Hardcore dialecticians, who tend to reject everything at this site without first reading a single Essay(!), can instead try their hand at the 2023 Dialectics Final Exam -- kindly set for us by The Guild Of The Mediated Totality.

Site Map

I recently had a letter concerning Marx and Hegel published in Socialist Worker.

Two comrades replied, but my second response wasn't published. Read the entire correspondence, and more, here.

And here is another letter I sent to the above paper; they didn't publish that, either.

Here is yet another letter I sent in June 2008, which they failed to publish, too.

In August 2008, a supporter of this site sent a letter to Socialist Review, which the editor decided not to publish. You can read it here.

In November 2008, the same supporter sent another letter to Socialist Review in response to an article on dialectics by John Rees. The editor chose not to publish it, either. You can read that letter here.

In September 2008, I sent a letter to the International Socialist Review, which they then published in the September/October issue.

A comrade replied to my letter; you can read the original letter, his reply and my response -- Engels And Mickey Mouse Science -- here.

July 2012: A supporter of this site sent a letter to Socialist Worker, which they chose not to print. You can read it here, and then try to guess why the editors declined to publish it.

October 2012: The same supporter sent a couple of letters to the editors of Socialist Review and Socialist Worker in response to two articles about John Molyneux's new book, The Point Is To Change It: Introduction To Marxist Philosophy.

They chose not to publish either of them (no surprise there, then!). They can both be accessed here.

Anyone trying to view these Essays with Mozilla Firefox might find that some of the symbols I have used won't show up on their screens; in addition, the page formatting might change rather erratically.

The editor I have used to write this material is Microsoft's FrontPage 2003, which doesn't seem to 'like' Firefox.

What's New:

September 2024:

25/09/2024: Six years ago I took part in an on-line interview that was subsequently published over at Libcom. However, the finished article contained a number of typos (which I tried to correct, but to no avail).

I have now completely re-written my response to the questions I was asked, and the result has now been re-published here, at this site. I hope to have the version over at Libcom updated, too.

Interview With Rosa Lichtenstein

18/09/2024: I have just re-written and completely re-organised Essay One -- Why I Began This Project -- the Introduction to this site, which, as its title suggests, explains:

(i) Why this project was set in motion back in 1998; as well as,

(i) The tone adopted when criticising DM -- and directed at those responsible for continuing to inflict this failed theory on the workers' movement;

(iii) The length of the Essays;

(iv) Which subject areas of DM have been covered; and,

 (v) A summary of the numerous (hostile and abusive) reactions I have received from the DM-fraternity.

About 10,000 words of new material has been added, which makes this Essay approximately 25% longer. I have also corrected a few errors and typos.

However, I am still re-writing Essays Three Part Two, Five and Twelve Part One, which are all taking far longer than I had anticipated. But they should be ready in their final form by the early winter.

I still aim to publish the entirely new Essay mentioned below -- i.e., Twelve Part Four -- DM And Linguistic Idealism: Is Nature Rational? It should be ready by the early spring of 2025.

July 2024:

I have spent the last year completely re-writing and re-structuring Essay Three Part Two, Essay Five and Essay Twelve Part One, posting the changes as they happen. They should all be finished by the early autumn.

After that, I aim to publish an entirely new Essay -- i.e., Twelve Part Four -- DM And Linguistic Idealism: Is Nature Rational? That should be ready by early 2025, possibly before.

Following that, I hope to be able to publish Essay Thirteen Part Two (which will be about the nature of science and its relation to DM) before the end of 2025.

August 2023:

I have finally completed the systematic re-write of Essay Eleven Part One --  The 'Totality': WTF Is it? -- which re-write began in June 2022!

It has taken this long because several illnesses slowed me down and because of the highly unsatisfactory nature of the original Essay. I have explained the reasons for the latter (defect) in the Preface.

Approximately 114,000 words of new material have been added (which is the equivalent of adding a 230 page book to the old Essay!), making it 111% longer than it was. This is now one of the longest and most substantial Essays published at this site. It also represents easily the most comprehensive and extensive re-configuration of any of these Essays in the 25 years I have been writing them.

The Essay itself deals with two core DM-concepts, about which their proponents have written surprisingly little: "Totality" and "Universal Inter-connection". It is no exaggeration to assert that if everything written about those two topics -- taken from right across Dialectical Marxism -- were to be gathered together and collated in a single book, it would contain fewer than five thousand words, most of which material would be highly superficial, mind-numbingly repetitive and contain countless quotations from the DM-classics, none of which make either concept any the clearer!

Why that is so is hard to fathom given the key role these two concepts are said to occupy in Dialectical Marxism.

