This group provides a forum for those who do not accept, and wish to criticise, Dialectical Materialism (not to be confused with Historical Materialism). This group also welcomes those who accept Dialectical Matierialism, though we ask that debates be conducted with respect and in a comradely manner.
Anti-dialectics books are few and far between (that is why I set my site up!). The best is by Eric Petersen (an Australian Marxist in the IS tradition), but it is not easy to get hold of: The Poverty of Dialectical Materialism (Red Door, 1994). http://www.greenleft.org.au/1996/221/14949 However, Eric only goes half-way, rejecting the dialectic in nature, but not in society. There are several articles on line that attack certain aspects of dialectics. Here are two: http://www.marxists.org/reference/su...s/en/magee.htm http://www.marxists.org/history/etol...works/math.htm By the way, Karl Popper's criticism of dialectics (in his book Conjectures and Refutations) is almost completely worthless.
There are older books that criticise this 'theory', but they are not much good. The best of the worst is The Tyranny of Concepts (Merlin Press, 1961) by Gordon Leff. The chapter on dialectics is quite good, but the rest of the book is awful. The next least worst is The Illusion of the Epoch (Routledge, 1955) by H B Acton. Again while the rest of the book is dire, the chapter on dialectics is quite good. The reason why there are so few books (at least in English) is that in general Anglo-Saxon philosophers regard dialectics as a bit of a joke, and not worth attacking, since it is dire in the extreme. Rather like geographers who do not waste time on the Flat Earth Society.
Also worth reading (if you can get hold of it!): 'Marxism and the Engels Paradox' by Jeff Coulter in the Socialist Register Volume 8, 1971. http://socialistregister.com/node/13 And anything by Terrell Carver (if you ignore his 'post-modernist tendencies'): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrell_Carver Karl Marx: Texts on Method (1975) Engels (‘Past Masters’) (1981, repr. 1991; reissued as Engels: A Very Short Introduction, 2003) Marx’s Social Theory (1982) Marx and Engels: The Intellectual Relationship (1983) Friedrich Engels: His Life and Thought (1989, repr. 1991) Cambridge Companion to Marx (ed.) (1991) The Postmodern Marx (1998) Engels After Marx (ed.) (1999) Engels: A Very Short Introduction (2003) Carver argues (among other things!) that Marx did not accept a dialectic in nature.
Yeah, Carver's 'Marx and Engels' (also, 'Terrell' has two 'l's) was pretty interesting. He basically uses evidence from their correspondance to show how Marx saw dialectics as Engels' project, and took something of an agnostic view on the whole thing. Seeing as 'Marxism and the Engels Paradox' seems to be free, I suppose I may as well read that sometime soon. Colletti's work is also quite interesting, his 'From Hegel to Marcuse' is here, and he also put out 'Marxism and Hegel', which is worth reading. It has some interesting discussion on what Marx may have seen as Hegel's 'rational' side and such. Also, I recall you quoting from Rosenthal's 'Myth of Dialectics'. It sounds interesting, would you recommend that?
Corrected, thanks! Rosenthal's book is quite good, and well worth reading. It is slightly spoilt by the complex language he uses. But, then again, it is not easy criticising Hegel in any other way.
Thanks. In all likelihood, after getting some books this summer I'm going to take a long break to read everything. I'll probably only pick up the Rosenthal book after that, and I suppose I'll mention it here if it's good. Apparently his debate with Smith was also interesting.
In the journal Historical Materialism? In my opinion he wipes the floor with Smth.
There's a critique of dialectics in Mario Bunge's Scientific Materialism and another one of diamat in his Matter and Mind.
