The Positive Outcome of Philosophy — Joseph Dietzgen
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The positive outcome of philosophy Author : Joseph Dietzgen Author of introduction, etc. : Anton Pannekoek Editor : Eugen Dietzgen Jr. Joseph Dietzgen Translator : Gerhard Ernest Untermann Release date : June 10, 2012 [eBook #39964] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39964 Credits : Produced by Odessa Paige Turner, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF The Positive Outcome of Philosophy BY JOSEPH DIETZGEN TRANSLATED BY ERNEST UNTERMANN WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. ANTON PANNEKOEK TRANSLATED BY ERNEST UNTERMANN Edited by Eugene Dietzgen and Joseph Dietzgen, Jr. CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 1906 Copyright 1906 By Eugene Dietzgen CONTENTS PAGE Introduction by Anton Pannekoek 7 The Nature of Human Brain Work Preface 41 I. Introduction 47 II. Pure Reason or the Faculty of Thought in General 61 III. The Nature of Things 80 IV. The Practice of Reason in Physical Science 104 a Cause and Effect 108 b Matter and Mind 119 c Force and Matter 124 V. "Practical Reason" or Morality 133 a The Wise and Reasonable 133 b Morality and Right 143 c The Holy 156 Letters on Logic First Letter 177 Second Letter 181 Third Letter 186 Fourth Letter 191 Fifth Letter 198 Sixth Letter 205 Seventh Letter 212 Eighth Letter 217 Ninth Letter 225 Tenth Letter 230 Eleventh Letter 236 Twelfth Letter 242 Thirteenth Letter 248 Fourteenth Letter 255 Fifteenth Letter 260 Sixteenth Letter 265 Seventeenth Letter 271 Eighteenth Letter 277 Nineteenth Letter 283 Twentieth Letter 289 Twenty-first Letter 296 Twenty-second Letter 301 Twenty-third Letter (a) 307 Twenty-third Letter (b) 312 Twenty-fourth Letter 318 The Positive Outcome of Philosophy Preface 327 I. Positive Knowledge as a Special Object 333 II. The Power of Perception Is Kin to the Universe 337 III. As to How the Intellect Is Limited and Unlimited 342 IV. The Universality of Nature 348 V. The Understanding as a Part of the Human Soul 354 VI. Consciousness Is Endowed With the Faculty of Knowing as Well as With the Feeling of the Universality of All Nature 363 VII. The Relationship or Identity of Spirit and Nature 369 VIII. Understanding Is Material 376 IX. The Four Principles of Logic 381 X. The Function of Understanding on the Religious Field 393 XI. The Distinction Between Cause and Effect Is only One of the Means to Facilitate Understanding 401 XII. Mind and Matter: Which Is Primary, Which Is Secondary? 409 XIII. The Extent to Which the Doubts of the Possibility of Clear and Accurate Understanding Have Been Overcome 418 XIV. Continuation of the Discussion on the Difference Between Doubtful and Evident Understanding 428 XV. Conclusion 436 INTRODUCTION THE POSITION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF J. DIETZGEN'S PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS BY Dr. Anton Pannekoek In the history of philosophy we see before us the consecutive forms of the thoughts of the ruling classes of society on life and on the world at large. This class thought appears after the primitive communism has given way to a society with class antagonisms, at a stage when the wealth of the members of the ruling class gave them leisure time and thus stimulated them to turn their attention to the productions of the mind. The beginning of this thought is found in classic Greece. But it assumed its clearest and best developed form when the modern bourgeoisie had become the ruling class in capitalistic Europe and the thinkers gave expression to the ideas of this class. The characteristic mark of these ideas is dualism, that is to say the misunderstood contrast between thinking and being, between nature and spirit, the result of the mental unclearness of this class and of its incapacity to see the things of the world in their true interconnection. This mental state is but the expression of the division of mankind into classes and of the uncomprehended nature of social production ever since it became a production of goods for exchange. In times of primitive communism, the conditions of production were clear and easily understood. Things were produced jointly for use and consumed in common. Man was master of his mode of production and thus master of his own fate as far as the superior forces of nature admitted it. Under such conditions, social ideas could not help being simple and clear. There being no clash between personal and social interests, men had no conception of a deep chasm between good and bad. Only the uncontrolled forces of nature stood like unintelligible and mysterious powers, that appeared to them either as well meaning or as evil spirits, above these primitive little societies. But with the advent of the production of commodities the picture changes. Civilized humanity begins to feel itself somewhat relieved from the hard and ungovernable pressure of fickle natural forces. But now new demons arise out of social conditions. "No sooner did the producers give their products away in exchange instead of consuming them as heretofore, than they lost control of them. They no longer knew what became of their products, and there was a possibility that these products might some day be used for the exploitation and oppression of the producers—The products rule the producers." (Engels) In the production of commodities, it is not the purpose of the individual producer which is accomplished, but rather that which the productive forces back of him are aiming at. Man proposes, but a social power, stronger than himself, disposes; he is no longer master of his fate. The inter-relations of production become complicated and difficult to grasp. While