedom and ability to their philosophic inquiry from the shape history. The recognition of nature Street ................................................. standpoint of the individual, but that as dialectical is the only way to a whole does not mean that they can stop there world-view that includes man in the without losing sight of the essential world while recognizing his unique posi thing - that man is in and of the world. tion and frees him to control his own City.................... Zone...... State....... The points made by Vigier and future. Your article is an excellent state Garuady were, I felt, an excellent rebut- ment of the issues and their importance, 2 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1965 SOCIALIST Volume 26 No.1 REVIEW FROM LENIN TO CASTRO: Importllnce of tile IndividulIl in History-Milking By William F. Warde I the same tasks, though in a different style. The eclipse of alternate candidates creates the optical illusion of N THE third chapter of The Prophet Outcast, the final the sole irreplaceable personality. If the objective pre I volume of his biography of Trotsky, where he treats requisites are ripe and the historical demand forceful of "The Revolutionary as Historian," Isaac Deutscher enough, a range of men can fulfill the indicated func discusses the role of personality in the determination tions of command. The Chinese and Yugoslav examples, of social events in a highly instructive context. The writes Deutscher, demonstrate how rising revolutions problem is raised in connection with Trotsky's appraisal can utilize men of smaller stature than a Lenin or Trot of Lenin's place in the Russian Revolution. sky to take power. The class struggle can press into Deutscher holds that Trotsky shuttled between two service whatever human material is available to ful discordant positions. In the History of the Russian Rev fill its objectives. olution, a letter to Preobrazhensky in 1928, and in his This theme has an importance surpassing Trotsky's French Diary Trotsky maintained that Lenin was ab judgment on Lenin's significance for the Russian Rev solutely indispensable to the victory of October. It olution or Deutscher's criticism of Trotsky's alleged in would not have been achieved without him. Elsewhere, consistencies on the matter. The reciprocal action of in The Revolution Betrayed, says Deutscher, Trotsky the objective and subjective factors in the historical reverted to the orthodox view of historical materialism process is one of the key problems of social science. which subordinates the quality of the leadership to the It is no less a key to revolutionary practice in our own more objective factors in the making of history. Is this time. a wavering on Trotsky's part? Historical materialism unequivocally gives primacy, Marxism does teach than no individual, however tal as Deutscher emphasizes, to such objective factors as ented, strong-willed or strategically situated, can alter the level of the productive forces and the state of class the main course of historical development, which is relations in the making of history. But there is more shaped by supra-individual circumstances and forces. to the matter than this. Therefore, reasons Deutscher, the revolution would have triumphed in 1917 with other leaders even if Lenin A Relative Relation had been removed from the arena by some accident. In the first place, the social phenomena divided into Trotsky himself, or a team of other Bolshevik chiefs, opposing categories are only relatively objective or sub might have filled his place.