University of Groningen De dialectisch-materialistische filosofie van Joseph Dietzgen Schaaf, Jasper Willem IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1993 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Schaaf, J. W. (1993). De dialectisch-materialistische filosofie van Joseph Dietzgen. Kok/Agora. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 12-11-2019 SUMMARY Joseph Dietzgen (1828-1888) Joseph Dietzgen was a philosopher and a tanner. At the congress for the 'our International in The Hague in 1872, Marx called him philosopher', the philosopher of proletarian social democracy; he also said once that Dietzgen was one of the most brilliant workers he knew. Dietzgen was a self-educatedphilo- sopher. On the political scene, he played a part in the notorious'Haymarket' affair in Chicago in 1886; one of the events which led to the introduction of annual First of May celebrations of the international labour movement. After his 'Chicago death on 15 April 1888, Dietzgen was buried next to the executed martyrs'. Dietzgen was one of the first from within the labour movement to publish a 'Das review of Kapital'. It is remarkable that he should derivephilosophical ideas from Marx's principal work. Dietzgen's best known publication is Das Wesender Menschlichen Kopfarbeit', which was published in 1869, after he had first presen- ted Marx and Engels with the manuscript. In the history of Marxist thinking, Dietzgen occupies a special place. His work represents the rapidly growing class consciousnessof his time. He focused his attention on Marx's work, at a time when there was no systematicdevelopment of Marx's ideas to speak of. Dietzgen was one of the few within the social democratic labour movement of the day to be immersed in the study of philo- sophy. Based in particular on Feuerbach, Marx, Kantianism and the development 'self-educated of the natural sciences,the manual labourer' Dietzgen advocated materialist dialectics and a dialectic-materialistepistemological theory. These, in 'proletarian his view, are a contribution to logic', a theory which expresses the 'highest' system of relationships of being and thinking as the form of philoso- phical awareness. Questions regarding Dietzgen's philosophy Dietzgen's philosophy is monistic in nature. This study is focusedon the question in what way Dietzgen treats the relation between unity and diversity as an epistemological and ontological issue. How does Dietzgen formulate the unity of all that exists, and what is the place and the role of the process of gaining knowledge in this formulation? These questions serve as stepping stones to the central question: What is the position of Dieagen's thinking with regard to the philosophy of Feuerbach, and that of Maa. and Engels? This is an important question in the light of the history of the labour movement. In the early years of this century, Dietzgen's work became a subject of discussion.Some said that Dietzgen had nothing to add to Feuerbach's philosophy; others regarded him as the perfect Marxist philosopher. This discussionhas not ended. The present study 387 sccks to clarify thc positions in this discussionby mcans of an analysisof In Dietzgen's materialism, tt Dictzgen'sphilosophy itsclf. prcsupposes thc existenccof This raiscs the additional qucstions<lf iLs relation to Kant's epistemological dialcctics.This rccognitionof c thcory, to scicntilicand Dar*,inist-oricntedmaterialism, and to Dietzgcn'scthical formulation. Objcctive dialccli idcas and criticism of rcliÍrion. gaining knowlcdgc is insuÍficiet logical theory underscorcs the s play a passivePart in the Proce I)ietzgen's phi krsophy - for insuncc thc explanatio Feucrbach'sPhilosoPhY and M Dictzgen charactcrizcsthought as the elcvationof thc specificto the univcrsal;it in thc way in which the maniÍbt is thc systemiltizationof specificfacls. Svstematization is thc corc of thc process dcvclopmcntof thtlught. oÍ'gainingknowlcdgc, an<l of scicncc.By mcansof thought,a univcrsalconcept is In his rejection of limitcd m found which dcÍinesthc unity of thc many scnsoryphcnomena. Dietzge n rcÍ'crsto emphasizes thc necd for furth his philosophvas an cpistemologicalthcory without rcducingrhc philosophyro a topicality of critical PhilosoPh thcorv of thc proccssof gainingknowledgc. In a criticalsense, Kant's prcscnceis Kant's philosoPhYis