Anti-Dialectics

 

 

 

Internet Explorer 11 will no longer play the videos I have posted to this page or this site. As far as I can determine they play as intended in other browsers. However, if you have Privacy Badger [PB] installed, they won't play in Google Chrome unless you disable PB for this site.

 

Having said that, they play in IE11 if you have upgraded to Windows 10. It looks like the problem is with earlier versions of that operating system.

 

If you are using Internet Explorer 10 (or later), you might find some of the links I have used won't work properly unless you switch to 'Compatibility View' (in the Tools Menu); for IE11 select 'Compatibility View Settings' and add this site (anti-dialectics.co.uk). Microsoft's browser, Edge, automatically makes these links compatible; Windows 10 does likewise. I haven't been able to check this yet, but I imagine the same is the case with Windows 11.

 

However, if you are using Windows 10, E11 and Edge seem to colour links at this site somewhat erratically. They are meant to be mid-blue, but those two browsers render them intermittently light blue, yellow, purple or even red!

 

Firefox and Chrome appear to reproduce them as intended.

 

 

Preface

 

Readers will find the Essays published at this site contain the most detailed and comprehensive demolition of Dialectical Materialism [DM] in the entire history of revolutionary socialism.

 

And that is no exaggeration!

 

Exactly why I embarked on this project is explained here.

 

 

However, it is important to add that nothing at this site represents an attack on Historical Materialism [HM] -- a theory I fully accept --, or, indeed, revolutionary socialism.

 

I remain as committed to the self-emancipation of the working class and the dictatorship of the proletariat as I was when I first became a revolutionary thirty-five years ago.

 

That puts the lie to the accusation bandied about by DM-supporters that those who abandon their theory/'method' soon abandon Marxism.

 

The difference between DM and HM is explained here.

 

Two very brief introductions to some of the main ideas presented this site can be found further down the page, here and here.

 

A short summary of some of my main objections to DM -- written with absolute beginners in mind -- can be accessed here.

 

A longer summary of my case against DM can be found here.

 

Some readers have complained about the number of links I have added to the Essays posted at this site; they say it makes them difficult to read. Of course, DM-supporters can hardly lodge that complaint since they believe everything is interconnected and that must surely apply to anything that attempts to debunk that very idea.

 

However, to those who find these links do make these Essays difficult to read I say this: ignore them! Unless, of course, you want to access further supporting evidence and argument for a particular point or a specific topic fires your interest.

 

Others wonder why I have added links to subjects or topics that are part of common knowledge (such as the names of recent Presidents of the USA, UK Prime Ministers, the names of rivers and mountains, films, or certain words in common use). I have done so for the following reason: my Essays are read all over the world by people from all 'walks of life', so I can't assume that topics which are part of common knowledge in 'the west' are equally well-known across the planet -- or, indeed, by those who haven't had the benefit of the sort of education that is generally available in the 'advanced economies', or any at all. Some of my readers also struggle with English, so any help I can give them I will continue to provide.

 

Several of the aforementioned links connect to web-pages that regularly change their URLs, or which even vanish from the Internet altogether. While I endeavour to update or remove any such links when it becomes apparent they have changed or have died, I can't possibly keep on top of this all the time. I would greatly appreciate it, therefore, if readers informed me of any incorrect or dead links they happen to notice.

 

In general, Haloscan links no longer seem to work, so readers needn't tell me about them! Links to RevForum, RevLeft, Socialist Unity and The North Star also appear to have died.

 

Finally, I have adjusted the font size at this site to ensure that even those with impaired vision can read what I have to say.

 

If it is still either too big or too small for you, please adjust your browser settings!

 

The same should be done with the page width.

 

Quick Links To The Main Essays          Why I Began This Project

 

Site Map                              What's New

 

 

Contact Me

 

 

 

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

 

 

Quick Links:

 

What's New

 

Main Essays:

 

Essay One: Why I Began This Project

 

Essay Two: Dialectics Has Been Imposed On Reality Not Read From It

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Three Part One: How Abstractionism Undermines Dialectics

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Three Part Two: Abstractionism -- Or, 'Science' On The Cheap

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Four Part One: Formal Logic Can Handle Change

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Five: Why Motion Isn't Contradictory

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Six: Trotsky And Hegel Both Screwed Up -- The 'Law' Of Identity And Why It Doesn't Preclude Change

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Seven Part One: Engels's Three 'Laws' Of Dialectics -- Debunked

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Seven Part Three: Why Dialectical Materialism Itself Can't Explain Change

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Eight Part One: Essay Eight Part One: Change Through 'Internal Contradiction' -- An Incoherent Dogma

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Eight Part Two: Why Opposing Forces Aren't Contradictions

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Eight Part Three: Dialectical 'Logic' And Dialectical 'Contradictions' Exposed As Incoherent

 

Essay Nine Part One: Why Workers Will Always Reject 'Materialist Dialectics'

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Nine Part Two: How Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaries And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Ten Part One: Dialectical Materialism -- Refuted By Practice And History

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Eleven Part One: The 'Totality' -- WTF Is It?

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Eleven Part Two: Dialectical Wholism -- Full Of Holes

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Twelve Part One: Why All Philosophical Theories, Including Dialectical Materialism, Are Non-Sensical

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Thirteen Part One: Lenin's Disappearing 'Definition' Of Matter

 

[Summary here.]

