notes on dialectics part ii the hegelian logic

8/12/2019 Notes on Dialectics Part II the Hegelian Logic

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C L R James

Notes on Dialectics: PART IIThe Hegelian Logic

... and now before we go on, do me a little favour, friends. Just sit down and read this whole previoussection over. No? OK. As Mar said in the last paragraph of the !riti"ue of the #otha $rogramme, dowhat %ou li&e now. ' have saved m% own soul...( )octrine of Notion

*election+ About half of $art '' reproduced, concentrating on commentar% on the ogic-$ublisher+ Allison /usb%, 0123-
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4he )octrine of /eing4he )octrine of 5ssence6eview and eninist 'nterludeAppearance and Actualit%4he )octrine of 4he Notion

eninism and the Notion

The Doctrine of Being
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PRELIMINARY E ERCI!E!

7ou &now, as ' propose to m%self to begin the actual Logic , ' feel a slight chill. 4he )octrine of /eing.8arris, who ultimatel% wrote a ver% fine wor& on the 8egelian ogic, was a professor of philosoph%and lecturer on 8egel at second9hand. /roc&me%er, #overnor of Missouri, made a translation of thelarger Logic and someone gave it to 8arris. 8arris sa%s that he copied out the thing with his own hand,the whole thing, and when he was finished, he didn:t understand a line, not a line. ' &now e actl% howhe felt.

;hat ' propose to do is to use the )octrine of /eing as a means of getting practice in the st%le andhabit of 8egel. 4he larger Logic is the most difficult boo& ' &now. Kant:s Critique of Pure Reason ischild:s pla% compared to it. /ut we have to be able to handle it. *o while we shall get the main pointsof the )octrine of /eing, loo& upon this as a &ind of basic training, before we get down to it in the)octrine of 5ssence. ' am not giving a summar% of the Logic . ' am not e panding it as a doctrine. ' amusing it and showing how to begin to &now it and use it.

4hin& of the world of human beings, nearl% two billions, more than that perhaps. ;hat is the simplestthing %ou can sa% about them? 4he% e ist. 4wo billion people e ist. *o what< 4o sa% that is to sa% =nothing. 4o sa% something so broad, so complete, so abstract , is to sa% nothing. *omething musthappen, must come out of this abstraction. ' sa%+ some men wor&. 4he previous abstraction has nowbecome something. *ome men wor&. et us loo& at the men who wor&. 4he% at once, b% beingdistinguished, create another categor%, the people who do not wor&. 7ou cannot separate one categor%without creating another one. 4o create a categor% is to determine( something. /ut ever% time %oudetermine something, %ou negate something. 5ver% time. /% determining men who wor&, we negate

them as men who merel% e ist, but we also negate the men who do not wor&. 4he% are no longer menwho merel% e ist. 4hat is over. 4he% are men who do not wor&. ;henever %ou do something, %ou atthe same time do not do something else. A silver coin on a green table negated the green cover on the

particular spot where it rests. 't creates the spot where the coin is and the spot where the coin is not.

Now we have men who wor&. 4hat is the "ualit% which distinguishes them. ;hen somethingbecomes( out of the mass it has a "ualit%>. 4he "ualit% we ta&e is wor&. /ut as %ou pile up the menwho wor&, %ou catalogue them, wor& is not enough. *ome are tailors, some shoema&ers, somecowbo%s, some engineers. 4he list is endless. *ome wor& well, some badl%. *ome wor& well but sta%at home ever% morning. ;e soon find ourselves concerned with more than "ualit%. ;e find that wemust loo& not at "ualit% but at quantity of wor&. $reoccupation with "ualit% has led us to quantity . /ut

"uantit% too is limited. 4he more %ou contemplate it, deal with it, %ou find that it is impossible to &eeptab of the "uantit% of wor& of tailors, coo&s, deep9sea divers b% measuring wor& in the abstract. 7ouhave to get some common measure . 4he three divisions of the )octrine of /eing are ualit%,

uantit%, and Measure.

