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

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<strong>THE</strong>ORY OF COMMUNISM 697<br />

considering seems to be detcnninist. There is, however,<br />

another point of view from which, within the framework<br />

ofMarx's theory, the question can be approached, and which<br />

suggests a somewh<strong>at</strong> different answer.<br />

Th<strong>at</strong> the Oper<strong>at</strong>ions of die Dialectic are Never in feet<br />

Determined. This point of view is revealed by a<br />

consider<strong>at</strong>ion of the applic<strong>at</strong>ion of the Hegelian Dialectic<br />

to the processes of history. We have seen th<strong>at</strong> Mane<br />

all historical events as the determined outcome<br />

regards<br />

of the conflicting tendencies which produce them. This<br />

again seems to Suggest a determinist answer to our<br />

question. But determinism, Marx held, only applies in<br />

its completeness to those dialectical processes which<br />

tendencies were<br />

proceed unimpeded. If the conflicting<br />

oper<strong>at</strong>ing in a vacuum, screened from the influence of all<br />

irrelevant factors, and there worked out their conflict<br />

undisturbed, each phase of the conflict would, he agrees,<br />

be determined. Wh<strong>at</strong> is more, the r<strong>at</strong>e of its development<br />

would be determined and therefore predictable. In fact,<br />

however, the two conflicting tendencies, though they may<br />

be the dominant forces <strong>at</strong> work within the m<strong>at</strong>rix of any<br />

particular system, are not the only ones. There is always<br />

a variety of other forces and tendencies which may cut<br />

across the oper<strong>at</strong>ion of the two domin<strong>at</strong>ing tendencies,<br />

impede or facilit<strong>at</strong>e their working out, blur the outlines<br />

of their opposition and confuse the outcome of their<br />

conflict.<br />

Moreover, the two tendencies which are distinguished<br />

in thought, do not exist in fact in the abstract purity with<br />

which thought envisages them. It is not merely th<strong>at</strong> they<br />

are rel<strong>at</strong>ed to and affected by other contemporary ten-<br />

dencies. They contain their own distorting and obscuring<br />

factors within themselves. There is no such thing as<br />

Capitalism as such, or Communism as such; there are no<br />

pure classes and no pure individuals. Marx does not make<br />

the mistake often <strong>at</strong>tributed to him of conceiving of the<br />

individual merely as a represent<strong>at</strong>ive of his class, whether

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