 

Essay Thirteen Part Three: 'Mind', Language, And 'Cognition

 

Many of my Essays haven't been published yet; here are brief outlines of three of them:

 

Summary Of Essay Twelve Part Four: Outline of Hegel's Logical Blunders

 

Summary Of Essay Fourteen Part One: Hegel, Hermeticism And 'Materialist Dialectics

 

Summary Of The Rest Of Essay Twelve: Traditional Philosophy And Ruling-Class Ideology

 

~~~~oOo~~~~

 

Shorter Summaries Of All My Essays

 

~~~~oOo~~~~

 

Additional Material

 

 

 

According to sources at Marxism 2007, in response to a challenge that dialecticians use obscure jargon concocted by ruling-class hacks over the last 2300 years in order to try to make their theory work, John Rees alleged that this site also uses technical language.

Sure, some technical terminology has been used at this site, but this is merely a shorthand device; every such term has been paraphrased in ordinary language (as Marx himself enjoined of us). This can't be said of the obscure jargon employed by dialecticians.

More details here.

Be this as it may, the real source of dialectical confusion is exposed here.

Update, February 2010: The Dialectical Demons seem to have struck the Far Left again. John is no longer a member of the UK-SWP!

 However, the group he has now formed looks promising. I sincerely hope it, too, isn't one day cursed by these very same demons.

The same can't be said of the current UK-SWP, which seems to be imploding.

[What was that again about truth being tested in practice...?]

 

 

However, comrades can read a summary of the above events, along with the original intervention at Marxism 2007 (made by a supporter of this site) -- here.

 

 

 

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:

Up-to-date analysis of how Corbyn rose to the head of the Labour Party, and his prospects for staying there.

Jeremy Corbyn, the 'dark horse' candidate for the Labour leadership, won and won big. With a landslide in the first round, this unassuming antiwar socialist crushed the opposition, particularly the Blairite opposition.

For the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda -- and for the first time in Labour’s history, it controls the leadership. The party machine couldn't stop him. An almost unanimous media campaign couldn't stop him. It is as if their power, like that of the Wizard of Oz, was always mostly illusion. Now Corbyn has one chance to convince the public to support his reforming ambitions.

Where did he come from, and what chance does he have? This book tells the story of how Corbyn's rise was made possible by the long decline of Labour and a deep crisis of British democracy. It surveys the makeshift coalition of trade unionists, young and precarious workers, and students, who rallied to Corbyn. It shows how a novel social media campaign turned the media's 'Project Fear' on its head, making a virtue of every accusation they threw at him. And finally it asks, with all the artillery that is still ranged against Corbyn, and given the crisis-ridden Labour Party that he has inherited, what it would mean for him to succeed.

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."

 

 

  

 

SITE MAP:

The following Essays will be published at this site over the coming months and years; those in blue have already been published, those in crimson haven't:

Essay One -- Why I Began This Project. Introduction And Background

[Published: 12/11/05. Re-written: 31/12/06, 16/05/07, 07/09/07, 21/02/08, 23/04/08, 03/11/08, 15/01/12, 17/01/14, 02/02/16, 28/10/16, 08/06/17, 04/12/17, 02/09/19, 18/11/19, 15/07/21, 07/09/22 and 18/09/24.]

Essay Two: Dialectics -- Imposed On Nature, Not Read From It

[Published: 22/11/05. Re-written: 05/02/06, 27/09/06, 11/04/07, 24/05/07, 13/07/08, 28/08/09, 02/02/12, 19/05/13, 15/06/17 and 07/04/18.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Three Part One -- How Abstractionism Undermines Dialectics

[Published: 26/12/05. Re-written: 11/07/06, 14/03/07, 11/11/07, 12/12/08, 15/09/09, 13/08/11, 24/05/14, 02/04/16, 25/01/18 and 16/12/19.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Three Part Two -- Abstractionism: 'Science' On The Cheap

[Published: 05/01/06. Re-written: 08/05/06, 28/03/07, 25/11/07, 27/09/09, 13/09/10, 29/08/11, 07/04/12, 18/10/14, 17/04/16, 14/02/17 and 04/10/20.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Three Part Three -- 'Emergence', Reductionism And 'Crude Materialism'

Essay Three Part Four -- Fact vs Fiction

Essay Three Part Five -- 'Determinism'

Essay Three Part Six -- The 'Reflection' Theory Of Knowledge

Essay Four Part One: Formal Logic Can Cope With Change

[Published: 22/12/05. Re-written: 24/06/06, 04/05/07, 06/11/07, 12/10/09, 26/10/11, 04/06/16, 05/10/17, 07/04/18, 30/07/18, 01/02/19, 10/02/20 and 01/04/20.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Four Part Two -- 'Internal Relations'

Essay Five -- Why Motion Isn't Contradictory

[Published: December 2005. Re-written: 23/07/06, 27/01/07, 09/04/07, 29/10/07, 07/03/08, 17/04/08, 02/11/09, 13/09/11, 12/09/13, 13/12/14, 12/04/15, 12/12/16, 05/10/17 and 01/05/19.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Six --Trotsky And Hegel: How To Misconstrue The Law Of Identity, And Why It Is No Enemy Of Change

[Published: 21/01/06. Re-written: 17/02/06, 16/09/06, 10/10/07, 10/11/09, 27/09/11, 04/05/16, 13/08/16 and 29/08/21.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Seven Part One: The Three 'Laws' Of Dialectics Debunked

[Published: November 2005. Re-written: 07/04/06, 07/09/06, 14/03/07, 23/09/07, 21/10/08, 07/12/09, 27/11/11, 22/01/16, 04/06/18 and 02/08/21.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Seven Part Two -- Reason In Remission: Woods, Grant And Diabolical Logic

