Criticism On Critique Of Dialectics Of Nature

Engels expounded his dialectic thoughts in Manuscripts of dialectics of nature and Anti-Duhring,which scholars often refer to as “dialectics of nature”.Since the publication of “Anti-Duhring”,the dialectics of nature have been subjected to many criticisms,namely,the so-called “criticism on dialectics of nature” in this thesis.Its representatives are western scholars Lukacs,Sartre,Schmidt,as well as domestic scholars Yu Wujin,He Zhonghua and so on.Specifically:1.Criticism on view of nature: The “nature” in Engels's dialectics of nature is the nature in which we only see things but not people,ignoring the sociality of nature but to highlight its objectivity in one-way degree,which is in sharp opposition to Marx's “anthropological nature”.2.Criticism on Dialectics: “Dialectics” in Engels's dialectics of nature is “to see the existence without thinking”.He overly emphasizes the objectivity of the dialectical law and its natural scientific basis,emphasizes its constraints on the subjective thinking of people,which separates the dialectical unity of thinking and existence,and reduces the dialectics into the epistemological tool for “explaining the world”.3.Criticism on view of history: Engels' s dialectics of nature is revisionist dialectics which only “see nature but not history”.He illegally diverted dialectics with the unique social historicity,resulting in man absence and historical nihility of the dialectics.In a word,in the eyes of the critics,Engels' s dialectics of nature is the dialectic of the nature-in-itself,obscuring the dimensions of man,society and history,and dispelling the critical,negative or revolutionary qualities of dialectics.Based on a comprehensive interpretation of Engels' series of works,combining with Engels and Marx's academic life and division of theoretical work,as well as a large number of letters between them,this paper tries to criticize the criticism on dialectics of nature.Concretely expanded from the following three dimensions:1.Critisism on “Critique of view of nature”: The view of nature in dialectics of nature is not abstract,but dialectical,materialistic,is different from Hegel's and Feuerbach's abstract view of nature.With the aid of the “latest discoveries” of modern natural science,Engels created the “refined” dialectical view of nature.There exist universal connection,change and development between thing and thing in nature,people and people,nature and people.Contrary to the critics 'denial of the significance of Engels' investigation into the nature-in-itself,Marx is certain the existential significance of investigation into free nature and effectively avoids the ontologicalization of practice,but it does not mean the antagonism between Marx and Engels,means the close cooperation of the academic career and the theoretical division.Marx and Engels agreed that nature as the object of human practice is specific and universal.The universality of matter lies in the concrete,special and all-encompassing things of nature,also lies in the interrelationship between human consciousness and practice.Why Engels emphasized objective nature is that he want to clarify the nature is the basis of human survival,emphasizing dialectics in nature is for people to understand and transform the nature and use the natural's dialectical quality to serve human activities in turn.In short,Engels's dialectics of nature caught sight of people and objects,and it is the dialectics of the interaction between man and nature and the unity of opposites.Dialectical view of nature established by Engels gave us dialectical materialism answers for the first aspect in fundamental problem of philosophy,corrected academic circle overemphasize the second aspect of today's basic problems philosophy,overcame the attempt to transcend the contradiction between “idealism and materialism” through human survival and practice.2.Critisism on “Critique of Dialectics”: Dialectics of Nature is not a fixed principle of metaphysics but the dialectical unify of thinking and existence.Engels researched dialectics of nature with the help of natural science is not only emphasized the natural science arguments of dialectical law,but to achieve the unity of philosophy and science,thinking and the existence.Consistent with Marx,he advocated a shift in research stance or paradigm: research for the problems of Philosophy from abstract concept to the real world.Dialectics of Nature is neither fact science based on perceptual experience nor an abstract speculative philosophy,but a kind of philosophical reflection on nature,society and the rules of thought which is based on the natural science.It is a large number of accumulated scientific materials and social and historical science facts that drives people to find the unity from differences,sees links from cut-off,sees absolute motion from relative standstill,and finds fundamental laws of dialectical development,such as mutual transformation of opposites,the state of existence and development of object's quality conversion,winding developing,the negation of negation and spiraling rising situation.Engels advocated that we must convert to dialectical thinking from metaphysical thinking.Dialectical thinking grasps the nature of the object's development,movement and change based on the concept of dialectical movement.We must consciously reflect the relationship of the contradictory and unity between thinking and existence.Dialectics can not treat formal logic as known judgment as changeless precondition,but it is seen as a developing things.Any concepts,categories,propositions are inherently implies contradictions between thinking and existence,and inner self-denial,which constitute the logic of human knowledge development.Only when natural scientists master the dialectical thinking actively do they carry out scientific research smoothly.Therefore,dialectics of nature realized abandonment for Feuerbach' metaphysics and Hegel's speculative dialectics,which is the unity of dialectical materialism about existence and thought.3.Criticism on the “view of history”,Dialectics of Nature is not the revisionism which only “see nature but not history” but dialectical unity of history and revolution.In contrast to Engels' s research emphasis,Marx focused on social history,but always acknowledges the objectivity of dialectics.In other words,he first acknowledged objective dialectics,and then subjective dialectics and dialectics of practice.Marx and Engels united in attaching importance to the dialectical