“MARXIST- a LENINIST PHILOSOPHY
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
MARXIST- LENINIST PHILOSOPHY
Diagrams, tables, illustrations
for students
of Marxist-Leninist theory
ca
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
Written and compiled by 7. Viasova, Cand. Sc. (Philosophy) Edited by £. /vanov, Dr. Sc. (Philosophy)
Designed by Vadim Belkin Translated from the Russian by Galina Sdobnikova
MAPKCHCTCKO-JIEHHHCKAA ®HJIOCOOHA Cxemer, raGMUBI, HIOCTPANHH B OMOUIs BYYAIOLLIM MAPKCHCTCKO-1eHHHCKYI0 TeOpHIO
Ha an2auiicKxom aoe
© Progress Publishers 1987 Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
20000-192
HOTS
CONTENTS
1 Chapter
2 Chapter
3 Chapter
INTRODUCTION
Philosophy, Its Subject and Role in the Society
Basic Question of jars and Its Solution ....... as oe$ Main Forms of Idealism... . « < Historical Forms of Materialism... . . Main Development Stages of
WHMOCHES oa essere eas aie
Emergence and Development of Marxist Philosophy ........ os
Creation of Dialectical Materialism as a Revolution in Philosophy ......... Functions of Marxist-Leninist
Philosophy Structure of Marxist-Leninist CS Leninist Stage in the Development of Philosophy a Creative Nature of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy ........-2....--
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
Matter and the Forms of Its Existence 2.2.00 s0005 Piste tsaieis
21
22 23 25 26 27
31
5 Chapter
th: Emergence
and Development of Consciousness Qualitative Distinction Between Human Consciousness and Animal Psyche .. . Elements of Consciousness Dependence of Consciousness on Matter .........2.--- Activity of Consciousness . Functions of Consciousness .......
Laws and Categories of Materialist Dialectics
Structure of Materialist Dialectics .. . Diversity of Connections and
Concept of Law....... Classification of Laws ... Two Conceptions of Development . . . Law of the Unity and Struggle of Opposites .....2 2.00.22. eee
and Struggle of
Universality. tS Law of the Uni
‘Classification ue Contradictions ..... Fundamental Contradiction of
KSOUIEANIIN 5 (ok: io ecurer ss Para seiner Fundamental Contradiction of Our
Epoc' z
Law of the Transformation of Quantity into Quality and Vice Versa . Quality and Properties ........... T Leap as a Transition from One Quality to Another ...... Types of Leap ....... Leap-Like Changes in Nature Leaps in the Development of the Society ...... onenee Evolution and Revolution Law of the Negation of the Negation . Antithesis Between the Dialectical and Metaphysical Views on Negation . Continuity in Development .... Recurrence in Development on a Higher Basis . . . aa Accelerating Pace of in Nature and the Society Categories of Dialectics . Individual, Particular, General... . Cause and Effect ..... Necessity and Chance .. Chance as a Form of Manifestation and Supplementation of
INatessity” srnawnoe ag waou laure Du Transformation of into Necessity .......... Content and Form Diverse Fornis of One and the Same
Development
54
56 57
61 62 63
64 65
66
68 69 70 71 72
73
74 75
6 Chapter
7 Chapter
Content Essence and Appearance ..... Essence, Law, Appearance .... Cognition of Essence . . Possibility and Reality . Types of Possibilities . . Meaning of the Categories of |
Materialist Dialectics ............
Knowledge as a Reflection of Reality ...
Contradictory Nature of Cognition Main Stages of the Cognition Process . Hypothesis as a Form of Goanition Truth “a Role of Practice in Cognition Epistemological and Socio-Class Roots of Idealism Methods of Scientific Cognition
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
Subject-Matter of Historical Materialism . .
Historical Materialism and Other Social Sciences.......-........ Revolution in Views on the Society Socio-Economic Formation General Sociological Laws and Uniformities
95
96 97 98
99
8 Chapter
9 Chapter
Basic Sociological Law...... : Distinction Between the Laws of Society and the Laws of Nature Creative Nature of Historical Materialism . .
Nature and the Society
Influence of the Natural Environment on the Society's Development ....-. Main Lines of the Society’s Influence on Nature... 26... eee eee Plunder of Natural Resources Under Capitalism... 2.2... ee eee Rational Attitude to Nature Under Socialism Dynamics of the World Population . Influence of the Social System on Demographic Processes ...... Global Problems of Our Day .. .
Material Production as the Basis of the Society's Existence and Development ............... Labour Process.......--.- Structure of Material Production Types and Forms of Production
Relations ~,..-.- nee e reece ene Dialectics of Development of the Productive Forces and the Relations of
Production. ..... ccc. eneccensee
Scientific and Technical Revolution . .
vs 116
10 Chapter Social Structure of the Society... 117
Il Chapter
Elements of the Society's Social
Structure ....- Formulation of the Scientific “Theory
of Classes and Class Struggle .... - Emergence of Classes . - Lenin's Definition of Classes . Socio-Class Structure of ‘Antagonistic
Societies . .
‘Protetariat’s
Main Forms of “the Class Struggle... 1.2 +e eee eee eee The Proletariat's Mission in World
History . Paes Forms of Class Struggle in the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism ........+ ature Changes in the Class Structure of Soviet Society Lenin on the Abolition of Classes Historical Perspective of the Development of Nations ...... Emergence of Nations
Two Historical Tendencies Development of the National Movement Under Capitalism... ... Solution of the National Question in the USSR The Soviet People as 2 New Historical
Community <2: soe ers cine sed bons
Political Organisation of the SOC yrs s:astiene eset acssst ss. cored
Structure of Society's Political
Organisation
12 Chapter
Political System of the Capitalist Society and of the Socialist
Society . 135 Distinctions Between the State and the Gentile (Clan) Society . . 136 Gentile Society .... 137 Origin and Essence of the Exploitive State Ane +. 138 Types of State ..... oak 140 Forms of State in Antagonistic Societies . . . 141 Internal Functions of the Capitalist State . 142 Internal Functions of the Soci State's ea 143 External Functions of the Capitalist State: 26... 5\5 3 . 144 External Functions of the Socialist State ..... erahausrahakecd nage) scope dns 145 Crisis of Bourgeois Democracy in the
146
Epoch of Imperialism Socialist Democracy as the Highest
Type of Democracy ............ 147 Withering Away of the State Under Communism .......... o. 148 Social Revolution: a Law of Transition from One
Socio-Economic Formation to Another. 2eicseivscenaveceurccicites 149 Types of Social Revolutions .. . . 150 Causes and Prerequisites of Social Revolution ......... 151
13 Chapter
14 Chapter
Distinction Between the Socialist Revo- lution and Other Social Revolutions - Peaceful and Non-Peaceful Forms of Socialist Revolution ...-........ Revolution and Counter-Revolution . . Revolution and Reform
Role of the Masses and the Individual in History .......-.
The People as the Architects of
History... 2.6... eee eee ee Law of the Masses’ Growing Role in History... 2.6.0.2. eee eee The Individual and the Society ..... Role of Great Personalities in History -
Social Consciousness
Structure of Social Consciousness .. . Social Consciousness as a Reflection of Social Being..............06 Relative Independence of Social Consciousness
Active Role of Social Consciousness in the Society's Development ...... Class Nature of Social Consciousness in Antagonistic Formations ...... . Antithesis Between Socialist and Bourgeois Ideology ............. Strategy and Tactics of Anticommunism .... . Forms and Methods of Anticommunism
152
154 155 156
157
160
Political Consciousness Legal Consciousness
Moral Consciousness . Aesthetic Consciousness Religious Consciousness . Science
174 175 176 177 178 179
ACADEMICIAN VICTOR AFANASIEV, USSR ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, AUTHOR OF PHILOSOPHY MANUALS FOR FOREIGN READERS
Dear reader,
This is a somewhat unconventional aid in Marxist-Lenin- ist philosophy, expressed in diagrams, tables and illustrations.
Textbooks and manuals usually present the Marxist- -Leninist philosophy by spelling out its laws, categories, principles and propositions in verbal language. This is only natural, for without such a verbal account it is impossible to convey the depth and versatility of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. As for this album, which uses the language of diagrams, tables and illustrations, it will help to present a more graphic and convincing picture of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy, especially against the background of and in conjunction with fundamental propositions by Marx, Engels and Lenin. Thus, at the beginning of the book we find the class- ical definition by Engels of the basic question of phil- osophy and its aspects, followed by a simple and con- vincing diagram illustrating that proposition. And so page after page. Almost every proposition of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy is expressed in graphic terms.
The diagrams show the main forms of materialism and idealism, their leading representatives from antiquity to our day, the main stages in the development of dialectics, and contain a great deal of other material.
Of great interest is the diagram showing the func- tions of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy—world-out- look, methodological, revolutionary-transformative and ideological.
The charts, tables and illustrations reflect the structure of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy, with propositions on the Leninist stage in the development of philosophy and its creative nature,
None of the major propositions of the Marxist-Leninist Philosophy has been overlooked in this album, be it Lenin’s definition of matter, the forms of its existence, consciousness, its origins and essence, the categories of materialist dialectics, elec. The Marxist-Leninist Philosophy is being illustrated consistently, chapter by chapter, with the use of diverse forms. These in- clude quotations from Marx, Engels and Lenin, dia- grams, tables and illustrations, Many propositions are not simply illustrated, but elaborated, supplemented and concretised.
There is no need for a detailed analysis of this visual aid: the reader will judge for himself. We hope that the album will facilitate the study of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy, bring it to the notice of a wide readership, and help to spread the scientific, Marxist-Leninist world outlook.
Chapter Every true philosophy is the intellectual quintessence of its time. Karl Marx
PHILOSOPHY, ITS SUBJECT AND ROLE IN THE SOCIETY
BEING IS
PRIMARY,
THINKING 1S SECONDARY
i
| | | | | MATERIALISM
7
FIRST ASPECT
SPIRIT, THINKING IS PRIMARY; NATURE, BEING |S SECONDARY
IDEALISM
COGNISABLE
SECOND ASPECT
UNCOGNISABLE (agnosticism)
16
BASIC QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY AND ITS SOLUTION
The great basic question of all philosophy, especially of more recent —\ philosophy, is that concerning the relation of thinking and being... : The answers which the philosophers gave to this question split them into two great camps. Those who asserted the primacy of spirit to nature and, therefore, in the last instance, assumed world creation in some form or other ... comprised the camp of idealism. The others, who regarded nature as primary, belong to the various schools of materialism...
But the question of the relation of thinking and being has yet another side: in what relation do our thoughts about the world surrounding us stand to this world itself? Is our thinking capable of the cognition of the real world? Are we able in our ideas and notions of the real world to produce a correct reflection of reality?.. The overwhelming majority of philosophers give an affirmative answer to this question...
In addition there is yet a set of different philosophers—those who question the possibility of any cognition, or at least of an exhaustive cognition, of
the world. Frederick Engels
HISTORICAL FORMS OF MATERIALISM
7th-1st centuries BC
17th-19th centuries
19th century
19th-20th centuries
19
Materialism ... underwent a series of stages of development... With each
epoch-making discovery ... it has to change its form...
SPONTANEOUS MATERIALISM
METAPHYSICAL MATERIALISM
MATERIALISM OF THE REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATS
DIALECTICAL AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
CLASSES AND SOCIAL GROUPS WHOSE INTERESTS IT EXPRESSES
DEMOCRATIC STRATA OF SLAVE-HOLDING SOCIETY
NASCENT BOURGEOISIE
REVOLUTIONARY PEASANTRY
WORKING CLASS AND ALL OTHER WORKING PEOPLE
Frederick Engels
REPRESENTATIVES
CHINESE ATHEISTS FAN WANZU. SHEN XU: INDIAN SCHOOL
OF THE CHARVAKAS
ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS, HERACLITUS, DEMOCRITUS AND OTHERS
ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS FRANCIS BACON, JOHN LOCKE; DUTCH PHILOSOPHER BENEDICT SPINOZA FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS JULIEN LA METTRIE, DENIS OIDEROT, CLAUDE HELVETIUS; GERMAN PHILOSOPHER LUDWIG FEUERBACH AND OTHERS
RUSSIAN MATERIALISTS ALEKSANDER HERZEN,
NIKOLAL CHERNYSHEVSKY, NIKOLAI OOBROLIUBOV;
SERB MATERIALIST S. MARKOVIC: BULGARIAN MATERIALIST KHRISTO BOTEV, AND OTHERS
KARL MARX, FREDERICK ENGELS V1. LENIN, AND.
THEIR FOLLOWERS
18
MAIN FORMS OF IDEALISM
PLATO (Sth-4th centuries BC) BERKELEY (18th century) THOMAS AQUINAS (13th century) FICHTE (18th-19th centuries) HEGEL (19th century) HUME (18th century)
MACH (19th-20th centuries) NEO-THOMISM (19th-20th centuries) EXISTENTIALISM, PRAGMATISM, NEO-HEGELIANISM (19th-20th centuries) NEO-POSITIVISM, etc. (20th century)
The world is the non-ego created by the ego, said Fichte. The world is Absolute Idea, said Hegel. The world is will, said Schopenhauer... One must be blind not to perceive the identical idealist essence under these various
verbal cloaks. VL Lenin
Chapter
EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MARXIST PHILOSOPHY
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways: the point is to change it.
Marx's philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished
Materialism includes partisanship, so to enjoys the direct and open adoption of the standpoint of a definite social group in any assessment of events
and
By dod
20
MAIN DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF DIALECTICS
18th-19th centuries
19th-20th centuries
PRIMITIVE, NAIVE BUT INTRINSICALLY CORRECT CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD IS THAT OF ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY, AND WAS FIRST CLEARLY. FORMULATED BY HERACLITUS: EVERYTHING IS AND IS NOT, FOR EVERYTHING IS FLUID, IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING, CONSTANTLY COMING INTO BEING AND PASSING AWAY.
Frederick Engels
THE LAW OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF QUANTITY INTO QUALITY AND VICE VERSA; THE LAW OF THE INTERPENETRATION OF OPPOSITES;
THE LAW OF THE NEGATION OF THE NEGATION. ALL THREE ARE DEVELOPED BY HEGEL IN HIS IDEALIST FASHION AS MERE LAWS OF THOUGHT. THE MISTAKE LIES IN THE FACT THAT THESE LAWS ARE FOISTED ON NATURE AND HISTORY AS LAWS OF THOUGHT, AND NOT DEDUCED FROM THEM. —-— 7
Frederick Engels
IT 1S THE MERIT OF MARX THAT... HE WAS THE FIRST TO HAVE BROUGHT TO THE FORE AGAIN THE FORGOTTEN DIALECTICAL METHOD, ITS CONNECTION WITH HEGELIAN DIALECTICS BNO ITS DISTINCTION FROM THE LATTER, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO HAVE APPLIED THIS METHOD I's CAPITAL :
DIALECTICS REDUCED ITSELF TO THE SCIENCE THE GENERAL LAWS OF MOTION, BOTH OF ~HE EXTERNAL WORLD AND OF HUMAN THOUGH™
CREATION OF DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM AS A REVOLUTION IN PHILOSOPHY
THREE GREAT DISCOVERIES
be DEVELOPMENT OF THE 19TH CENTURY: OF THE CONTRADICTIONS CLASSICAL GERMAN DISCOVERY OF THE CELL, OF CAPITALISM PHILOSOPHY: THE LAW OF CONSERVATION AND ORIGINATION HEGEL'S IDEALIST DIALECTICS AND TRANSFORMATION OF OF THE PROLETARIAT'S FEUERBACH'S ENERGY, 4 CLASS STRUGGLE PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
IN RESPONSE TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, THOSE OF THE PROLETARIAT ABOVE ALL, AND ON THE STRENGTH OF ACRITICAL STUDY OF HEGEL'S IDEALIST DIALECTICS, FEUERBACH'S METAPHYSICAL MATERIALISM, AND A|GENERALISATION OF SOCIAL PRACTICELAND
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES, MARX AND ENGELS CREATED DIALECTICAL AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM, A SCIENCE OF THE MOST GENERAL DEVELOPMENT LAWS GOVERNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURE, THE SOCIETY AND THINKING
STRUCTURE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PHILOSOPHY
THE MOST GENERAL
MATTER AND THE FORMS. OF ITS EXISTENCE
THE DOCTRINE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
PRINCIPLES, LAWS AND CATEGORIES OF DIALECTICS
bx THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
UNIFORMITIES OF THE SOCIETY'S MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
THE MOST GENERAL
UNIFORMITIES
SOCIO-POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
THE MOST GENERAL,
UNIFORMITIES
THE SOCIETY'S SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
24 ar "FUNCTIONS OF MARXIST-LENINIST PHILOSOPHY
CRITIQUE CRITIQUE OF OF THE IDEALIST {THE METAPHYSICAL WORLD OUTLOOK METHOD
OF THINKING
CREATIVE NATURE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PHILOSOPHY
27
We do not regard Marx's theory as something completed and inviolable;
on the contrary, we are convinced that it has only laid the foundation stone of the science which socialists must develop in all directions if they wish
to keep pace with life... This theory provides only general guiding principles, which, in particular, are applied in England differently than in France,
in France differently than in Germany, and in Germany differently than
in Russia.