Essay Seven Part Three -- Why Dialectical Materialism Can't Explain Change

[Published: 02/01/14. Re-written: 31/12/14, 28/12/15 and 03/10/21.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Eight Part One -- Change Through 'Internal Contradiction' -- An Incoherent Dogma

[Published: 20/04/06. Re-written: 25/04/06, 09/01/07, 13/06/07, 28/09/07, 19/12/09, 09/12/11, 25/06/16 and 21/10/21.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Eight Part Two -- Why Opposing Forces Aren't Contradictions

[Published: 07/06/06. Re-written: 01/07/06, 21/01/07, 20/10/07, 15/01/08, 13/01/10, 17/04/11, 03/02/12, 18/08/16, 18/12/17 and 16/01/22.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Eight Part Three -- Dialectical 'Logic' And 'Dialectical Contradictions': Demolished

[Published: 25/05/08. Re-written: 21/01/10, 19/11/11, 15/06/12, 22/07/19, 04/09/19 and 12/06/22.]

Essay Nine Part One -- The Politics Of Metaphysics. Substitutionism: Why Workers Will Always Reject Dialectical Materialism

[Published: 01/08/06. Re-written: 15/11/06, 06/10/07, 11/02/10, 28/01/11, 12/02/12, 17/09/13, 28/11/16 and 27/02/19.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Nine Part Two -- How Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaries And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism

[Published: 15/04/07. Re-written: 03/06/07, 28/02/08, 16/06/08, 24/04/09, 21/05/10, 11/02/11, 12/01/12, 13/05/12, 23/02/13, 20/03/17 and 23/09/19.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Ten Part One -- Dialectical Materialism: Refuted By Practice And History?

[Published: 10/08/07. Re-written: 29/09/07, 26/10/07, 28/06/10, 17/02/12, 27/09/13, 11/11/14, 12/11/16, 24/04/18 and 10/11/19.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Ten Part Two -- Truth: Coherence Or Correspondence?

Essay Eleven Part One -- The 'Totality': WTF Is It?

[Published: 28/10/06. Re-written: 13/11/06, 07/01/07, 13/02/07, 03/09/07, 10/07/10, 20/07/11, 03/04/14, 06/09/14, 24/08/15, 27/11/15, 03/09/18 and 29/08/23.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Eleven Part Two -- DM-Wholism: All Holes, No Substance

[Published: 20/11/06. Re-written: 16/12/06, 27/05/07, 10/07/08, 27/07/10, 12/03/12, 24/04/16 and 05/11/17.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Twelve Part One -- Why All Philosophical Theories, Including Dialectical Materialism, Are Non-Sensical

[Published: 16/07/07. Re-written: 20/08/07, 18/03/08, 29/06/08, 15/08/10, 27/07/11, 06/10/12 and 25/08/17.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Twelve Part Two -- Metaphysics And Ruling-Class Thought

Essay Twelve Part Three -- The Historical And Social Origins Of The 'Opiate of the Oppressor': Traditional Philosophy

Essay Twelve Part Four -- Dialectical Materialism And Linguistic Idealism: Is Nature Rational?

Essay Twelve Part Five -- Hegel's Master 'Deduction'

Essay Twelve Part Six -- The Mother Lode: Dialectical Dope Dealer Brought To Book

Essay Twelve Part Seven -- Ordinary Language: A Class Issue

[Summary here.]

Essay Thirteen Part One -- Lenin's Disappearing Definition Of Matter

[Published: 12/02/08. Re-written: 21/04/08, 19/06/09, 26/08/10, 02/12/12, 10/02/16 and 07/05/21.]

[Summary here.]

Essay Thirteen Part Two -- Dialectical Materialism And Science

Essay Thirteen Part Three -- 'Mind', Language And 'Cognition'

[Published: 23/02/09. Re-written: 23/10/10, 05/05/11, 25/01/13, 01/08/14 and 09/02/18.]

[Summary to be published soon.]

Essay Fourteen Part One -- The Mystical Origin Of Dialectics

[Summary here.]

Essay Fourteen Part Two -- Dialectics And The Mystification Of Revolutionary Socialism

Page Fifteen -- Links

[Posted December 2005.]

[Published: 01/02/06. Re-written: 26/03/06; updated 23/04/06. Re-written 21/12/06.]

Essay Sixteen Index -- Extended Summary Of The Main Ideas Published At This Site

Essay Sixteen was meant to be a summary of my main criticisms of DM. It has now been broken up into shorter Essays because of its length.

[Published: 01/02/06. Re-written continuously: 2007-2019.]

Page Seventeen -- Additional Essays

[Published: 21/02/06.]

Page Eighteen -- Books And Articles

Abbreviations Used At This Site

Page Twenty -- Site Bibliography

Other Anti-Dialecticians

 

These are articles written by other anti-dialecticians who have developed some of the ideas published at this site. Visitors shouldn't assume, however, that I agree with everything they contain.

 

Additional Material

 

This section contains other material relevant to the aims of this site.

 

 

 

How Not To Argue 101

The above page contains links to forums on the web where I have 'debated' this creed with other comrades.

For anyone interested: check out the desperate 'debating' tactics used by Dialectical Marxists in their attempt to respond to my ideas.

You will no doubt notice that the vast majority all say the same sorts of things, and most of them pepper their remarks with scatological and abusive language. They all like to make things up, too, about me and my beliefs. [Here is a particularly egregious recent example of the lies they spin.]

30+ years (!!) of this from the DM-fraternity has meant that I now take an aggressive stance toward them every time. I soon learnt back in the 1980s that being pleasant or restrained with them (my initial tactic) didn't alter in any way their abusive tone, their propensity to fabricate, nor reduce the amount of scatological language they threw at me.