4his is a crude, but in m% opinion, "uite ade"uate, e ample of 8egel:s method. 4hat is what ' am after.Kant and the others would &now and use ualit%, uantit%, and Measure. ;hat 8egel insisted upon isthat these are connected, that one developed out of the other. uantit% came at a certain time because"ualit% upon "ualit% does not go on being "ualit% but at a certain stage becomes something new. 8egelta&es ualit% and uantit% as abstractions to represent processes present in all aspects of nature,societ% and thought. ;ater is a "ualit%, a small stream negates the surrounding land. 't is a stream

because it is no longer land. 'f it grows and grows, it becomes a river, and a number of rivers meetingin one place can become an inland sea.


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8egel:s own categories are much more profound, of course. 8e sa%s+ thin& not of men, but ofever%thing that e ists, that has some being>. 4hin& of the whole world not as men, land, s&%, horses,air, buildings. Just thin& of it in its capacit% of e isting. $ure absolute being. #ood. /ut when %outhin& that, %ou are thin&ing = nothing. $ure being = pure nothing. *omething emerges, it becomes(and %ou have being determinate>. 't has a "ualit%. /ut a coin on a table negates some of the table. *o

that )eterminate /eing( is /eing9for9self but always being9for9another. Men who wor& are one being, being9for9self, but the% are also automaticall% being9for9another, men9who9do9not9wor&.

ualit% means that a limit is imposed, a barrier between itself and its other.

'f we ta&e a closer loo& at what a limit implies, we see it involving a contradiction in itself, and thusevincing its dialectical nature. On the one side limit ma&es the realit% of a thing- on the other it is itsnegation. /ut, again, the limit, as the negation of something, is not an abstract nothing but a nothingwhich is = what we call an other>. #iven something, and up starts an other to us+ we &now that thereis not something onl%, but an other as well. Nor, again, is the other of such a nature that we can thin&something apart from it- a something is implicitl% the other of itself, and the somewhat sees its limit

become ob@ective to it in the other. 'f we now as& for the difference between something and another, itturns out that the% are the same+ which sameness is e pressed in atin b% calling the pair aliad-aliud .4he other, as opposed to the something, is itself a something, and hence we sa% some other, orsomething else- and so on the other hand the first something when opposed to the other, also definedas something, is itself an other. ;hen we sa% something else( our first impression is that somethingta&en separatel% is onl% something, and that the "ualit% of being another attaches to it onl% fromoutside considerations. 4hus we suppose that the moon, being something else than the sun, might ver%well e ist without the sun. /ut reall% the moon, as a something, has its other implicit in it. $lato sa%s+#od made the world out of the nature of the one( and the other>+ having brought these together, heformed from them a third, which is of the nature of the one( and the other>. 'n these words we havein general terms a statement of the nature of the finite, which, as something, does not meet the natureof the other as if it had no affinit% to it, but, being implicitl% the other of itself, thus undergoesalteration. Alteration thus e hibits the inherent contradiction which originall% attaches to determinate

being, and which forces it out of its own bounds.

... /ut the fact is, mutabilit% lies in the notion of e istence, and change is onl% the manifestation ofwhat it implicitl% is. 4he living die, simpl% because as living the% bear in themselves the germ ofdeath.

4hat is the core of the )octrine of /eing. *omething immediatel% involves something else. !ontinuewith something li&e "ualit%, and its other, "uantit%, will ta&e form. A completel% abstract something isthe same as nothing, that is its other. *omething /ecomes( out of nothing. 't alwa%s has its limit, its

barrier. And this limit, barrier, is burst through, at a certain stage, to establish the other, its other. Allthis ta&es place in the sphere of determinate being, simple "ualit%.

