The late period of scientific activity of Friedrich Engels was marked by his address to the questions of natural science. This science is the progenitor of many other disciplines about nature. It is considered to be the base on which not a dozen sciences have developed. This article will discuss the work of Friedrich Engels "Dialectics of nature", which the author did not have time to complete.
Concept
Friedrich Engels, in his Dialectic of Nature, adheres to the concept that was characteristic of all his scientific works, as well as the books of his friend and colleague Karl Marx.
These scientists were inclined to consider all natural phenomena and human life events not as an unchanging entity, but as something that is constantly changing. This is usually due to various contradictions.
This is the essence of the dialectic of Marxism. But, this is called not only the law of change in the world around us, but also the way of thinking in which this feature of nature is taken into account.
Dialogues
The term "dialectic" is of Greek origin. It consists of two roots, which can be translated as “separately” and “speak”. All logical constructions carried out according to this principle assume the presence of several, sometimes diametrically opposite points of view.
History of ideas
Dialectics was first considered not in the works of Engels and Marx, but much earlier. However, this can be guessed by the Greek term, which was chosen to denote this philosophical doctrine. Dialectics gained wide popularity even in antiquity. The philosophical doctrine of the thinker Plato has survived thanks to his dialogues with students, which were recorded and published later as a scientific treatise.
This form of knowledge transfer was not chosen by Plato by chance. The ancient sage believed that only in debate can one find the truth. Therefore, he did not prohibit interlocutors from expressing points of view that were different from his own.
West and east
The principle of constructing our conclusions, considering all known hypotheses, was often used not only by European, but also by eastern philosophers.
At different times, the following definitions were given to dialectics.
- The theory of the ongoing development of the existing.
- Conducting scientific disputes on various topics, during which leading questions were often used.
- A way of knowing the surrounding reality by mentally dividing it into its constituent parts, and vice versa, combining some elements into a single whole.
- The doctrine of the general provisions, universal knowledge that can be applied to any of the existing sciences.
- A research method based on the study of opposites.
Since the time of Kant, dialectics has often been regarded as the only way out of delusions about the possibility of the existence of integral, universal knowledge, in the process of searching for which thinkers were faced with irreconcilable contradictions.
The Greek scholar mentioned above perceived the presence of various opposites as a regularity.
Hegel also adhered to a similar point of view. He began to use the term "dialectics" in relation to the concept, which is the exact opposite of the then popular metaphysics. That was the name of the philosophical school, the adherents of which were engaged in the search for universal knowledge, the essence of everything, and so on.
The origin of the name of this current is interesting. The word "metaphysics" can be translated from ancient Greek as "what comes after physics." The choice of such a name is explained very simply. In one of the first collections of works of the greatest philosophers, the work of adherents of the point of view on the existence of universal knowledge was placed after the famous Physics of Aristotle.
Summary
Engels identified the three most significant discoveries in the field of natural science in the entire history of mankind.
The most important achievement of scientists, in his opinion, was the emergence of the theory that everything on Earth consists of cells. The second most important result of researchers is the formulation of the law on the eternity of motion. Also among the greatest discoveries of mankind F. Engels in the "Dialectics of Nature" called Darwin's famous theory, according to which all living organisms in the process of their existence go through certain stages of development, which are part of the general cycle of evolution.
The author of the book in question was also interested in the hypotheses of the appearance of planets and universes.
One of the most significant theories in this area, in his opinion, can be called the teaching of Emanuel Kant.
In the work of this great German philosopher called "Nebular Theory", the point of view is expressed that the planets are formed as a result of the thickening of clouds of hydrogen and other substances that exist in outer space. In the same work, many other important questions in the field of astronomy are revealed. The results of Kant's activities in this field of knowledge formed the basis of many other studies, including modern ones.
The role of labor
Friedrich Engels in his book "Dialectics of Nature" expresses a fundamentally new, different from all that existed before him, point of view on the reason for the development of man from a monkey. He assigns the main role in this process to work.
The author believes that it was the fulfillment of complex physical actions, and then the appearance of speech, that were the main factors that contributed to the development of the animal’s brain to the human level.
Main works
The Dialectic of Nature and Anti Dühring by Friedrich Engels are the most famous works of this author.
In the last of them, he severely criticizes the theory of his contemporary. Dühring was an adherent of the idealistic trend of philosophy. According to the principles of this current, he considered many processes, including the cosmic scale, for example, the formation of galaxies and planets. In the first chapters of Dialectics, Engels provides a critical comparison of materialist philosophy with idealist philosophy, showing a clear advantage of the latter.
This part of the book was highly appreciated by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
The second and third parts
In the second part of Anti Dühring, Engels summarizes the main points of the teachings of Karl Marx. He gives an explanation of the class split of capitalist society. According to the theory that the author adheres to, the separation occurred in connection with an increase in the number of manufactured goods, and the establishment of private ownership of tools.
In the third section of this book, Engels speaks of the inevitable transition to socialism.
Anti Dühring was highly praised by Soviet scholars who dealt with the problems of Marxism. According to a common point of view, this book is one of the most significant sources of knowledge about the theory of Marxism.
According to Dühring's concept, the main reason for the inequality of social classes is violence. This German scientist regarded the revolutionary way of transforming society as the wrong course of history. According to him, the transition to the next social system (socialism) should be made through the organization of communities of owners of small manufacturing enterprises.