So, these days, I generally go for the jugular from the get-go.

Apparently, they expect me to take their lies and abuse lying down, and regularly complain about my "bullying" tactics.

Apparently, these DM-fans are allowed to dish it out, but they plainly can't take it.

Given the damage their theory has done to Marxism, and the continual abuse they all dole out, they are lucky this is all I can do to them.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Recently Added

September 2024: Back in 2017 I took part in an interview that was subsequently posted over at Libcom (link below, dated December 2017). It has just been updated, corrected and re-published here, at this site.

Interview With Rosa Lichtenstein

I hope to have the version posted on Libcom updated, too.

July 2024: The UK-SWP has just published a belated 'apology' for the actions they took back in 2012-13. I have reposted the 'apology' here, along with two detailed responses (written by non-supporters of this site).

August 2020: I have just published the results of a lengthy debate I have been engaged in with a fan of 'Systematic Dialectics'.

It ended when that comrades started to become abusive -- a default attitude adopted by the vast majority of my critics.

December 2017: Another comrade has published a second interview with me over at Libcom (unfortunately, it contains a few annoying typos!).

January 2014: I have just published a new (and rather controversial) Essay: Why Dialectical Materialism Can't Explain Change.

In fact, it shows that if Dialectical Materialism were true, change would be impossible.

October 2013: 'The North Star' magazine has just published an Interview with me, as well as an article of mine: Wittgenstein -- Radical, Or Conservative Mystic?

Unfortunately, that link is now dead (since I think that magazine has folded), so I have re-posted the interview here. Someone else has also posted it here.

September 2013: Was Wittgenstein A Leftist?

Contrary to a widely held view on the left, the above Essay shows that Wittgenstein wasn't a conservative mystic. Hence, there is now no good reason why his ideas shouldn't be given a fair hearing by revolutionaries.

This Essay is continually being updated and revised.

March 2013: In the light of the developing crisis in the UK-SWP, I have completely re-written Essay Nine Part Two:

 How Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaries And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism

However, readers would be wrong conclude from its title that the above Essay is all about 'dialectics' and its effect on Marxism.

It is just as much about the class origin of the founders of our movement (as well as the class position of those who currently control its ideas), as it is about that theory.

As such it breaks entirely new ground -- as anyone who reads it will soon see -- providing for the first time anywhere a historical materialist explanation why our movement so often fails and why almost everything that we on the Revolutionary Left touch sooner or later becomes corrupted, falls apart, and then turns to dust.

A much shorter version of the above Essay can be accessed here.

Ex-SWP members, who left the organisation because of its disastrous handling of this crisis have set up their own website.

Unfortunately, the creeping Stalinism of the SWP seems to have carried over into this new site, for my posts there are now being deleted.

[I was allowed one post, but my reply to Andy Wilson (follow the above link) was deleted. In fact, I am now being told: "You do not have permission to post in this thread", even when I am not banging on about 'dialectics'!]

Unsurprisingly, within two years that network folded in a cloud of back-biting, rancour and even hatred.

It seems that any old material concerning the thoughts of assorted latter-days Neo-Platonists, Hermeticists and bourgeois apriorists -- such as Raya Dunayevskaya, Zizek, Freud, Lacan, Heidegger, or the Lenin of the Philosophical Notebooks -- is welcome, but the comments of a comrade who challenges such mysticism, aren't.

Another SWP break-away group have set up their own much more successful website, here.

 ~~~~oOo~~~~

July 2012: A supporter of this site sent a letter to Socialist Worker, which they chose not to publish. You can read it here.

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!). Both can be accessed here.

I have posted a few comments about John's book, here. I will add several more later this year.

The above remarks can now be found here and here.

Anyway, much that he had to say about dialectics has already been taken apart here and here.

~~~~oOo~~~~

Guy Robinson's Essays

Essay Nine Part Two: How Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaries And Their Theory, Dialectical Materialism, Have Damaged Marxism

Essay Ten Part One: Practice And History Both Refute Dialectics

Essay Thirteen Part One: Lenin's Disappearing 'Definition' Of Matter

Essay Eight Part Three: Dialectical 'Logic' And Dialectical 'Contradictions' Debunked

The above Essay now contains a long-overdue, detailed demolition of Michael Kosok's seriously flawed article, 'The Formalisation Of Hegel's Dialectical Logic'

Essay Thirteen Part Three: 'Mind', Language, And 'Cognition'

Why All Philosophical Theories, And Not Just Dialectical Materialism, Are Non-Sensical

Outline Of Hegel's Logical Blunders

 

Back in 2007, a leading member of the CPGB (Jack Conrad) wrote an article in Weekly Worker criticising a few of the ideas found at this site, and expressed in an earlier article of mine.

Initially, I was quite shocked at how superficial this important comrade's response was.

I still am!

Anyway, my reply to him can be accessed here.

 

 

 

Socialist Unity Censors Debate! Read The Sordid Details Here.

Socialist Unity Replies -- My Response, Here.

The 'Debate' Continues.

