Engels and the Dialectic of Nature

Abstract

The idea that nature is dialectical is much criticized, and Engels is often held primarily responsible, although it comes from Hegel. There is an elementary logical principle, so it is claimed, that contradictions cannot exist in things but only in the realm of human thought and activity. In response, I argue this is not a purely formal principle; rather, the principle implies a dualistic philosophical position. That position involves a mechanistic picture of nature, and also the view that thought and rational activity are completely distinct from the natural world. Engels rejects those dualisms and develops instead a non-mechanistic, non-reductive and dialectical materialism. According to that conception, nature develops and changes, as do living organisms and human consciousness as natural phenomena. In this chapter I explain and defend those ideas.