Mao Zedong On Dialectical Materialism полностью

The meaning of the definition, given above, which Lenin gave to scientific materialist dialectics and its object is as follows: firstly, materialist dialectics, as with any other science, has its object of study, and this object is the most general principles of development of nature, history and human thought. Moreover, the task of materialist dialectics when studying is not to arrive, through thought within the brain, at the relationship which exists between various phenomena, but to arrive at that relationship through investigation of the phenomena themselves. There exists a fundamental distinction between this view of Lenin’s and that of the Menshevik idealists (who in fact depart from concrete science and concrete knowledge) over the categories of study which function as the object of materialist dialectics. Because the Menshevik idealists have attempted to establish a philosophical system whose various categories have become dissociated from the actual developments of the history of knowledge, social science and natural science, they have in fact abandoned materialist dialectics. Secondly, all of the various sciences (mathematics, mechanics, chemistry and physics, biology, economics and other natural sciences and the social sciences) study the various aspects of the development of the material world and its knowledge. Because of this, the principles of the various sciences are restricted in a narrow and one-sided way[2-196] by concrete realms of study. Materialist dialectics is however quite different; it is the universalisation, the totality, the conclusions and the finished product of all the general content of value from all of the concrete sciences and all of humankind’s other scientific knowledge. In this way, the concepts, judgements, and principles of materialist dialectics constitute exceedingly extensive laws and formulations (incorporating the most general principles of all of the sciences, and consequently incorporating the essence of the material world). This is one side of the picture and from this perspective, materialist dialectics is a world view. From the other perspective, materialist dialectics is the logical and epistemological foundation for genuine scientific knowledge liberated from all idle speculation, fideism[2-197] and metaphysics; hence it is at the same time the only true, objectively reliable methodology for the study of concrete science. This further adds to our comprehension of what we mean when we speak of materialist dialectics or dialectical materialism as a unified system of world view and methodology. In this way can also be understood the errors of the vulgarisers and distorters of Marxist philosophy who deny its philosophical right of existence.

(p. 278) [p. 199] In relation to the problem of the object of philosophy, Marx, Engels, and Lenin all opposed the separation of philosophy from concrete reality and allowing philosophy to be transformed into various independent entities. They pointed out the necessity of a philosophy which grew out of analysis founded on real life and real relations, and opposed the approach of formal logic[2-198] and Menshevik idealism in which logical concepts and a natural world of logical concepts are the object of study.[2-199] The so-called philosophy which grew out of analysis founded on real life and real relations is none other than the theory of development[2-200] of materialist dialectics. Marx, Engels, and Lenin all explained that materialist dialectics was a theory of development. Engels described materialist dialectics as the theory “of the general principles of development of nature, society and thought”.[2-201] Lenin regarded materialist dialectics as “the theory of development which is most profound, multifaceted and richest in content”. They all consider that[2-202] “the forms of all principles of development stated by all other philosophical theories beside this theory, in their narrowness and lack of content cut in two the actual process of development of nature and society”. (Lenin) And the reason why materialist dialectics has been described as the theory of development which is most profound, multi-faceted, and richest in content, lies in the fact that materialist dialectics reflects, in a manner which is most profound, multi-faceted, and rich in content, the contradictoriness and leaps within the process of change of nature and society; there is no other reason.

One further problem must be resolved in this question of the object of philosophy, and that is the problem of the unity of dialectics, logic, and epistemology.

Lenin emphatically pointed out the identity of dialectics, logic, and epistemology, stating this is “an extremely important question” and that “the three terms are superfluous, they are one and the same thing”. He fundamentally opposed those Marxist revisionists whose approach involves treating the three terms as completely distinct and independent theories.