The Declaration of the 1957 Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the Socialist Countries said: The theory of Marxism-Leninism derives from dialectical materialism. This world outlook reflects the universal law of development of nature, society and human thinking. It is valid for the past, the present and the future. Dialectical materialism is countered by metaphysics and idealism. Should the Marxist political party in its examination of questions base itself not on dialectics and materialism, the result will be one-sidedness and subjectivism, stagnation of human thought, isolation from life and loss of ability to make the necessary analysis of things and phenomena, revisionist and dogmatist mistakes and mistakes in policy. Application of dialectical materialism in practical work and the education
of the party functionaries and the broad masses in the spirit
of Marxism-Leninism are urgent tasks of the Communist and Workers’ Parties.
26
LENINIST STAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
In the new historical epoch, the epoch of imperialism and socialist revolutions, Lenin creatively developed the Marxist philosophy, raising it to a qualitatively new stage.
GAVE A PHILOSOPHICAL DEFINITION OF DEVELOPED THE DOCTRINE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC MATTER, SUBSTANTIATED THE OBJECTIVITY FORMATIONS, GAVE A DEFINITION OF CLASSES, OF MOTION, SPACE AND TIME, CONCRETISED ELABORATED THE THEORY OF SOCIALIST THE DOCTRINE OF DEVELOPMENT AND ITS REVOLUTION FROM EVERY ANGLE, LAWS, ELABORATED THE THEORY OF CONCRETISED THE DOCTRINE OF THE STATE KNOWLEDGE, GAVE A PHILOSOPHICAL AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
_GENERALISATION OF LATE 19th.CENTURY AND EARLY 20th-CENTURY DISCOVERIES IN NATURAL SCIENCE,SUBSTANTIATED THE NEED FOR UNITY BETWEEN PHILOSOPHERS.
AND NATURALISTS
CRITICISED THE MAIN TRENDS OF REACTIONARY BOURGEOIS PHILOSOPHY OF THE LATE 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURIES (MACHISM, PRAGMATISM, etc.), REVISIONISM AND OPPORTUNISM
There is nothing in the world but matter in motion, and matter in motion cannot move otherwise than in space and time.
Chapter
VoL Lenin
MATTER AND THE FORMS OF ITS EXISTENCE
LENIN‘S DEFINITION OF MATTER
33
LENIN'S DEFINITION OF MATTER ANSWERS. THE BASIC QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY
WHAT IS PRIMARY? 1S THE WORLD COGNISABLE?
THE SOLE "PROPERTY" OF MATTER WITH WHOSE RECOGNITION PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM IS BOUND UP IS THE PROPERTY OF BEING AN OBJECTIVE REALITY, OF EXISTING OUTSIDE THE MIND,
THINGS EXIST OUTSIDE Us- OUR PERCEPTION AND IDEAS ARE THEIR IMAGES. VERIFICATION OF THESE IMAGES, DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN TRUE ANO FALSE IMAGES IS GIVEN BY PRACTICE. MATTER IS THAT WHICH, ACTING UPON OUR SENSE-ORGANS, PRODUCES SENSATION,
THE EXISTENCE OF MATTER DOES NOT DEPEND ON SENSATION. MATTER IS PRIMARY. SENSATION, THOUGHT, CONSCIOUSNESS ARE THE SUPREME PRODUCT OF MATTER ORGANISED IN A PARTICULAR WAY,
NOT A SINGLE FACT WAS OR COULD BE CITED WHICH WOULD REFUTE THE VIEW THAT SENSATION IS AN IMAGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD.
Recognition of the world’s materiality makes it possible to demonstrate the objective nature of uniformity, causal connection, and necessity in nature and the society. No
science could have developed without reflecting in its theories various properties and aspects of objectively existing matter,
Lien s MATERIAL UNITY OF THE WORLD
\ Nothing is eternal but eternally changing, eternally
moving matter and the laws according to which it moves... Matter remains eternally the same in all its transformations... None of its attributes can ever be lost. Frederick Engels
The real unity of the worid consists in its materiality, and this is proved ... by a long and wearisome development of philosophy and natural science.
Frederick Engels
MAIN FORMS OF THE MOTION OF MATTER AND THEIR INTERCONNECTION
ONE FORM OF MOTION ENGENDERS ANOTHER, HIGHER FORM.
HIGHER FORMS OF MOTION INCLUDE LOWER ONES.
HIGHER FORMS OF MOTION ARE NOT REDUCED TO LOWER ONES, BUT CONSTITUTE A NEW QUALITY.
Modern science has markedly expanded the understanding of the forms of the motion of matter and their interconnection. New forms of material motion have been discovered: the motion of elementary particles, intra-atomic and intra-nuclear motion, ete.
35
Motion, as applied to matter, is change in general Frederick Engels
There is no matter without motion, nor could there ever have been. Motion in cosmic space, mechanical motion of smaller masses on a single celestial body, the vibration of molecules as heat, electric tension, magnetic polarisation, chemical decomposition and combination, organic life up to its highest product, thought—at each given moment each individual atom of matter is in one or other of these forms of motion.
Fredenck Eng
Matter without motion is just as inconceivable as
motion without matter. Motion is therefore as
uncreatable and indestructible as matter itself... Frederick Engels
RELATIVITY OF REST
All rest, all equilibrium, is only relative, only has meaning in relation to one or other definite form of motion. On the earth, for example, a body may be ... at rest; but this in no way prevents it from participating in the motion of the earth and in that of the whole solar system, just as little as it prevents its most minute physical particles from carrying out the vibrations determined by its temperature, or its atoms from passing through a chemical process. Frederick Engels
Consciousness ... can never be anything else than
conscious being ... and the being of men is their actual life-process.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
The world is the movement of ... objective reality reflected by our consciousness.
V. I. Lenin
1ON OF MATTER
ETERNITY AND INFINITY
UNITY OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY
UNITY OF THE ABSOLUTE AND THE RELATIVE
‘SPACE
COEXISTENCE OF OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA
THREE-DIMENSIONALITY
REVERSIBILITY (POSSIBILITY OF DIRECT AND REVERSE MOTION)
TIME
SUCCESSION OF OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA
ONE-DIMENSIONALITY
IRREVERSIBILITY (POSSIBILITY OF MOTION ONLY IN ONE DIRECTION:
FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE)
f ROLE OF LABOUR IN THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS
When after thousands of years of struggle the differentiation of hand from foot, and erect gait, were finally established, man became distinct from the ape and the basis was laid for the development of articulate speech and the mighty development of the brain that has since made the gulf between man and the ape an unbridgeable one. The specialisation of the hand—this implies the tool, and the tool implies specific human activity, the transforming reaction of man on nature, production...
With the development of the hand went that of the brain; first of all came consciousness of the conditions for separate practically useful actions, and later, among the more favoured peoples and arising from that consciousness, insight into the natural laws governing them, And with the rapidly growing knowledge of the laws of nature the means for reacting on nature also grew...
Frederick Engels Man is the sole animal capable of working his way out of the merely animal state—his normal state is one appropriate to his consciousness, one that has to be created by himself.
Frederick Engels
39
(MECHANICAL PHYSICAL
CHEMICAL
IRRITABILITY
CONDITIONED AND UNCONDITIONED REFLEXES, INSTINCTS
ELEMENTARY ANIMAL PSYCHE
HUMAN SENSUOUS COGNITION
LOGICAL COGNITION,
WHICH EMERGED WITH
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LABOUR ACTIVITY AND.
THE SECOND SIGNAL SYSTEM
ects to reproduce in
bj
is the perty of oO = te ren a the vrecifics of other bodies wh influence them.
EXAMPLES
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND
OR REFLECTION OF OBJECTS IN THE WATER OR A MIRR!
REACTIONS OF ASSOCIATION, DISSOCIATION, etc.
PLANTS FOLLOWING THE SUN
FOOD, DEFENSIVE, SEXUAL, BUILDING AND OTHER INSTINCTS AND REFLEXES WHICH ENSURE THE SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPECIES
EMBRYONIC RATIONAL ACTIVITY, ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS, etc,
VISUAL, AUDITORY, GUSTATORY, ©} 7 5 , OLFACTORY AND OTHER SENSATIONS, PERCEPTIONS, REPRESENTATION
CONCEPTS, JUDGEMENTS, INFERENCES
ELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The influences of the external world upon man express themselves in his brain, are reflected therein as feelings, thoughts, impulses, volitions—in short, as “ideal
tendencies’’... Frederick Engels
b wl > oy, =z ° ey gg Or o& zz cs ee ge z 2 o 9G 32 2 rad Sj Mis 2 é Q z i, inc Pee z a 4 < & = = ay 2 3k 55 36 é a =e 8 ze w wo bg ss. Oo 25 - ¢ ra} fe} i iv Som im 2. Sse «2 ~o = z ee oe eo io Soa & @ @F o< 88 By eS u z 2 S$ ¢ & of! © <a < = E28. of go cu G 4 z= 2 Se i) eis as a 3 w < 4 a = w ®
4)
so)
QUALITATIVE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
AND ANIMAL PSYCHE
A spider conducts operations that resemble those of
a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality. At the end of every labour-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the labourer at its commencement. He not only effects a change of form in the material on which he works, but he also realises a purpose of
his own. Karl Marx
Ea.
Concrete visual thinking of the higher animals occurs only in the process of action.
Labour ... and ... speech—these were the two most essential stimuli under the influence of which the brain of the ape gradually changed into that of man... Hand in hand with the development of the brain went the development of its most immediate instruments—the senses... The eagle sees much farther than man, but the human eye discerns considerably more in things than does the eye of the eagle. The dog has a far keener sense of smell than man, but it does not distinguish a hundredth part of the odours that for man are definite signs denoting different things.
Frederick Engels
Man is capable of abstract, logical thinking.
ACTIVITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
PEREACMarenne
Man's consciousness not only reflects the objective world, but creates it... The world does not satisfy man and man decides to change it by his activity, \ VoL Lenin DETERMINES) INFLUENCES
Consciousness is passive contemplation of the world
ee
DETERMINES It is precisely the alteration of nature by men, not solely nature as suc hicl the most essential and immediate
basis of human thought, and it is in the measure that man By exaggerating the activity of consciousness, idealism has learned to change nature that his intelligence has carries that exaggeration to an absurdity, to the assertion increased, that consciousness creates the world
DETERMINES
Frederick Engels 43
DEPENDENCE ‘OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON MATTER
THAT CONSCIOUSNESS IS SECONDARY
‘on It, Organic matter Is a latter phenomenon, the fruit of a long evolutio: Matter Is primary, and thought, consciousness, sensation are products of a very high development.
V. I, Lenin
Our consciousness and thinking, however suprasensuous they may seem, are the product of a material,
bodily organ, the brain. Matter is not a product of mind, but mind itself is merely the highest product of matter.
Frederick Engels
‘The ideal Is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind and translated into forms of thought.
Karl Marx
Our consciousness is only an image of the external world.
VL Lenin
Men, developing their material production and their material intercourse, alter, along with their actual world, also their thinking and the products of their thinking.
It is not consciousness that determines life, but life
that determines consciousness.
Karl Marx and Frederick Enge
SCIENCES CONFIRMING
SCIENCES
OF THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARTH AND LIFE ON IT
PHYSIOLOGY
OF HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
DIALECTICO- MATERIALIST EPISTEMOLOGY, THEORY
OF REFLECTION
SCIENCES ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY
AND ALL FORMS OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Chapter
LAWS : AND CATEGORIES
Dialectical thought is only the reflection of the motion through opposites which asserts itself everywhere in nature, and which by the continual conflict of the opposites and their final passage in one another, or into higher forms, determines the life of nature.
It is ... from the history of nature and human society that the laws of dialectics are abstracted. For they
are nothing but the most general laws of these two aspects of historical development, as well as of thought itself.
OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS
a4
FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
REFLECTION OF REALITY
GOAL-SETTING DESIGN
ACCUMULATION OF KNOWLEDGE
APPRAISAL AND SELF-APPRAISAL
DIVERSITY OF CONNECTIONS AND CONCEPT OF LAW
The first thing that strikes us in considering matter in motion is the|inter-connection|of the individual
motions of separate bodies, their being determined
by one another. Frederick Engels
_ CONNECTIONS
INDIVIDUAL, GENERAL _ CHANCE NECESSARY a EXTERNAL INTERNAL | INESSENTIAL ESSENTIAL INDIRECT DIRECT i TEMPORARY PERMANENT UNSTABLE STABLE [ SECONDARY PRIMARY | SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE
AND OTHERS
47
The whole of nature accessible to us forms a system, an interconnected totality of bodies, and by bodies we understand here all material existences extending
from stars to atoms, POM’ stalstoisroms Frederick Bugels
LAW
THIS|INNER AND NECESSARY CONNECTION BETWEEN TWO SEEMING CONTRADICTIONS,
THE FORM OF UNIVERSALITY IN NATURE IS LAW
Bevitorick #
LAW IS RELATION... RELATION OF ESSENCES OR BETWEEN ESSENCES
VoL Lenin
LAW 1S THE ENDURING (THE PERSISTING) IN APPEARANCES
VoL Lenin
Law is a general, necessary, essential, and enduring objective connection between objects or phenomena
46 STRUCTURE
OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS
PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSAL INTERCONNECTION OF OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA
PRINCIPLE OF MOTION AND DEVELOPMENT
INDIVIDUAL, PARTICULAR
LAW OF THE UNITY AND GENERAL
AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES
CAUSE AND EFFECT
NECESSITY AND CHANCE LAW OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF QUANTITY INTO QUALITY AND VICE VERSA
CONTENT AND FORM
ESSENCE AND APPEARANCE
LAW OF THE NEGATION OF THE NEGATION
POSSIBILITY AND REALITY
yee
TWO CONCEPTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT
METAPHYSICAL, DIALECTICAL
OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA
IN NATURE AND THE SOCIETY ARE ISOLATED, INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHER
THE WORLD MOVES SOLELY UNDER THE IMPACT
OF AN EXTERNAL FORCE (AN INITIAL IMPULSE, GOD)
NOTHING QUALITATIVELY NEW CAN ARISE, THAT WHICH EXISTS IS ONLY INCREASED
OR REDUCED IN QUANTITATIVE TERMS
MOTION IS CIRCULAR, WITH PERPETUAL REPETITIONS OF ONE AND THE SAME CYCLE
The first conception is lifeless, pale and dry.|The second is living. The second alone furnishes the key to the “'self-movement" of everything existing; it alone furnishes the key to the ‘‘leaps’’, to the “break in continuity”, to the “transformation into the opposite”, to the destruction of the old and the emergence of the new. VL Lenin
49
48
CLASSIFICATION OF LAWS
TWOIILSILYLS
OINYNAG
TWYNLINYLS
TWNOILINNA
AWLN3SWd0O13A30
AN3ISNVYL
SNIBNGNS
“WNYSL3
YyVINIILYWd
TWwuya3aNna5
Tvsy3AInn
ALIMIgvaoud 30 A¥OBHL 3H1 30 SMUT
SU3HLO ONY SMW WWOISAHd
WBLSAS ¥ 40 BUNLINYLS TWNYBLNI 3HL 4937438
SY3HLO ONY ALIALLOW SMNOAM3N Y3HOIH 40 ADOTOISAH JO SMT
SYaHLO ONY So1Loa TWIG 40 SMVT
SNOILYWYOS DIASINODWLNY 40 4AN3WdO13A3G JO SMW
SU3H1O ONY SMT WWwIIDO7018
SU3HLO ONY So1LOaT VIC 40 SMVT
ONIMNIHL YO AALBIDOS BHL‘'SYNLUN 30 S3u3HdS BLINIZAG NI 3Lvu3d0
ONDINIHL NI3S73 yO ‘ALBIDOS BHI NI YO "SUNLUN NI NBHLIS BLvuadO
ONDINIHL ONY ALBIDOS HL "SUNLVYN NI 3Lvuado
UNIVDRGALITY OF THE LAW OF TH AMD STRUGGLE OF OPFCAITES
» wee Toere & a cortred SURE oe
Chavjitg Sieg posses
> SYNTHESIS #p GENERALISATION
4m INTEGRAL > COUNTERACTION eS NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY
@MD DISSOCIATION ATOMS
50
LAW OF THE UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES
So long as we consider things as at rest and lifeless, each one by itself, alongside and after each other, we do not run up against any contradictions in them... But the position is quite different as soon as we consider things in their motion, their change, their life, their reciprocal influence on one another. Then we immediately become involved in contradictions, Motion itself is a contradiction: even simple mechanical change of position can only come about through a body being at one and the _same moment of time both in one place and in another place, being in one and the same place and also not in it. And the continuous origination and simultaneous solution of this contradiction is precisely what motion is... If simple mechanical change of place contains a contradiction, this is even more true of the higher forms of motion of matter, and especially of organic life and its development. We saw above that life consists precisely and primarily in this—that a being is at each moment itself and yet something else. Life is therefore also a contradiction which is present in things and processes themselves, and which constantly originates and resolves itself; and as soon as the contradiction ceases, life, too,
comes to an end, and death steps in. We likewise saw
that also in the sphere of thought we could not
escape contradictions, and that for example the contradiction between man's inherently unlimited capacity for knowledge and its actual presence only in men who are externally limited and possess limited cognition finds its solution in what is—at least practically, for us—an endless succession of generations, in infinite progress.
