>>> Sam Pawlett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 08/03/99 12:34AM >>>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Precisely what is the nature of dialectical materialism? I have seen
> descriptions of it as a method, theory, doctrine and philosophy.
Well, yeah, it depends on who you ask and who you read. Marx himself
never used the term though Engels I believe did.
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Charles: The last time we discussed this I believe we found that Engels used the
phrase "materialist dialectics" in the book _Ludwig Feuerbach_.
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I take it to mean the
way Engels meant it that the 3 principles of dialectics(cf. Engels
Dialectics of Nature p26ff, intro by JBS Haldane) negation of the
negation, transformation of quantity into quality and the
interpenetrations of opposites occur in physical nature. That physical
nature is governed by these 3 principles. They may act as regulative
principles in the same way the "laws" of supply and demand do i.e. that
actual states of affairs may tend towards these laws.
The Dialectical Biologist by Levins and Lewontin is one of the finest
current attempts to construct a kind of weak dialectical materialism.
The Soviet Marxism-Leninists was big into dialectical materialism
though I haven't read enough Soviet authors to say much about their
conception. Jim F?
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Charles: The Soviet Marxists, Lenin in the first place ,upheld dialectical materialism
(:>))
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Another work on dialectics which criticises dialectical materialism
from a kind of humanist standpoint is The Critique of Dialectical
Reason by J-P Sartre. Tough going, but worth it. Same with I.Meszeros.
Sam Pawlett
p.s. I *miss* the Lewinsky scandal!
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