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| (ii) Materialism as a Rational and Democratic Outlook |  2003-10-29 | (iv) The Theory of Dialectics. |
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In primitive communist or tribal societies, people generally explain movements in nature and relationships in society according to “spiritual” forces at work in the universe, but it is worth noting that the old legends and customary practices contain many germs of materialism in the way that they care fully mirror the features of objective reality
It is however only when trade and advancing technology open up the world, as it were, that science develops, demonstrating that what people had thought of as “spirits” is simply the movement of matter in the universe which can be studied and understood. This discovery led early philosophers in many parts of the world to assert that the universe was solely composed of hard, material particles, out of which all forms of life, including human consciousness, were constructed.
Although theories like this were a great advance, the materialist out-look which they expressed was incomplete and inconsistent. Early Greek philosophers, for example, saw changes in the world as the result of shifting combinations of “atoms," but these “bricks of the universe” were themselves immutable. This static feature of their theory Marxists call “metaphysical” because these basic material elements in the universe were thought of as something “above” change and hence to all intents and purposes, “divine."
This problem was also evident in the materialist outlook of the great 17th and 18th century thinkers in Western Europe. Although they were able to deal many crippling blows to the mystical and hierarchical concepts held under feudalism (the “divine right” of kings, for example), the leading science of their time was mechanics and we call them mechanical materialists because they treated nature and society as if it were some giant machine. This helped them to understand how things “worked” but was unable to explain their origins and how they had developed. It was simply assumed that some god-like force had set the world in motion, and it had never basically changed since!
Yet change was precisely that feature of the universe which it was
more and more difficult to ignore. The rise of capitalism graphically
demonstrated this. As Marx and Engels wrote,
constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance
of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation
distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier
ones[1]
and this made a great impact on the natural sciences. As Engels has
noted, the discovery of the cell, the transformation of energy and the
theory of evolution named after
Darwin[2]
showed that movement in the material world was not merely
machine-like, but embraced many different forms
of matter-in-motion, encompassing heat and light, electric and
magnetic tension, chemical combination, life and finally human
consciousness. All the new sciences pointed to the importance of
development and change. It was no longer necessary to bring in some
metaphysical force from outside to explain why new elements were
continually arising and old ones passing away.
The time had come to bring materialist philosophy into contact with [...click "Next"]
| [1] | “Manifesto of the Communist Party," Selected Works, op. cit., p.38. In Africa the effect of these expanding waves of capitalist production was traumatic. As one writer recalls, “the 15th century hurled at us the economic and adventurous restlessness of Europe, and subsequently the mania called the 'Scramble for Africa' shuddered the sub continent. The sheer physical impact of the assault was enough to stagger the edifice of tribalism. I can almost see my infinitely great-grandfather, leaping to his feet on a rock and gaping at a sailing ship seeking harbour—all his patriarchal dignity forgotten, as he exclaims, 'Hau!"'—Can Temba, “The Bottom of the Bottle," Africa South in Exile 1961, p.53. |
| [2] | Engels expands upon these points in his introduction to the Dialectics of Nature and in his chapters on philosophy in Anti-Dühring. |