Frederick Engels
E
rene
IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC
INANIMATE ANIMATE FORMATIONS SOCIAL INDIVIDUAL | STAGES } OF —— [ | DEVELOPMENT 1 ax W A ] i ‘ STRENGTHENING EMERGENCE CULMINATION DECLINE EMERGENCE i AND FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
53
CONTRADICTIONS OF DIFFERENT STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMATIONS
An exact representation of the universe, of its evolution, of the development of mankind, and of the reflection of this evolution in the minds of men,
can ... only be obtained by the methods of dialectics with its constant regard to the innumerable actions and reactions of life and death, of progressive or retrogressive changes.
Frederick Engels
52
CLASSIFICATION
OF CONTRADICTIONS
DILSINODVLNV- NON
DILSINODVINY
JISWa-NON
olsva
TWNY3Lx3
TWNYSLNI
SONVHD
A¥YSS393N
W3LSAS BHI SBAOudNI NOILN70S3y YISHL
W3LSAS 3HL SAOULS30 NOILN10S38 HISHL
W3LSAS 3H1 40 AN3WdO73A30 3HL BONSNT4NI
W3LSAS 3H1 40 AN3WdO13A30 3HL BNINY3L30
SW3LSAS NaaM1ag SNOILDIGWELNOD
W3LSAS 3HLNIHLIM S39UO4 31ISOddO 40 NOILOVYSLNI
SaSNVI TWNUBLXS wows asinv
W3LSAS 3HL JO BONVLSENS 3HL wous Wals
FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTION OF OUR EPOCH
Our epoch, whose main content is the transition from capitalism to socialism, is an epoch of struggle between the two opposite social systems, an epoch of socialist and national-liberation revolutions, an epoch of the downfall of imperialism and elimination of the colonial system, an epoch when ever new peoples are going over to the socialist road. CONTRADICTION BETWEEN SYSTEMS
PROGRESS REACTION
CONSTRUCTION AND DESTRUCTION
PEACE
WARS — THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THE TWO SOCIAL SYSTEMS MANIFESTS ITSELF IN ALL SPHERES OF SOCIAL LIFE ECONOMIC POLITICAL IDEOLOGICAL
55:
54
FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTION OF CAPITALISM
Production has become a social act. Exchange and appropriation continue to be individual acts, the acts of individuals. The social product is appropriated by the individual capitalist. Fundamental contradiction, whence arise all the contradictions in which our present-day society moves...
a) Severance of the producer from the means of production. Antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
b) Contradiction between socialised organisation in the individual factory and social anarchy as a whole.
c) On the one hand, perfecting of machinery, made by competition compulsory for each individual manufacturer, and complemented by a constantly growing displacement of labourers. Industrial reserve army. On the other hand, unlimited extension of production, also compulsory under competition for every manufacturer. On both sides, unheard-of development of productive forces, excess of supply over demand, over-production, glutting of the markets, crises... The vicious circle: excess here, of means of production and products—excess there, of labourers, without employment and without means of existence.
Frederick Engels
= ae =" ~ QUALITY AND PROPERTIES
Quality is the inner structure of objects and phenomena, that which distinguishes them from other objects and phenomena and which is inherent only in them.
PROPERTIES
=e
Every useful thing ...
is an assemblage of many
Property is an outer manifestation of a quality in its interaction with other phenomena.
QUALITIES DIFFER IN THEIR PROPERTIES
properties, and may therefore be of use in various ways. To discover the various uses of things is the
work of history.
57
Karl Marx
56
LAW OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF QUANTITY INTO QUALITY AND VICE VERSA
In nature, in a manner exactly fixed for each individual case, qualitative changes can only occur by the quantitative addition or quantitative subtraction of matter or motion (so called energy).
It is impossible to alter the quality of a body without addition or subtraction of matter or motion, i. e., without quantitative alteration of the body concerned.
Similarly, a definite minimum current strength is required to cause the platinum wire of an electric incandescent lamp to glow; and every metal has its temperature of incandescence and fusion, every liquid its definite freezing and boiling point at a given pressure... In short, the so-called physical constants are for the most part nothing but designations of the nodal points at which quantitative addition or subtraction of motion produces qualitative change in the state of the body concerned, at which, therefore, quantity is transformed into quality...
Chemistry can be termed the science of the qualitative changes of bodies as
a result of changed quantitative composition...
In biology, as in the history of human society, the same law holds good at
every step. Frederick Engels
A molecule of water consists of two atoms of hydrogen (H) and one atom of oxygen (0). If a second atom of oxygen is added to the molecule of water, the result will be a totally different chemical substance: hydrogen peroxide.
2H,0+0,—> 2H,0, water hydrogen peroxide
The type of leap is determined by the nature of the object or phenomenon itself and the conditions of its existence.
RAPID, SLOW, WITH WITH AN IMMEDIATE A GRADUAL AND TRANSFORMATION TOTAL CHANGE OF ONE QUALITY
IN QUALITY | INTO ANOTHER
CHEMICAL REACTIONS,
CHANGES IN THE STATES FORMATION OF NEW SI
Gr REGREGASION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS OF SUBSTANCES | ECONOMIC ANO CULTURAL SEIZURE TRANSFORMATIONS OF POLITICAL PowEeR INTHE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES
the type of leap change!
with a change
in conditions
nical reactions
© bombs are explosive, instantaneous, and in the regctors of nuclear power plants are a slow and gradual process
59
58
THE LEAP AS A TRANSITION FROM ONE QUALITY TO ANOTHER
At certain definite nodal points, the purely quantitative increase or descrease givesrisetoa qualitative leap. Frederick Engels
LAW OF THE MUTUAL TRANSFORMATION OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY
THE LEAP IS
A MANIFESTATION OF THE INTRINSIC INTERCONNECTION OF THE LAWS
OF DIALECTICS
LAW OF THE UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES
LAW OF THE NEGATION OF THE NEGATION
What distinguishes the dialectical transition from the undialectical transition? The leap. The contradiction. The interruption of gradualness. The unity
identity) of Being and not-Being. y if
INTENSIVENESS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY'S
PRODUCTIVE FORCES
61
No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed...
MEASURE
TIME OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORMATIONS
z > °o Karl Marx MeasuRE | 9 EVOLUTION Each successive formation opens up greater scope for 4 the development of the productive forces than the preceding one. > 8 é E | MEASURE 5 B/EVOLUTION > a © MEASURE é | $ EVOLUTION } i | MEASURE - = : | z | a - 6} EVOLUTION > # 2 | EVOLUTION aed es === — —_
60
LEAP-LIKE CHANGES IN NATURE
When water is heated or cooled, at boiling-point and freezing-point there is a leap from one state of aggregation to another.
Measure is the limits within which quantitative changes do not change quality.
ENERGY
TEMPERATURE MELTING
What ... is ... negation of the negation?.. A very simple process which is taking place everywhere and every day... Let us take a grain of barley...
If such a grain of barley meets with conditions which are normal for it, if it falls on suitable soil, then under the influence of heat and moisture it undergoes a specific change, it germinates; the grain as such ceases to exist, it is negated, and in its place appears the plant which has arisen from it, the negation of the grain. But what is the normal life-process of this plant? It grows, flowers, is fertilized and finally once more produces grains of barley, and as soon as these have ripened the stall dies, is in its turn negated. As a result of this negation of the negation we have once again the original grain of barley, but nat as a single unit,
but ten-, twenty- or thirty fold...
It is the same in history, as well, All civilized peoples begin with the common ownership of the land
With all peoples who have passed a certain primitive stage, this common ownership becomes in the course of the development of agriculture a fetter
on production. It is abolished, negated, and after
a longer or shorter series of intermediate staues is transformed into private property. But at a higher stage of agricultural development ... private property conversely becomes a fetter on production... The demand that it, too, should be negated, that it
63
should once again be transformed into common property, necessarily arises, But this demand does not mean the restoration of the aboriginal common ownership, but the institution of a far higher and more developed form of possession in common... And so, what is the negation of the negation?
An extremely general—and for this reason extremely far-reaching and important—law of development of nature, history, and thought
EAR PLANT
/ S
GRAIN
62
EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION
Evolution isa quantitative change in social
development Revolution isa qualitative change in the direction
of the society's progressive development
DIALECTICAL VIEWS Evolution paves the way for revolution, while the latter consummates the former and opens up the way
for new evolution, METAPHYSICAL VIEWS
development is confined only to qualitative changes
or
only to quantitative changes (reformists)
Capitalism creates its own grave-d the elements of a new system, yet, without a “leap” these individual ele c
nothing in the general s
ffect the rule of capit
Not empty negation, not futile negation, (not sceptical negation) is ... essential in dialectics, —which undoubtedly contains the element of negation and indeed as its most important element—no, but negation as a moment of
| connection, as a moment of development, retaining the positive. —-—--—-
V. 1 Lenin
Because of the simple fact that every succeeding generation finds itself in possession of the productive forces acquired by the previous generation, and
that they serve it as the raw material for new production, a coherence arises in human history,
a history of humanity takes shape. Karl Marx
Socialism calls for a conscious mass advance to greater productivity of labour compared with capitalism, and on the basis achieved by capitalism.
Tod. Lenm
65
64
ANTITHESIS BETWEEN THE DIALECTICAL AND METAPHYSICAL VIEWS ON NEGATION
THE CAUSES OF NEGATION ARE EXTERNAL
NEGATION IS POSSIBLE AT ANY MOMENT
} \
THE MODES OF NEGATION DO NOT DEPEND ON THE PHENOMENON BEING NEGATED
A PHENOMENON IS TOTALLY NEG AND ITS DEVELOPMENT STOPS
THE CAUSES OF NEGATION LIE IN THE PHENOMENON ITSELF, IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS INNER CONTRADICTIONS
NEGATION IS ONLY POSSIBLE WHEN THE CONTRADICTIONS HAVE MATURED, WHEN THE QUANTITATIVE CHANGES HAVE APPROACHED THE LIMIT OF A MEASURE
‘ ,
THE MODE OF NEGATION DEPENDS ON THE GENERAL AND SPECIFIC NATURE OF THE PROCESS, FOR EACH PHENOMENON THERE 1S A SPECIAL TYPE OF NEGATION
ONLY THE OBSOLETE FORM IS NEGATED, WHILE ALL THAT IS VIABLE IN THE CONTENT OF A PHENOMENON IS RETAINED AND THE PHEN
NGHER STAGE I S DEVELOPN
Just as the development history of the human embryo
| in the mother’s womb is only an abbreviated repetition of the history, extending over millions of years, of the bodily evolution of our animal ancestors ... so the mental development of the human child is only a still more abbreviated repetition of the intellectual development of these same ancestors, at least of the later ones.
Frederick Engels
FISH BIRD GUINEA-PIG MONKEY MAN
67
RECURRENCE IN DEVELOPMENT
ON A HIGHER BASIS
A development that repeats, as it were, stages that have already been passed, but repeats them in a different way, on a higher basis ... a development ...
that proceeds in spirals, not in a straight line.
CONTINUITY IN DEVELOPMENT
PROGRESSIVE NATURE
OF DEVELOPMENT
CYCLICAL RECURRENCE ON A HIGHER BASIS
V.L. Lenin
EACH SUBSEQUENT
ELEMENT INCLUDES THE PRECEDING ELEMENT, PARTIALLY NEGATING IT
FROM THE FIRST
TO THE LAST PERIOD, ELEMENTS AND THEIR PROPERTIES ARE COMPLEXIFIED
THE PROPERTIES
OF ELEMENTS
ARE PERIODICALLY REPEATED ON
A HIGHER LEVEL. METALLIC PROPERTIES, INTENSIFY FROM ONE PERIOD TO ANOTHER
CATEGORIES OF DIALECTICS
Categories are the most general concepts reflecting the essential connections, properties and relations of developing objects and phenomena.
Two philosophical tendencies, the metaphysical with fixed categories, the dialectical (Aristotle and especially Hegel) with fluid categories; the proofs that these fixed opposites of basis and consequence, cause and effect, identity and difference, appearance and essence are untenable, that analysis shows one pole already present in the other in nuce, that at a definite point the one
pole becomes transformed into the other, and that all logic develops only from these progressing contradictions. Frederick Engels
ALL OPPOSITE CATEGORIES CONDITION EACH OTHER, AND THE ANTITHESIS BETWEEN THEM
OVERESTIMATION OF SOME CATEGORIES AND UNDERESTIMATION OF OPPOSITE ONES,
THINKING ACCORDING TO THE FORMULA: 1S NOT ABSOLUTE, BUT RELATIVE
EITHER
| INDIVIDUAL GENERAL | INDIVIDUAL GENERAL
| CAUSE EFFECT CAUSE EFFECT 2 NECESSITY: CHANCE | NECESSITY CHANCE CONTENT FORM CONTENT “ FORM
|— ESSENCE APPEARANCE ESSENCE APPEARANCE
_ PossiBiLity REALITY ~ possiBILITY —_ REALITY
69
68
ACCELERATING PACE OF DEVELOPMENT IN NATURE AND THE SOCIETY
} For the entire evolution of organism the law of acceleration { according to the square of the distance in time from the point of
departure is to be accepted. Frederick Engels
MAMMALS
REPTILES
CHORDATA
COMPLEXIFICATION OF ORGANISMS
PROTOZOA
YEARS BC
TBILLION 600 MILLION 300 MILLION 180 MILLION 4 MILLION
Life on the Earth originated roughly 3.5 billion years ago
PACE OF DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FORMATIONS
The primitive-communal system lasted over 1,000,000 years
The slave-holding system—over 10,000 years
The feudal system—over 1,000 years
The capitalist system exists 200-300 years
CAUSE AND EFFECT
Cause is a phenomenon which engenders another Effect is the result of the operation of the cause phenomenon
EXPLOITATION SOME Trot OF THE WORKING ANARCHY
PEOPLE OF PRODUCTION CLASS STRUGGLE BETWEEN UNEMPLOYMENT THE WORKERS AND THE BOURGEOISIE Cognition of the common cause of many Cause and effect ... are merely moments of phenomena explains these phenomena, universal reciprocal dependence, of (universal) synthesises them and projects the direction connection, of the reciprocal concatenation of of their change, events, merely links in the chain of the
development of matter. V.L Lenin
7
70
INDIVIDUAL, PARTICULAR, GENERAL
The individual exists only in the connection that leads The universal exists only in the individual and through to the universal. WT Tenin the individual. Ve Lew INDIVIDUAL, PARTICULAR GENERAL IRON METAL ELEMENT ROSE FLOWER PLANT (INDIVIDUAL) (PARTICULAR) (GENERAL) BEVB LUTION SOCIALIST SOCIAL IN RUSSIA REVOLUTION / REVOLUTION T ‘JUDGEMENT: JUDGEMENT: ANY FORM " / MECHANICAL MOTION / OF MOTION UNDER ERICTIONS J UNDER DEFINITE | DEFINITE CONDITIONS / CONDITIONS / IS TRANSFORMED. ENGENDERS HEAT / / ° IS TRANSFORMED INTO ANY OTHER INTO HEAT FORM OF MOTION - wae m
GENERAL INDIVIDUAL
CHANCE AS A FORM OF MANIFESTATION AND SUPPLEMENTATION OF NECESSITY
Progressive development of the society is a law-governed, necessary process. But this necessity makes its way through a mass of chance events (accidents).
iy) % & fay i Ce
World history ... would ... be of a very mystical nature, if ‘accidents’ played no part. These accidents naturally form part of the general course of development and are compensated by other accidents. But acceleration and delay are very much dependent upon such “accidents”, including the
“accident” of the character of the people who first head the movement. Karl Marx
73
72
" NECESSITY AND CHANCE
Necessity is that which must inevitably occur in definite conditions. =
Atmospheric precipitations in the form of rain or hail in definite conditions are a necessity.