Future of humanity
The author of Dialectics of Nature, among other considerations, gives in his book a forecast regarding the future of the Earth and its inhabitants. He says that the sun should inevitably go out. Therefore, sooner or later, humanity is threatened with death from lowering the temperature of the atmosphere. However, Engels' conclusions are nevertheless not as pessimistic as it might seem at first glance. Since matter is eternal, conscious life, after its disappearance on Earth, has every chance of being reborn in another place in the universe.
Hegel's follower
In this brief summary of Engels' Dialectics of Nature, it is worth mentioning those chapters of the book in which the author speaks of Marxism as a continuation of the development of Hegel's philosophical ideas, but at a different level (within the framework of the materialistic worldview).
In this book, the author appears as a convinced materialist, excluding all unscientific and metaphysical approaches to the knowledge of the world. Engels calls life itself the form of existence of proteins.
There is no absolute truth
Engels accuses the whole philosophy that existed before Hegel of the erroneous desire to know the "primordial essence of things," to come to the only true understanding of the issues that confront her. In fact, this is possible only by combining the efforts of all thinkers of the world. And since such an interaction seems unlikely, the final truth, as a rule, remains inaccessible to cognition.
Expecting the completeness and universality of conclusions from any one scientist means committing a gross mistake. Therefore, with the advent of Marxism, the whole philosophy of the old model, according to Engels, "comes to an end." But, nevertheless, the author of "Dialectics of Nature" recognized the merits of thinkers of previous generations and said that their works, of course, should be studied. He reinforced this idea by saying that just as there is no absolute truth, so there can be no complete error. Without the works of previous generations of philosophers, materialism would not exist, since it is also the result of the development of knowledge about the world around it.
Friedrich Engels singled out the works of Hegel as the main achievement of the philosophical thought of all mankind. He said that these works should be replaced with more perfect ones, but their main ideas should not be forgotten.
"Dialectics of nature" and Marxism
In his unfinished work, Engels aims to check whether the laws revealed by him and Marx in the field of human thought and nature as a whole are also true. It is known that initially they were considered only as economic phenomena.
In the course of his work on this book, Engels formulated three basic laws that determine the existence and development of everything.
rules
Engels in his Dialectic of Nature wrote that one of the main laws of being is the rule of dependence of quality on quantity.
The author argued that one cannot talk about the constant characteristics of objects or phenomena. All these qualities are nothing but the result of large quantitative changes. This idea, expressed by the classic of Marxism, was not fundamentally new.
Hegel’s teaching on quantity and quality, which he confirmed with various examples, most often relating to the state of matter, was taken as its basis. So, water boils at a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. Here, a change in a quantitative indicator (heating) leads to qualitative changes.
Terms
A brief analysis of the work of F. Engels "Dialectics of nature" allows us to understand what the author means by quantity those properties of an object or phenomenon that do not distinguish it from a number of others. They can be called common signs. By the word "quality" he meant that which is inherent only to a specific phenomenon. The law of dialectics says that quantitative changes entail qualitative ones.
With the accumulation of a certain volume of the first, a transformation occurs. That is, the item receives a new quality. Engels in his Dialectic of Nature did not write about this transition as a gradual process. On the contrary, such a change is sudden, spasmodic. Qualitative changes accumulate without bringing any visible transformations.
But, at some point, the change becomes apparent. In this case, we can talk about quality development. As an example, confirming the existence of this law, we can cite the fact that metals do not gradually melt when they are heated. When a certain temperature is reached, a sharp transition to a liquid state occurs.
Measure
Speaking about this law, Friedrich Engels mentions another important parameter necessary to describe the transition of an object or phenomenon from one state to another. The maximum number of quantitative changes that does not entail the acquisition of a new quality is called a measure. For example, a condition in which water is in a liquid, non-boiling state is a temperature of not lower than zero and not higher than one hundred degrees Celsius. This is the measure.
An interesting fact is that there are a number of professions whose representatives should pay attention to the ongoing quantitative changes in order to predict future qualitative transformations. For example, news companies are watching the smallest changes in the political and economic life of the state. Based on these observations, a forecast is made about possible upcoming events that could become topics for reporting.
Ratio of opposites
Hegel, and then Marx and Engels, formulated the law of opposites. This is one of the main points of dialectics. According to this doctrine, opposites are different sides of the same subject. . But, opposites cannot be divided, because they exist only interconnectedly.
As a result of the struggle of the parties, a change in the quality of the subject occurs. Thus, a new social system in society arises as a result of the struggle of its classes.
This law can be illustrated by the example of physics. The poles of a magnet can exist only together, in the same piece of metal. If you cut it, then the new magnets will also have two poles.
About denial
The third law, which was formulated by Hegel, but in a more universal form, is presented in Engels' Dialectics of Nature, speaks of a constant denial of denial. That is, sooner or later, everything new replaces the old, but over time it is replaced by another. According to the author of the work considered in this article, the development path is not a straight line, but a spiral.
It can be described by the famous phrase "everything new is well forgotten old." Any quality appears on the basis of a pre-existing one.
In wildlife, the law of negation of negation can be illustrated by the example of wheat grain. First, it enters the ground and sprouts. This can be considered as a negation of grain. In its place comes a sprout. When it is earning, then this should be taken as a denial of its former state. A new grain appears. This fact means that the round of development has ended. But, one single grain was replaced by an ear of several tens of seeds.
Engels's first edition of Dialectics of Nature is a rarity. Today they can only be bought at auction. Much more accessible are specimens with the following characteristics: Engels F. "Dialectics of nature", M. Politizdat, 1987. Therefore, we recommend them for reading.