November-December 1999

ANTI-DUHRING, Engels’ great work, was the product of an acute inner-party struggle.

During the 1870s, Eugen Duhring, a lecturer at Berlin University, came out with a series of works which launched an all-round attack on Marxism, from philosophy and political economy to the theory of socialism.

Weaving his web like a spider, Duhring made up this whole series of systems out of his "genius" brain. He imagined that, without any kind of experience and starting from the simplest "basic forms" or "basic elements" of things, he could logically deduce a whole system of philosophy by applying several understood axioms of philosophy and then, by sovereign decree, he imposed this constitution on nature and humanity. Engels pointed out:

Apriorism is an idealist theory of knowledge. The materialist theory of reflection holds that ideas are the reflection of objective reality, that all true knowledge originates from experience. So there is no knowledge prior to experience. Yet apriorism holds that the rational includes some "gifted concept," "self-understood reason," "born principles" or logical categories, that it does not arise from experience but is innate in the mind, and that starting from these principles or categories, one can get real knowledge through logical deduction. Apriorists do not admit the dependence of conceptual knowledge upon perceptual knowledge, but think that the former is independent; they oppose proceeding from practical experience, but stand for proceeding from the rational. They do not proceed from facts to concepts but vice versa.

In criticizing apriorism, Engels incisively elaborated the principle of the materialist theory of reflection. He said that principle was not the starting point of research, but was its ultimate result, that it,was not for the ohjective world to adapt to principle but a principle was correct only when it conformed to the objective world. But Duhring turned things upside down. With convincing arguments, Engels explained that all knowledge, including mathematics which seemed very abstract, came from practical experiences.

Duhring’s "socialism" was created by the apriori method. According to him, socialism was neither a reflection of the objective law of social development at all nor a reflection of the class interests of the proletariat, but was derived from the so-called principle that was universal and just.

Historical Development Is Not Decided by Men of Genius

Utopian socialists believed that society could be changed by the force of reason alone and that reason was apriorist and eternal. They denied the fact that knowledge depends on social practice and truth is a process of development. Proceeding from this, they inevitably derived the idealist conception of history which considers history as being created by genius.

Using the materialist conception of history, Engels thoroughly refuted this idealist conception of history. He pointed out that the final causes of all social and political changes should be sought, not in man’s brain or better insight into "eternal truth" or "universal justice," but in the economic base of society and class struggle. The birth of capitalism was not because of mistakes in man’s knowledge; it was historically inevitable because the capitalist system corresponded to the development of the social productive forces under the then historical conditions. Similarly, that the capitalist system must give way to the socialist system is not because people come to know that it is contradictory to the principles of justice and equality or merely because they want to abolish classes, but because the capitalist relations of production retard the development of the social productive forces and only the socialist relations of production can liberate those forces. Therefore, the question is not one of first imagining a perfect social system in the mind and then imposing it on society. Only by objectively observing and knowing the laws governing the development of society and relying on the struggle of the masses to transform theory into a material force can society be changed.

Marxism has always recognized the reaction of mental on material things and the role of heroes, leaders and geniuses in history. But no matter how great the geniuses are, they cannot change the laws of history and decide its course. History is not created by a few men of genius but by the masses of the people. Only when the ideas of heroes, leaders and men of genius represent the interests of the advanced class, correspond to the needs of the objective reality and are grasped by the masses can they become a great material force to transform the world.

A genius is no more than somewhat wiser and more talented than the others. But where do wisdom and talent come from? Talent belongs to the category of knowledge and is not something endowed by nature. Although man’s wisdom and ability are related to the degree of perfection of his brain, the evolution of his brain has been the result of man’s longtime labour and the development of language. As the human brain itself is a product of labour, how can man’s wisdom and ability be separated from social practice? Moreover, physiological differences between people cannot explain at all that talent is naturally endowed because they only constitute the natural material foundation for the development of talent and provide the possibility for this development. The real forming of talent is acquired through tempering and study. All such assertions as born "talent," "all-embracing talent" of leaders are nothing but out-and-out lies! Wisdom and ability can be derived only from social practice and from the masses. Chairman Mao has contributed greatly to the development of this question. He pointed out: The brain of any hero and outstanding man can only play the role of a processing plant and its raw material or semi-finished products come from the masses. The lowly who personally take part in practice are most intelligent and truth is in the hands of the masses. Only when the leaders first become students of the masses can they become the latter’s teachers. According to this view, geniuses are not isolated individuals, but are the representatives of the classes. They come from the masses, and are most adept at concentrating their wisdom. If there were no masses, there would be no genius. The masses are the real heroes and the genius or heroes and leaders is the concentrated expression of the wisdom of the masses, the classes and the party.

Scientific Socialism Emerges and Develops on the Basis of Revolutionary Practice

Why couldn’t people like Saint-Simon found scientific socialism? Was it because they lacked genius? No. Engels regarded Saint-Simon as a man of genius, but no genius can go beyond the limit set by his time. It was because of the historical conditions that people like Saint-Simon fell into utopian socialism. At that time capitalism was in its period of ascendancy and the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie had not developed yet, so it was impossible to foresee the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Why could Marx and Engels found scientific socialism? Was it merely or mainly because of their genius? The answer is no. As to Marx’s genius, Engels only mentioned it on a few occasions and never specially stressed it. On the contrary, Engels stressed in many places in Anti-Duhring and his other works the historical and practical conditions which gave rise to Marxism. In the era of Marx and Engels natural science made tremendous advances and the three great discoveries of cells, transformation of energy and the evolution of living things provided strong scientific proof of dialectics. On the other hand, in the words of Engels, "certain historical facts had occurred which led to a decisive change in the conception of history," i.e., the first workers’ uprising in Lyons, France, in 1831 and the Chartist movement – the first nationwide workers’ movement in England which reached its climax between 1838 and 1842. These facts showed that with the development of big industry and of the bourgeoisie’s newly seized political rule, the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was raised to the principal contradiction in the most developed European countries. Marx and Engels were able to found their theories precisely because they personally took part in revolutionary practice at that time, read many books, studied large quantities of material in natural science and social history, studied the economic structure of capitalism and its inner contradictions and summed up the historical experience of the international workers’ movement. As Engels put it: "Socialism was no longer an accidental discovery of this or that ingenious brain, but the necessary outcome of the struggle between two historically developed classes – the proletariat and the bourgeoisie."

Man’s practice is a process of continuous development and will never be ended; so is man’s knowledge. People’s knowledge at any given stage of development is relative truth which contains factors of absolute truth but is not absolute truth. What is absolute truth? Chairman Mao has given a precise definition: "The sum total of innumerable relative truths" constitutes absolute truth. "Innumerable" means countless and knowledge cannot be completed. Therefore, no individual can exhaust absolute truth and enjoy absolute scientific authority. Putting on airs as an absolute authority who "knows everything," Duhring advertised his goods as the "final and ultimate truth" and bragged that his thinking was able to exclude any tendency to a "subjectively limited conception of the world." Engels scathingly refuted this fallacy, pointing out: Everyone’s knowledge is limited by subjective and objective conditions and therefore cannot be of unconditional and paramount significance. The so-called "infallible" genius and superman who exhausts absolute truth simply does not exist. However, through the efforts of generation after generation, mankind is continuously approaching absolute truth.

Making Mao Tsetung Thought absolute and solidified in itself is counter to Mao Tsetung Thought. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought has in no way exhausted truth but ceaselessly opens up roads to the knowledge of truth in the course of practice. (Abridged)

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