criticallY unmistakably felt in Dictzgen's opistemoktgical theory. As a critical rcacrion to subjcctive asPcct should be 'Ding thc Kantian an sich', DiaÍr.gcn takes the world as it existsas a starting poinr phikrsophy. for cvcry thought and action; hc formulatcs the fundamental attainability of unlimited knowledgc ol the w<trld. This cpistemologicalinterest harbours a Dietzgen's thcory of knowlcdg prof<rundintcrcst in issucsof frccdom and justicc.Within thc labour m<lvcmcnt, perspcctive. According to Diet: 'back Dictzgcn was one of thc first sincc the risc <lfthe to Kant'-trendto distance of rcflcction as well as an uctiv himsclf from Kantianism. subjcctively, aftcr which it, as i abslraction bY the faculty of tt From 1877 <lnwards,Dictzgen's work cxprcssesmorc clcarly thc need t<l make reunitescverything which aPPe ontologicalstatemcnts. This neod arisesas a reactionto the risc of neo-Kantian tive; in this waY it is Possible and agnosticmodes oÍ thoughl. The reflcction of thcse views within the labour empiricism.and is in thisresPt movcment urges him to rcspond more directly to thc agnostic position. Hc also oftcn use in this Positivc scnse rcspondsto E,.duBois-Reymond, who had concludedon the basisof the dcvelop- Dietzgen refcrs to tht: facl mcnt of natural scienccs,that ccrtain essentialphilosophical issues cannot be ('a mirror-likc inslrument'). H rcsolved;from this he inferred that human knowledgeis fundamcntallylimitcd.In that cxists.This cohcrcncc in a rcaction to agnosticism,Dietzgcn treads <tndangerous metaphysicalground. If part of nature in its own sPec onc intends to refutc thc idea that the extcnt of human knowlcdge is funclamcn- This is also truc for thought' v tallv limited, then the opposite should be argued.Dicrzgen's idca of fundamen- Each particular object rcPrese tally unlimitcd knowlcdge is rootcd in the world itself. 'Total cohcrcnce' exprcssion of the cosmos whi ('Gesamízusanmtenhang'),understood from a materialistic point of view, governs from this ontological Pcrspec. thought.Thc thcoretical attainabilityof unlimiredknowlcdge implies knowle<lge view of reflcction is a sPecil of infinite totality; it excludes thc possiblc cxistenrc of fundamental limir^s.A spccificand thc universal,in v histrlrically situaled statc of incomprehension cxists.This is part of the proccss of a particular way. 'Conciliation' ('Annàhcntng'), in which modes of rhoughr rcflect a grclwing understandingol the world, with the proviso thal in rhis proccss,it is also Dictzgcn is one of the first c undcrstoodthat all cxistingknowlcdge is limited. through ethical issues.He etPl Dietzgen's work is sometimes interprotcd from a Spinozistic perspcctive, ethic^s. Feuerbach's PhikrsoP bccauseof the emphasison univcrsal dialcctic cohercnceof all that exiss. In through: matcrial existence placcs wherc he gives a positive assessmentof Spinoza'sphilosophy, it is not so reproached for taking a utilita much the Spinozist Dictzgen who idolizcs his source, but rather a nine- cnd hc exclutlcsa utililariana tocnth-ccntury self-educatcd monist who recognizcs the way in which a the materially governed huma phikrsophicalpredeccssor strugglcs with thc same issucsin his own way. filled in order to make generr morality which is not based ( 3Sil In Dietzgen's materialism, thought is governedby 'total coherence'.This presupposesthe existence of objective dialecticswhich encompasssubjective dialectics.This recognitionof objective dialectics,however, is problematicin ils formulation.Objective dialecticsas the determiningfactor in the processof gainingknowledge is insufficientlyemphasized. As a result,Dietzgen's epistemo- logicaltheory underscores the subjectiveaspect. Reality seems almost entirely to play a passivepart in the processof gainingknowledge. On a more concretelevel - for instancethe explanationof ethical views - Dietzgen,on the basis of Feuerbach'sphilosophy and Max's historicalmaterialism, does show an interest in the way in which the manifestationsof objectivereality governthe content and developmentof thought. In his rejectionof limited materialismbased on naturalscience, Dietzgen also emphasizesthe need for further developmentof philosophy.He recognizesthe topicalityof critical philosophicalmaterialism, a form of materialismin which Kant's philosophyis critically incorporated,inst€ad of silentlyneglected. The