Article ID: CBB962870043

Friedrich Engels and the unveiling of the historical dimension of the physical world: science and dialectics (2014)

unapi

In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels ([1848] 19692) showed that the history of the human world is not static, nor even cyclic, but is a forward movement that can be explained and −to a certain extent− predicted. This history cannot be understood without considering the necessity for the human animal to provide the means of existence for itself by work (production) within the context of particular social relations. Marx untangled an unsolved problem of classical political economy, namely the origin of wealth under capitalism, by attaching it to the difference (surplus value) between the work done by a worker and the work necessary to provide his or her means of existence. Engels may be associated with this breakthrough.As far as the physical world is concerned, Newtonian mechanics had proved extremely fruitful but its very success could induce a mechanistic, static view of the world. Engels is remarkable for having seen in some of the advances of science during his time the sign that the physical world too has a history. Already within the Newtonian heritage, there were hints alluding to that direction, like the origin of celestial bodies or the deceleration of Earth’s rotation due to the tides (Laplace, Kant…). Engels understood the importance of the conservation and transformation of energy, of biological evolution (geology, Lamarck, Darwin…), of the unity of the biological world based on the cell. Observing the advances of organic chemistry, he stressed the unity of the whole, along with its evolutionary character from inanimate matter to life, to mind and to society.The relation between dialectics and science has far-reaching consequences for dialectics. Dialectics does not prove anything and, thus, one should not rely on dialectics to decide what is true or not.

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Authors & Contributors
Marx, Karl
Griese, Anneliese
Engel, Friedrich
Werner Bonefeld
Wan, Zhaoyuan
Martin Schneider
Concepts
Physics
Science
Dialectics
Philosophy
Mechanics
Economics
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
Modern
21st century
17th century
Places
Argentina
Germany
France
Europe
Denmark
China
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