Engels’ Intentions in Dialectics of Nature

Bibliographic Data

ID10489406
AuthorsKaan Kangal (Center for Studies of Marxist Social Theory Department of PhilosophyNanjing University Xianlin Campus, Qixia District, 38 Jiangsu Nanjing, 210046 China, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume83
Issue2
Pages215-243
Publication date2019-03-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8237 • E-ISSN: 1943-2801
PublisherGuilford Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1521/siso.2019.83.2.215
OpenAlexW2921465756
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited16

Reading different or controversial intentions into Marx and Engels’ works has been somewhat a common but rather unquestioned practice in the history of Marxist scholarship. Engels’ Dialectics of Nature , a torso for some and a great book for others, is a case in point. A bold line seems to shape the entire Engels debate and separate two opposite views in this regard: Engels the contaminator of Marx's materialism vs. Engels the self-started genius of dialectical materialism. What Engels, unlike Marx, has not enjoyed so far is a critical reflection upon the relationship between different layers of this text: authorial, textual, editorial and interpretational. Informed by a historical hermeneutic, inquiry into the elements that structure the debate on “Dialectics of Nature,” and into the different political and philosophical functions attached to it, makes it possible to relocate the meaning of “dialectics” in a more precise context. Engels’ dialectics is less complete than we usually think it is, but he achieved more than most scholars would like to admit

Context (archaeology · Dialectic · Dialectical materialism · Epistemology · Genius · Literature · Marxist philosophy · Materialism · Meaning (existential · Politics · Scholarship · Critical Theory and Philosophy · History · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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