GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

BTHIG8 AND POLITICS: THS MODERNS
ermined by events or movements in the world outside
mind. 1 These events in the physical world are the
lerators of events in the mind of man, and consequently
ermine the process which we call history. Of this
>cess the mind of man is an integral part, but it is
t the originator.
irx's Theory of History. The theory of the Dialeccombined
with the materialist view of the causation
,
events, issues in a theory of history. According
to this
sory, events occur as the result of the conflict of opposf
tendencies; the truth about events, that is to say the
rrect interpretation of history, will be reached by
t understanding ofboth the opposing tendencies and of the
suit of their conflict. Just as in the world of thought,
pursue a tendency to its logical conclusion is to reveal
opposite, so in the world of fact the very success of one
ovement tends to call into existence its opposite. Feudaln
engendered the conditions which permitted the rise
the bourgeoisie, who, through the expansion of industry
id the growth of commerce, were presently to destroy
nidalism; and Capitalism, by reason of its creation of a
ass-conscious proletariat, is forging the instrument of its
vn destruction. But while from one point of view looked
: from the outside as it were the tendency is a one-sided
rvelopmcnt which is seen to call its opposite into existicc
to correct its one-sidedness, from another viewed as
were from the inside the tendency is itself seen as a
mthesis of opposites. Thus each system of society con*
tins its opposite within itself, and it is the opposition
etween it and the opposite it contains which leads to
ic disruption of the system and to its supersession by
nother.
Marx's metaphysical background is thus dialectical and
laterialist His dialectical theory teaches that movements
f any kind result from the confrontation of opposite*, and
1 See pp. 694-696 below for an expansion mid qualification of this