Any who find that hard to believe should click on the above link where their qualms will soon be laid to rest.

July 2023:

Once more, the re-write of Essay Eleven Part One --  The 'Totality': WTF Is it? -- is taking far longer than I had imagined. It should be ready to publish by the end of August.

May 2023:

Once again, I had hoped to complete the re-write of Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is it? -- by the end of March, but two serious illnesses prevented me from doing that.

I now hope to have it published by the end of June!

January 2023:

I had hoped to complete the re-write of Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is it? -- by Xmas, but that hasn't proved possible. It will very likely take another two months to finish, by which time it will easily be the most comprehensive and radical re-write that any of my Essays have undergone in the last twenty years! That is partly why it is taking so long; in fact I have been re-writing it now since June 2022!

It will be at least 60,000 words longer that it was a year ago.

November 2022:

I have just re-written the Basic Introduction to my main arguments against DM -- Why I Oppose Dialectical Materialism -- as well as the following Essay: Was Wittgenstein A Leftist?

In each case, I have clarified my argument and corrected few errors and typos. Both are about 1% longer.

Over the last five months I have also been completely re-writing and re-organising Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is it?

That is taking far longer to complete than I had hoped, but it should be finished by Xmas.

September 2022:

07/09/22: I have just finished re-writing Essay One -- Why I Began This Project. I have clarified the argument, corrected a few errors and typos and added about 1000 words of new material, making it about 2% longer.

I am also in the process of completely re-writing and re-organising Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is it?

It should be ready to publish in the next week or so.

June 2022:

12/06/22: I have just spent the last five months completely re-writing and re-formatting Essay Eight Part Three -- 'Dialectical Contradictions' Exposed As Incoherent.

The above is one of the most technically complicated and difficult Essays published at this site, and I was unhappy with my previous attempts to make what I wanted to say crystal clear. That is why it has taken so long to re-write it. I have corrected many errors (large and small), greatly clarified the argument and added over 30,000 words of new material, making it approximately 34% longer.

January 2022:

28/01/22: The Basic Introductory Essay -- Why I Oppose Dialectical Materialism -- has just been re-written to make the argument even clearer. I have also corrected a few errors and typos. It is now just over 1000 words (i.e., approximately 2%) longer.

16/01/22: I have just spent the last three months completely re-writing, re-formatting and reorganising Essay Eight Part Two -- Why Opposing Forces Aren't Contradictions.

I have added 26,300 words of new material, making it approximately 23% longer I have also greatly clarified and strengthening my arguments. I have also corrected a few errors and typos.

October 2021

21/10/21: Essay Eight Part One -- Change Through 'Internal Contradictions': An Incoherent Doctrine -- has been completely re-written, re-formatted and reorganised.

I have added 8400 words of new material, making it approximately 17% longer, clarifying and strengthening my argument. I have also corrected a few errors and typos.

03/10/21: I have just finished re-writing, re-formatting and re-organising Essay Seven Part Three -- Why Dialectical Materialism Can't Explain Change.

I have clarified the argument, corrected a few errors and typos, adding just over 11,800 words of new material, making it just over 22% longer.

August 2021

29/08/21: I have just finished re-writing, re-formatting and re-organising Essay Six -- Trotsky And Hegel Both Screwed Up -- The 'Law' Of Identity And Why It Doesn't Preclude Change.

I have clarified the argument, corrected a few errors and typos, adding just over 4500 words of new material, making it just short of 7% longer.

02/08/21: I have just posted a complete re-write, re-organisation and re-format of Essay Seven Part One -- Engels's Three 'Laws' Of Dialectics Debunked. I have added 13,600 words of new material, which makes it 6.9% longer. I have also clarified my argument, and corrected a few errors and typos.

July 2021

16/07/21: The Introductory Essay, which explains why I began this project back in 1998, has just been re-written. I have added about 2000 words of new material (making it approximated 5% longer). I have also clarified the argument, and corrected a few errors and typos.

Incidentally, John Rees, the author of the book that originally motivated me to begin this project, has just blocked me on Twitter for daring to question this failed theory of his.

I merely note that Rees, who has been at the forefront of the campaign to free Julian Assange on the grounds that his imprisonment threatens press freedom and free speech, can't tolerate any of it on his Twitter timeline.

An ironic 'Unity of Opposites' for readers to ponder.

Finally, I am about 3/4s of the way through a complete re-write and re-format of Essay Seven Part One -- Engels's Three 'Laws' Of Dialectics Debunked -- which should be completed in the next couple of weeks.

