Mao Zedong On Dialectical Materialism полностью

The fundamental form of the motion of matter also determines the various subjects of the basic natural and social sciences. Dialectical materialism observes and studies the development of the world as a progressive motion which passes through the inorganic world to the organic world to arrive at the highest form of the motion of matter (society); the subordinate and related components of forms of motion constitute the foundations of the subordinate and related components of their corresponding sciences (inorganic science, organic science, social science). Engels said: “Classification of the sciences, each of which analyzes a single form of motion, or a series of forms of motion that belong together and pass into one another, is therefore the classification, the arrangement, of these forms of motion themselves according to their inherent sequence, and herein lies its importance”.[2-220]

[p. 210] The entire world (including human society)[2-221] adopts qualitatively different and varying forms of matter in motion. Consequently, we cannot forget the question of the varying concrete forms of matter in motion; there is no such thing as so-called “matter in general” and “motion in general”. In the world there is only motion or matter which is different in form and which is concrete. “Words like matter and motion are nothing but abbreviations in which we comprehend many different sensuously perceptible things according to their common properties” (Engels).[2-222]

Narrated above is the dialectical materialist theory of motion of the world or the principle of development of the world. These theories are the quintessence of Marxist philosophy, the world view and methodology of the proletariat. If all proletarian revolutionaries grasp the weapon of this thoroughgoing science, they will be able to understand and transform this world.

Motion is a form of the existence of matter, and space and time are also forms of the existence of matter. Matter in motion exists in space and time, and moreover, the motion of matter is itself the premise for these two forms of existence of matter, space and time. Space and time cannot be separated from matter. The sentence “matter exists in space” says that matter itself possesses the capacity of expansion; the material world is a world in which the capacity of expansion exists internally. It does not suggest that matter is situated in a space which is a non-material void. Neither space and time are independent non-material things; neither are they subjective forms of our perceptions. They are forms of existence of the objective material world; they are objective, have no existence apart from matter, and neither does matter exist apart from them.

The view that sees space and time as forms of the existence of matter is the thoroughgoing materialist viewpoint. This conception of time and space is in fundamental opposition to the [p. 211] various idealist conceptions of time and space listed below;[2-223]

● The Kantian conception of time and space, which considers time and space are not objective realities, but forms of intuition of humankind.[2-224]

● The Hegelian conception of time and space, which incorporates a conception of time and space as developing, increasingly approaching the absolute Idea.

● The Machist conception of time and space, which considers time and space are “categories of sense perception”, and “instruments for the harmonization of experience”.[2-225]

None of these idealist viewpoints recognizes the objective reality of time and space, or recognizes that, in their own development, the concepts of time and space reflect materially existing forms. These incorrect theories have all been refuted one by one by dialectical materialism.