A Supporter Of This Site Lodges A Complaint.

~~~~oOo~~~~

2013: I have now been banned from the above site!

I was in fact banned for censuring a handful of male comrades who seemed quite happy to use the 'c' word -- which is ironic since Socialist Unity at least pretends to be a supporter of feminism.

Neutral observers can, of course, draw their own conclusions!

Apparently, Andy Newman, the big cheese over there, doesn't want anyone to be reminded he was/is a supporter of this mystical theory (Dialectical Materialism) now that he is trying to cosy up to the Labour Party.

So, before I was banned, he regularly deleted any comments of mine that alluded to his former 'philosophical' allegiances, no matter how mild or nuanced they were.

Looks like Stalinism is the default position of most DM-fans!

Unfortunately, all links to Socialist Unity are now dead.

However, the first two links above have preserved much of the aforementioned 'debate'.

 

 

 

Those who would like a relatively short (but very basic) introduction to the aims of this site should read the Introductory Essay: Why I Oppose Dialectical Materialism.

I have now written this much shorter, and even more basic, summary of some of my main objections to Dialectical Materialism: Anti-Dialectics For Absolute Beginners.

There is also a single page précis of some of my main objections to DM, here.

That was in fact an article I wrote for Weekly Worker (published in September 2007).

 

 

 

 

Those who would like a more detailed summary of my main objections to Dialectical Materialism should begin here.

 

 

 

 

The Main Index to my extended Essays can be found here.

Quick links are located above and to the left.

 

 

 

The complete irrelevance of 'Materialist Dialectics' to the class struggle is underlined in these dialogues (written and contributed by my collaborator, 'Babeuf').

Unfortunately, Babeuf has written no more dialogues, but a new blog posting similar dialogues has just started up.

It can be accessed here.

 

 

 

I regularly check the internet to see if these numpties have had another go at my ideas; sure enough they have. My response is however PG-rated; sensitive souls might like to avert their eyes. In fact, I am presumptuous enough to emulate Lenin's approach to critics.

Check out the latest exchanges here, here and here.

October 2009: Yet another obnoxious, but nonetheless clueless dialectician has tried to take me on; the details can be found here.

More of the same here.

 

 

 

An old Idealist enemy of reason has raised his head above the parapet once more; I lob a few materialist bricks at him here, here, here, and again here, here, here and here.

These have now all been collected together here.

[Soon after, the individual concerned resigned from the UK-SWP. I wonder if he still thinks 'truth is tested in practice'?]

 

 

 

 

 

This is a site which is also devoted to anti-dialectics, and which is well worth visiting -- if you speak French -- although Google Translator should be able to render it into English.

And here's a Blog which argues along lines similar to those explored at this site. While I do not agree with everything this author says, much of it strikes me as excellent.

 

 

 

 

ff

Introductory Remarks

Once again, please note that nothing posted at this site is intended to undermine Historical Materialism [HM] -- a theory I fully accept -- or, indeed, revolutionary socialism. I remain as committed to the self-emancipation of the working class and the dictatorship of the proletariat as I was when I first became a revolutionary over thirty years ago.

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:

 

1) That there is a close link between the class-origin and current class position of leading Marxists, the ideas found in DM and the rabidly sectarian nature of revolutionary politics.

This helps explain why, almost without exception, Dialectical Marxist parties tend to be small, divisive, and hence ineffectual.

2) That none of the core ideas promoted by dialecticians stand up to close scrutiny.

These include the famous "Three Laws" of dialectics (i.e., change of quantity into quality, the interpenetration of opposites, and the negation of the negation), the belief that everything is inter-connected in a "mediated Totality", and the doctrine that change is a result of "internal contradictions".

 3) That the criticisms dialecticians make of Formal Logic -- and the so-called 'Law of Identity' -- are as ill-informed as they are misguided.

~~~~oOo~~~~

To avoid misunderstanding, my argument isn't as follows: Dialectical Marxism has failed, therefore DM is false.

My argument is:

(1) DM makes no sense whatsoever, so (2) No wonder it has failed us for so long.

 This site is also aimed at establishing point (1) so that (2) may safely be inferred from it.

 

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.

 

Nevertheless, those who like their Internet articles short and to the point can access brief summaries of all the main Essays here.

In August 2006, I added an 'Absolute Beginners' page, and in the summer of 2007 I published an even shorter Essay, 'Anti-Dialectics For Absolute Beginners' -- aimed at those who find even the Summary Essays either too long or too difficult.

In fact, there is now a one page précis of my main objections, here.

As predicted, several DM-fans have already complained about their superficiality, too!

 

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.

 

It is worth repeating that since I still encounter comments on Internet Discussion Boards, and still receive e-mails from those who claim to have read the above words, but who still think I am blaming all our woes on dialectics.

I am not.

However, no matter how many times I repeat the above the message it refuses to sink in, and that is after several years of continually making this very point!

It seems this is one part of the universe over which the Heraclitean Flux has no hold!

Here is just the latest example.

And here are even more recent instances (in the comments section at the bottom).

 

What is being claimed, however, is that adherence to this 'theory' is one of the subjective reasons why Dialectical Marxism has become a bye-word for failure.

There are other, objective reasons why the class enemy still runs the planet, but since revolutions require revolutionaries with ideas in their heads, this 'theory' must take some of the blame.

So, it is argued at this site that dialectics has been an important contributory factor.

It certainly helps explain why revolutionary groups are in general vanishingly small, neurotically sectarian, studiously unreasonable, consistently conservative, inconsistently deferential to 'tradition' and almost invariably lean toward some form of substitutionism.

Naturally, this has had a direct bearing on our lack of impact on the working class over the last seventy years or so -- and probably for much longer still -- and hence on the continuing success of Capitalism.

The following 'Unity of Opposites' is difficult to explain in any other way:

The larger the proletariat the smaller the impact that Dialectical Marxism has on it.

Sadly, this will continue while comrades cling to this regressive doctrine.

Any who doubt this are encouraged to read on, where those doubts will be severely bruised, if not completely laid to rest.

(2) However, I have few illusions that hard-core dialecticians will be swayed by anything they find at this site.

[Why that is so is explained in Essay One, Essay Nine Part Two, but more briefly here.]

