Dialectical Materialism: A Historical and Systematic Survey of Philosophy in the Soviet Union

The present work is the outcome of a course of lectures originally delivered by the author in the summer of 1945 at the

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Dialectical Materialism: A Historical and Systematic Survey of Philosophy in the Soviet Union

  • Commentary
  • Missing pages: 92, 196, 233, 250, 318, 413, 416, 420

Table of contents :
Preface ix
Translator's Note xii

PART ONE. Historical

I The Philosophical Roots of Marxism 3
1 HEGEL 4
2 THE ‘HEGELIAN LEFT’ 7
3 LUDWIG FEUERBACH 10
4 MARXISM AND POSITIVISM 15

II Karl Marx and Friedrich Fngels 17
1 KARL MARX 17
2 FRIEDRICH ENGELS 41

III Revolutionary Movements in Russia: The Origins of Russian Marxism 58
1 ORIGINS: RUSSIAN NIHILISM 59
2 NARODNICHESTVO 62
3 RUSSIAN MARXISM 68

IV Philosophical Tendencies in Russian Marxism before the Revolution 73
1 THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONFLICT BETWEEN MARXISM AND NARODNICHESTVO 73
2 CRITICISM IN RUSSIAN MARXISM 83
3 THE ‘GOD-SEEKERS’ AND THE ‘GOD-BUILDERS’ 90
4 BOGDANOV’S EMPIRIO-MONISM 92
5 PLEKHANOV 100

V Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 110
1 LIFE AND PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITY 111
2 LENINISM 126

VI Philosophical Development in the U.S.S.R. up lo 1931 128

VII Mechanism 137
1 GENERAL CHARACTER OF MECHANISM 138
2 BUKHARIN 143
3 AXEL’ROD (ORTODOX) 149

VIII Menshevik Idealism 154
1 GENERAL OUTLINES 155
2 DEBORIN 159
3 TROTSKY 166

IX Development since 1931 175
1 CONSEQUENCES OF THE DECREE OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF 25TH JANUARY 1931 175
2 THE PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 181
3 THE ‘PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION’ OF 1947 AND ITS AFTERMATH 183
4 FROM THE ‘PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION’ TO THE DEATH OF STALIN 189

X Stalin as a Philosopher 209

XI Since the Death of Stalin 231

PART TWO. The System of Soviet Philosophy

I Conception of Philosophy 249
1 PHILOSOPHY AND THE SPECIAL SCIENCES 249
2 INDIVIDUAL PHILOSOPHICAL DISCIPLINES 254
3 THE UNITY OF THEORY AND PRACTICE 256
4 THE PARTISAN CHARACTER OF PHILOSOPHY 268
5 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ‘ATMOSPHERE’ IN THE U.S.S.R. 274

II The Theory of Matter 280
1 MATERIALISM OR REALISM? 281
2 THE LENINIST CONCEPT OF MATTER 286
3 MATTER AND MOTION 296
4 SPACE AND TIME 304

III The Materialist Dialectic 310
1 STALIN’S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST TWO ‘PRINCIPAL FEATURES’ OF THE MARXIST DIALECTICAL METHOD 312
2 THE LAW OF THE TRANSITION FROM QUANTITY TO QUALITY 319
3 THE LAW OF THE UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES 333
4 THE LAW OF THE NEGATION OF THE NEGATION 355

IV The Theory of Categories 366
1 APPEARANCE, ESSENCE AND LAW 371
2 CAUSALITY AND FINALITY 375
3 NECESSITY AND CONTINGENCY. THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM 381
4 POSSIBILITY AND ACTUALITY 396
5 FORM AND CONTENT 402

V Dialeclical Materialism and Modern Science 405
1 QUANTUM PHYSICS 406
2 RELATIVITY THEORY 416
3 MASS AND ENERGY 424
4 CHEMISTRY 432
5 COSMOGONY 436
6 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 442
7 THE ‘NEW CELL-THEORY’ OF O. B. LEPESHINSKAYA 451
8 THE ‘NEW THEORY OF INHERITANCE’. I. V. MICHURIN, T. D. LYSENKO 455
9 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. I. P. PAVLOV 469

VI The Dialectical Materialist Theory of Knowledge 488
1 THE PRIORITY OF MATTER OVER CONSCIOUSNESS 490
2 THE ‘COPY-THEORY’ 498
3 PRACTICE AS THE FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND CRITERION OF TRUTH 507
4 OBJECTIVE, RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH 512

VII Logic 518
1 THE MATERIALIST DIALECTIC AS LOGIC AND AS THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE 518
2 THE CONTROVERSY OVER FORMAL LOGIC 523
3 INDIVIDUAL LOGICAL OPERATIONS 535

Conclusion 548

Bibliography 562

Index of Names 595

Index of Subjects 602

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