May 2021

15/05/21: I have just re-written the Summary of Essay Twelve Parts Two to Seven, which shows:

(i) How the ideas that infuse Dialectical Materialism recapitulate dogmas that have motivated the theories of ruling-class hacks since Ancient Greek times;

(ii) How and why Hegel's attempt to derive his theory from a superficial consideration the verb 'to be' -- a failing that was seriously compounded by an insecure grasp even of Aristotelian Logic -- led him astray;

(iii) That DM therefore enjoys zero rational support; and, finally,

(iv) Why Marx's advice that we return to using ordinary language and turn away from the distorted jargon found in traditional philosophy actually cuts 'dialectics' off at the knees.

I have also clarified the argument, corrected a few errors and typos and added just under 2500 words of new material, making this Essay approximately 9% longer.

07/05/21: I have just finished re-writing Essay Thirteen Part One -- Lenin's Disappearing Definition Of Matter -- which largely concerns Lenin's attempt of criticise the theories of  various Subjective Idealists and Empiricists in and around the Russian workers' movement of his day, as well as defend his own theory of knowledge. I show how he fails to do both (without in any way supporting Subjective Idealism and Empiricism on my part!), and in the event how he ends up undermining his own commitment to materialism.

I have clarified and strengthened my arguments, corrected a few errors and typos, and added just under 5000 words of new material -- which makes the Essay approximately 7% longer.

April 2021

18/04/21: I have just re-written the two Introductory Essays to the site: Anti-Dialectics For Beginners, and the much shorter, Anti-Dialectics For Absolute Beginners.

I haven't added much new material, I have just clarified the arguments and corrected a few typos and minor errors.

October 2020

04/10/20: I have just spent the last six months (no exaggeration!) completely re-writing and restructuring Essay Three Part Two -- Abstractionism -- 'Science' On The Cheap -- which is aimed at showing that dialecticians' use of traditional theories of abstraction in fact undermine their entire theory/method.

I have greatly clarified the argument, corrected several mistakes, errors and typos, and added just over 33,000 words of new material making the Essay 37% longer.

July 2020

02/07/20: Over the last two months I have been engaged in a long and fruitless debate with a fan of 'Systematic Dialectics' I met on Quora a year or so ago. I'm in the middle of composing my latest reply to him, here (which has now been completed).

April 2020

01/04/20: I have once again re-written Essay Four Part One -- Formal Logic Can Handle Change, adding approximately 4300 words of new material, which makes it 3.6% longer. I have again slightly reorganised the Essay, clarified the argument and corrected several serious errors and minor typos.

February 2020

10/02/20: I have again re-written Essay Four Part One -- Formal Logic Can Handle Change, adding approximately 3300 words of new material, which makes it 2.8% longer. I have also slightly reorganised the Essay, greatly clarified the argument and corrected several serious errors and minor typos.

January 2020

13/01/20: A close relative of mine has spent the last two weeks converting my system to Windows 10, which is one reason why there has been no activity on this site since late December.

As noted above, if you are using Edge, Windows 10 will render the links I have inserted in my Essays (other than on this page!) several different colours. They should be dark blue.

Firefox and Chrome reproduce them correctly.

December 2019

16/12/19: Essay Three Part One -- How Abstractionism Undermines Dialectics -- has been completely re-written and re-organised. I have added just over 19,000 words of new material making it approximately 14% longer. I have also corrected a few errors and typos and made the argument much clearer.

November 2019

10/11/19: Essay Ten Part One: Dialectical Materialism: Refuted By Practice And History has just been re-written and slightly re-structured. I have added just short of 3500 words of new material, making it approximately 5% longer. I have also corrected several errors and typos, and have clarified my argument.

I have also re-written Essay One: Why I Began This Project.

September 2019

23/09/19: I have just re-written and restructured Essay Nine Part Two -- How Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaries And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism. I have added just over 14,000 words of new material, making it approximately 7% longer. I have also corrected several errors and typos and clarified the argument.

04/09/19: I wasn't too happy with my last re-write of Essay Eight Part Three -- Dialectical 'Logic' And Dialectical 'Contradictions' Exposed As Incoherent -- so I have re-written it once more. I have added another 3200 words of new material, which means it is now about 4% longer. Again, I have corrected several errors and typos as well as greatly clarifying the argument.

July 2019

22/07/19: I have now completely re-written Essay Eight Part Three: Dialectical 'Logic' And Dialectical 'Contradictions' Exposed As Incoherent. I have added over 11,000 words of new material, making it approximately 16% longer, corrected a few errors and typos and clarified the argument.