Chance is that which can either occur or not occur in definite conditions, which can occur in o1 or another.
Crop damage caused by hail-stones in a particular field is a chance event.
Content
phenomenon
ns ‘is an|aggregation|of all the elements, Form isa relatively stable system of connections their interactions and changes peculiar to the en ynter
the|mode of the content's existence
INFLUENCE é'
DETERMINE
CONTENT DETERMINES FORM
CONTENT CHANGES FASTER THAN FORM, AND CONTRADICTIONS ARISE BETWEEN THEM
THE NEW CONTENT SHEDS THE OBSOLETE FORM AND REPLACES IT WITH ANOTHER FORM, CORRESPONDING TO THE CONTENT
THE FORM ACTIVELY INFLUENCES THE CONTENT: A NEW FORM ACCELERATES ITS DEVELOPMENT,
WHILE AN OBSOLETE ONE SLOWS IT DOWN
74
TRANSFORMATION OF CHANCE INTO NECESSITY
Wage-labour ... is very ancient; in a sporadic, scattered form it existed ... alongside slave-labour. But the embryo could duly develop into the capitalistic mode of production only when the necessary historical preconditions had been furnished.
kecidhald Frederick Engels
ie oa
WAGE-LABOUR IN THE SLAVE-HOLDING SOCIETY
WAGE-LABOUR IN THE CAPITALIST SOCIETY
EXCHANGE EXCHANGE OF COMMODITIES OF ACCIDENTAL SURPLUSES OF PRODUCTS IN SUBSE QUENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC IN THE PRIMITIVE SOCIETY FORMATIONS
The British scientist Charles Darwin proved that the necessary traits of plants and animals arise in a natural way from accidental traits.
An enlarged crop A large crop is an accidental trait is a necessary trait in ordinary pigeons. in pouter pigeons,
ws
——
Essence i the! inner, relatively stable side Appearance is the outer, changeable side of objective reality, which is hidden under the of objective reality, which depends on the essence surface of appearances and which determines and is a form of its expression, a=
them,
The essence appears. The appearance is essential... Not only are appearances transitory, mobile, fluid, ... but the essence of things is so as well. - Vi 1 Lenin
ELECTROMAGNET
ELECTROLYSIS ELECTRIC MOTOR
77
76
DIVERSE FORMS OF ONE AND THE SAME CONTENT
| All nations will arrive at socialism—this is inevitable, but all will do so in not exactly the same way, each will contribute something of its own to some
form of democracy, to some variety of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to
the varying rate of socialist transformations in the different aspects of social
life. V. I. Lenin
TRANSITION OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES
TO SOCIALISM
XG / FORMS Vv PEACEFUL NON-PEACEFUL (UNARMED) (ARMED) FORMS FORMS
OF STRUGGLE OF STRUGGLE
COGNITION OF ESSENCE
Human thought goes endlessly deeper from appearance to essence, from essence of the first order... to essence of the second order, and so on
All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly
coincided. without end. V. I. Lenin
Karl Marx ESSENCE
OF THE FOURTH ORDER
ESSENCE OF THE THIRD ORDER
ESSENCE OF PRODUCTIVE LOAN THE SECOND CAPITAL CAPITAL ORDER
ESSENCE OF GOVERNMENT PRIVATE THE FIRST LOANS CREDITS ORDER
79
78
ESSENCE, LAW, APPEARANCE Law and essence are concepts of the same kind (of the same order), Appearance is manifestation of essence. aS 7 V.I. Lenin GREATER GROWING
MILITARISATION OF THE ECONOMY
EXPLOITATION OF THE WORKING PEOPLE
PRODUCTION OF SURPLUS-VALUE, OR PROFIT-MAKING, IS THE MAIN ECONOMIC LAW OF CAPITALISM
INTENSIFICATION MOUNTING OF MILITARY PRODUCTION EXPENDITURES
APPEARANCES
INTENSIFYING COMPETITION LURING AWAY INDUSTRIAL AND BUYING UP ESPIONAGE OF “BRAINS”
(BRAIN DRAIN)
POSSIBILITIES
EXAMPLES:
EXPRESS THE TENDENCIES OF PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT
LEAD TO STAGNATION, TO A REVIVAL OF THE OLD AND OBSOLETE
ALL THE NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR THEIR REALISATION ARE ON HAND
AT THE GIVEN STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT, CONDITIONS FOR THEIR REALISATION ARE ABSENT, BUT CAN EMERGE IN THE FUTURE
POSSIBILITY OF PRESERVING PEACE
AND PREVENTING A THERMONUCLEAR WAR
POSSIBILITY OF RESTORING REACTIONARY POLITICAL REGIMES OVERTHROWN BY THE PEOPLE
POSSIBILITY OF PUTTING AN END TO THE FOREIGN DEPENDENCE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
POSSIBILITY OF MAN DEVELOPING OTHER PLANETS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
"POSSIBILITY AND REALITY
lPo ss ib il ity is that which can arise from the uniformities ins development, but which has pomcn eaweccccurred|. DIRECTION OF DEVELOPMENT
~ Reality is that which has occurred. PRESENT |
FUTURE
PRESENT
REALISATION OF PAST POSSIBILITIES _ INCEPTION OF NEW POSSIBILITIES Is AND DIVERSITY OF EMERGING POSSIBILITIES
POSSIBILITY 1 NEW POSSIEIEN TY POSSIBILITIES
POSSIBILITY 3 Impossibility is that which contradicts the uniformities of development unrealised possibilities
Chapter In the theory of knowledge, as in every other sphere of science, we must think dialectically, that is, we must not regard our knowledge as ready-made and unalterable, but must determine how knowledge emerges from ignorance, how incomplete, inexact knowledge becomes more complete and more exact.
VL Lenin
KNOWLEDGE AS A REFLECTION OF REALITY
82
MEANING OF THE CATEGORIES OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS
Man is confronted with a web of natural phenomena. Instinctive man, the savage, does not distinguish himself from nature. Conscious man does
distinguish categories are stages of Ln a of cognising the world, focal points in the web, which assist in cognising and mastering it.
V. I. Lenin
WORLD-OUTLOOK EPISTEMOLOGICAL METHODOLOGICAL
REFLECT ARE STAGES ARE FORMS SERVE AS THE OBJECTIVE OF COGNITION OF THINKING A NECESSARY WORLD, INSTRUMENT BRING OUT IN THE FURTHER THE MOST GENERAL COGNITION PROPERTIES, AND
TRANSFORMATION
CONNECTIONS OF THE WORLD
AND RELATIONS OF OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA
Human knowledge is not ... a straight line, but a curve, which endlessly approximates a series of circles, a spiral.
path of the cognition of truth, of the cognition
of objective reality. Vi. Lenin V. I. Lenin ws nN | DETERMINES PRESTIGE, (4) VD (3) THEORY PRACTICE (3) INFLUENCES
(2) THEORY,
PRACTICE (2)
PRACTICE (1) <— +) () THEORY
LIMITED Practice is the material activity of men Theory isa reflection of the objective which transforms the world. ~ uniformities of the world, a logical generalisation
of experience and of social practice-
85
84
CONTRADICTORY NATURE OF COGNITION
Cognition is the eternal, endless approximation of thought to the object. The reflection of nature in man’s thought must be understood ... in the eternal process of movement, the arising of contradictions and their solution,
VI. Lenin
Mankind ... finds itself faced with a contradiction: on the one hand, it has to gain an exhaustive knowledge of the world system in all its interrelations; and on the other hand, because of the nature both of men and of the world system, this task can never be completely fulfilled. But this contradiction
lies not only in the nature of the two factors—the world, and man—it is also the main lever of all intellectual advance, and finds its solution continuously, day by day, in the endless progressive evolution of humanity... Each mental image of the world system is and remainslin actual fact limited,| objectively by the historical conditions and subjectively by the physical and mental con- stitution of its originator.
HYPOTHESIS AS A FORM OF COGNITION
Hypothesis is a scientific supposition put forward in explanation of some phenomenon,
which has to be tested in practice and confirmed with facts in order to become a valid scientific theory.
The form of development of natural science, in so far as it thinks, is the hypothesis. A new fact is observed which makes impossible the previous method of explaining the facts belonging to the same group. From this moment onwards new methods of explanation are required—at first based on only a limited number of facts and observations. Further observational material weeds out these hypotheses, doing away with some and correcting others, until finally the law is established in a pure form.
Frederick Engels
The materialist view of history emerged as a hypothesis. Upon the publication of Marx's Capital, it was no longer a hypothesis, but a scientifically substantiated theory.
87
86 MAIN STAGES OF
THE COGNITION PROCESS
FORMS SENSATION: REFLECTION OF SOME
PROPERTIES OF OBJECTS ACTING ON THE
SENSE ORGANS
PERCEPTION: INTEGRAL REFLECTION OF OBJECTS ACTING ON THE SENSE ORGANS
REPRESENTATION: REPRODUCTION IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PHENOMENA WHICH ACTED ON THE SENSE ORGANS IN THE PAST
CONCEPT: A THOUGHT REFLECTING THE GENERAL AND ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF OBJECTS
JUDGEMENT: A THOUGHT REFLECTING A PHENOMENON IN ITS
CONNECTION WITH OTHER PHENOMENA
INFERENCE: A PROCESS OF THINKING AS A RESULT OF WHICH A NEW JUDGEMENT IS DEDUCED FROM TWO OR MORE JUDGEMENTS
EXAMPLES
RED, RINGING, HARD, SOUR, FRAGRANT
IMAGE OF A SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL, ANIMAL, PLANT, STONE.
RECOLLECTION OF THE TASTE OF FRUITS, THE SMELL OF FLOWERS, THE IMAGES OF PEOPLE OR OBJECTS.
MAN, PLANT, ANIMAL
JOHN IS A MAN
LEAVES ARE GREEN
ALL METALS ARE ELECTRO-CONDUCTIVE. COPPER IS
A METAL. CONSEQUENTLY, COPPER IS ELECTRO-CONDUCTIVE
ROLE OF PRACTICE IN COGNITION
The standpoint of life, of practice, should be first and fundamental in the theory of knowledge.
MATERIAL- PRODUCTION
POINT OF DEPARTURE AND BASIS OF COGNITION
CONDITIONS DETERMINES NECESSITY THE TASKS AND oF BRINGS OUT COGNITION THE OBJECT oF COGNITION
89
SOCIO-POLITICAL HUMAN ACTIVITY
GOAL AND MOTIVE FORCE OF COGNITION
KNOWLEDGE CREATES 1S USED THE MATERIAL, TO TRANSFORM AND THE WORLD. TECHNICAL INSTRUMENTS, oF
COGNITION
VI. Lenin
EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH CRITERION OF TRUTH PRACTICE PRACTICE aS as
A RELATIVE CRITERION
AN ABSOLUTE CRITERION
OBJECTIVE TRUTH is that content of knowledge which does not depend on human beings, for it is
determined by the external world, which exists objectively.
PARTIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF KNOWLEDGE CORRESPONDING TO KNOWLEDGE TO REALITY: REALITY KNOWLEDGE WHICH WILL BE SPECIFIED IN THE COURSE OF FURTHER COGNITION | IN THE BROAD SENSE OF THE WORD, | FULL CORRESPONDENCE OF | NOWLEDGE TO REALITY, AN EXHAUSTIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE | WORLD, THE GOAL OF SCIENCE. | IN THE NARROW SENSE OF THE WORD, | ASTATEMENT OF FACT: A KNOWLEDGE OF SEPARATE DELUSION TENDENCIES, CONNECTIONS AND KNOWLEDGE WHICH DOES NOT
LAWS; THAT CONTENT OF OUR
KNOWLEDGE WHICH WILL NOT CORRESPOND TO REALITY CHANGE IN THE COURSE OF FURTHER COGNITION
Human thought then by its nature is capable of giving and does give absolute truth which is compounded of a sum-total of relative truths. Each step in the development of science adds new grains to the sum of absolute truth, but the limits of the truth of each scientific proposition are relative, now expanding, now shrinking with the growth of knowledge. EL Lenin
METHODS OF SCIENTIFIC COGNITION
Dialectics ... offers the analogue for, and thereby the method of explaining, thelevolutionary processesloccurring in natur . ca
Frederick Engels
FOR INSTANCE:
IN CHEMISTRY IN SOCIOLOGY IN BIOLOGY TAGGED ATOM METHOD, POLLING, DISSECTION, SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS, REFLEX METHOD, ete. etc. ete.
90
EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND SOCIO-CLASS ROOTS
OF IDEALISM
RELATIVE INDEPENDENCE AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
ABSOLUTISATION OF SOME ASPECTS OF COGNITION
EXAGGERATION OF THE ROLE OF SENSORY COGNITION (SENSATION)
AND ITS SEPARATION FROM LOGICAL COGNITION AND PRACTICE LEAD TO SUBJECTIVE IDEALISM
EXAGGERATION OF THE ROLE
OF LOGICAL COGNITION (CONCEPTS)
AND ITS SEPARATION FROM SENSORY COGNITION AND PRACTICE LEAD TO OBJECTIVE IDEALISM
SEPARATION OF MENTAL WORK FROM PHYSICAL WORK WITH A RESULTANT ANTITHESIS BETWEEN THEM
THE STAKE OF REACTIONARY CLASSES AND OTHER SOCIAL GROUPS IN AN IDEALIST WORLD OUTLOOK
At a very early stage in the development of society ... merit for the swift advance of civilisation was ascribed to the mind, to the development and activity of the brain. Men became accustomed to explain their actions as arising out of thoughts instead of their needs (which in any case are reflected and perceived in the mind); and so in the course of time there emerged that idealistic world outlook.
Chapter Modern materialism sees in [history] the process of evolution of humanity, and aims at discovering the laws thereof.
Frederick Engels
SUBJECT-MATTER OF
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
REVOLUTION IN VIEWS ON THE SOCIETY
(Marx’s] historical materialism was a great achievement in scientific thinking. The chaos and arbitrariness that had previously reigned in views on history and politics were replaced by a strikingly integral and harmonious scientific
theory.
