Collected Works, Vol. 25: Engels: Anti-Dühring, Dialectics of Nature

773 Pages·1987·15.12 MB·English

by  Karl Marx

KARL
M A RX
FREDERICK
ENGELS
Collected
Works
Volume 25
Engels
V
Contents
Preface XI
FREDERICK ENGEL S
WORKS
ANTI-DÜHRING
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science
Prefaces to the Three Editions 5
1 5
II 8
III 15
Introduction 16
I. General 16
II. What Herr Dühring Promises 28
Part I. Philosophy 33
III. Classification. Apriorism 33
IV. World Schematism 39
V. Philosophy of Nature. Time and Space 44
VI. Philosophy of Nature. Cosmogony, Physics, Chemistry 53
VII. Philosophy of Nature. The Organic World 61
VIII. Philosophy of Nature. The Organic World (Conclusion) 71
IX. Morality and Law. Eternal Truths 78
X. Morality and Law. Equality 88
VI Contents
XL Morality and Law. Freedom and Necessity 99
XII. Dialectics. Quantity and Quality 110
XIII. Dialectics. Negation of the Negation 120
XIV. Conclusion 133
Part II. Political Economy 135
I. Subject Matter and Method 135
II. Theory of Force 146
III. Theory of Force (Continuation) 153
IV. Theory of Force (Conclusion) 162
V. Theory of Value 171
VI. Simple and Compound Labour 182
VII. Capital and Surplus-Value 187
VIII. Capital and Surplus-Value (Conclusion) 196
IX. Natural Laws of the Economy. Rent of Land 205
X. From Kritische Geschichte 211
Part III. Socialism 244
I. Historical 244
II. Theoretical 254
III. Production 271
IV. Distribution 284
V. State, Family, Education 298
DIALECTICS O F NATURE
[Plan Outlines] 313
[Outline of the General Plan] 313
[Outline of the Part Plan] 317
[Articles and Chapters] 318
Introduction 318
Old Preface to [Anti-]Diihring. On Dialectics 336
Natural Science in the Spirit World 345
Dialectics 356
Basic Forms of Motion 362
The Measure of Motion.—Work 378
Tidal Friction. Kant and Thomson-Tait 392
Heat 397
Electricity 402
The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to
Man 452
Contents VII
[Notes and Fragments] 465
[From the History of Science] 465
[Natural Science and Philosophy] 482
[Dialectics] 492
[a) General Questions of Dialectics. The Fundamental Laws of
Dialectics] 492
[b) Dialectical Logic and the Theory of Knowledge. On the
"Limits of Knowledge"] 502
[Forms of Motion of Matter. Classification of the Sciences] 522
[Mathematics] 536
[Mechanics and Astronomy] 551
[Physics] 557
[Chemistry] 570
[Biology] 572
[Titles and Tables of Contents of the Folders] 588
FROM THE PREPARATORY MATERIALS
From Engels' Preparatory Writings for Anti-Dühring 591
[Introduction. A Rough Outline] 591
Part One 596
Part Two 612
APPENDICES
Infantry Tactics, Derived from Material Causes. 1700-1870 623
Additions to the Text of Anti-Dühring made by Engels in the
Pamphlet Socialism Utopian and Scientific 630
NOTES AND INDEXES
Notes 645
Index of Contents of the Folders in "Dialectics of Nature " 689
Chronological List of Chapters and Fragments in "Dialectics of Nature" 695
Name Index 700
Index of Quoted and Mentioned Literature 718
Index of Periodicals 733
Subject Index 734
ILLUSTRATIONS
F. Engels. Portrait. 1888 6-7
Title page of the third edition of Engels' Anti-Dühring 3
VIII Contents
First article of Anti-Dühring published in the newspaper Vorwärts
on January 3, 1877 17
First page of K. Marx's manuscript Randnoten zu Dührings Kritische
Geschichte der Nationalökonomie 213
Diagram (formula) of Quesnay's Tableau économique 239
Outline of the general plan of Dialectics of Nature 315
First page of the first folder of Dialectics of Nature 483
TRANSLATORS:
EMILE BURNS: Anti-Dühring.
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution
in Science
CLEMENS DUTT: Dialectics of Nature