This Essay also contains the first detailed take-down of Michael Kosok's lamentable attempt to 'formalise' Hegel's 'Logic'.

May 2019

01/05/19: Essay Five -- Motion Isn't Contradictory -- has just been re-written and completely re-organised. I have added about 6,000 words of new material (making it about 7% longer), corrected a few errors and typos and clarified the argument.

February 2019

 27/02/19: I have just finished re-writing Essay Nine Part One -- Why Workers Will Always Reject 'Materialist Dialectics', adding just over 2,000 words of new material, which makes the Essay about 2.6% longer. I have also reorganised the Essay a little, clarified the argument and corrected a few errors and typos.

01/02/19: I have again re-written Essay Four Part One -- Formal Logic Can Handle Change, adding approximately 6500 words of new material, which makes it 6% longer. I have also slightly reorganised the Essay, clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

October 2018

I am having to move flats since the owner of my flat defaulted on his mortgage and it was sold under his feet.

There will be no more updates for couple of months.

September 2018

03/09/18: I have now re-written Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality' -- WTF Is It? I have added approximately 4,000 words of new material, making it 4% longer. I have also made my argument clearer and corrected several errors and typos.

July 2018

30/07/18: I have just re-written and re-organised Essay Four Part One -- Formal Logic Can Handle Change. I have added just over 5,000 words of new material, making it approximately 5% longer. I have also made my argument clearer and corrected several errors and typos.

I am also half-way through doing the same with Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality' -- WTF Is It?.

June 2018

04/06/18: I have completely re-written and re-organised Essay Seven Part One -- Engels's Three 'Laws' Of Dialectics Debunked. I have added 12,500 words of new material, making it approximately 7% longer, clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

April 2018

24/04/18: Essay Ten Part One -- Dialectical Materialism: Refuted By Practice And History -- has just been re-written. I have added approximately 4,200 words of new material (making it just under 6% longer), and corrected a few errors and typos.

07/04/18: I have just finished re-writing and re-organising Essays Two and Four Part One -- Dialectics -- Imposed On Reality, Not Read From It and Formal Logic Can Handle Change.

I have corrected several errors and typos in both, adding approximately 6300 words of new material to Essay Two (making it just under 5% longer) and about 5000 words of new material to Four Part One (making it also about 5% longer).

February 2018

14/02/18: I have just published two more instalments in my long-running reply to a Confused Marxist-Leninist, who posted two largely incoherent videos which tried to respond to an Introductory Essay of mine -- i.e., Refuting a Weak Attempt to Refute Me 11 & 12. All my replies to this individual, including the latest two, can be accessed here.

09/02/18: Essay Thirteen Part Three -- 'Mind', Language, And 'Cognition' -- has been completely re-written and reorganised. I have clarified the argument, corrected several typos and errors and added over 11,000 words of new material, making it approximately 6% longer.

January 2018

25/01/18: Because it sets up the other Essays at this site, I have completely re-written and re-organised Essay Three Part One -- How Abstractionism Undermines Dialectics. It shows how core ideas Hegel dreamt up originated in Ancient Greek Metaphysics and Medieval Theology (connected with the re-configuration of subject-predicate sentences as identity propositions), and how this abstract approach to knowledge has totally undermined, not just Dialectical Materialism, but the language used by dialecticians to explain their theory.

I have reorganised this Essay, clarified the argument considerably, corrected several serious errors and annoying typos, and have added approximately 7500 words of new material, making it about 6% longer.

December 2017

18/12/17: Essay Eight Part Two -- Why Opposing Forces Aren't Contradictions -- has just been re-written. I have corrected several errors and typos, clarified the argument and added approximately 12,000 words of new material, making it about 12% longer.

04/12/17: I have just re-written the opening Essay of this site -- Why I Began This Project. The argument has been clarified, with 800 words of new material added, making it approximately 2% longer.

November 2017

15/11/17: The second edition of Richard Seymour's excellent book about Jeremy Corbyn was published last month:

05/11/17: Because of its complexity, I have just re-written Essay Eleven Part Two:  Dialectical Wholism -- Full Of Holes  I have clarified the argument, corrected a few errors and typos, and added 3,400 words of new material (making it approximately 5% longer).

October 2017

05/10/17: I have just re-written two Essays:

(1)  Essay Four Part One: Formal Logic Can Handle Change. I have completely re-designed this Essay and have also greatly clarified the argument; I have also corrected a few errors and typos. Approximately 2,300 words of new material has been added, making it roughly 2.5% longer.

(2) Essay Five: Why Motion Isn't Contradictory. The argument has also been greatly clarified, and a few errors and typos corrected. 3,500 words have been added, making it roughly 4% longer.