MARX GAVE A SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION
OF SEEMINGLY INSOLUBLE
PROBLEMS:
THE PROBLEM OF ELIMINATING EXPLOITATION,
THE PROBLEM OF ELIMINATING NATIONAL OPPRESSION,
THE PROBLEM OF ELIMINATING WARS,
97
I. Lenin
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THEY GAVE A MATERIALIST ANSWER TO. THE FUNDAMENTAL, QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY IN APPLICATION TO THE SOCIETY, DISCOVERED THE LAW OF THE DETERMINING ROLE OF SOCIAL BEING IN RELATION TO SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESs, SUBSTANTIATED THE DECISIVE ROLE OF THE MASSES IN HISTORY
THEY SHOWED THE OBJECTIVE DIALECT! OF THE SOCIETY'S DEVELOPMENT, PRESENTING SOCIAL HISTORY ASA LAW-GOVERNED PROCESS OF THE EMERGENCE, DEVELOPMENT AND SUCCESSION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FORMATIONS
ON THE BASIS OF THE DISCOVERED Laws OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEY SHOWED THE INEVITABILITY OF & TRANSITION FROM CAPITALISM TO SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES
IN CONTRAST TO SPECIAL SOCIAL SCIENCES, WHICH STUDY SEPARATE ASPECTS OF SOCIAL LIFE, HISTORICAL MATERIALISM STUDIES|SOCIAL LIFE AS A WHOLE, THE IN- TERCONNECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ITS VARIOUS ASPECTS.
oe
IS A SCIENCE OF THE MOST |
GENERAL LAWS ECONOMIC AND JURIDICAL OF THE SOCIETY'S DEVELOPMENT, SCIENCES, THE GENERAL SOCIOLOGICAL ETHICS,
THEORY OF MARXISM-LENINISM, AESTHETICS, AND A METHOD OF COGNISING LINGUISTICS, etc.
SOCIAL PHENOMENA
Historical materialism develops on the strength of data taken from the social sciences and, for its part, helps to develop all these sciences
GENERAL SOCIOLOGICAL LAWS AND UNIFORMITIES
UNIFORMITIES UNIFORMITIES OF THE INTERACTION OF THE INTERACTION OF SOCIAL BEING AND SOCIAL OF THE BASIS CONSCIOUSNESS: ‘i AND THE SUPERSTRUCTURE:
DEPENDENCE DECISIVE ROLE OF THE BASIS OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN RELATION TO THE ON BEING, ACTIVITY SUPERSTRUCTURE, OF CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS RELATIVE | | RELATIVE INDEPENDENCE INDEPENDENCE, etc. OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE, | ITS ACTIVITY, ete.
LAW | DEVELOPMENT UNIFORMITIES OF THE MASSES' GROWING ROLE OF THE HISTORICAL FORMS IN HISTORY OF HUMAN SOCIETY
LAW OF RISING REQUIREMENTS
SPECIFIC UNIFORMITIES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANTAGONISTIC FORMATIONS (CLASS STRUGGLE, SOCIAL REVOLUTION, NATIONAL MOVEMENT, etc.)
99
98
SOCIO-ECONOMIC
FORMATION
UPERSTRUCTURE
INTERCONNECTION OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS
In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. 7 =~ -
Karl Marx
IDEOLOGICAL RELATIONS AND THE VIEWS AND THEORIES CONNECTED WITH THESE (POLITICAL, LEGAL, ETHICAL, AESTHETIC, PHILOSOPHICAL, RELIGIOUS, etc.)
IN THE SOCIETY
INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS CORRESPONDING TO THESE VIEWS:
THE STATE, POLITICAL PARTIES, SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS, | etc.
PRODUCTIVE FORCES:
THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION CREATED BY THE SOCIETY AND THE PEOPLE WHO OPERATE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
INFLUENCE
DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE LAWS OF SOCIETY AND THE LAWS OF NATURE
THE LAWS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ARE MORE COMPLICATE. IN THE LAWS OF NATURE, THE
SOCIAL FORM OF THE MOTION OF MATTER IS ITS HIGHEST FORM, ARISING ON THE BASIS OF LOWER FORMS
THE LAWS OF NATURE ARE MORE LASTING THAN SOCIAL LAWS
IN NATURE, LAWS MANIFEST THEMSELVES THROUGH THE INTERACTION OF ELEMENTAL FORCES
IN THE SOCIETY, LAWS MANIFEST THEMSELVES THROUGH THE ACTIVITY OF CONSCIOUS HUMAN BEINGS
This distinction, important as it is for historical investigation ... cannot alter the fact that the course _of history is governed by inner general laws, ante Frederick Engels
101
THE LAWS OF NATURE ARE NEUTRAL AS REGARDS THE SOCIAL POSITION OF VARIOUS SOCIAL GROUPS
THE LAWS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AFFECT THE INTERESTS OF CLASSES AND OTHER SOCIAL GROUPS
THAT IS WHY THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL LAWS PROCEEDS FAIRLY SMOOTHLY, WHILE THE LAWS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ARE A FOCAL POINT IN THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN CLASSES
In the analysis of economic forms ... neither microscopes nor chemical reagents are of use. | The force of abstraction must replace both.
Karl Marx
100 =
BASIC . SOCIOLOGICAL LAW
The mode of production of material life)con
jons|the general process of social, political and intellectual er ined
Karl Marx
PRIMITIVE- TRIBES, THE STATE, POLITICAL, COMMUNAL, NATIONALITIES, POLITICAL, LEGAL, ETHICAL,
SLAVE-HOLDING, NATIONS; ECONOMIC AESTHETIC, FEUDAL, AND PHILOSOPHICAL,
CAPITALIST, CLASSES IDEOLOGICAL SCIENTIFIC
SOCIALIST AND ORGANISATIONS AND
(COMMUNIST) OTHER SOCIAL OF THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS
GROUPS CLASSES CONSCIOUSNESS
On the development of the productive forces depend the relations into which men enter with one another in the production of the things required for the satisfaction of human needs. And in these relations lies the explanation
of all the phenomena of social life, human aspirations, ideas and laws,
Vi LE
NATURE AND THE SOCIETY
The animal merely uses its environment ... man by his changes makes it serve his ends, masters it... and once again it is labour that brings about this distinction.
..At every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature—but that we, with flesh, blood and braii long to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all stery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.
Frederick Engels
102
CREATIVE NATURE OF HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
History brings new facts and new methods of investigation that require the further development of the theory.
V. I. Lenin
THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
IS CONNECTED WITH
A QUALITATIVELY NEW EPOCH IN MANKIND'S HISTORY,
THE EPOCH OF TRANSITION FROM CAPITALISM TO SOCIALISM ON A GLOBAL SCALE,
WITH THE RISE OF A NEW TYPE OF CIVILISATION.
A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS.
OF OUR EPOCH IS GIVEN IN DOCUMENTS
OF THE COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’? PARTIES
THE EMERGENCE OF IMPERIALISM ENTAILED SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES
IN THE FORMS
OF MANIFESTATION
OF THE LAWS
OF CAPITALISM
AND THE PROLETARIAT'S CLASS STRUGGLE,
LENIN GAVE
A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM WAS DEVELOPED
BY MARX OF THE NEW CONDITIONS AND ENGELS IN THE EPOCH
IN THE EPOCH OF IMPERIALISM
OF PRE-MONOPOLY AND PROLETARIAN
CAPITALISM REVOLUTIONS
MAIN LINES __ OF THE SOCIETY'S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
EXPANSION OF THE BOUNDARIES IN THE HUMAN MASTERY OF NATURE
INTENSIFYING USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
REGULATION OF NATURAL PROCESSES AS THESE ARE COGNISED
CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT CREATION OF ARTIFICIAL NATURE
With the society's progressive development, its direct dependence on natural forces is reduced,
At the same time, the society enters into ever deeper and broader contacts with nature, drawing ever more natural objects and processes into its sphere
of activity.
105
104
INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE SOCIETY'S DEVELOPMENT
The environment influences the society's development, accelerating or slowing it down in various countries.
The environment influences the division and productivity of labour.
Where Nature is too lavish, she “keeps [man] in hand, like a child in leading-strings”. She does not impose upon him any necessity to develop himself. It is
not the tropics with their luxuriant vegetation,
but the temperate zone, that is the mother-country of capital. It is not the mere fertility of the soil,
but the differentiation of the soil, the variety of
its natural products, the changes of the seasons, which form the physical basis for the social division of labour... The result of difference in the natural conditions of labour is this, that the same quantity _of labour-satisfies, in different countries, a different mass of requirements. i
Karl Marx
The geography of different countries (mountains, plains, insularity) facilitated or hindered contacts between peoples, so accelerating or slowing down their development.
Earthquakes, floods, tropical rains, sand storms and hot dry winds, locust swarms and other natural phenomena have an adverse effect on the development of countries.
RATIONAL ATTITUDE TO NATURE UNDER SOCIALISM
Under socialism, people can regulate their interchange with Nature, bringing it under their common control, instéad of being ruled by it as by the blind forces of Nature, and achieving this with the least expenditure of energy and under conditions most favourable to, and worthy of, their human nature.
Karl Marx
Even a whole society, a nation, or even all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the globe. They are only its possessors, its usufructuaries, and, like boni patres familias, they must hand it down to succeeding generations in an improved condition.
Karl Marx
IRRIGATION OF LAND
SHELTERBELT AFFORESTATION
107
WATERING OF PASTURES
LAND RECLAMATION
106 PLUNDER OF NATURAL RESOURCES UNDER CAPITALISM
Cultivation when it progresses spontaneously and is not consciously controlled ... leaves deserts behind
it... Karl Marx
All progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil...
Karl Marx
Haphazard interference in natural processes (uncontrolled deforestation, rapacious hunting, pollution of the environment with industrial and everyday waste) upsets the natural balance and has an adverse effect on the society.
INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM ON DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES
Every special mode of production has its own special laws of population, historically valid within its limits alone,
Karl Marx
Capitalist production can by no means content itself with the quantity of disposable labour-power which the natural increase of population yields. It requires for its free play an industrial reserve army independent of these natural limits.
Karl Marx
During economic crises, unemployment increases,
the working People’s health deteriorates, the birth rate declines. -
109
RUSSIA 1980 ussR
In the socialist society, where the individual
and his needs are the focus of attention, a totally new law of population begins to operate. There is no unemployment in this society. The people's rising material standards lead to a higher life expectancy and a lower death rate.
DEATH RATE | { LIFE (PER 1,000 PERSONS) | | EXPECTANCY
1980 ussR
1913
a =e DYNAMICS OF THE WORLD POPULATION
ae
j There is of course the abstract possibility that the human population will become so numerous that its further increase will have to be checked. If it should become necessary for communist society to regulate the production of
men, just as it will have already regulated the production of things, then it, | and it alone, will be able to do this without difficulties. | ACCORDING TO THE UNITED NATIONS, Frederick Engels THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH | WILL REACH: - on oa
leology, that manki must i
all eat, drink, have sheliarand clsthlng: Deters (Pen
pursue politics, sciences, art, religion, etc., tha therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.
Frederick Engels
MATERIAL PRODUCTION AS THE BASIS OF THE SOCIETY’S EXISTENCE AND DEVELOPMENT
PREVENTION OF GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR
PROTECTION OF NATURE, STRUGGLE AGAINST POLLUTION OF THE | ENVIRONMENT AND TO PREVENT AN ECOLOGICAL CRISIS I
RATIONAL USE OF NATURE, CONTINUED SUPPLY OF ENERGY AND RAW MATERIALS FOR MANKIND'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
—|
FOOD SUPPLY FOR THE GROWING POPULATION OF THE EARTH
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD OCEAN AND OUTER SPACE
FIGHT AGAINST EPIDEMIC DISEASES, etc.
GLOBAL PROBLEMS ARE CLOSELY TIED IN WITH EACH OTHER AND CAN BE SOLVED ONLY THROUGH A JOINT EFFORT BY ALL PEOPLES
jon, men enter into re 2y prod only ae egal in a certain way and mutually aches their activities.
Karl Marx
PRODUCTIVE FORCES
MEN WITH. MEANS OF PRODUCTION PRODUCTION EXPERIENCE, CREATED
LABOUR SKILLS BY THE SOCIETY
AND KNOWLEDGE
i
113
RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION
RELATIONS OF MEN IN THE SPHERE. OF
CONSUMPTION
EXCHANGE
112
LABOUR PROCESS
PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY
LABOUR IS ... APROCESS IN WHICH BOTH MAN AND NATURE PARTICIPATE AND IN WHICH MAN OF HIS OWN ACCORD STARTS, REGULATES, AND CONTROLS THE MATERIAL RE-ACTIONS
BETWEEN HIMSELF AND NATURE.
Karl Marx
OBJECT OF LABOUR
AN OBJECT OF LABOUR IS ANYTHING AT WHICH HUMAN LABOUR IS DIRECTED: THE LAND AND THE MINERAL AND OTHER RESOURCES, PLANTS AND ANIMALS, DIVERSE MATERIALS, etc.
INSTRUMENTS OF LABOUR
AN INSTRUMENT OF LABOUR IS A THING, OR A COMPLEX OF THINGS, WHICH THE LABOURER INTERPOSES BETWEEN HIMSELF AND THE SUBJECT OF HIS LABOUR, AND WHICH SERVES AS THE CONDUCTOR OF HIS ACTIVITY.
Karl Marx
MEANS OF PRODUCTION
The productive forces determine the development of the relations of production.
A contradiction arises and intensifies between the constantly growing productive forces and the relatively stable relations of production.
©) AX ‘4 The contradiction is resolved through a replacement of o » « the old relations of production with new ones, which <& w correspond to the grown productive forces. oe we °) . ; soak > & Sig The relations of production have an active influence ee ral on the development of the productive forces: new ones eS accelerate, and obsolete ones obstruct their e& development. ae ey a% rr fod ae xe wt eS o > x » ote yo’ efor R\z s
15
“REVOLUTIONARY REPLACEMENT OF OBSOLETE RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION WITH NEW ONES.
‘the social form of production, labourers and means of production of it... For production to go on at all they must
e specific manner in which this union is acc ished distinguishes economic’ pochs of the structure of i ee ‘one another.
OWNERS OF THE MEANS
OF PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION PRODUCERS PRODUCTION
RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION
PRIMITIVE- COMMUNIST SLAVE: FEUDAL CAPITALIST COMMUNAL, HOLOING
5 ical © ideological domain, are in fact only the more or
clear expression of struggles of social classes, and that. " the existence and thereby the collisions, too, between
these classes are in turn conditioned by the degree of _development of their economic position, by the mode “production and of their exchange determined
Frederick Engels
SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOCIETY
16
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
REVOLUTION
The ongoing scientific and technical revolution is a major leap forward in mankind's cognition of nature and use of its laws in production. It means a fundamental reconstruction of the whole system of productive forces under the impact of the latest scientific achievements.
_ COMPLEX AUTOMATION
| OF PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT
QUALITATIVE CHANGE OF THE PRODUCER, THE MAIN PRODUCTIVE FORCE
DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL MATERIALS WITH PRESET PROPERTIES
e
\
le
DISCOVERY AND USE OF NEW TYPES OF ENERGY (ATOMIC, NUCLEAR, etc.)
INTRODUCTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES
SCIENTIFIC ORGANISATION OF LABOUR
z THE GROWING ROLE OF SCIENCE, WHICH TO AN EVER GREATER DEGREE DETERMINES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEWINDUSTRIES, NEW TECHNOLOGY AND NEW TYPES OF PRODUCTS
119
OF THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY
= CLASSES AND CLASS STRUGGLE
MY OWN CONTRIBUTION WAS TO SHOW:
1. THAT THE EXISTENCE OF CLASSES IS MERELY BOUND UP WITH CERTAIN HISTORICAL PHASES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION;
2. THAT THE CLASS STRUGGLE NECESSARILY LEADS TO THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT;
3. THAT THIS DICTATORSHIP ITSELF CONSTITUTES NO MORE THAN A TRANSITION TO THE ABOLITION
OF ALL CLASSES AND TO A CLASSLESS SOCIETY.
Karl Marx
DR ani fe ft
Rommuniftifen Partet.
