Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"Engels, Friedrich
Philosophy
Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"
Engels, Friedrich
Dialectical materialism; Dühring, E. (Eugen), 1833-1921; Economics; Philosophy; Socialism
We might have cited from nature and human society a hundred more such
facts in proof of this law, thus the whole fourth section of Marx's
"Capital" entitled "Production of Relative Surplus Value in the realm
of co-operative industry, the Division of Labor, and Manufacture,
Machinery and the Great Industry," goes to show innumerable instances
in which qualitative change alters the quantity of the thing, and
where also, to use Herr Duehring's exceedingly odious expression,
quantity is converted and transformed into quality. So also the mere
cooperation of large numbers, the melting of several diverse crafts
into one united craft, to use Marx's expression, produces a new
"industrial power" which is substantially different from the sum of
the individual crafts.
Marx, in the interest of the entire truth, has remarked, in complete
contrast to the perverted style of Herr Duehring "The molecular theory
employed in modern chemistry, first scientifically developed by
Laurent and Gerhardt, rests upon no other law." But what does Herr
Duehring care for that? He knows that "the eminently modern
constructive elements of scientific thought make just the same mistake
as was made by Marx and his rival Lassalle; half-knowledge and a touch
of pseudo-philosophy furnish the tools necessary for a display of
learning." While with Herr Duehring "elevated notions of exact
knowledge in mechanics, physics and chemistry" are, as we have seen,
the foundations. But that the public may be in a position to decide we
shall examine somewhat more closely the example cited by Marx in his
note.
Here we have, for example, the homologous series of compounds of
carbon of which many are known and each has its own algebraic formula.
If we, for example, according to the practice of chemistry, represent
an atom of carbon by C, an atom of hydrogen by H, an atom of oxygen by
O and the number of atoms contained in each combination of carbon by
n, we can express the molecular formula of each one of this series
thus,
C_{n}H_{2n+2}--Series of normal paraffin.
C_{n}H_{2n+2}O--Series of primary alcohol.
C_{n}H_{2n}O_{2}--Series of the monobasic oleic acids.
Let us take, for example, the last of this series and set one after
the other n = 1, n = 2, etc., we get the following results omitting
the compounds.
CH_{2}O_{2}--Formic Acid--boiling point 100 deg.--melting point 1 deg.
C_{2}H_{4}O_{2}--Acetic Acid--boiling point 118 deg.--melting point
17 deg.
C_{3}H_{6}O_{2}--Propionic Acid--boiling point 140 deg.--melting point--.
C_{4}H_{8}O_{2}--Butyric Acid--boiling point 162 deg.--melting point--.
C_{5}H_{10}O_{2}--Valerianic Acid--boiling point 175 deg.--melting
point--.
And so on to C_{30}H_{60}O_{2}, Melissic Acid, which melts first at
180 deg., and which has no boiling point, because it does not evaporate
without splitting up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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