I sincerely hope I'm wrong about this, but bitter experience over the last thirty years 'debating' with the DM-faithful tells me I am talking to comrades with stoppered ears and closed minds. Countless internet 'discussions' have merely confirmed (if not greatly amplified) this negative impression.

So far, very few dialecticians seem capable of entering into reasoned debate without descending into some form of scatological abuse, personal and unfounded attacks -- or without indulging in posting smears, lies and fabrications.

Nevertheless, a marker has to be set by someone.

Someone has to try to prevent younger comrades from catching this intellectual virus.

(3) If Dialectical Marxism were a ringing success, it is I who would be on the defensive, and dialecticians could rightly ignore these Essays.

However, it is over one hundred and seventy years since the Communist Manifesto was first published and we still do not have a Workers' State anywhere on the planet --, despite the fact that the working class can now be numbered in the billions and is now the largest class on earth.

Indeed, we seem to be further away from that goal than the Bolsheviks were in 1917!

Things appear to be going backwards.

All four Internationals have gone down the pan (the tiny 'Fifth International' has already split!), the vast majority of the former 'socialist' states have disappeared, and not a single worker rose in their defence.

Contrast that with the way workers -- and others -- have fought (often at risk of their own lives in support of limited forms of bourgeois democracy, or against austerity) in the following countries: Nepal (2006), Lebanon, Serbia, France, Portugal, Greece, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia (and again more recently), Burma/Myanmar (1988 -- when at least 3000 were killed by the military dictatorship -- and 2007), Kyrgyzstan (2010), Thailand (2010), AlgeriaTunisia, Egypt (January 2011, and again November 2012), Libya, Syria -- in fact the population of Syria have been resisting the Assad murder machine for nearly three years, suffering at least 130,000 deaths for their pains --, and the rest of the Middle East (2011-14), to name but a few.

In May/June 2013, we witnessed a series of massive revolts spreading right across Turkey, Brazil and Bulgaria. In February 2014, we saw Bosnia erupt, and the corrupt regime in the Ukraine toppled.

[The fact that openly fascist and right-wing parties led the revolt in the Ukraine is irrelevant to the point I am making: if they can fight armed police on the streets, why couldn't Russian workers do the same to defend 'their state' back in 1991? The question answers itself: it wasn't 'their state' and hadn't been since the early 1920s.]

Late September 2014 witnessed the streets of Hong Kong being blocked by tens of thousands of protesters demanding "free and fair elections", and in June 2015, we saw tens of thousands of protesters in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, succeed in preventing an electricity price hike!

In August 2015, thousands of protesters confronted riot police in Beirut. Their grievance? They were protesting about the dire state of rubbish collection, for goodness sake!

So, ordinary workers in Lebanon will protest rubbish collection, and confront riot police, but the tens of millions of workers in the former Soviet Union (fSU) and Eastern Europe, supposedly the most powerful working class in history, allegedly in control of the state, the police, the military, the courts, the unions, and the media, couldn't be bothered to lift one finger in defence of 'socialism'.

Compare that with the way Bolshevik workers responded to the White Army counter-revolution in Russia, 1918-21.

Fast forward to November and December 2016: hundreds of thousands were on the streets of Seoul, South Korea, protesting government corruption, leading to the impeachment of the President. In the same month, tens of thousands poured on to the streets right across the USA showing their anger over the election of Donald Trump.

Figures One, Two And Three: Nepal, April 2006

[Pictures by Phalano]

Figure Four: Myanmar, September 2007

The fact that this was led by Buddhist monks is also irrelevant to the point I am making -- which is the same as the one above in relation to the Ukraine.

If monks can summon up the courage to protest, why not Russian workers in 1991?

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

Figure Twenty-Two: Hundreds Of Thousands Protest In Seoul.

South Korea, November 2016

Figure Twenty-Three: Mass Demonstrations Right Across The USA

Against Racist Demagogue, Trump, November 2016

 

Video One: Hong Kong, 29/09/2014

 

 

Video Two: Beirut, August 22 2015

 

April 2018: Tens of thousands on the streets of Nicaragua protesting pension cuts, dozens are killed -- the cuts were reversed.

Figure Twenty-Four: Nicaragua April 2018 -- Popular Protests

Reverse Pension Cuts

 

In the same month, tens of thousands were on the streets of Armenia and forced the resignation of the Prime Minister.

 

 

Figure Twenty-Five: Armenia, April 2018

 

June 2018 saw massive demonstrations across Jordan opposing austerity measures imposed by the IMF, also leading to the resignation of the Prime Minister.

 

 

Figure Twenty-Six: Jordan, June 2018

Figure Twenty-Seven: 1991 -- Dramatic Scenes From The Former USSR

As Massed Ranks Of Workers Defend 'Their' State

 

[Yes, it's supposed to be deserted -- since it was!]

The above events are all the more ironic when we witnessed (in December 2011) tens of thousands of Russian workers protesting against vote-rigging, facing down Vladimir Putin's uniformed bully-boys.

Figures Twenty-Eight And Twenty-Nine: Moscow --

Not 1991 -- 2011

Clearly, the current population of Russia is prepared to defend even limited forms of bourgeois democracy, but apparently not their "workers' state" back in 1991!

March 2017 sees anti-corruption protests break out in a hundred towns and cities across Russia.

Figure Thirty: Russia, March 2017

Compare the passivity of workers across the Communist Bloc in 1989-91 with the above, or with way that ordinary citizens responded to the attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016. Workers in their tens of thousands poured on to the streets, lying down in front of tanks, to defend even this fractured and corrupt bourgeois democracy -- with more than 200 killed and over 2000 wounded.