XI
Preface
Volume 25 of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels contains
two of Engels' most celebrated works, Anti-Dühring and Dialectics
of Nature.
In Anti-Dühring, one of his most popular and widely known
writings, Engels not only expounded the fundamental propositions
of Marxism, but made substantial progress in the development of
revolutionary theory. Lenin wrote that Anti-Dühring analyses the
"highly important problems in the domain of philosophy, natural
science and the social sciences" (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 2,
p. 25). Anti-Dühring made a substantial contribution to the
ideological victory of Marxism over reformism and the various
trends of Utopian socialism.
Anti-Dühring became Marxist science's answer to the demands
of a new stage in the development of the international
working-class movement, which owed its inception to the heroic
struggle of the Parisian Communards in 1871. The experience of
the Paris Commune showed that a proletarian revolution could
not succeed without a mass working-class party based on the
principles of scientific communism. It was for this reason that in
the 1870s the task of forming such parties in various countries
became paramount. As the international working-class movement
gained impetus and the influence of scientific socialism grew
among the progressive part of the proletariat, attacks on Marxism
were stepped up by its ideological opponents, the representatives
of anarchism, reformism and petty-bourgeois Utopian socialism.
XII Preface
Moreover, the rapid growth of the working-class movement and
the authority of the Social Democratic parties that were being
founded and becoming the main opposition to ruling classes, were
attracting into the ranks of these parties members of the other
classes, especially those from the petty-bourgeoisie. This led to the
spread in the working-class movement of unscientific views
hostile to Marxism which diverted the proletariat from the
true goals of its economic and political struggle.
These phenomena were inherent in the whole working-class
movement, but by the mid-1870s they became most clearly mani-
fest in Germany, where the exacerbation of the class struggle
facilitated the rapid growth of political consciousness and organisa-
tion on the part of the proletariat and its conversion into a
significant political force. It was to Germany that the centre of the
European working-class movement shifted after the defeat of the
Paris Commune. Germany was the first country where, in 1869, at
a congress in Eisenach, a mass working-class party was founded
based on the ideological and organisational principles of Marxism.
In the first half of the 1870s, among German workers who were
active members of the socialist movement, there was a growing
tendency towards the unification of the Social Democratic Work-
ers' Party (the Eisenachers) with the General German Workers'
Union (the Lassalleans). In 1875, at a congress in Gotha, both
organisations were combined into a single party, the Eisenachers
accepting an ideological compromise with the opportunist views of
the Lassalleans. Marx and Engels regarded the concessions by
the Eisenachers as a serious mistake fraught with grave conse-
quences (see Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme and Engels'
letter to Bebel of March 18-28, 1875, present edition, vols. 24
and 45).
The apprehensions of Marx and Engels were justified. After the
unity congress in Gotha, the theoretical level of German
Social Democracy fell significantly, when the views of Dr. Eugen
Dühring, lecturer at Berlin University, became widespread
among some Party members including its leaders. He became
popular because of his speeches in defence of the oppressed
masses and his struggle against the reactionary professors of that
institution. Dühring's views were an eclectic mixture of various
vulgar materialist, idealist, positivist, vulgar economic and pseudo-
socialist views. As distinct from former opponents of Marxism, who
had denounced mainly its political principles, Dühring attacked all
the component parts of Marxism and claimed to have created a new
all-embracing system of philosophy, political economy and socialism,
Preface XIII
openly opposing his views to the revolutionary proletarian world
outlook.
The spread of Diihring's views among members of the Social
Democratic Party of Germany was a real threat to this major
contingent of the international working-class movement and to its
theoretical foundations. Engels therefore considered it his duty to
defend and publicise the principles of Marxism within the German
Social Democratic movement. In two years (1876-78), he wrote a
major work that was first printed in Vorwärts, the newspaper of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany, and was brought out as a
separate book in 1878 under the title Herrn Eugen Dührings
Umwälzung der Wissenschaft (Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in
Science—known in English as Anti-Dühring), in which Engels
subjected Dühring's views to devastating criticism. Alongside his
criticism of Dühring Engels expounded his own views on the
problems that had at the time scientific and practical significance.
His criticism of Dühring, to quote Engels himself, was turned into a
positive exposition "of the dialectical method and of the communist
world outlook" (this volume, p. 8).
Anti-Diihring not only disclosed and defended the basic
postulates of Marxism, it also elaborated a number of fundamental
new problems of revolutionary theory. It provided the first ever
comprehensive presentation of Marxism as an integral, indivisible
science. Engels' work met the objective need of the working-class
movement for a true social science, namely Marxism.
Later, in the Preface to the second edition of The Housing Question,
Engels explained why he personally had been obliged to take the
initiative in the ideological struggle with Dühring: "As a conse-
quence of the division of labour that existed between Marx and my-
self, it fell to me to present our opinions in the periodical press, and,
therefore, particularly in the fight against opposing views, in order
that Marx should have time for the elaboration of his great basic
work [Capital.—Ed.]. Because of this, I had to expound our views in
the majority of cases in polemical form, counterposing them to other
views" (see present edition, Vol. 26).
Marx also took a direct part in the writing of Anti-Dühring.
Engels consulted him when planning the work; Marx also helped
to collect the necessary material, wrote a critical outline of
Dühring's views on the history of economic doctrines, which was
used as the basis for Chapter X of Part II of Anti-Dühring
(pp. 211-43) and, finally, read and approved the whole manuscript.
Anti-Dühring was thus the result of creative collaboration by Marx