Materialism and the Dialectical Method - Maurice Cornforth

By MAURICE CORNFORTH

Author of Science and Idealism, In Defense of Philosophy

First printed in the U.S.A. in 1953

In Russian Original 1956 Print

1953 reprinted

Foreword

The present volume deals with the basic ideas of Marxist materialism and the dialectical method. A second volume will deal with the further development of these ideas in their application to society and the growth of human consciousness—historical materialism and the theory of knowledge.

I have tried to confine myself to a straightforward exposition of the leading ideas of dialectical materialism, so far as I myself have succeeded in understanding them, without burdening the exposition with digressions into more technical questions of philosophy, or with discussions about and polemics against any of the more abstruse philosophical theories, past and present, or with much of the argumentation about particular points which might be necessary to defend them against philosophical opponents.

I have done my best to limit the use of technical terms to the minimum, and to give an explanation of the meaning of all such terms as and when they occur.

Maurice Cornforth

London

Contents

PART ONE: MATERIALISM

1. Party Philosophy

2. Materialism and Idealism

3. Mechanistic Materialism

4. From Mechanistic to Dialectical Materialism

5. The Dialectical Conception of Development

PART TWO: DIALECTICS

6. Dialectics and Metaphysics

7. Change and Interconnection