 

 

Video Three: Not Soviet Russia In 1953, 1956, Or Even 1991,

But Turkey, July 2016

In the following video, a Turkish citizen lies down in front of two tanks (warning, graphic imagery -- the man suffered a damaged right arm in the end, but he survived and was later interviewed on BBC News):

 

 

Video Four: Are Turkish Workers Braver

Than Soviet Workers?

In the first eleven months of 2019 we witnessed mass protests across the globe in the following countries, among others:

France (the 'Yellow Vest' protest on-going now for nearly a year), Algeria (which led to the President's resignation), Netherlands, Catalonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia (yet again!), Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt, Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong (these massive demonstrations and protests have been going on now virtually non-stop for over five months!), Indonesia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador (the protests there were so large that the President had to flee the capital), Honduras (the USA Embassy was even set on fire), Haiti...

In fact, 2019 has been called "the year of global protest".

As if to cap it all, in January 2021 we witnessed tens of thousands in sub-zero temperatures -- all across Russia this time --, protesting Putin's arrest of his leading political opponent, Alexei Navalny:

 

Video Five: Russian Cops Snowballed

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.

On top of all this, communist parties the world over have adopted market forms of capitalism, and despite the rhetoric most have embraced openly reformist politics.

[I have responded to an attempt by a Stalinophile to criticise the above remarks, here.]

Trotskyism is, if anything, in even worse shape. It is riddled with deep divisions and warring sects. With few exceptions, its numerous parties are vanishingly small, constantly at each other's throats and rabidly sectarian.

The implosion of the UK-SWP (in 2013/14) was just another sad reminder of this fact, as was the vote by the US International Socialists to disband in April 2019 -- not to mention the implosion of the CWI a few months later.

Hence, Dialectical Trotskyism is even less successful than Maoism and Stalinism have been. Well, is there a Trotskyist Workers' State anywhere on earth? Has there ever been?

And I say that as a Trotskyist!

Sure, we could point to Russia in October 1917, but even that revolution has been reversed!

[The claim that DM was of central importance to the Bolsheviks in 1917 has been debunked, here.]

Unfortunately, because of its propensity to provoke endless splits (its one genuine 'success'), Trotskyism is now a standing joke:

 

Video Six: 'The Life Of Brian'

Libertarian Communism, too, is almost non-existent, and is thus politically impotent -- but, for all their chest beating you'd be forgiven for thinking the opposite.

Furthermore, Marxist (revolutionary) parties have not noticeably benefited from the world-wide radicalisation created by the Anti-Globalisation Movement, the unprecedented world-wide opposition to the 'allied' invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, workers' opposition to 'austerity' (post-2007/08),  the determined resistance mounted against Sore-Loser-in-Chief (President Trump), or the global protests against anthropogenic global warming.

Compare that with the way many of the above parties grew in the first half of the 20th century, or in the 1960s and 1970s.

Compare it, too, with the way that non-Marxist, anarchist, anti-capitalist (and thus largely non-dialectical), autonomist and single-issue groups have grown since 1999. In the UK, for example, widespread radicalisation only seems to have (temporarily) affected the UK Labour Party, between 2015 and 2019.

Rightly or wrongly, for most people, Dialectical Marxism has become a by-word for sectarianism, petty in-fighting, bureaucratic authoritarianism, mindless inertia, systematic oppression, brutal mass murder, widespread denial of freedom, corruption and murderous dictatorship.

That shouldn't be taken to mean I think this shameful record can't be changed for the better. That is, after all, one of the reasons why I began this project!

And yet, there are comrades who will still tell you with a straight face that Dialectical Marxism is a ringing success, since it has been 'tested in practice'!

Such benighted souls won't respond to anything I have to say (even if they were listening); pathological myopia of this level of intensity clearly requires professional help.

Figure Thirty-One: Dialectical Marxism --

'Tested In Practice'

Dialecticians claim that their theory/method lies at the heart of Marxist politics and material reality -- that it is the guiding light of all they do.

If revolutionary practice has dialectics stamped all over it, and if 'truth is indeed tested in practice' -- and if the vast bulk of that practice has failed -- the inescapable conclusion is that practice has refuted dialectics.

Because its supporters claim such a prominent role for DM the failure of the subjective side of Dialectical Marxism (i.e., practice) points nowhere else but there.

Clearly, only those who reject the idea that 'truth is tested in practice' should feel confident enough to repudiate that particular conclusion.

 

To those who think this is an Idealist explanation for the failure of Dialectical Marxism, I say the following:

In fact, I advance historical and materialist reasons (based on ideas floated by Marx and Lenin) why dialectics has had this negative effect on our movement.

And to those who have read the above, and who think I am claiming that Marxism is a failure: please re-read it and note that I am referring to "Dialectical Marxism".

As noted earlier: the non-dialectical version hasn't been road tested yet.

 

Hence, it is dialecticians who should be on the defensive.

They are the ones who still cling to a theory that has presided over 150+ years of almost total failure.

In that case, we have no alternative but to re-think our ideas from scratch, like the radicals we claim to be.

To that end, I propose a suitably radical starting point: the rejection of the theory that history has already refuted: DM.

 We can't keep blaming our failure on workers' "false consciousness" (a term, incidentally, unknown to Marx).

Dialectics isn't the "world-view of the proletariat", since they know nothing of it, never have, and never will.

[It is in fact the ideology of substitutionist elements in the workers' movement.]

Indeed, for several generations, workers have returned a very clear message: they aren't the least bit interested in Dialectical Mysticism, in those who peddle it, or in any version of it that has been put the 'right way up'.

