In this article, you will become acquainted with the summary of Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism. This is an important work for the history of Marxist thought. "Materialism and empirio-criticism" is the philosophical work of Vladimir Lenin, published in 1909. It was compulsory for study in all higher educational institutions of the Soviet Union as a landmark work in the field of philosophy of dialectical materialism, part of the curriculum called "Marxist-Leninist philosophy."
Lenin argued that human perception correctly and accurately reflects the objective external world. All Russian Marxism, whose philosophy is distinguished by a certain originality, is inclined to the same conclusion.
Fundamental contradiction
Lenin formulates the fundamental philosophical contradiction between idealism and materialism as follows: “Materialism is the recognition of objects within themselves outside of consciousness. Ideas and sensations are copies or images of these objects. The opposite doctrine (idealism) says: objects do not exist outside of consciousness, they are “bonds of sensations”.
History
The book, whose full title is Materialism and Empirio-Criticism: Critical Notes on a Reactionary Philosophy, was written by Lenin from February to October 1908, when he was exiled to Geneva and London, and published in Moscow in May 1909 by the publishing house Link ". The original manuscript and preparatory materials were lost.
Most of the book was written when Lenin was in Geneva, with the exception of one month spent in London, where he visited the library of the British Museum to gain access to contemporary philosophical and natural science materials. The index lists over 200 sources for the book.
In December 1908, Lenin moved from Geneva to Paris, where until April 1909 he worked on the correction of evidence. Some passages have been edited to avoid royal censorship. It was published in tsarist Russia with great difficulty. Lenin insisted on the rapid distribution of the book and emphasized that “not only literary, but also serious political commitments” were associated with its publication.
Background
This is one of the most important works of Lenin. The book was written as a reaction and criticism of the three-volume work “Empiriomonism” (1904–1906) by Alexander Bogdanov, his political opponent in the party. In June 1909, Bogdanov was defeated at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris and expelled from the Central Committee, but he still retained a corresponding role in the left wing of the party. He participated in the Russian revolution and after 1917 was appointed director of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences.
Materialism and empirio-criticism was reprinted in Russian in 1920 with an article by Vladimir Nevsky as an introduction. Subsequently, he appeared in more than 20 languages and acquired canonical status in Marxist-Leninist philosophy, like many other works of Lenin.
Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism: Contents
In chapter I, “The Epistemology of Empirio-Criticism and Dialectical Materialism I,” Lenin discusses the “solipsism” of Mach and Avenarius. This abstract (at first glance) remark had a great influence on the philosophy of Russian Marxism.
In chapter II, “The Epistemology of Empirio-Criticism and Dialectical Materialism II”, Lenin, Chernov and Basarov compare the views of Ludwig Feuerbach, Joseph Dietzgen and Friedrich Engels and comment on the criterion of practice in epistemology.
In chapter III, “The Epistemology of Empirio-Criticism and Dialectical Materialism III,” Lenin seeks to define “matter” and “experience” and considers issues of causality and necessity of nature, as well as “freedom and necessity” and “principle of saving thinking”. Much time is devoted to this in Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.
In chapter IV: “Ideal philosophers as co-authors and successors of empirio-criticism,” Lenin considers criticism of Kant (both from the right-wing camp and from the left), the philosophy of immanence, the empirionism of Bogdanov and the criticism of Hermann von Helmholtz on the “theory of symbols”.
In chapter V: “The Last Revolution in Science and Philosophical Idealism,” Lenin examines the thesis that the “physical crisis” “disappeared from matter.” In this context, he speaks of “physical idealism” and notes (on page 260): “After all, the only property of matter, the recognition of which is connected with philosophical materialism, is the property of being an objective reality outside of our consciousness.”
In chapter VI: Empirio-criticism and historical materialism, Lenin considers authors such as Bogdanov, Suvorov, Ernst Haeckel, and Ernst Mach.
In addition to chapter IV, Lenin addresses the question: “On which side did N. G. Chernyshevsky criticize Kantianism?”
What is empirio-criticism?
This philosophy in our usual form was developed by Ernst Mach. From 1895 to 1901, Mach occupied the newly created Department of the History and Philosophy of Inductive Sciences at the University of Vienna. In his historical and philosophical studies, Mach developed the phenomenalist philosophy of science, which became influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. Initially, he considered scientific laws as a summary of experimental events designed to make complex data understandable, but later emphasized mathematical functions as a more useful way of describing sensory phenomena. Thus, scientific laws, although somewhat idealized, are more related to the description of sensations than to reality, since it exists outside of sensations.
