Leningrad Institute of Philosophy

A Textbook of Marxist Philosophy

Publisher: Victor Gollancz Limited, London, W.C.2, 1937; Left Book Club Edition
Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

Prepared by the Leningrad Institute of Philosophy under the Direction of M. Shirokov consisting of Four Parts.

The Last Three Parts—being an Exposition of Dialectical Materialism—have been Translated without Alteration from the Russian:

But the First Part—being an historical Introduction to Marxist Philosophy and to the Theory of Knowledge—has been Condensed and entirely Rewritten by the English Editor who alone takes Responsibility for this Section.

The Whole Book has been Translated by A. C. Moseley, and the Translation has been Revised and Edited by John Lewis, B.Sc., Ph.D.

The Publishers are Victor Gollancz Limited, 14 Henrietta Street Covent Garden London W.C.2

C O N T E N T S

Preface
Introduction

Section I

Historical

I. The Conflict between Idealism and Materialism
II. Dialectic as a Theory of Knowledge
III. Moments of Knowledge of Actuality
IV. The Doctrine of Truth

Section II

Unity and the Strife of Opposites

I. The Law of the Unity and Conflict of Opposites
II. The Division of Unity, the Disclosure of Essesntial Opposites
III. Mutual Penetration of Opposites
IV. Analysis of the Movement of the Contradiction of a process from its Beginning to its End
V. The Relativity of the Unity of Opposites and the Absoluteness of their Conflict
VI. Theory of Equilibrium

Section III

The Law of the Transition of Quantity into Quality

I. From Naïve Dialectic to the Metaphysic of Properties
II. From the Metaphysic of Properties to the Metaphysic of Relations
III. Quality and Self Movement of Matter
IV. The Relativity of Qualities and the Universal Connection of Things
V. The Dialectic of Quality and Property
VI. The Transition of Quantity into Quality
VII. Contradiction and the Evolutionary Leap
VIII. The Dialectic of the “Leap”
IX. The Transition of Quality into Quantity
X. The Problem of “Levelling Down”
XI. The Nodal Line of Measurements