Preicmrice ater Conboy oevmmgt mad
The question of property ... has always been the vital question fora particular class. In the 17th and 18th centuries, when the point at issue was the abolition of feudal property relations, the question of property was the vital question for the bourgeois class. In the 19th century, when it is a matter of abolishing bourgeois property relations, the question of property is a vital
question for the working class.
Karl Marx
rs ‘The totality of classes, social strata and groups and the system of their interrelations constitute the society’s social structure
SOCIAL STRATA
a
PRODUCTION ASSOCIATIONS OF PERSONS WORKING AT ONE AND THE SAME.
ENTERPRISE
SPECIAL-PURPOSE GROUPS: PRIMARY
cone PRODUCTION POUCETIONALS " UNITS
~
The social structure of a class society is based on classes, which exert a decisive influence on the behaviour of the other social groups.
With a change of the mode of production, the society's social structure changes as well.
CLASSES ARE BIG GROUPS OF PEOPLE DIFFERING FROM ONE ANOTHER IN:
THEIR PLACE IN A HISTORICALLY DEFINITE SYSTEM OF SOCIAL PRODUCTION
\ THEIR THE SHARE OF THE SOCIAL ROLE WEALTH THEY RECEIVE IN THE SOCIAL AND THE WAYS IN WHICH ORGANISATION THEY ACQUIRE IT OF LABOUR
Classes are groups of people one of which can appropriate the labour of another owing to the different places they occupy in a definite system of social economy.
V. I. Lenin
12)
GENCE PROPERTY SLAVE-OWNERS
\NS OF PRODUCTION
SLAVES
Under the given general historical conditions, the first great social division of labour, by increasing the productivity of labour, that is, wealth, and enlarging the field of production, necessarily carried slavery in its wake. Out of the first great social division of labour arose the first great division of society, into two classes: masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited. Frederick Engels
STRUGGLE FOR BETTER TERMS OF SELLING LABOUR POWER: HIGHER WAGES, ‘SHORTER WORKING HOURS,
i BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The most essential, the ‘‘decisive” interests of classes can be satisfied
only by radical political changes... The fundamental economic interests of the
proletariat can be satisfied only by a political revolution that will replace the V.L. Lenin
STRUGGLE AGAINST THE POWER OF THE BOURGEOISIE AND ITS ANTI-POPULAR POLICY, FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS, FOR A DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT, TO ABOLISH EXPLOITATION
STRUGGLE AGAINST THE BOURGEOISIE'S SPIRITUAL OPPRESSION, TO EQUIP THE WORKING CLASS WITH THE MARXIST-LENINIST IDEOLOGY, WHICH IS. THE THEORETICAL EXPRESSION OF ITS VITAL INTERESTS
SOCIAL
OTHER CLASSES GROUPS NOT LINKED DECLASSED aioe Bea raat ELEMENTS MODE OR OUTGOING MODES THE MODE OF PRODUCTION OF PRODUCTION OF PRODUCTION SLAVE-OWNERS TRADERS, CLERGY SLAVES HANDICRAFTSMEN BOURGEOISIE, LUMPEN- FEUDAL LORDS HANDICRAFTSMEN, PROLETARIAT, SERFS MANUFACTORY BEGGARS WORKERS BOURGEOISIE LANDOWNERS, PEASANTS INTELLIGENTSIA
PROLETARIAT
125
af NTH E c
EIN PERIOD PITALISM TO SOCIALISM
Socialist transformations in the transitional period are carried out in conditions of a bitter class struggle, being waged by the working class and all the other working people against the overthrown exploiters in the economic, political and ideological spheres. The forms of that struggle are diverse.
SUPPRESSION OF THE EXPLOITERS' RESISTANCE. THE MODES OF THAT SUPPRESSION DEPEND ON THE INTENSITY OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE, ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE BOURGEOISIE AND ITS TACTICS
STRUGGLE TO WIN OVER THE VACILLA TING PETTY-BOURGEOIS STRATA 10 THE SIDE OF SOCIALISM
"USE" OF BOURGEOIS SPECIALISTS IN THE PROLETARIAT S INTERESTS
EFFORTS TO FOSTER A NEW DISCIPLINE, TO ROOT OUT THE SURVIVALS OF THE PAST IN HUMAN MINDS AND BEHAVIOUR. STRUGGLE F OR A CONSCIOUS, CREATIVE ATTITUDE TO WORK AND SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
124
THE PROLETARIAT’S MISSION IN WORLD HISTORY
The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. —————e——eee Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
ABOLITION ABOLITION ABOLITION ABOLITION OF OF OF OF
PRIVATE PROPERTY MAN'S EXPLOITATION NATIONAL WARS AMONG IN THE MEANS OF MAN, OPPRESSION PEOPLES
OF PRODUCTION, OF ANY
ITS CONVERSION SOCIAL INEQUALITY INTO SOCIAL,
SOCIALIST
PROPERTY
COMMUNISM BRINGS PEACE, LABOUR, FREEDOM, EQUALITY, BROTHERHOOD | AND HAPPINESS TO ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH
IT iS NOT ENOUGH TO OVERTHROW THE EXPLOITERS, THE LANDOWNERS AND CAPITALISTS, NOT ENOUGH TO ABOLISH THEIR RIGHTS OF OWNERSHIP,
IT IS NECESSARY ALSO TO ABOLISH ALL PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION,
IT IS NECESSARY TO ABOLISH THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY, AS WELL AS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MANUAL WORKERS AND BRAIN WORKERS.
THIS REQUIRES A VERY LONG PERIOD OF TIME. IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THIS AN ENORMOUS STEP FORWARD MUST BE TAKEN IN DEVELOPING THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES.
Vok Lenm
In the USSR, all the classes and social groups of the Soviet society have been drawing closer together, which leads to the formation of an essentially classless society within the framework of mature socialism.
\27
126 CHANGES IN THE CLASS STRUCTURE OF SOVIET SOCIETY (per cent of total population)
1928 1959
1982
and office workers and professionals
The working class is no longer the exploited class it was before the revolution, but has turned into a free and conscious architect of history, the nature of its work has changed and continues to change, becoming ever more creative and developing into the individual's paramount need,
In the years of the Soviet power, the peasants, most of whom belonged to the poor peasant strata in tsarist Russia, have become full and equal masters of their country, working at large collective and state farms and using modern agricultural machinery and farming techniques in their work. The very nature of work and life in agriculture has changed, as town and country have been drawing closer together.
Industriat Cooperated peasants Peasants—smail proprietors Bourgeoisie
A new, socialist intelligentsia has taken shape and continues developing, recruiting its memt
ranks of the working class, the peasantry and office personnel
SOI sas
aU
Nations arise in the epoch of the formation of capitalism from tribes, races
and nationalities. Capitalism eliminates the feudal economic, political and cultural apartness of the population speaking one and the same language by Promoting the growth of industry and trade. That leads to the economic and political consolidation of nationalities into nations, to the formation of centralised national states, which, for their part, accelerate that consolidation. The economic and political consolidation of a nation helps to form a common national language. The specifics of a nation's historical development, its economic system, culture, everyday life, customs and traditions, and geography are important factors in shaping the national character.
COMMON NATIONAL
ECONOMIC COMMON COMMON COMMUNITY TERRITORY LANGUAGE CHARACTER, WHICH MANIFESTS ITSELF IN THE PECULIARITIES OF CULTURE AND DAILY LIFE
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONS
Nations are an inevitable product, an inevitable form, in the bourgeois epoch of social development... UNIFIED ASSOCIATED HUMANITY The development of capitalism, however, breaks down national barriers more and
more, does away with national seclusion and substitutes class antagonisms for iNT SR eae ere
national antagonisms. Val Leven (WORLD SOCIALIST SYSTEM)
NATIONS AND NATIONALITIES OF THE SOCIALIST SOCIETY
>
NATIONS AND NATIONALITIES OF THE BOURGEOIS SOCIETY NATIONALITIES OF THE FEUDAL AND SLAVE- HOLDING SOCIETIES
>
[Mankind] can arrive at the inevitable integration of nations only through a transition period of the complete emancipation of all oppressed nations... V. I. Lenin
TRIBAL UNION
| CLAN (GENS)
131
Only a victorious socialist revolution creates all the opportunities and conditions for eliminating all national oppression.
The Communist Party, with its scientifically substantiated policy, is the leading, guiding force in the socialist solution of the national question.
The backward national outskirts, in which feudal-patriarchal or even tribal relations often prevailed, have disappeared
The dynamic economic growth of all the Sovict republics under a state plan |
has led to the formation of an integral Union-wide economic complex.
There has been a qualitative change im the social structure of the Soviet republics; in each of these, a moder working class has taken shape, the peasantry has been follawing the new road of collective farming, an intelligentsia of their own has arisen, and highly skilled cadres have been trained in every area of state and social lie
On the basis of progressive traditions and an intensive exchange of spiritual values, a thriving socialist multinational culture has taken shape.
Socialist nations have been formed, making up a new historical community: the Soviet people.
130
TWO HISTORICAL TENDENCIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT UNDER CAPITALISM
THE FIRST ISTHE AWAKENING THE SECOND ISTHE
OF NATIONAL LIFE AND NATIONAL. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWING MOVEMENTS, THE STRUGGLE FREQUENCY OF INTERNATIONAL AGAINST ALL NATIONAL OPPRESSION INTERCOURSE IN EVERY FORM, THE AND THE CREATION OF NATIONAL BREAK-DOWN OF NATIONAL STATES BARRIERS, THE CREATION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL UNITY OF CAPITAL, OF ECONOMIC LIFE IN GENERAL, OF POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND SO ON
THE FORMER PREDOMINATES IN THE BEGINNING OF ITS DEVELOPMENT, THE LATTER CHARACTERISES A MATURE CAPITALISM THAT IS MOVING TOWARDS ITS TRANSFORMATION INTO SOCIALIST SOCIETY
THE MARXISTS’ NATIONAL PROGRAMME TAKES BOTH TENDENCIES INTO ACCOUNT
AND ADVOCATES, FIRSTLY, THE EQUALITY SECONDLY, THE PRINCIPLE OF
OF NATIONS AND LANGUAGES AND. INTERNATIONALISM AND.
THE IMPERMISSIBILITY OF ALL PRIVILEGES UNCOMPROMISING STRUGGLE AGAINST IN THIS RESPECT (AND ALSO THE RIGHT OF CONTAMINATION OF THE PROLETARIAT
NATIONS TO SELF-DETERMINATION
WITH BOURGEOIS NATIONALISM, EVEN OF THE MOST REFINED KIND.
V1, Lenin
It is impossible to abolish national (or any other political) oppression under capitalism, since this requires the abolition of classes, i.e., the introduction of socialism.
POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE SOCIETY
discern the struggle between different classes, a struggle is reflected or expressed in a conflict
of views on the state, in the estimate of the role and significance of the state.
V. 1 Lenin
13z
THE SOVIET PEOPLE AS ANEW HISTORICAL COMMUNITY
On the basis of the drawing together of all classes and social strata and of the juridical and factual equality of all its nations and nation: and their fraternal co-operation, a new historical community of people has been formed—the Soviet people.
Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
AN INTEGRAL ECONOMY BASED ON SOCIAL PROPERTY IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
‘A CULTURE THAT IS INTEGRAL NATIONAL LANGUAGES
IN SOCIALIST CONTENT AND AND A LANGUAGE USED BY DIVERSE IN NATIONAL ALL THE SOVIET NATIONS AND SPECIFICS NATIONALITIES A FEDERAL STATE OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE AND A COMMON GOAL: BUILDING OF COMMUNISM The Soviet people are a complex international system comprising nations and nationalities,
which enjoy optir nly within that unity
POLITICAL
SYSTEM
The political system of the capitalist society reflects The political system of the socialist society defends its antagonistic-class nature. the revolutionary gains of the working people and
ensures the building of socialism and communism.
SOCIALIST STATE
TRADE UNIONS AND OTHER SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS
WORK COLLEC
ORGANISATIONS OF THE BOURGEOISIE
ORGANISATIONS OF THE WORKING CLASS AND WORKING PEOPLE
The principal direction in the development of t political system of Soviet society 1s the extension of socialist democracy, namely ever broader participation of citizens in managing the affairs of Society and the state, continuous improvement of the machinery of state, heightening of the activity of public organisations, strengthening of the system of people's control, consolidation of the legal foundations of the functioning of the state and of public life, greater openness and publicity, and constant responsiveness to public opinion Constitution
of the Union of Sovie
125
hh j STRUCTURE t OF SOCIETY'S POLITICAL ORGANISATION
System of state and non-state institutions and organisations regulating the political relations among classes, nations and states, and engaged in political
activity
BASIS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
The society's political organisation is formed with the emergence of private property in the means of production and the society's division into classes. In the course of historical development, it is complexified and perfected. In the building of socialism and communism, the political organisation goes through several stages of development and is gradually converted into
communist social self-government
137
BLOOD RELATIONSHIP
COUNCIL OF ELDERS, MEETING OF THE CLAN OR TRIBE
TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, PRESTIGE, PUBLIC OPINION
BY ARMING THE WHOLE POPULATION
TERRITORIAL
A PUBLIC POWER, WHICH IS IN THE HANDS OF THE ECONOMICALLY DOMINANT CLASS
LAWS AND THE MACHINERY OF COERCION (PRISONS, ARMED UNITS, etc.)
BY SETTING UP AN ARMY
TO MAINTAIN THIS APPARATUS,
TAXES ARE LEVIED ON THE POPULATION
136
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE GENTILE (CLAN) SOCIETY
As distinct from the old gentile order, the state, first, divides its subjects according to territory... Citizens were allowed to exercise their public rights and duties wherever they settled, irrespective of gens and tribe...
The second distinguishing feature is the establishment of a public power, which no longer directly coincides with the population organising itself as an armed force. This special public power is necessary because a self-acting armed organisation of the population has become impossible since the split into classes... This public power exists in every state; it consists not merely of armed men but also of material adjuncts, prisons and institutions of coercion of all kinds, of which gentile [clan] society knew nothing...
In order to maintain this public power, contributions from the citizens become necessary—taxes. These were absolutely unknown in gentile society (but we know enough about them today). As civilisation advances, these taxes become inadequate; the state makes drafts on the future, contracts, loans, public debts...
Having public power and the right to levy taxes, the officials now stand, as organs of society, above society...
Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check, but because it arose, at the same time, in the midst of the conflict of these classes, it is, as a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which, through the medium of the state, becomes also the politically dominant class, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class.
Frederick Engels
THE STATE IS A MACHINE FOR MAINTAINING THE RULE OF ONE CLASS OVER ANOTHER.
V. 1. Lenin PUNITIVE MILITARY FINANCIAL, ECONOMIC IDEOLOGICAL POLICE, DEPARTMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOLS. COURTS, THE PLUNDER THE PLUNDER PUBLIC WORKS UNIVERSITIES. PRISONS, OF oF MASS MEDIA CONCENTRATION THE EXTERIOR THE INTERIOR CAMPS
The soul of the state mechanism is the interest of the exploiters. All the organs of the state become ears, eyes, arms, legs, by means of which the interest of the... owner hears, observes, appraises, protects, reaches out, and
runs.
