Friedrich Engels "Dialectics of Nature": summary and analysis of the work

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The late period of the scientific activity of Friedrich Engels is marked by his appeal to natural sciences. This science is the progenitor of many other disciplines about nature. It is considered to be the basis on which not a single 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 "Dialectics of Nature" adheres to the concept that was characteristic of all his scientific works, as well as for the books of his friend and colleague Karl Marx.

These scientists were inclined to consider all natural phenomena and events of human life not as an unchanging entity, but as something constantly changing. This is usually due to various contradictions.

This is the essence of the dialectics of Marxism. But, this is not only the name of the law onchange in the surrounding world, but also a 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 "to speak." All logical constructions carried out according to this principle presuppose the presence of several, sometimes diametrically opposed points of view.

History of the development of ideas

Dialectics was first considered not in the works of Engels and Marx, but much earlier. However, this can be guessed from the Greek term that was chosen to designate this philosophical doctrine. Dialectics gained wide popularity in antiquity. The philosophical teaching of the thinker Plato has survived to this day thanks to his dialogues with students, which were recorded and published later as a scientific treatise.

This form of knowledge transfer was chosen by Plato not by chance. The ancient sage believed that only in disputes can truth be found. Therefore, he did not forbid interlocutors to express points of view different from his own.

West and East

The principle of building your own conclusions, considering all known hypotheses, was used quite often not only by European, but also by Eastern philosophers.

At different times, the following definitions were given to dialectics.

1. Theory about the constant development of the existing.
2. Conducting scientific debates on various topics, during which leading questions were often used.
3. The way of knowing the environmentreality by mentally dividing it into its constituent parts, and vice versa, by combining some elements into a single whole.
4. Teaching about general principles, universal knowledge that can be applied to any of the existing sciences.
5. 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 an integral, universal knowledge, in the process of searching for which thinkers encountered irreconcilable contradictions.

The Greek scientist mentioned above perceived the presence of various opposites as a pattern.

Hegel adhered to a similar point of view. He began to use the term "dialectic" in relation to the concept, which is the complete opposite of metaphysics popular at that time. This was the name of the philosophical school, whose adherents were busy searching for universal knowledge, the essence of everything, and so on.

The origin of the name of this movement is interesting. The word "metaphysics" can be translated from ancient Greek as "that which 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 works of adherents of the point of view of the existence of universal knowledge were placed after the famous "Physics" of Aristotle.

Summary

Engels singled out the three most significant discoveries in the field of natural science in the entire history of mankind.

The most importantthe 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 the activity of researchers is the formulation of the law on the eternity of motion. Also, among the greatest discoveries of mankind, F. Engels in his "Dialectics of Nature" called the famous theory of Darwin, according to which all living organisms in the course of their existence go through certain stages of development, which are included in the general cycle of evolution.

The author of the book in question was 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 teachings of Immanuel 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 condensation of clouds from 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 work in this field of knowledge formed the basis of many other studies, including modern ones.

The role of work

Friedrich Engels in the book "Dialectics of Nature" expresses a fundamentally new point of view, different from all that existed before him, about the reason for the development of man from apes. He assigns the main role in this process to labor.

The author believes that it was the performance of complex physical actions, and then the appearance of speech, that were the main factorscontributed to the fact that the animal brain developed to the human level.

Highlights

"Dialectics of Nature" and "Anti Dühring" by Friedrich Engels are the most famous works of this author.

In the last of them, he harshly criticizes the theory of his contemporary. Dühring was an adherent of the idealistic direction of philosophy. According to the principles of this trend, he considered many processes, including those on a cosmic scale, for example, the formation of galaxies and planets. In the opening chapters of Dialectics, Engels makes a critical comparison of materialistic philosophy with idealistic philosophy, showing the clear superiority of the latter.

This part of the book was highly appreciated by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

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 for the class split in capitalist society. According to the theory that the author adheres to, the division occurred due to an increase in the number of goods produced, and the establishment of private ownership of tools.

In the third section of the book under consideration, Engels speaks of the inevitable transition to socialism.

"Anti Dühring" was highly appreciated by Soviet scientists who de alt with the problems of Marxism. According to the popular point of view, this book is one of the most significant sources of knowledge abouttheory of Marxism.

According to Dühring's concept, the main reason for the inequality of social classes is violence. This German scientist considered the revolutionary way of transforming society as the wrong course in the development of history. According to him, the transition to the next social order (socialism) should be made through the organization of communities of owners of small industrial enterprises.