The goal that she (physical science) has set for herself is the simplest and most economical abstract expression of facts. When the human mind, with disabilities, tries to reflect the rich life of the world, of which he is a part, he has every reason to act economically.
Philosophical clarification
By mentally separating the body from the changing environment in which it moves, we are really trying to free the group of sensations to which our thoughts are attached and which are relatively more stable than others from the stream of all our sensations.
Mach’s positivism also influenced many Russian Marxists, such as Alexander Bogdanov. In 1908, Lenin wrote the philosophical work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (published in 1909). In it, he criticized Machism and the views of the “Russian Machists”. In this work, Lenin also cited the concept of "ether" as a mass medium through which light waves propagate, and the concept of time as an absolute.
Empirio-criticism is a term for a strictly positivist and radically empirical philosophy founded by German philosopher Richard Avenarius and developed by Mach, which claims that all we can know is our sensations and that knowledge should be limited by pure experience. This thesis also sounds in Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.
Criticism of other philosophical schools
In accordance with empirio-critical philosophy, Mach opposed Ludwig Boltzmann and others who proposed the atomic theory of physics. Since no one can observe things the size of atoms directly, and since no atomic model at that time was consistent, Mach’s atomic hypothesis seemed unfounded and perhaps not enough “economical”. Mach had a direct influence on the philosophers of the Vienna Circle and the school of logical positivism in general.
Principles
Mach is credited with a number of principles that define his ideal of physical theorizing - what is now called "Mach physics."
The observer should be based solely on directly observed phenomena (in accordance with his positivistic inclinations). He must completely abandon absolute space and time in favor of relative motion. Any phenomena that seem related to absolute space and time (for example, inertia and centrifugal force) should be considered as arising as a result of the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe.
The latter is distinguished, in particular, by Albert Einstein, as the Mach principle. Einstein called this one of the three principles underlying the general theory of relativity. In 1930, he stated that he “considered Mach the forerunner of the general theory of relativity,” although Mach, before his death, would apparently have rejected Einstein’s theory. Einstein knew that his theories did not comply with all Mach principles, and no subsequent theory carried them out, despite considerable efforts.
Phenomenological constructivism
According to Alexander Riegler, Ernst Mach's work was the forerunner of constructivism. Constructivism believes that all knowledge is built, not received by the student.
Dialectical materialism - the philosophy of Marx and Lenin
Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science and nature, developed in Europe and based on the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Dialectical materialism adapts Hegelian dialectics to traditional materialism, which explores the subjects of the world with respect to each other in a dynamic, evolutionary environment, in contrast to metaphysical materialism, which explores parts of the world in a static, isolated environment.
Dialectical materialism accepts the evolution of the natural world and the emergence of new qualities of being at new stages of evolution. As noted by Z.A. Jordan, “Engels constantly used the metaphysical understanding that the higher level of existence arises and has its roots in the lower; that a higher level represents a new order of being with its irreducible laws; and that this process of evolutionary progress is governed by the laws of development, which reflect the basic properties of "matter in motion as a whole."
The formulation of the Soviet version of dialectical and historical materialism (for example, in Stalin’s book “Dialectical and Historical Materialism”) in the 1930s by Joseph Stalin and his associates became the “official” Soviet interpretation of Marxism.
Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism: Reviews
What about the reviews of this work? This work was warmly received by Russian Marxists and is considered by many as one of Lenin's main works. This book is very fond of and modern communists. Lenin's “materialism and empirio-criticism,” which is still being written, has had a great influence on Marxist thought.
Reviewers emphasize that in this work, Lenin revealed the reactionary nature of empirio-criticism, emphasized its outdated character and the bourgeois spirit of positivism as such. Positivist pseudo-materialism, according to Lenin, was created to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie as a class, and also to level the role of the clergy in order to put him at a disadvantage in comparison with the bourgeoisie.
Moreover, Lenin is praised for emphasizing the evolutionary nature of dialectical materialism. Dialectical materialism, according to many reviewers, is a higher evolutionary philosophy than positivism, and is aimed at the predominance of new labor relations than those supported by positivist philosophers.