139
Karl Marx
138
ORIGIN AND ESSENCE OF THE EXPLOITIVE STATE
There was a time when there was no state. It appears apparatus of this sort. When classes appeared,
wherever and whenever a division of society into everywhere and always, as the division grew and took classes appears, whenever exploiters and exploited firmer hold, there also appeared a special institution— appear... When there were no classes in society, when, the state. Vik Denn
before the epoch of slavery, people laboured in
primitive conditions of greater equality, in conditions when THE SLAVE-HOLDING STATE the productivity of labour was still at its lowest, and when (EGYPT, 4th-3rd millennia BC) primitive man could barely procure the wherewithal
for the crudest and most primitive existence, a special group of people whose function is to rule and to dominate the rest of society, had not and could not yet have emerged. Only when the first form of the division of society into classes appeared, only when slavery appeared, when a certain class of people, by concentrating on the crudest forms of agricultural labour, could produce a certain surplus, when this surplus was not absolutely essential for the most wretched existence of the slave and passed into the ands of the slave-owner, when in this way the existence of this class of slave-owners was secure—then in order that it might take firm root it was necessary for a state to appear... And it did appear—the slave-owning state, an apparatus which gave the slave-owners power and enabled them to rule over the slaves... It is impossible to compel the greater part of society to work systematically for the
other part of society without a permanent apparatus of Pr fy fn fal PL Nn fal al coercion. So long as there were no classes, there wasno — _ 7 3 B
FORMS OF STATE IN ANTAGONISTIC SOCIETIES
141
FORM POLITICAL } STATE OF GOVERNMENT _ REGIME L SYSTEM MONARCHY REPUBLIC [e) = UNITARY FEDERAL a Ld « & a = out r x oa nv ru sod te a4 2 > ar a 9 Be = ca 2 can a = ra < 2 3 = ES £=5 5 a 2 7 a z w fa is} 3 2 = a a D = a a a a i = © < Q zZ rat S < & The form of the state is determined by the concrete
balance of class forces in the country, its historical traditions and national peculiarities
Autocracy, constitutional monarchy and republic are merely different forms of class struggle; and the dialectics of history are such that each of these forms passes through different stages of development of ils class content, and the transition from one form to another does not (in itself) at all eliminate the rule of the former exploiting classes under the new integument.
Vo EE Lenin
140
TYPES OF STATE THE TYPE OF THE STATE REFLECTS ITS CLASS ESSENCE SLAVE-HOLDING FEUDAL BOURGEOIS DICTATORSHIP DICTATORSHIP DICTATORSHIP
OF OF OF THE SLAVE-OWNERS THE FEUDAL LORDS THE BOURGEOISIE
The exploiting classes need political rule to maintain exploitation, i. e., in the selfish interests of an insignificant minority against the vast majority of the people.
The exploited classes need political rule in order to completely abolish all exploitation, i.e., in the interests of the
vast majority of the people, and against the insignificant minority consisting of the modern slave-owners—the landowners and capitalists.
At the stages of transition from one formation to another there have existed
historically transitional types of state.
INTERNAL FUNCTIONS OF THE SOCIALIST STATE
ECONOMIC IDEOLOGICAL, PROTECTION ORGANISATIONAL CULTURAL OF SOCIALIST
MMINEUNETION AND EDUCATIONAL LAW AND ORDER
FORMATION OF EDUCATION OF PROTECTION OF THE MATERIAL AND THE NEW INDIVIDUAL, SOCIALIST PROPERTY, TECHNICAL BASE LOYAL TO THE IDEALS OF THE WORKING
OF SOCIALISM, AND THEN OF COMMUNISM RAISING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE'S MATERIAL AND TURAL STANDARDS
1ALISM PEOPLE'S RIGHTS MUISM AND FREEDOMS.
MENT OF CONTROL OVER THE MEASURE OF WORK AND CONSUMPTION
142
INTERNAL FUNCTIONS OF THE CAPITALIST STATE
COERCIVE IDEOLOGICAL ECONOMIC MAIN FUNCTION DEFENCE OF EDUCATION SOLUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY, OF THE PEOPLE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS SUPPRESSION OF IN A SPIRIT OF IN THE INTERESTS ACTION BY PATIENCE, OF THE RULING CLASS THE WORKING PEOPLE, SUBMISSIVENESS, MAINTENANCE OF AND A BELIEF THAT AN ORDER WHICH THE EXISTING ORDER SUITS THE RULING IS “RATIONAL”
CLASS
2
wry
145
The socialist state follows a peace policy in the international arena, works for stronger security of the peoples and for broad international cooperation.
STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND TO PREVENT AGGRESSIVE WARS
DEFENCE OF THE SOCIALIST HOMELAND
STRENGTHENING OF THE POSITIONS OF WORL.D SOCIALISM DEVELOPMENT OF FRATERNAL COOPERATION WITH THE OTHER SOCIALIST COUNTRIES
SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
STRENGTHENING OF DIVERSE TIES WITH THE NEWLY FREE COUNTRIES
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE BETWEEN STATES WITH DIFFERENT SOCIAL SYSTEMS. DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL RELATIONS WITH CAPITALIST COUNTRIES
DEFENCE AND EXPANSION OF ITS SPHERE OF DOMINATION
IDEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE \ SPREAD OF IDEOLOGY AND ECONOMIC TIES WITH : sia SUBSTANTIATING THE OTHER STATES IN ORDER a CLAIMS OF THE EXPLOITER TO ENRICH THE EXPLOITER CLASS TO WORLD
CLASS DOMINATION
AS THE HIGHEST TYPE OF DEMOCRACY
SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY ee
The whole of life under socialism is based on broad democracy. Through the Soviets, work collectives, trade unions and other mass organisations, the working people take an active part in state administration, in solving economic and cultural problems.
RIGHT TO WORK
’
RIGHT TO REST AND LEISURE
'
RIGHT TO HEALTH PROTECTION AND FREE MEDICAL CARE
RIGHT TO MAINTENANCE IN OLD AGE AND IN CASE OF LOSS OF ABILITY TO WORK
RIGHT TO HOUSING AND. INVIOLABILITY OF THE HOME
RIGHT TO FREE EDUCATION
147
RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO TAKE PART IN RUNNING STATE AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OF THE PRESS, OF ASSEMBLY AND DEMONSTRATIONS
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, THE RIGHT TO PROFESS ANY RELIGION
FREEDOM OF SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC
EQUALITY OF CITIZENS. OF DIFFERENT RACES AND NATIONALITIES
INVIOLABILITY OF THE PERSON, PRIVACY OF CORRESPONDENCE AND PRIVATE LIFE
146
CRISIS OF BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY IN THE EPOCH OF IMPERIALISM
Bourgeois democracy, which supplanted the feudal state, was progressive. But with the development of capitalism and its transformation into imperialism, bourgeois democracy has been going through an ever deepening
crisis.
THE GROWTH OF THE BUREAUCRACY AND THE ACTUAL LIMITATION OF THE ROLE OF PARLIAMENT AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS
THE CURTAILMENT OF THE WORKING PEOPLE'S POLITICAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
THE PERSECUTION OF REVOLUTIONARY AND DEMOCRATIC ORGANISATIONS, RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR ACTIVITY, EXTENSION OF ANTI-LABOUR LEGISLATION, AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF FASCIST GROUPINGS
THE GROWTH OF MILITARISM, OF THE POLICE APPARATUS AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE MILITARY ON STATE POLICY
SOCIAL REVOLUTION:
Avhich Tonty accumulate duri
peaceful development become vosoWwed It is in such periods that the direct role of the different classes ine determining the forms of social life is manifested with the greatest force.
V.I. Lenin
Ata certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production... Then begins an era of social revolution, The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.
Karl Marx
A LAW OF TRANSITION FROM ONE SOCIO-ECONOMIC FORMATION TO ANOTHER
| WITHERING AWAY OF THE STATE
_ UNDER COMMUNISM
[ Only communism makes the state absolutely
unnecessary...
V.I. Lenin
For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary. V. L. Lenin
FORMATION OF THE MATERIAL AND TECHNICAL BASE OF COMMUNISM; IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNIST PRINCIPLE OF DISTRIBUTION: FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITIES, TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS
INTERNAL,
| — | | IDEOLOGICAL
OVERCOMING OF CLASS DISTINCTIONS; ERASURE OF ESSENTIAL DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY, BETWEEN MENTAL AND MANUAL WORK; INVOLVEMENT OF ALL. THE WORKING PEOPLE IN RUNNING THE SOCIETY
EXTERNAL
EDUCATION OF THE NEW INDIVIDUAL; TOTAL ERADICATION OF THE SURVIVALS OF THE PAST IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND BEHAVIOUR. WORK BECOMES THE INDIVIDUAL’S PARAMOUNT NEED, AND THE RULES OF HUMAN CONTACT TURN INTO A DAILY HABIT
ABSENCE OF ANY THREAT OF EXTERNAL ATTACK
CAUSES AND PREREQUISITES "3 OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Pere. es OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
| | |
CONFLICT ACRISISIN | UNUSUAL | AMARKED | |
BETWEEN THE POLICY AGGRAVATION INCREASE IN | THE NEW OF THE RULING OF THE WANT THE ACTIVITY THE ABILITY OF PRODUCTIVE CLASS: AND SUFFERING OF THE MASSES THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCES THE “UPPER OF CLASS TO TAKE | AND THE OLD CLASSES" ARE THE OPPRESSED | REVOLUTIONARY RELATIONS | UNABLE, AND | CLASSES | MASS | OF | THE “Lower ACTION STRONG PRODUCTION | CLASSES" DO ENOUGH TO BREAK | NOT WANT TO (OR DISLOCATE) LIVE IN THE | THE OLD GOVERNMENT,
OLD WAY WHICH NEVER,
| } NOT EVEN IN A PERIOD OF CRISIS “FALLS, IF IT IS NOT TOPPLED OVER. VL Lenin
The passing of state power from one class to another
Revolution is impossible without a nation-wide the principal, the basic sian of a
crisis (affecting both the exploited and the is the first, exploiters). revolution. Woh Lenm
Vo Lenin
181
TYPES _ OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION — The type of revolution depends on its objective goals and motive forces
Within the
framework of the
| main types of
} social revolution,
there are several
varieties of these,
connected with
| the historical specifics of the
| revolutionary
process in
different countries
and
different periods
VARIETIES OF SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS
BOURGEOIS. NATIONAL, PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC LIBERATION DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION REVOLUTION REVOLUTION
It is only in an order of things in which there are no more classes and class antagonisms that social evolutions will cease to be political revolutions.
Kar! Marx
All revolutions up to the present day have resulted in the displacement of one definite class rule by another; but all ruling classes up to now have been only small minorities in relation to the ruled mass of the people. One ruling minority was thus overthrown; another minority seized the helm of state in its stead and refashioned the state institutions to suit its own interests. This was on every occasion the minority group qualified and called to rule by the given degree of economic development; and just for that reason, and only for that reason, it happened that the ruled majority either participated in the revolution for the benefit of the former or else calmly acquiesced in it. But if we disregard the concrete content in each case, the common form of all these revolutions was that they were minority revolutions. Even when the majority took part, it did so—whether wittinaly or not—only in the service of a minority...
Kar! Marx
153
In bourgeald revolutions, the principal task of the mass of working people was to fulfil the negative or destructive work of abolishing feudalism, monarchy and medievalism. The positive or constructive work of organising the new society was carried out by the property-owning bourgeois minority of the population. And the latter carried out this task with relative ease, despite the resistance of the workers and the poor peasants, not only because the resistance of the people exploited by capital
was then extremely weak, since they were scattered and uneducated, but also because the chief organising force of anarchically built capitalist society is the spontaneously growing and expanding national and international market.
In every socialist revolution, however ... the principal task of the proletariat, and of the poor peasants which it leads, is the positive or constructive work of setting up an extremely intricate and delicate system of new organisational relationships extending to the planned production and distribution of the goods required for the existence of tens of millions of people,
WL Lenin
DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AND OTHER SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS
In contrast to all earlier revolutions, the socialist revolution marks a transition from mankind's prehistory to its true history.
TRANSFERRED POWER FROM ONE EXPLOITER | TRANSFERS POWER TO THE WORKING CLASS, CLASS TO ANOTHER, WHICH PERFECTED THE BREAKS DOWN THE BOURGEOIS STATE MACHINE, MACHINERY OF STATE EXPLOITATION AND ESTABLISHES A DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
REPLACED ONE FORM OF PRIVATE PROPERTY | ABOLISHES PRIVATE PROPERTY AND REPLACES WITH ANOTHER IT WITH SOCIAL PROPERTY
SUBSTITUTED ONE FORM OF EXPLOITATION FOR ANOTHER
ABOLISHES ALL FORMS OF EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION OF MAN BY MAN
ENDED IN THE SEIZURE OF POLITICAL POWER, | BEGINS WITH THE WINNING OF POWER.
BRINGING IT INTO CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE | THE NEW STATE POWER CREATES A SOCIALIST NEW FORM OF PRIVATE PROPERTY ECONOMY, TRANSFORMS SOCIAL RELATIONS, CARRIES OUT A CULTURAL REVOLUTION COULD NOT ENSURE LASTING UNITY OF A | ENSURES A LASTING UNION OF FRIENDLY MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION IN VIEW OF THE CLASSES AND ALL STRATA OF THE SOCIETY
ANTITHETICAL INTERESTS OF THE EXPLOITERS AND THE EXPLOITED
REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION
Even if a revolution has started in a situation that seemed to be not very complicated, the development of the revolution itself always creates an exceptionally complicated situation. A revolution, a real, profound, a ‘'people’s" revolution, to use Marx's expression,
is the incredibly complicated and painful process of the death of the old and birth of the new social order, or the mode of life of tens of millions of people. Revolution is a most intense, furious, desperate class struggle and civil war.
VoL. Lenin
The experience of the revolutionary movement shows that whenever there is a real threat to the domination of monopoly capital and its political henchmen, imperialism is prepared to trample on state sovereignty, on legality, to say nothing of humaneness. Slander, brainwashing of public opinion, economic blockade, sabotage, attempts to contrive hunger and economic dislocation, bribery and threats, terrorism, assassination of political leaders, fascist-style pogroms—such is the arsenal of present-day counter- revolution, which always acts in alliance with international imperialist reaction.
155
TSA
PEACEFUL AND NON-PEACEFUL FORMS OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION ——_—— — The working class and its vanguard—the Marxist- Leninist parties—seek to carry out the socialist _ revolution by peaceful means. This agrees with the __ interests of the working class and the whole people. | Relying ona majority of the people, the working class has an opportunity to defeat the reactionary, anti-popular forces, to win a strong majority in parliament, to turn parliament, which used to serve the class interests of the bourgeoisie, into an instrument | serving the working people, to overcome the resistance of the reactionary forces, and create the necessary | conditions for a peaceful socialist revolution, for
a transfer of the basic means of production into the people's hands.
When the exploiter classes|resort to violence}
against the people, a non-peaceful transition to socialism becomes necessary. The ruling classes do not give up power of their own accord. The intensity and forms of the class struggle in these conditions depend not so much on the proletariat as on the strength of the reactionary circles’ resistance to the will of an overwhelming majority of the people, on whether these circles resort to violence at some stage of the struggle for socialism.
In each country, the real possiblity of peaceful or non- peaceful transition to socialism depends on the specific historical conditions.
Chapter It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights ... History is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
ROLE OF THE MASSES AND
THE INDIVIDUAL IN HISTORY
156
REVOLUTION AND REFORM
’ ‘concept “reform” is undoubtedly the opposite Reform is the name given to changes which leave the __ of the concept “revolution”. Failure to remember this power in the country in the hands of the old ruling ‘ , failure to remember the line that divides class... The class interests of bourgeois liberalism _ these two concepts, constantly leads to very serious demand only reforms... mistakes in all historical discussions. But this contrast is not something absolute, this line is not something ~~ dead, but alive and changing, and one must be able to define it in each particular case.
V. I. Lenin
V. I. Lenin
Unlike the anarchists, the Marxists recognise struggle for reforms, i. e., for measures that improve the conditions of the working people without destroying the power of the ruling class. At the same time, however, the Marxists wage a most resolute struggle against the reformists, who, directly or indirectly, restrict the aims and activities of the working class to the winning of reforms. Reformism is bourgeois deception of the workers, who, despite individual improvements, will always remain wage-slaves, as long as there is the domination of capital.
V. I. Lenin
THE SOCIETY'S
THE MAIN MOTIVE FORCE CREATORS OF PRODUCTIVE FORCE OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION, SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF POLITICAL AND NATIONAL
LIBERATION MOVEMENT, __THE ARCHITECTS OF A NEW LIFE.
At no other time are the mass of
The masses create all material values, without which life and the people in a position to come development are impossible. By constantly improving forward so actively as creators of the instruments of labour and their own labour skills, the masses a new social order, as at a time of develop the society's productive forces and necessitate revolution. the replacement of obsolete relations of
V. 1. Lenin
production with new ones.
