The Philosophy of Marxism

The Concept of Materialist Dialectics

The contribution of Marxist philosophy to global philosophical thought extends beyond the mere creation of a new concept of social development; it also represents a novel approach to understanding nature and human knowledge. Marxist philosophy is often termed dialectical materialism, as it uniquely integrates dialectics with materialism, distinguishing it from the naive dialectico-materialist concepts of Heraclitus. The materialism of the eighteenth-century French philosophers and Feuerbach was metaphysical, characterized by a mechanical view of reality. While they considered nature as primary and excluded any supernatural influences, they simultaneously denied the existence of change and development within nature. As Engels remarked, even Hegel's conception of nature depicted it as a totality that remained constant, moving in limited circles, echoing Newton’s eternal celestial bodies and Linnaeus’s unchanging species. In contrast, contemporary materialism synthesizes the crucial advancements of natural science, acknowledging that nature itself has a historical dimension, where celestial bodies emerge and perish, just as species do under favorable conditions.

Engels not only observes the development of nature but also articulates in "The Dialectics of Nature" the laws governing this development—laws of dialectics. There are three such laws:

1. The law of the transition of quantity into quality and vice versa.
2. The law of the mutual penetration of opposites.
3. The law of the negation of the negation.

According to Engels, these laws were first developed by Hegel. However, in Hegel’s framework, they pertain to the development of the absolute spirit and are subsequently imposed upon nature, history, and human knowledge. In Hegel, dialectics appears in an idealistic form, manifesting as the dialectics of the absolute spirit and later as the dialectics of human history and cognition. In contrast, Marxist philosophy derives the laws of dialectics from the historical processes of nature and society, as well as from the evolution of human knowledge. The dialectical nature of thought merely reflects the dialectics of nature and society, not the reverse. These laws, along with categories such as the particular and the general, cause and effect, content and form, among others, along with principles of universal connection and development, constitute the science of dialectics, which Engels defined as the study of the general laws of motion and development in nature, human society, and thought.

From these dialectical principles, Marxist philosophy also reinterprets the concept of matter. For Marxism, matter is not a defined type of physical reality, such as an atom or substance, as understood by pre-Marxist materialists. Instead, it refers to objective reality in its entirety, independent of any specific substance or even physical reality itself, encompassing economic social relations as well. The notion of "matter" serves as an abstraction that reflects all concrete forms of objective reality. The existence of matter is characterized by motion; there is no matter without movement. Moreover, dialectical materialism posits that mechanical motion is merely one form of motion, which exists in various forms. Engels identified five forms of material motion: mechanical, physical, chemical, biological, and social, each representing different levels of matter's organization. The objective forms of existence for matter are space and time.

From the standpoint of dialectical materialism, consciousness is an attribute of matter. However, dialectical materialism rejects hylozoism, the idea that consciousness is inherent to all matter. Instead, it asserts that consciousness is specific to highly organized matter, such as the human brain, and arises through a prolonged evolutionary process. Nature provides the prerequisites for consciousness, establishing its material foundation—the nervous system led by the brain. Consciousness itself is a societal product, emerging from the transformation of our anthropoid ancestors into human beings through labor. The social nature of consciousness is underscored by instances of "feral children"—human infants deprived of social interaction and raised by animals. Even when placed in human environments later on, these individuals cannot attain full humanity, as their thoughts and behaviors typically remain at the level of the animals among whom they spent their early childhood.

From the perspective of dialectics, Marxist philosophy also addresses the process of cognition. It is crucial to note that Marxist theory of knowledge fundamentally incorporates practice into the cognitive process, which radically alters the understanding of knowledge itself. From the Marxist viewpoint, cognition must be seen as an aspect of practical activity. Practice serves as the foundation, driving force, and goal of cognition, as well as the criterion for truth. Only by grounding cognition in practice can Marxism demonstrate the inadequacies of agnosticism and substantiate the knowability of the world. This framework allows for an explanation of the creative activity of consciousness, overcoming a passive, observational stance towards the cognitive process.

Regarding the dialectics of the cognitive process, two key points should be highlighted. First, Marxist philosophy transcends the one-sidedness of empiricism and rationalism. It asserts that the cognitive process embodies a dialectical unity of sensory and logical levels of knowledge. It aligns with Kant’s assertion that senses do not think, and the intellect does not perceive, positing that both sensory and logical levels achieve true significance only through their dialectical unity. Second, Marxism contends that we must also approach the outcomes of cognition dialectically—not viewing knowledge at any given moment as complete and finalized, but rather as a process of movement from ignorance to knowledge, from less complete understanding to more complete understanding. Marxist doctrine of truth encompasses the concepts of objective, absolute, and relative truth. Marxism holds that through the course of historical development, humanity can attain objective truth. This conviction underpins the belief that humans can establish a just society, which in turn fosters the emergence of free, fully developed individuals.