August 2017

25/08/17: I have just re-published Essay Twelve Part One: Why All Philosophical Theories, Including Dialectical Materialism, Are Non-Sensical. This Essay has been completely re-written and re-structured, since much of it was rather obscure, and, incidentally, wrong. It is now 30% longer, having had 38,000 words of new material added.

June 2017

15/06/17: Essay Two: Dialectics -- Imposed On Reality, Not Read From It has been completely re-structured and re-written. I have added 2500 words of new material, making it about 2% longer. I have also re-written Essay One: Why I Began This Project.

May 2017

I have spent the last two months re-writing the summaries of all the main Essays at this site, and I have finished all but three of them. The re-written Essays can be accessed here.

March 2017

20/03/17: Essay Nine Part Two -- How Petty-Bourgeois Theorists And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism -- has been completely re-written. I have added 36,000 words of new material and several new sections, making it approximately 22% longer. I have also clarified the argument, and corrected a few errors and typos.

February 2017

14/02/17: I have just re-written Essay Three Part Two -- Abstractionism: 'Science' On The Cheap. I have added approximately 8000 words of new material, making it about 10% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

January 2017

01/01/17: I have just re-written the Essay, Was Wittgenstein a Leftist?

I have corrected a few errors and typos and added just under 2000 words of new material, making it approximately 2% longer.

December 2016

12/12/16: Essay Five -- Why Motion Isn't Contradictory has just been re-written. I have clarified the argument considerably, corrected a few errors and typos with just over 2500 words of new material, making it approximately 3% longer.

November 2016

28/11/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Nine Part One -- Why Workers Will Always Reject 'Materialist Dialectics', adding 8,000 words of new material making the Essay just over 12% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected a few errors and typos.

12/11/16: Essay Ten Part One -- Dialectical Materialism: Refuted By Practice And History has just be re-written and re-organised to make the argument clearer and run more smoothly, adding approximately 6,000 words of new material, making it 8% longer. I have also corrected a few errors and typos.

08/11/16: I have just re-written one of the summaries of Essay Twelve Part One -- Why All Philosophical Theories Are Non-Sensical.

The argument is now, I think, far more perspicuous.

October 2016

30/10/16 -- I have now finished re-formatting the entire site (other than this page!).

I have also finished re-writing Essay One -- Why I Began This Project. It is now about 10% longer.

