Essay Sixteen -- Summaries
A word of warning: I am in the process of completely re-writing these summaries, posting the changes as they are being made.
Please note that these are are Introductory Essays that have been written for those who find the main Essays either too long, or too difficult. They do not pretend to be comprehensive since they are simply summaries of some of the core ideas presented at this site. In that case, they are not written for experts or knowledgeable comrades.
Because of the length of Essay Sixteen (now at over 100,000 words!) I have broken it down into shorter sections, endeavouring to keep all but one of them below 5000 words in length. Hence, most of the supporting evidence and argument presented in each of the main Essays has been omitted. Anyone wanting more details, or who would like to examine my arguments and evidence in full, should consult the Essay for which each is merely a précis. The Main Index is here.
Index
Essay Sixteen has been broken up as follows:
Summary of Essays Two And Three
The following three summaries are now available:
16-02 -- Summary Of Essay Two: Dialectics -- Imposed On Nature, Not Read From It
16-03-01 -- Summary Of Essay Three Part One: Abstraction -- The Heart Of The Beast
16-03-02 -- Summary Of Essay Three Part Two: Abstraction -- Science On The Cheap
Essay Two shows how dialectics has been imposed on nature (making it thoroughly Idealist), in spite of the fact that dialecticians deny they have done this. [Essay Twelve Part One explains why they do this.]
Essay Three Parts One and Two address fatal weaknesses of DM-Epistemology, revealing the real nature of abstraction. This helps set-up the conclusions of Essays Nine and Twelve.
Summary of Essays Four, Five and Six
These have now been published:
16-04-01 -- Summary Of Essay Four Part One: Formal Logic Can Cope With Change
16-05 -- Summary Of Essay Five: Engels Was Wrong -- Motion Is Not Contradictory
16-06 -- Summary Of Essay Six: Trotsky On Identity -- Unequal To The Task
These summaries demolish (1) the absurd allegations dialecticians make about Formal Logic, (2) Engels's superficial 'analysis' of motion, and (3) Trotsky's (and hence indirectly Hegel's) misguided attack on the 'Law of Identity'.
Summary of Essays Seven and Fourteen
[The Summary Of Essay Fourteen has not been re-written yet; the latter is a link to an older version.]
Essay Seven completely demolishes Engels's Three 'Laws of Dialectics' and Essay Fourteen establishes the mystical and Hermetic origins of DM, branding it as an inferior form of ruling-class thought unwittingly smuggled into the workers' movement by comrades who had a tenuous grasp of the issues involved. Dialectics is thus fourth-rate Metaphysics.
The following have now been published:
16-07-01A -- Summary Of Essay Seven Part One A: Quantity Into Quality -- Busted
16-07-01B -- Summary Of Essay Seven Part One B: Interpenetration Of Opposites -- Demolished
16-07-01C -- Summary Of Essay Seven Part One C: The Negation Of The Negation -- Trashed
Summary of Essay Eight
This Essay examines in extensive detail change through 'internal contradictions'.
16-08-01 -- Summary Of Essay Eight Part One: Lenin 'Refutes' Mechanics
16-08-02 -- Summary Of Essay Eight Part Two: Opposing Forces Cannot Be 'Contradictions'
These show that (1) the thesis that change occurs through 'internal contradictions' and that (2) the equation of 'dialectical contradictions' with opposing forces are thoroughly misguided, continuing the analyses found in Essays Five and Seven.
Summaries of Essays Nine, Ten And Eleven
Essay Nine reveals just why dialecticians cling on to DM like grim death, even though they themselves have effectively disproved it in practice over the last hundred years or so. It also reveals why dialectics has damaged revolutionary socialism (possibly fatally), and how this theory aggravates (but does not create) sectarianism, guaranteeing Marxist parties stay small and ineffective. Finally, Essay Nine Part One argues that because dialectics is in fact a ruling-class theory, workers in general will always ignore/reject it. Dialectics is in fact the ideology of substitutionist elements in Marxism.
16-09-01 -- Summary Of Essay Nine Part One: Dialectics: A Ruling-Class Theory
16-09-02 -- Summary Of Essay Nine Part Two: The Damage Dialectics Has Inflicted On Marxism
16-10-01 -- Summary Of Essay Ten Part One: Dialectics Refuted By Practice And History
In Essay Ten Part One, the link between practice and truth is severed. It is also argued that even if truth were capable of being tested in practice, as dialecticians claim, practice has nonetheless refuted dialectics.
16-11-01 -- Summary Of Essay Eleven Part One: The Mysterious "Totality"
In this Essay I show that dialecticians have been hopelessly unclear what they mean by this nebulous entity and its mysterious "interconnections".
16-11-02 -- Summary Of Essay Eleven Part Two: DM-Wholism Is Full Of Holes
This Essay demolishes the Wholist metaphysic dialecticians unwisely appropriated from Hegel (and other mystics).
Summary of Essay Twelve, Parts One to Seven
Essay Twelve rehearses the most general and fundamental criticisms of both dialectics and traditional Philosophy found at this site.
Its various parts reveal (1) why philosophical theses (and in particular those concocted by dialecticians) readily collapse into incoherence, (2) how and why traditional Philosophy/Metaphysics arose in ancient Greece, (3) how Metaphysics reflects a ruling-class view of the world (modified to suit each Mode of Production), and (4) how its class-compromised ideas have been imported into Marxism.
Essay Twelve also exposes Hegel's logical and philosophical incompetence, thus depriving dialectics of any rationale.
16-12-01 -- Summary Of Essay Twelve Part One: The Metaphysical Nature Of Dialectics
This Essay shows how and why the theses found both in DM and traditional thought collapse into incoherence.
A general summary of what the rest of Essay Twelve will look like has now been written -- it can be accessed here.
The summaries below are still being re-written:
Summary Of Essay Thirteen Part One: Lenin Inadvertently Demolishes Materialism
This shows that, far from defending materialism, Lenin totally undermined it.
This page contains a list of books and articles referred to in the course of Essay Sixteen.
The Complete Version Of Essay Sixteen
This is an older version of Essay Sixteen in all its non-dissected glory. It is now badly out of date, so visitors should consult the more up-to-date sections listed above.
Latest Update: 15/09/09
© Rosa Lichtenstein 2009
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