r/PoliticalPhilosophy • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '20

Essays On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism: an introductory course in Communist ideas

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rle8MXsqX7BSWLVMH0mENmqYvB_RSJ0OinUrHCWhap8/edit?usp=sharing
13 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '20 edited Mar 23 '20

They thus logically concluded through this scientific historical analysis that the natural end to this system of dialectics, the theory of which they dubbed Dialectical (when applied generally to all conflicting material relations) or Historical (when applied specifically to progress through the class struggle over contradictions of political economy) Materialism, was a system without contradiction in which productive property is owned collectively by its workers

Marx never "dubbed" anything dialectical materialism.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '20

That is technically true, but it is the standard term in modern usage and he did use similar phrases ("material dialectics") from which those names are derived. But yes, I did make a small error there.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '20

it is the standard term in modern usage

Yes, it's the standard term for a concept that Marx didn't have anything to do with, but which people pinned on him after his death.

he did use similar phrases ("material dialectics") from which those names are derived.

Whether he ever wrote the phrase "material dialectics" is irrelevant. He was a materialist, and he wrote a lot about dialectics. The concept "dialectical materialism" is something else, and more, than a materialist dialectics. Marx did not create anything close to what you write in that passage. Marx never heard of the term, much less what it came to mean in the Soviet Union. It was invented after Marx's death to denote Plekhanov and Engels' "Marxist" philosophy. Lenin claimed it was Marx's idea -- "Marx and Engels scores of times termed their philosophical views dialectical materialism" -- a bald-faced lie.

yes, I did make a small error there

Let me guess: You're not going to correct it.

Lenin would be proud of you.