--- quote from Engels' "Ludwig Feuerbach..." --- numbers added by ARa --
--- as translated in the "Selected Works" of Marx & Engels, Moscow 1953
The great basic idea that the world is not to be viewed as a complex
of fully fashioned objects [1], but as a complex of processes [2], in
which apparently stable objects, no less than the images of them inside
our heads (our concepts) [3], are undergoing incessant changes [4] ...
In the eyes of dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all
time [5], nothing is absolute or sacred. On everything and in everything
it sees the stamp of inevitable decline [6]; nothing can resist it save
the unceasing process of formation and destruction [7], the unending
ascent from lower to the higher [8] -- a process of which philosophy
itself is only a simple reflection within the thinking brain [3,6,9].
--- end quoting Engels, 1886 German, 1889 Russian, 1894 French ----
The interesting thing here is, dear Vera, that you two selected a piece
that depicts *Hegel's dialectical philosophy*, and does not mention any
addition that would be specifically Marxian. To be sure, all of this
is told as belonging at the same time to the bundle of core concepts
of the Dialectical and Historical Materialism of Engels after the death
of Marx (in 1883, age 65).
The piece on Feuerbach is also interesting because it shows how badly
Engels misconstructed Feuerbach's philosophy in their political conse-
quences. Ludwig Feuerbach, the son of Anselm, if I remember correctly,
in any case: the son of the man who took Kaspar Hauser under his wings
until this prince was killed for good by hired men; Ludwig criticized
Hegel as any good feminist of today would do it: Too much stress on
and because of rationality; the body, making love and children, and all
dreary reproductive work, totally forgotten in his grandiose world-plan;
too fascinated by steam engines and too much anxiety of mathematical
structures at the same time; in short: oblivious of the living beauty
of public mind, mutual love and mutual aid...
Engels doesn't illustrate this side of Feuerbach, rather he insists
on the importance of the *materialist turn* of L.F.'s New Philosophy,
and then goes on to rally for big industry, productivism, progress.
Still some decades before Lenin's "Soviet Power and Electricity", but
quite evidently with all kinds of outdated ideas. They shine up in the
quote above, and I am now going to refute them in a few words each:
[1] Nearly nobody still believes in the world as a "complex of fully
fashioned objects" except perhaps some of the 200 year old society
beyond the great lake (they call themselves "creationists").
[2] "A complex of processes", yes, of course. Please give a more
precise description: What kind of dynamics ? Simple, linear ? Or
turbulent with fixed recurrence times ? Or chaotic ? If the latter,
can you name the specific attractor ?
[3] Oh god! A mirror theorists: "images of objects in our heads" are
to be understood as "our concepts" ?? How about words, how about the
coordination of measurement devices, how about written concepts ? This
man is a Cartesian !
[4] Incessant changes, haha. How about all of the old structures that
resist any change ? How about the nearly instantaneous re-installment
of Russian religiosity ? -- And don't give me that old opium story
again !
[5] Except that some Soviet leaders thought that the Scientific
Socialism had indeed been established for all times. And, there *are*
*some* things that *may* be established for all times: If you let three
lines intersect on a perfectly plane plane, you will measure the sum
of the internal angles as making up exactly half of a full circle.
As every schoolboy knows...
[6] Yes, yes, we know this loaded slogan: "the stamp of inevitable
decline...". Many, if not most, social democrats of your time already
saw the inevitable decline of Capitalism. "Inevitable" -- the most
dangerous concept in politics...
[7] "the unceasing process of formation and destruction" -- What a male
chauvinist picture, either creating or destructing, eh ? No power left
for caring, reproducing, conserving, et cetera, all those "secondary
contradictions" ?
[8] "the unending ascent from lower to the higher" -- hmm, so the
people in the colonies also might become industrialized ? Or is it the
party hierarchy, from the young pioneers to the chair of the central
committee ? Which models what ?
[9] Philosophy is just a reflection in the thinking brain !! -- see [3].
Friedrich, you hoped to see the end of all philosophy, see [6], a variant.
But: Lo and Behold, it is still among us, and has left Descartes way
behind. Doubtless would you be pleased to see what has become of the
philosophical materialism today: The absolutely ruling set of ideas.
Evolution known by the vast majority, history acknowledged by all.
I do believe that the best Engels of today is Jostein Gaarder.
Really !
If he weren't such a Platonist...
But he gets one into hard thinking, solid fantasy, artistic dreams.
Even at age 50+ ...
Says: Arne.