159.
aise
THE PEOPLE AS THE ARCHITECTS OF HISTORY
Marxism differs from all other socialist theories in
the remarkable way it combines complete scientific sobriety in the analysis of the objective state of affairs and the objective course of evolution with the most emphatic recognition of the importance of the revolutionary energy, revolutionary creative genius, and revolutionary initiative of the masses—and also, of course, of individuals, groups, organisations, and parties that are able to discover and achieve contact with one or another class.
V. I. Lenin
When ... it is a question of investigating the driving Powers which—consciously or unconsciously, and indeed very often unconsciously—lie behind
the motives of men who act in history and which constitute the real ultimate driving forces of history, then it is not a question so much of the motives
of single individuals, however eminent, as of those motives which set in motion great masses, whole peoples, and again whole classes of the people in each people; and this, too, not momentarily, for
the transient flaring up of a straw-fire which quickly dies down, but for a lasting action resulting in a great historical transformation,
Frederick Engels
In antagonistic formations, the law of the masses’ growing role in history operates spontaneously, as a general development tendency; under socialism, that law is being used by the communist and workers’ parties in a conscious way.
Without drawing new sections of the people into social construction, without awakening to activity the broad masses hitherto asleep, there could be no question of any revolutionary change.
VoL Lenin
161
The greater the scope and extent of historical events, the greater is the number of people Participating in them, and, contrariwise, the more profound the change we wish to bring about,
the more must we rouse an interest and
an intelligent attitude towards it, and convince more millions and tens of millions of people that it is necessary. In the final analysis, the reason our revolution has left all other revolutions far behind
is that through the Soviet form of government it has aroused tens of millions of people, formerly uninterested in state development, to take an active
part in the work of building up the state 1
The growing role of the masses in our day is manifested in their active struggle for peace and
disarmament, for national independence, democracy
socialism and communism.
160
LAW OF THE MASSES’ GROWING ROLE IN HISTORY
Together with the thoroughness of the historical action, the size of the mass whose action it is will
therefore increase. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
In the course of the society’s progressive development, the masses play an ever more active role in the solution of social problems.
IN ANTAGONISTIC FORMATIONS, THE WORKING PEOPLE’S CREATIVE INITIATIVE IS FETTERED
BY WORK FOR THE EXPLOITERS. ONLY EMANCIPATED LABOUR ENABLES THE WORKING MASSES TO DISPLAY ALL THEIR CREATIVE ABILITIES.
IN THE EXPLOITIVE SOCIETY, THE WORKING MASSES' SOLE
CONCERN IS MATERIAL WANT.
ONLY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM THEY AWAKEN TO INDEPENDENT POLITICAL. ACTIVITY.
THE INTELLECTUAL FORCES OF THE WORKERS AND PEASANTS ARE GROWING AND GAINING STRENGTH IN THE STRUGGLE TO OVERTH ROW THE BOURGEOISIE.
V. I. Lenin
The individual is a concrete historical phenomenon, and in a class society, a class phenomenon.
Y ecole
The slave who is aware of his slavish condition and fights it is a revolutionary. The slave who is not aware of his slavish condition and vegetates in silent, unenlightened, and wordless slavery, is just a slave. The slave who drools when smugly describing the delights of slavish existence and who goes into ecstasies over his good and kind master is a grovelling boor.
V. L Lenin
163
THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVE-OWNER
THE WORKER AND THE CAPITALIST
In the course of socialist transformations, the people themselves undergo a change, and new, socialist type of individuals emerge as active builders of communism,
SSS _ See ae ees
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY an -- 2 The essence of man is no abstraction inherent in _Sitcumstances_ make men just as much as men make | each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble circumstances. E ne | of the social relations. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels Karl Marx
DETERMINES
INFLUENCES THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE INDIVIDUAL IS A CONCRETE UNITY OF THE
EVERY INDIVIDUAL HAS SPECIFIC EVERY INDIVIDUAL HAS HIS OWN, TRAITS WHICH ARE UNIQUE TRAITS, WHICH CHARACTERISTIC OF A DEFINITE DISTINGUISH HIM FROM OTHER COMMUNITY: PROFESSIONAL, INDIVIDUALS
SOCIO-CLASS, NATIONAL
The materialist conception of history ... does not explain practice from the idea but explains the formation of ideas from material practice.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
164
ROLE OF GREAT PERSONALITIES IN HISTORY
A great man is great ... in his possession of traits which make him the most capable of serving his time's great social needs ... because he sees farther then others do and his desires are stronger than
in others. He solves scientific problems raised by the previous course of society's intellectual development; he indicates the new social needs created by the previous development of social relations; he assumes the initiative in meeting those
eeds. n Georgi Plekhanov
A great personality cannot stop historical progress or alter its direction, but can markedly accelerate or slow down the course of events, altering or preventing some of these events.
The strength of a great personality lies in
the strength of the classes and social groups whose interests that personality expresses and so enjoys their boundless confidence and support.
SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS a AS A REFLECTION OF SOCIAL BEING
Just as man’s knowledge reflects nature (i.e., Political, legal, philosophical. religious, literary, developing matter), which exists independently of him,
artistic, etc., development is based on economic so man’s social knowledge (i.e., his various views and development. But all these react upon one another doctrines—philosophical, religious, political and so and also upon the economic basis. forth) reflects the economic system of society.
Frederick Engels VL Lenin
DETERMINES
166
STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Social consciousness is an aggregation of all the ideas, theories, views, opinions, feelings, moods, habits and traditions that exist in the society and reflect the social being of its members, the material conditions of their life.
IN TERMS OF PROFUNDITY OF REFLECTION, SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS SUBDIVIDED INTO
EMPIRICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY : IDEOLOGY SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE
| : |
IN TERMS OF CONTENT AND MODES OF REFLECTION, SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS SUBDIVIDED INTO
POLITICAL LEGAL MORAL AESTHETIC RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY CONSCIOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS
ACTIVE ROLE OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE SOCIETY'S DEVELOPMENT
Theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has
gripped the masses.
Communist ideology is the most humane ideology. Its ideals are truly humane relations among individuals and peoples, humanity's liberation from the threat of destructive wars, and lasting universal peace.
169
Karl Marx
THE THEORIES OF REACTIONARY CLASSES OBSTRUCT THE SOCIETY'S DEVELOPMENT
The political and economic theories, philosophy and sociology, ethics and aesthetics of the present-day bourgeoisie seek to substantiate monopoly rule,
to justify exploitation, eulogise militarism and war, vindicate colonialism and racism, and fan hostility and hatred among peoples.
168
RELATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
CAN FALL BEHIND NOU ‘ti THE DEVELOPMENT OF a ce ace e tll BEVEL OENENS SOCIAL BEING
PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, ART
‘THE TRADITION OF ALL THE DEAD CAN FORESEE THE FUTURE
JERATIONS WEIGHS LIKE A NIGHTMARE ON THE BRAIN OF THE LIVING. Karl Marx
|
THE FORMS OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS ARE INTERRELATED AND INFLUENCE EACH OTHER
IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY, THERE IS CONTINUITY OF DEVELOPMENT
IDEALIST PHILOSOPHY SLOWS DOWN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE, SUBJUGATES ART AND ETHICS.
MATERIALIST PHILOSOPHY PROMOTES THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE, ART AND ETHICS
THE IDEOLOGUES OF OUTGOING CLASSES REVIVE OBSOLETE IDEAS OF PAST EPOCHS
MARXISM HAS
PRESERVED AND DEVELOPED ALL THE VALUABLE IDEAS OF PAST EPOCHS
|
ANTITHESIS BETWEEN SOCIALIST AND BOURGEOIS IDEOLOGY
The only choice is—either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course (for mankind has not created a “‘third’’ ideology, and, moreover,
in a society torn by class antagonisms there can never be a non-class or
an above-class ideology). Hence, to belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois
ideology. VL Lenin
TOTALITY OF POLITICAL, LEGAL, ETHICAL, AESTHETIC, PHILOSOPHICAL, RELIGIOUS AND OTHER VIEWS, EXPRESSING THE FUNDAMENTAL INTERESTS OF THE BOURGEOISIE
AN INTEGRAL AND HARMONIOUS SYSTEM OF SCIENTIFIC, SOCIO-POLITICAL, LEGAL, ETHICAL, AESTHETIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS, EXPRESSING THE VITAL INTERESTS OF THE WORKING CLASS AND ALL THE OTHER WORKING PEOPLE
In the modern world, there is a bitter struggle between the two ideologies: communist and bourgeois. That struggle reflects the historical process of transition from capitalism to socialism.
Vit
170 CLASS NATURE OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ANTAGONISTIC FORMATIONS
The society is dominated by the ideology of
the economically dominant class, the class which is
in power and which has at its disposal the material instruments of ideological influence (schools, universities, mass media, etc.).
The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production, so that
the ideas of those who lack the means of mental Production are on the whole subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relations, the dominant material relations grasped as ideas; hence of the relations which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance... The existence of revolutionary ideas in a particular period presupposes the existence
of a revolutionary class... I
The interests, views and concerns of the exploiters
and the exploited are different, just as their living conditions. Lenin wrote that the exploitive society is based on a principle:
rob or be robbed; work for others or make others work for you; be a slave-owner or a slave. Naturally, people brought up in such a society assimilate with their mother’s milk, one might say, the psychology,
the habit, the concept which says: you are either
a slave-owner or a slave, or else, a small owner, a petty employee, a petty official, or an intellectual—in short, a man who is concerned only with himself, and does not care a rap for anybody else.
V. 1. Lenin
FORMS AND METHODS OF ANTICOMMUNISM
EXPORT OF COUNTER- REVOLUTION
FALSIFICATION OF THE MARXIST. LENINIST DOCTRINE
173
PERSECUTION AROUSING
OF PROGRESSIVE OF NATIONAL
LEADERS AND RELIGIOUS STRIFE
FORMS AND METHODS OF ANTICOMMUNISM
SLANDER DISTORTION OF OF SOCIALISM THE GOALS AND POLICY OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS PARTIES
When the bourgeoisie's ideological influence on the workers declines,
is undermined or weakened, the bourgeoisie everywhere and always resorts to the most outrageous lies and siander.
1 Lenin
EFFORTS TO DISUNITE THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT
SLANDER OF PROGRESSIVE TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
172
STRATEGY AND TACTICS _ OF ANTICOMMUNISM
Anticommunism is the main ideological and political instrument of the imperialist and other
id
UNDERMINING SOCIALISM FROM WITHIN:
DISUNITING THE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES
ISOLATING THE USSR
reactionary forces.
AGAINST
THE AIM OF ANTICOMMUNISM
PREVENTING SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONS
DISUNITING THE WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT
DISCREDITING THE COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ PARTIES AND THEIR LEADERS
THE STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF ANTICOMMUNISM ARE DIRECTED
RETAINING THESE COUNTRIES IN THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM, IMPLANTING NEW FORMS OF
COLONIALISM
DISUNITING THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT, ISOLATING IT FROM THE OTHER REVOLUTIONARY FORCES
OBSTRUCTING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Legal consciousness is the totality of views and ideas expressing the attitude of individuals, social groups and classes to law and legality.
IN ANTAGONISTIC FORMATIONS, EACH CLASS HAS ITS OWN VIEWS OF LAW
FOR THE BOURGEOISIE,
THE STRUGGLE OF THE WORKING CLASS
AND THE OTHER WORKING PEOPLE FOR
THEIR RIGHTS AND TO ELIMINATE. EXPLOITATION IS A BREACH OF LAW AND ORDER
Law is a system of generally binding social norms established by the state and guaranteed by state measures, including coercion,
CIVIL AND LABOUR LAW
+ CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
FAMILY LAW
CRIMINAL LAW
INTERNATIONAL LAW—NORMS REGULATING RELATIONS BETWEEN STATES
175
174
POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Political consciousness takes shape with the emergence of classes, nations and states as the attitude to one’s own class and other classes, to the state and state power, to other states and nations.
LEVELS
| PSYCHOLOGICAL IDEOLOGICAL UNSYSTEMATISED VIEWS, THEORETICAL EXPRESSION MOODS AND FEELINGS OF OF THE VIEWS OF A DEFINITE A CLASS (SOLIDARITY, HATRED, CLASS ON THE POLITICAL ETC.), WHICH ARISE ORGANISATION OF SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE SOCIETY, ON THE FORMS THE COURSE OF PRACTICAL OF THE STATE AND STATE ACTIVITY
POWER, ON RELATIONS BETWEEN VARIOUS CLASSES AND SOCIAL GROUPS, ON THEIR ROLE IN THE SOCIETY'S LIFE, ON THE RELATIONS WITH OTHER STATES AND NATIONS, ETc.
There can be no political education except through political struggle and Political action.
VoL Lenin
AESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Art is an integral element of the society’s material and spiritual culture, a form of social consciousness, and an activity aimed at the aesthetic assimilation of reality.
ART REFLECTS REALITY IN ARTISTIC IMAGES
WORKS OF ART REFLECT THE ARTIST'S PERSONALITY, HIS VISION OF THE WORLD
ART HAS AN EMOTIONAL APPEAL AND ENRICHES MAN'S SPIRITUAL WORLD
In creating a world of objects by his practical activity, in his work upon inorganic nature, man proves himself a conscious species-being... Man therefore also forms objects in accordance with the laws of beauty. Karl Marx
176
MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Moral consciousness reflects the social being of people, the historically changing and developing moral relations between them.
Men, consciously or unconsciously, derive their ethical ideas in the last resort from
the practical relations on which their class position is based—from the economic relations in which they carry on production and exchange.
Frederick Engels
ETHICAL, NOTIONS FEELINGS, ABOUT PRINICPLES, ETHICAL moops MORAL
NORMS IDEAL, QUALITIES
Morality is the rules of behaviour by which people are guided in their relations with each other and with the society. Morality rests on the individual's world outlook and public opinion.
MORAL CATEGORIES
The content of moral categories changes with the society's development and is interpreted in different ways by the exploiter and the exploited classes.
SCIENCE
A system of developing knowledge, whose truth is confirmed by social
practice A FORM OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH A PRACTICAL FORCE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS AIMED AT STUDYING THE DIRECTED AT TRANSFORMING REFLECTING THE WORLD UNIFORMITIES OF NATURE, NATURE AND THE SOCIETY IN CONCEPTS AND LAWS OF THE SOCIETY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE AND COGNISED LAWS THINKING
The development of science, that ideal and at the same time practical wealth, is only an aspect, a form of the development of man's productive forces,
i.e. of wealth. Karl Marx
179
jing but the reflection Political protests in religious guise are common to 5 of th forces
all nations at a certain stage of their development. Frederick Engels V. I. Lenin
WORLD RELIGIONS
PROTESTAN-
TISM
ORTHODOXY HINAYANA
MAHAYANA
BAJRAYANA
” Wariona : RELIGIOUS \ NATIONAL RELIGIONS Seles | | | = = : 3 ze a z 5 z Fd ze ge rig 2 - < 2 oe de a 5 rf z2 ee ae z > ro Ir Se Fs z 3 36 5 8 3 r
The Collapse of the Second International ‘Left-Wing’ Communism—an Infantile Disorder Differences in the European Labour Movement
The Bourgeois Intelligentsia’s Methods of Struggle Against the Workers
Our Programme
The Dual Power
Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?
The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government
A Great Beginning
The Tasks of the Youth Leagues
The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination
V.t.Lenin, Critical Remarks on the National Question V.teLenin, The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party Kari Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology Kart Marx and Frederick Engels, The Holy Family Kari Marx, Capital Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Kari Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy Kart Marx, The <2 ap Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Kart Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Kart Marx, Theses on Feuerbach Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer, March 5, 1852 Marx to P. V. Annenkov, December 28, 1846 . Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann, February 4, 1871 Frederick Engels, Anti-Diihring Frederick Engels, Dialectics of Nature Frederick Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific Frederick Engels, Principles of Communism Frederick Engels, Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx v.t.Lenin, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism 1. Lenin, Karl Marx . . Lenin, Frederick Engels Materialism and Empirio-Criticism The State and Revolution The State On the Significance of Militant Materialism Marxism and Revisionism Marxism and Reformism Philosophical Notebooks sLenin, A Caricature of Marxism and Impenalist Economism
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