The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
In order that this separation may be appreciated according to its
merits, in order that our consciousness may neither etherealize force in
a spiritualist sense nor deny it in a materialist sense, and in order to
comprehend it scientifically, we have only to understand the faculty of
thought in general or "in itself," that is to say its abstract form. The
intellect can not operate without some perceptible material. In order to
distinguish between matter and force, these things must exist and be
experienced by sense perception. By means of this experience we refer to
matter as the expression of force and to force as the expression of
matter. The perceptible object which is to be studied is therefore
matter and force in one, and since all objects are in their tangible
reality such matter and force-things, the distinction made by the mind
consists in the general method of brain work, in the derivation of the
general unity, from the special multiplicity in any one and in all given
objects. The distinction between matter and force is summarized in the
universal distinction between the concrete and the abstract. To deny the
value of this distinction is equivalent to denying the value of any and
all distinction, equivalent to ignoring the function of the intellect
altogether.
If we refer to phenomena of sense perception as forces of matter in
general, then this generalized matter is nothing but an abstract
conception. But if we mean by the term sense perception the various
concrete substances, then the general element which embraces the
differences of things and pervades and controls them is force producing
concrete effects. And whether we say matter or force, the mental which
science is studying, not with its hands, but with its brain, the
so-called essence, nature, cause, ideal, superior or spiritual, is the
generality comprising the special things.
V
"PRACTICAL REASON" OR MORALITY
+(a) The Wise and Reasonable.+
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