I am also in the middle of replying to another largely incoherent video published by 'The Finnish Bolshevik'. The first four of my responses can be accessed here, here, here, and here.

~~~~oOo~~~~

I am in the middle of reformatting the Essays published at this site, replacing much of the garish red font with black. I am also having to correct several other serious formatting glitches mysteriously introduced by the editor I have used, Microsoft's FrontPage. This should take another two or three weeks to complete.

August 2016

18/08/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eight Part Two -- Why Opposing Forces Aren't Contradictions -- adding just over 18,000 words of new material, making it approximately 22% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

In addition, I have added a section on Immanuel Kant's attempt to introduce 'real opposition'/'negation' into philosophy, which 'concept', we are told, was integral to Hegel's own invention of 'dialectical contradictions'.

I have also critically analysed Tom Weston's attempt to link a throw-away remark Marx added to Volume One of Das Kapital (about elliptical motion) to Hegel's confused introduction of 'dialectical contradictions'.

I will say more about Weston's ill-considered article in a later re-write of Essay Nine Part One.

13/08/16: A couple of months ago I re-wrote Essay Six -- Trotsky And Hegel -- Or, How To Misconstrue The 'Law' Of Identity, but on re-reading it, it was apparent that the argument wasn't as clear as it could or should be. I have now re-written it again, adding just under 3,000 words of new material, making it approximately 5% longer still, greatly clarifying the argument and correcting several errors and typos.

June 2016

25/06/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eight Part One -- Change Through 'Internal Contradiction' -- An Incoherent Dogma. I have added approximately 3,500 words of new material, making it 8% longer.

I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

12/06/16: Last year, a self-styled 'Marxist-Leninist' (who calls himself 'The Finnish Bolshevik' [TFB]) published a video at YouTube criticising an Essay I wrote some time ago at the behest of one or two younger comrades who wanted a basic introduction to my criticisms of DM. I subsequently published a reply to this video, but TFB has now posted a second video at YouTube attempting to respond to a few of my replies to him.

I have now published the first part of my response to this latest video.

[Links to the first video and my replies to it can be found at the above link.]

04/06/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Four Part One -- Formal Logic And Change. I have added approximately 13,500 words of new material, making it roughly 17% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

May 2016

04/05/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Six -- Trotsky And Hegel -- Or, How To Misconstrue The 'Law' Of Identity. I have added just over 5,000 words of new material, making it approximately 11% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

04/05/16: Here's a new book by Richard Seymour I can heartily recommend:

From the publisher's website:

April 2016

24/04/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eleven Part Two -- Dialectical Wholism -- Full Of Holes. I have added just over 3,000 words of new material, making it approximately 5% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

17/04/16: Having re-written Essay Three Part One, I thought it wise to do the same to its sequel, Essay Three Part Two -- Abstractionism: 'Science' On The Cheap. I have added approximately 4000 words of new material, making it about 5% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

02/04/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Three Part One -- How Abstractionism Undermines Language And Science. I have added just over 25,000 words of new material, making it approximately 26% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

However, the biggest change is that I have added an Appendix which contains a detailed criticism of an attempt to defend Hegel against criticisms advanced by Bertrand Russell.

February 2016

10/02/16: Essay Thirteen Part One -- Lenin's Disappearing Definition Of Matter -- has just been re-written. I have added just over 3,000 words of new material, making it approximate Ely 4% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

02/02/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay One -- Why I Began This Project. I have added approximately 3,000 words of new material, making it roughly 10% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

January 2016

22/01/16: I have just finished re-writing Essay Seven Part One -- Engels's Three 'Laws' Debunked. I have added just over 15,000 words of new material, making it approximately 10% longer. I have also clarified the argument and corrected several errors and typos.

December 2015

28/12/15: I have just re-written Essay Seven Part Three -- Why Dialectical Materialism Can't Explain Change.

I have added just over 1000 words of new material, making it approximately 2% longer. I have also made the argument clearer and have corrected several errors and typos.

November 2015

27/11/15: I have just finished yet another re-write of Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality' -- WTF Is It?

I have added just short of 14,000 words of new material, making it approximately 12% longer. I have also made the argument clearer and have corrected several errors and typos.

I have re-written this Essay again so soon after the last re-write because, as I say in the preamble, I wasn't happy with the way I had approached this topic. This means that it will have to be re-jigged many more times before I am content with the end product.  

August 2015

24/08/15: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality' -- WTF Is It?

I have added 11,000 words of new material, making it just over 10% longer. I have also made the argument clearer and have corrected several errors and typos.

10/08/15: I recently spotted an article in Weekly Worker written by Jack Conrad that attempted to defend both DM and the traditional view that Marx and Engels were of one mind when it came to that theory/method.

I wrote a 2000 word reply which they published in edited form as a letter.

The full, un-edited version can be accessed here.

June 2015

26/06/15: I have just finished a re-write of Essay Four: Formal Logic Can Handle Change.

I have added just over 6000 words of new material, making the Essay approximately 8% longer. I have also clarified the argument, and corrected several mistakes and typos.