So, if change is indeed caused by "internal contradictions" -- as dialecticians claim --, let it begin here, at this site, with the many I have exposed in their theory.

In that case, comrades, you have nothing to lose but your failed theory of change.

(4) Some might wonder how I can count myself as both a Leninist and a Trotskyist while advancing such profound criticisms of ideas that the founders of both those two traditions regarded as fundamental to Marxism.

Well, we can surely recognise Newton's genius while rejecting his confused and obscure Alchemical and Kabbalistic ramblings, just as we can be severely critical of him for wasting so much time and effort on such worthless rubbish.

The same applies to the dialectical musings of Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Plekhanov, Stalin and Mao. Hence, even though I hold the work (in politics, history, and revolutionary theory) of the first three of the above in the highest esteem, I am no less dismissive of the mystical gobbledygook all six brought with them into our movement.

[Why I have left Marx out has been explained here and here.]

In fact, and on the contrary, a slavish acceptance of everything they had to say about dialectics -- just because they said it, or just because the vast majority of comrades think highly of it --, would be to spit on their graves.

Marxism isn't a personality cult. If it were, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky would have been the first to reject it.

The radical movement was built on a lack of respect for mindless tradition like this.

Anyone who still prefers the safe confines of unquestioned dogma is encouraged instead to join the Roman Catholic Church.

(5) Those who think this is "just another attack on dialectics" -- something the enemies of Marxism are always attempting, since 'the dialectic' is "an abomination to the bourgeoisie", etc., etc. -- need only reflect on the fact that revolutionaries like me attack dialectics because it is by far and away the weakest part of Marxist theory (as the Essays posted at this site amply demonstrate), and this we do in order to strengthen, not weaken, Revolutionary Socialism.

On the other hand, our enemies attack dialectics simply because it is such an easy target --, and they do so for the opposite reason.

We have presented them with such a 'gift' for far too long.

We need to stop leading with our chins.

(6) Much of Academic Marxism has largely been ignored in these Essays.

Rightly or wrongly, this site is aimed at impacting on the class war by seeking to influence those actually involved in it. Since active revolutionaries still accept -- to a greater or lesser extent -- classical forms of DM, they alone are being addressed in what follows.

[In order to see how irrelevant Academic Marxism has become, readers are invited to check out a debate I recently had with a fan of 'Systematic Dialectics'.]

Academic Marxism (mercifully) has had no impact on the class struggle --, or none of any note --, and it probably never will.

Anyone who attempts to wade through the dense and impenetrable prose these comrades constantly churn out will soon see why.

 Very little attempt has been made, therefore, to engage in detail with that theoretical and revolutionary dead end.

 

It is also worth pointing out that I am not just attacking 'Diamat' (i.e., the 'orthodox', Soviet Russian incarnation of DM), but every aspect and version of 'dialectics' -- even the sanitised forms peddled by academics (for example, again, 'Systematic Dialectics'), which has supposedly been cleansed of all its Engelsian 'crudities'.

 

Figure Thirty-Two: Academic Marxism -- The Movie

Of course, there are notable exceptions to the above sweeping generalisations, but they are just that: exceptions. Some Academic Marxists have fought, and still fight, alongside workers in the class war.

However, I can think of no work published by an Academic Marxist that has ever impacted on the class struggle (except perhaps negatively).

Such comrades, who spare no effort telling us that 'praxis' is a core principle of Marxism, are clearly living on a different planet to the rest of us, for their work has had no discernible impact on the class war!

(7) These Essays represent work in progress; hence they do not necessarily reflect my final view on any of the topics covered.

I am only publishing this material on the Internet because several comrades whose opinions I respect urged me to do so back in 2005 -- even though the work you see before you is less than half complete. Many of my ideas are still in the formative stage and need considerable attention devoted to them to mature.

I estimate this project will take another ten or twenty years to complete before it is fit to publish, either here, in its final form, or in hard copy.

All of these Essays will have been radically changed by then.

This work is being updated regularly -- edited and re-edited --, its arguments clarified and progressively strengthened as my research continues (and particularly as my 'understanding' of Hegel and DM develop).

So, visitors are encouraged to check back often.

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.

Having said that, much of the 'second half' of this project still only exists in note form, so the next set of Essays will appear here far more slowly than the first.

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

However, when I post short summaries of my ideas, DM-fans complain about their superficiality!

When I enter into greater detail, they moan even louder about their length!

(8) Finally, and perhaps most importantly: I can't emphasise strongly enough (once again) that nothing written here is intended to undermine Revolutionary Socialism or HM -- a scientific theory I fully accept -- provided that the pernicious influence of Hegel has been totally excised.

HM will therefore be taken for granted.

This means that any non-Marxists who visit this site are advised to go no further; this material isn't intended for them.

 

 

 

Finally, Finally:

Several critics have taken the above comments as definitive of my entire case against DM, and have therefore read no further, when they are merely opening remarks that represent about 0.001% of the material published at this site!

This page is meant to be provocative; it isn't meant to present a water-tight case.

It is therefore largely a statement of intent.

In contrast, the long Essays posted at this site are meant to be definitive. Whether they succeed in achieving that end is, of course, another matter.

 However, to date, no one has been able to respond effectively to my Essays (including this poseur and this fan of 'Systematic Dialectics').

Clearly, a superficially dismissive approach to my work, based solely on this page, makes about as much sense as someone who reads the opening page of the Preface to the First Edition of Das Kapital and judges all that Marx ever wrote on the basis of that!

 

  Rosa Lichtenstein

  September 2024

 

 

© Rosa Lichtenstein 2024

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