The future of humanity

The author of the "Dialectics of Nature", among other reasoning, cites in his book a forecast regarding the future of the Earth and its inhabitants. He says that the Sun must inevitably go out. Therefore, sooner or later, humanity is threatened with death from a decrease in the temperature of the atmosphere. However, Engels' conclusions, nevertheless, are not as pessimistic as it might seem at first glance. Since matter is eternal, then conscious life, after its disappearance on Earth, has every chance to be reborn elsewhere in the universe.

Follower of Hegel

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 on a different level (within the framework of the materialistic worldview).

In this book, the author acts as a convinced materialist, excluding all non-scientific and metaphysical approaches to the knowledge of the surrounding world. Engels calls life itself a form of existence of proteins.

There is no absolute truth

All philosophy that existed before Hegel, Engels accuses of erroneous strivingto know the "original essence of things", to come to the only true understanding of the questions facing it. In fact, this is possible only with the combined efforts of all the thinkers of the world. And since such an interaction seems unlikely, then the ultimate truth, as a rule, remains inaccessible to knowledge.

Expect completeness and universality of conclusions from any one scientist means making a gross mistake. Therefore, with the advent of Marxism, the whole philosophy of the old model, according to Engels, "the end comes." 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 with the statement that, just as there is no absolute truth, so there can be no complete error. Without the work of previous generations of philosophers, materialism would not have existed, since it is also the result of the development of knowledge about the world around us.

As the main achievement of the philosophical thought of all mankind, Friedrich Engels singled out the works of Hegel. He said that these works should be replaced by more advanced ones, but their main ideas should not be forgotten.

"Dialectic of nature" and Marxism

In his unfinished work, Engels sets himself the goal of checking 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 threethe basic patterns that determine the existence and development of everything.

Rules

Engels in "Dialectics of Nature" wrote that one of the main laws of being is the rule of dependence of quality on quantity.

The author argued that it is impossible to talk about the constant characteristics of objects or phenomena. All these qualities are nothing but the result of major quantitative changes. This idea, expressed by the classic of Marxism, was not fundamentally new.

It was based on Hegel's doctrine of quantity and quality, which he confirmed with various examples, most often related to the state of matter. For example, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. Here, a change in the quantitative indicator (heating) leads to qualitative changes.

Terms

A brief analysis of the work of F. Engels "Dialectics of Nature" allows us to understand that 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 features. The word "quality" he meant that which is inherent only in a particular phenomenon. The law of dialectics says that quantitative changes entail qualitative ones.

When a certain volume is accumulated, the first ones are converted. That is, the object receives a new quality. Engels in his "Dialectic of Nature" wrote about this transition not as a gradual process. On the contrary, such a change is of a sudden, spasmodic nature. Qualitative changes accumulate without bringing anyvisible transformations.

But, at a certain point, the change becomes apparent. In this case, we can talk about qualitative development. As an example confirming the existence of this law, one can cite the fact that metals do not melt gradually when they are heated. When a certain temperature is reached, a sharp transition to a liquid state occurs.

Measure

Speaking of 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 do not entail the acquisition of a new quality is usually called a measure. For example, the condition under which water is in a liquid, non-boiling state is a temperature 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 must pay attention to ongoing quantitative changes in order to predict future qualitative changes. For example, news companies follow the slightest changes in the political and economic life of the state. Based on these observations, a forecast is made about possible upcoming events that may become topics for reporting.

Ratio of opposites

Hegel, and then Marx and Engels, formulated the law of opposites. This is one of the main tenets of dialectics. According to this doctrine, opposites are different sides of the same object.. But opposites cannot be separated,because they exist only in relation.

As a result of the struggle of the parties, the quality of the item changes. Thus, a new social order in society arises as a result of the struggle of its classes.

This law can be illustrated with an example from physics. The poles of a magnet can only exist together, in the same piece of metal. If you cut it, the new magnets will also have two poles.

About denial

The third law, which was formulated by Hegel, but presented in a more universal form in Engels' Dialectic of Nature, speaks of the constant negation of negation. That is, everything new sooner or later replaces the old, but over time it is itself replaced by another. According to the author of the work considered in this article, the development trajectory is not a straight line, but a spiral.

It can be described by the well-known phrase "everything new is a well-forgotten old". Any quality appears on the basis of the one that already existed.

In living nature, the law of negation of negation can be illustrated by the example of a grain of wheat. First, it hits the ground and germinates. This can be seen as the negation of the grain. A sprout comes in its place. When it spikes, 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, a single grain was replaced by an ear, consisting of several dozen seeds.

Books of the first edition of Engels' Dialectics of Nature are a rarity. Today they can only be bought at auction. Copies with the following characteristics are much more accessible: Engels F. "Dialectics of Nature", M. Politizdat, 1987. Therefore, we recommend them for reading.