18/06/15: Over the last three or four months my time has largely been occupied correcting the formatting problems at this site (mentioned above). That onerous task is now nearly complete.

The next Essay to be published at this site -- devoted to DM and Science -- should appear before the end of the year.

April 2015

12/04/15: I have now finished a re-write of Essay Five: Why Motion Isn't Contradictory.

I have added just under 4000 words of new material, making the Essay approximately 6% longer. I have clarified the argument, and corrected several mistakes and typos.

December 2014

31/12/14: I have just finished re-writing Essay Seven Part Three: Why Dialectical Materialism Can't Explain Change.

I have made the argument clearer and added about 3000 words of new material, making the Essay approximately 7% longer.

20/12/14: A few years ago (and long before their disastrous handling of rape allegations made against a former leading member of the UK-SWP) I wrote a letter to Socialist Worker about, would you believe, Gödel's theorem. I made the point that the results of that theorem should only be accepted by Platonists.

They chose not to publish it.

Since then, I have been regularly adding new material to a series of addendums to that letter. I have now added the latest batch of new material (which largely relates to a paper I have just read that was written by a Professor of Mathematics concerning the incoherence of the idea that there are, or could be, infinite sets).

15/11/14: I have now finished a re-write of Essay Five: Motion Isn't Contradictory.

I have added just over 5000 words of new material, making the Essay approximately 7% longer. I have clarified the argument, and corrected several mistakes and typos.

November 2014

15/11/14: I have just received a copy of Henri Wald's seriously mis-titled Introduction To Dialectical Logic. I would have obtained this work long ago, but copies on the Internet were far too expensive. However, a few weeks ago, one became available in my price range.

This book is, however, a classic example of how not to introduce a topic, since it is full of technical jargon and seems to have been written by someone who believes that if a complicated and incomprehensible sentence can be substituted for simpler words, then that on its own somehow elevates any thought it attempts to communicate into a superior form of philosophy. This is typical of Traditional Thought in this area, and, as several Essays published at this site show, dialecticians are only too keen to demonstrate how traditional and conservative they are in this respect. 

One would have thought that Marx's advice -- that we return to the use of ordinary language and reject the empty abstractions of Traditional Thought -- would have informed Wald's approach ("would have thought", that is, at least in an Introductory text, and one that seeks to advance Marxist theory!).

Be this as it may, Wald has made some attempt to respond to several criticisms I have levelled against this ruling-class import into the workers' movement (clearly without any knowledge of my work, since Wald's book was published long before I began to write these Essays!). That being the case, over the next few months I will be adding (to several of my Essays) a series of rebuttals to Wald's rather weak attempt to defend this indefensible theory [DM].

11/11/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Ten Part One -- Dialectical Materialism: Refuted By Practice And History?

I have made numerous small changes, corrected several errors and typos -- as well as adding about 5000 words of new material, making the Essay approximately 10% longer.

October 2014

30/10/2014: I have just finished re-writing an Essay I posted a year ago: Was Wittgenstein A Leftist?

I have made numerous small changes, corrected several errors and typos, and added about 1600 words of new material.

18/10/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Three Part Two --Abstractionism -- 'Science' On The Cheap

Nearly 5,000 words of new material have been added (making the Essay approximately 7% longer), several errors and typos have been corrected, and the argument has been clarified throughout.

September 2014

06/09/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is It?

I have added just over 10,000 words of new material (making the Essay approximately 10% longer), corrected several errors and typos, and clarified the argument considerably.

August 2014

01/08/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Thirteen Part Three -- 'Mind', Language, And 'Cognition; Voloshinov (And Several Others) Debunked

I have added over 13,000 words of new material (making the Essay approximately 7% longer), corrected several errors and typos, and clarified the argument.

May 2014

24/05/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Three Part One -- How Abstractionism Undermines Language And Science.

I have added just under 21,000 words of new material (making it approximately 28% longer), corrected several errors and typos, and have made the argument much clearer.

April 2014

03/04/2014: I have just finished re-writing Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is It?

I have added about 6500 words of new material (making it approximately 7% longer), corrected several errors and typos, and have made the argument much clearer.

March 2014

23/03/2014: A new book by a friend of mine has just been published:

Here is the blurb from the publishers website:

"Five years into capitalism's deepest crisis, which has led to cuts and economic pain across the world, Against Austerity addresses a puzzling aspect of the current conjuncture: why are the rich still getting away with it? Why is protest so ephemeral? Why does the left appear to be marginal to political life?

"In an analysis which challenges our understanding of capitalism, class and ideology, Richard Seymour shows how 'austerity' is just one part of a wider elite plan to radically re-engineer society and everyday life in the interests of profit, consumerism and speculative finance.

"But Against Austerity is not a gospel of despair. Seymour argues that once we turn to face the headwinds of this new reality, dispensing with reassuring dogmas, we can forge new collective resistance and alternatives to the current system. Following Brecht, Against Austerity argues that the good old things are over, it's time to confront the bad new ones."

What Was New?

Blogs:

Lenin's Tomb

Par En Bas

John Molyneux

Splintered Sunrise

Through The Scary Door

International Rooksbyism

The Dialectical Dialogues

Respect Blog

Killing Time