unity of nature and history,natural science and social science.Engels affirmed the pioneering work of Hegelian's dialectic view of history and denied his idealistic view of history.Engels carried out demonstration with the natural science's latest developing achievement in biology,paleontology,anthropology,archeology and natural science and established the fundamental status of labor scope in the Historical Materialism.Engels understood the unity based on history and practice between subjective and objective from the starting of human's objective activity.Dialectics of Nature clarify the true dialectical thinking.It is not only for remove metaphysics residue in the natural sciences,but also for better understanding historical materialism and scientific socialism using dialectical thinking.Only by means of dialectics can we achieve materialist conception of history and its particular application in the modern class struggle of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.Dialectics of nature isn't not only corrected dialectics,but also guide fighting of the proletarian and natural science theories.Natural dialectics and historical dialectics is dialectical unity.Natural dialectics inspects natural history in the dimension of human history,and ultimately produces “natural history” or “historical nature.” Accordingly,natural dialectics is not only a “natural science of man” but also a “science of natural man”.The second half of the book in Dialectics of Nature summarized the laws of social operation in the laws of nature,revealed the capitalist mode of production is chief culprit causing alienation of relationship between man and nature,denied the whole capitalist social system,and logically indicated that Communism was bound to come.From the point of view,the dialectics of nature is the evolving “logic of thought” about the ontology.It is a summary and explanation of the objective dialectics of nature.It clarified the relationship between thinking and being.It is the self-being and self-making dialectics.Only by comprehensively understanding,dialectically viewing and grasping the dialectics of nature can the real world,human practice and thinking be described as a dialectical process of development-dialectics is actually epistemology.According to the logic of dialectics,bourgeois society also has its process of emergence and demise,it must be replaced by a higher level of social form,that is,communist society(or socialism).In essence,the dialectic of revolution and criticism is the most elite weapon in the hands of the proletariat.Therefore,the critics who understand dialectics of nature in a one-sided way as dialectic in free mode should be anti-criticized.We need to add that:Criticism not only lacks the systematic understanding and comprehensive grasp of the classical texts such as Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Duhring,but also not even grasp the internal structure of the logical structure and the theme of the idea of context in general.Because of the limitations of the subject,in other words,for the system needs to obey thought(subject),Engels in the “Dialectics of Nature” manuscripts focus on the study as the basis of the existence of the human nature of the different nature.But does not mean that he disregards or negates the “anthropological nature”,as well as natural social and historical dimensions.The same situation is in the “Dialectics of Nature” manuscript.Engels' s “labor” article illustrates the human,social nature to the survival of this,which based on the labor of the historical generation.In The Family,Private Ownership,and the Origin of Nations,Engels and then elucidated the social(cell)and even the country's historic generation.In the “Anti-Duhring” a book,The three-dimensional content of “philosophy”,“political economy” and “scientific socialism” can be said to show the three-dimensional theoretical frame of Engels' “nature”,“society” and “history” and their internal relations.“Ludwig Schiffbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy”,Engels has made a comprehensive and systematic exposition of historical materialism.All these,we have effectively rebutted the critic's criticism of Engels's lack of historical perspective.Engels,the founder of Marxism,Marx co-authored,even more critics of Marx's opposition to Engels,is equivalent to Marx as opposed to Marx as absurd.From the creation of the source of historical materialism for the “German ideology” to the Communist Party's programmatic document “Communist Manifesto”,all show the consistency of Engels and Marx's thought.Visibly,critics can not from the Engels series of works of integrity and relevance of departure,and they unable to grasp Engels and his dialectics of nature thought from the Relation of Engels and Marx,this fragmented “Critique of Dialectics of Nature” is in itself anti-dialectic.Today,the criticism on Dialectics of Nature has special epochal significance and practical significance.Dialectics of Nature produced for more than a century still has strong vitality and explanatory power in the contemporary era.For example,it can reasonably explain the global environmental problem as one of the hotspots of the era and provide philosophical foundation and enlightenment of scientific methods for the construction of China's socialist ecological civilization.Dialectical materialist view of nature illustrates the double connotation of man and nature.The theory of socialist ecological civilization adheres to dialectical unity of the transformation of nature and respect for the nature,corrects various theoretical deviation of ecological practices.Engels advocated conscious return of the dialectical mode of thinking,realized transcendence on two opposing epistemological paradigm of scientism and holism.It is the Marxism epistemological paradigm scientific holism.It maintains a certain tension and balance between anthropocentrism and Ecology supremacy.Based on this theory of knowledge,people can not only change the extreme attitude to control the nature,but also avoid the negative worship of nature,and coordinate the relationship between man and nature in the dynamic development of practice.The spirit of Marx and Engels's thought is realization of freedom and comprehensive development of human beings.The purpose of the construction of socialist ecological civilization is to solve the problem of coexistence between man and nature's development,is for human development in the final analysis,and considers human development and liberation as core purport.