Engels’ Conceptions of Dialectics, Nature, and Dialectics of Nature

Kaan Kangal ()
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Kaan Kangal: Nanjing University

A chapter in 200 Years of Friedrich Engels, 2022, pp 77-90 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Engels’ name stands and falls today with a variety of his contributions to socialist thought and Marxist philosophy. Yet there is one particular component of the Marxist body of thought that has been subject to a group of controversies for quite some time for which Engels is usually held responsible: dialectics and dialectics of nature. It is curious that a theoretical contribution to an intellectual tradition within the history of European political philosophy could be perceived and depicted as a major distortion of that tradition. In Engels’ case, this irony is captured by the phrase “the Engels problem.” In this chapter, I will first briefly summarize what “the Engels problem” is about and lay out its connection to the reception history of Engels’ dialectics. Then, I will delve into the general outlines of Engels’ dialectics and focus on his intentions, tasks, and purposes in pursuing dialectics in some of his prominent works on this theme from 1870s to 1880s, most notably in Anti-Dühring and the Dialectics of Nature. In the final section, I will briefly discuss some of the open questions of Engels’ natural dialectics.

Keywords: Dialectics; Philosophy; Dialectics of nature; Hegel; Marxism; Philosophy of science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-031-10115-1_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-10115-1_6

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