Cliffism

[Several of the above sites/blogs are no longer being updated!]

It is worth adding that I do not necessarily agree with everything published at the above sites; indeed, John Molyneux's otherwise excellent blog endorses the very theory under attack here!

~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~

Special Mention:

Guy's Philosophical Nuggets

Unfortunately, the above link no longer works, but many of Guy's essays have been republished here.

Other Links

Hurfinator

ff

Dialectical Materialism [DM] and 'Materialist Dialectics' [MD] have been the official philosophies of active revolutionary socialists for over a hundred and forty years.

During that time Dialectical Marxism has 'enjoyed' spectacular lack of success.

[Note my use of the term 'Dialectical Marxism' -- the non-dialectical version hasn't been road tested yet. On the difference between HM and DM, see here.]

Given the fact that dialecticians assure us that truth is tested in practice, and that DM is the main-spring of all they do, this can only mean that this 'theory' has been tested and shown to fail.

However, not only is it virtually impossible for most Dialectical Marxists to accept this negative picture of their own disastrous history, it is more difficult still for them to blame it even so much as partially on the misbegotten theory they have inherited from Hegel (upside down or 'the right way up').

In fact, it doesn't even make the bottom of the reserve list of reasons.

This must mean that in a world where dialecticians claim that everything is inter-connected, the only two things in the entire universe that are not inter-linked are the long-term failure of Dialectical Marxism and its core theory, DM!

Unfortunately, such a denial means that Dialectical Marxists never seem to learn from their mistakes, they just blame their long-term failure on anything and everything else.

Naturally, that just leads to yet more failures and this abysmal cycle repeats year-after-year.

This site has been set up to substantiate the above allegations, as well as to advance several more -- among which are the following:

Of course, highly controversial claims like these require solid proof; that is why the Essays posted at this site enter into such unprecedented detail.

Unfortunately, when I write short articles, dialecticians complain about their "superficiality". Then, in response to my greatly extended Essays, they moan these are too long!

The plain fact is, of course, that dialecticians already have the truth, and despite what Lenin said (about no theory being final), they treat DM as if it had been delivered to them from on high, written on tablets of stone.

However, despite their belief that all change is the result of contradiction, dialecticians do not like to be contradicted.

Great care has been taken with these Essays; they have been distilled from work I have been doing for the last twenty-five years, even though I have been mulling over these ideas for well over thirty. Literally thousands of hours have gone into writing, re-writing and re-thinking this material. In addition, I have spent more money than I care to mention obtaining literally thousands of obscure books, PhD theses, articles and papers on a whole range of topics directly or indirectly connected with DM.

In that case, anyone who can't bring to this discussion the seriousness it deserves is encouraged to go and waste their time elsewhere. I am not interested in engaging with clowns.

Essay One expands on the above comments, and explains:

(i) Why I began this project,

(ii) Why the tone I have adopted is unremittingly hostile toward this theory, and,

 (iii) Why I have gone into such unprecedented detail.

Preliminary Points

(1) It is important to emphasise from the outset that I am not blaming the long-term failure of Dialectical Marxism solely on the acceptance of the Hermetic ideas dialecticians have imported into our movement from Hegel.

Figure Five: Kyrgyzstan, April 2010

Figure Six: Tunisia, January 2011

Figure Seven: Cairo, January 2011

Figure Eight: Cairo, January 2011

Figure Nine: Bahrain, February 2011

Figure Ten: Syria, 2011

Figure Eleven: Cairo Again, November 2012

Figures Twelve, Thirteen, And Fourteen: Istanbul, June 2013

Figure Fifteen: Twelve Cities Erupt In Brazil, June 2013

Figure Sixteen: Rio De Janeiro, June 20th 2013

Figures Seventeen And Eighteen: Bosnia, February 2014

Figures Nineteen And Twenty: Kiev, 2013-14

Figure Twenty-One: Yerevan, Armenia, June 2015

Video One: Hong Kong, 29/09/2014

Video Two: Beirut, August 22 2015

Figure Twenty-Five: Armenia, April 2018

Figure Twenty-Six: Jordan, June 2018

These protests continued onto a second week.

[My mentioning Navalny in no way implies my support for him! Quite the reverse; he is clearly a far right, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant nationalist.]

In February 2021 there was a military coup in Myanmar. Tens of thousands of unarmed citizens rose in opposition to this usurpation of their democracy (severely limited though it was). Over two months of fighting on the streets saw more than 500 killed (including over 40 children) and many more wounded. Once again, all this was in defence of limited forms of bourgeois democracy.

What do the people of Myanmar have that Russian workers didn't have in 1991? Or workers in E Europe in 1989?

Given the above, the only two possible conclusions appear to be the following:

(i) Russian workers, despite being the most powerful and well-organised working class in human history, allegedly in control not only of one of the mightiest military forces on the planet, but the unions, the police, the party, the state bureaucracy, the courts and the media (etc., etc.), were in fact the most cowardly, diffident and pusillanimous working class in human history; or,

(ii) The former Soviet Union wasn't socialist and workers were glad to see the back of it. More-or-less the same can be said about workers in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Yugoslavia, and Albania.

As of September 2024, I have now published Essays and other material at this site totalling in excess of 5.9 million words.

This is approximately 70% of all the material I have.

Indeed, far more will be added as my researches continue.

Anyone who objects to the length of any of my Essays should rather pick a fight with Marx, Engels, Plekhanov, Lenin and Trotsky -- and, indeed, Hegel -- whose collected work easily dwarfs my own.

Even one of Zizek's latest books -- for example, Less Than Nothing -- is far longer than any of my Essays!

Figure Thirty-Three: Exhibit A For The Defence --

Das Kapital