The Positive Outcome of Philosophy / The Nature of Human Brain Work. Letters on Logic.
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
THE POSITION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF J. DIETZGEN'S PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS
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.
Joseph Dietzgen
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
The Nature of Human Brain Work
PREFACE
I. INTRODUCTION
II PURE REASON OR THE FACULTY OF THOUGHT IN GENERAL
III THE NATURE OF THINGS
FOOTNOTE:
IV THE PRACTICE OF REASON IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE
V "PRACTICAL REASON" OR MORALITY
FOOTNOTE:
Letters on Logic
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(B)
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The Positive Outcome of Philosophy
PREFACE
I POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE AS A SPECIAL OBJECT
II THE POWER OF COGNITION IS KIN TO THE UNIVERSE
III AS TO HOW THE INTELLECT IS LIMITED AND UNLIMITED
IV THE UNIVERSALITY OF NATURE
V THE UNDERSTANDING AS A PART OF THE HUMAN SOUL
VI CONSCIOUSNESS IS ENDOWED WITH THE FACULTY OF KNOWING AS WELL AS WITH THE FEELING OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF ALL NATURE
FOOTNOTE:
VII THE RELATIONSHIP OR IDENTITY OF SPIRIT AND NATURE
VIII UNDERSTANDING IS MATERIAL
IX THE FOUR PRINCIPLES OF LOGIC
X THE FUNCTION OF UNDERSTANDING ON THE RELIGIOUS FIELD
XI THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CAUSE AND EFFECT IS ONE OF THE MEANS OF UNDERSTANDING
XII MIND AND MATTER: WHICH IS PRIMARY, WHICH SECONDARY?
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XIII THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE DOUBTS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF CLEAR AND ACCURATE UNDERSTANDING HAVE BEEN OVERCOME
XIV CONTINUATION OF THE DISCUSSION ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DOUBTFUL AND EVIDENT UNDERSTANDING
XV CONCLUSION