The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
Eternal peace, as the warriors may justly claim, is an illusion, so long
as we think of peace in a transcendental way and as being separated from
strife. But the sons of the war god who would like to continue the
thunder of cannons and the rattle of sabers eternally, are no less the
victims of illusion, if not something worse. Eternal is only war in
peace and peace in war, although that may seem senseless to the
logicians of the old school. Thus even the inevitable war will become
more peaceful and humane in the course of time. The barbarian form of
war, of which the Prussians are masters, is not destined to last
forever, unless we speak of the illogical eternity of the preacher which
opens its doors by leaving the temporal world. In defending the social
war, I wish to have it understood that neither the conceptions nor the
things called war and peace are separated by a Chinese wall.
Everything is interconnected and interdependent. It is true that strife
and animosities may be exaggerated, and so may peace. But whatever blame
attaches to this, refers only to the exaggeration. It is not the
animosity, but the excessive animosity which deserves censure. By
recognizing the logical interconnection between peace and strife, the
dispute of the parties is rendered saner. There is then no longer a
question of a yawning chasm between satisfaction and dissatisfaction,
but of something about which an agreement is possible, viz., how much
there is of either.
As peace and war in the human breast, so all variety intermingles in the
cosmic unit. In the novel "_Homo Sum_," by Ebers, the monk Paulus, who
tasted the delights of the preliminary celestial ecstasy when
castigating his body, says: "I truly believe that it is just as
difficult on this globe to find pain without joy as joy without pain."
And Till Eulenspiegel, that type of a practical joker, showed an
understanding of dialectics when he lightened the difficulty of
ascending a mountain by the reflection that the descent on the other
side would be so much easier. Logic is no more senseless in teaching
that all things, even the most opposite, are of the same substance than
it is in showing that night belongs to day and weeds to herbs.
In order that these petty illustrations may not confuse your mind, it
should be remembered that the essential point is the elucidation of the
great contradiction between mind and matter, between thinking and being,
which includes all petty contradictions.
In order to think in accordance with logical consistency, you must not
regard a thing as something independent, but consider everything as
fluid particles of the same substance, which is the thing of all things,
the world, the truth, and life.
Our logic is therefore the science of truth. This truth is neither above
nor below, neither in Jerusalem nor in Jericho, neither in the spirit
nor in the flesh, but everywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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