Spirkin : Dialectical Materialism (excerpt 3)

Spirkin : Dialectical Materialism (excerpt 3)

The subject-matter of philosophy.

When we set out to study philosophy we enter the fascinating realm of the theoretically thinking mind, of wisdom that has been accumulated over the centuries.

The oldest definition of philosophy is attributed by legend to the famous Pythagoras. Too modest to wish to be called wise, he said that he was not a wise man, but only a lover of wisdom—a philosopher ( from the Greek " philos "— loving and " sophia "— wisdom ).

From time immemorial philosophy in the true sense has been understood as a desire for the highest knowledge and wisdom, as distinct from everyday and other forms of applied knowledge, and also from religious or mythological forms of thinking.

The thinkers of ancient times sought an understanding of the world that would replace the obsolete picture produced by myth and legend.

Philosophical thought has traditionally been distinguished by its orientation on understanding the foundations of existence at the limits of our mental powers, the mechanisms of human cognitive activity, the essence not only of the phenomena of nature but also of social life, man and culture.

This has always had very great practical as well as theoretical significance; it is essential for an understanding of the meaning and goals of life.


Philosophy's aim from the beginning has been to give a general understanding of the universe that could provide a basis for the understanding of life, something on which to build a rational art of the existence of man and society.

Spirkin : Dialectical Materialism
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/intro01.html

Spirkin : Dialectical Materialism (excerpt 2)

Spirkin : Dialectical Materialism (excerpt 2)


Socialist society, free from exploitation of man by man, is being built in accordance with a strictly scientific social theory — Marxism-Leninism, whose philosophical basis is dialectical materialism.

 Marxist-Leninist philosophy has throughout its history been inseparably and openly connected with the revolutionary struggle of the working class, of all working people for their intellectual, social and national emancipation— in this sense it is a committed philosophy.

The philosophy of Marx was a turning-point in the development of world philosophical thought. Its great innovation was to make philosophy into a science, to remould the very purpose of philosophical knowledge, which as it became established not only explained but helped to transform the world.

 Marxist philosophy, as Lenin put it, has the integrity of something forged out of a single piece of steel. It is a harmonious, consistent system of materialist views on nature, society and the mind, on the general laws of their development.

source:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/intro01.html