et me ta&e an e ample of what the method of the Logic signifies. 4he proletariat politicall% is anundistinguished bod% of proletarians. *omething becomes>. *ome of them form a part%. At once the

proletariat is no longer part% and proletarians. 't is part% and non9part%, or as we sa%, part% and mass.4he part% creates its other, the mass. /ut %ou can have one, two, three, four parties. One obvious wa%to distinguish is b% si e. 4hat is not sufficient, however. Bor political purposes we can @udge b%support>, a form of "uantit%. /ut support changes. Out of support we can arrive at what in the lastanal%sis decided support = polic%. 4hat is a form of Measure. ;henever %ou e amine an% ob@ect, %oucan begin b% loo&ing for its obvious distinguishing "ualit%, the "uantit% of this "ualit%, and the

measure of it.
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/it b% bit we go a step further, li&e an e perienced man bringing along a virgin who has willingl%consented. #race is probabl% tearing her hair at the vulgarit% of some of m% illustrations. 4he% are

better than the perpetual water turning into steam which ever%bod% uses from 5ngels. /ut ' don:t wantto leave it there. Bor us )octrine of /eing is a road to practise to get familiar with the method, theconcrete method, the method of dealing with 8egel:s matter and manner. )o not be misled b% the

e tract ' have given %ou from the smaller Logic . 4here he is being friendl%, considerate and &ind. 'nthe larger Logic he is ruthless. 8e puts down the most difficult, complicated idea in a clause of threewords. 8e creates terms, three, four, five, and uses them as if the% were letters of the alphabet. *o letus use this interlude as training. Now for this "ualit% into "uantit% business. 8egel uses the One andthe Man% as his illustration.

!ommon sense thin&s one is one, and over here, and man% is some, and over there. 'n other words.One has a special quality , and the% begin there and sta% there. 8egel sa%s No. $hilosoph% tells us thatOne presupposes Man%. 4he moment ' sa% One, ' have thereb% created the categor% Man%. 'n fact it isthe e istence of the Man% which ma&es the One possible at all. 'f there were no Man%, One would bewhatever %ou wish but it would not be One meaning this one, in contrast with man% others. 4he Onetherefore is repellent . 4o be, it repels the Man%. 't is exclusive , but it is not "uiescent. 't is activel%repelling the Man%, for otherwise its specific "ualit% as One would be lost. 4his is Repulsion . /ut, allthe other Ones who constitute the Man% have a connecting relation with it. 4he% thereb% have aconnective relation with each other- the One, b% holding them all off, ma&es them all @oin togetheragainst it. /ut each of these is a One, too. 4hus the One begins b% 6epulsion but creates in ever% othersingle One an attraction. 4hus, the One when %ou begin with it is a ualit%, but b% e amining first andfollowing what is involved to the end, %ou turn up with a new categor%, uantit%, with the original

pure and simple ualit% suppressed and superseded.

8ere is the complete e tract+

4he One, as alread% remar&ed, @ust is self9e clusion and e plicit putting itself as the Man%. 5ach of the Man% however is itself a One, and in virtue of its so behaving, this all rounded repulsion is b% onestro&e converted into its opposite = Attraction.

4he thing that 8egel insists upon is not to see the One as fi ed, finite, limited, isolated. 't is One because there are Man%, and because of that the original categor% of One begins to assume new facetsand suddenl% the% are the ver% opposite of what %ou began with. As 8egel &nows and sa%s %ou can Cif%ou want toD ma&e a lot of @o&es about these transitions. 8is fundamental answer is that %ou have to goalong with him and see where %ou get and what %ou get. An%one who has had a class on Capital &nows that there are certain t%pes who passionatel% contest ever% sentence, ever% deduction. 'n the end

the% alwa%s turn up in the bourgeois camp. 't is the revolution the% are fighting. 4he 8egeliancategories offer infinite opportunit% for this. ;e, however, not onl% have our past traditions. ;e havehad a ver% substantial introduction here, and can afford to follow him. As a matter of fact, few peoplechallenge the broad divisions of the )octrine of /eing. ' have seen these basic premises challenged,

but the writer said that if %ou admitted those, %ou could not seriousl% oppose him after.

Now let 8egel himself spea&. ' give some length% e tracts from the smaller Logic .

4he transition from ualit% to uantit%, indicated in the paragraph before us, is not found in ourordinar% wa% of thin&ing which deems each of these categories to e ist independentl% beside the other.;e are in the habit of sa%ing that things are not merel% "ualitativel%, but also "uantitativel% defined-

but whence these categories originate, and how the% are related to each other, are "uestions not furthere amined. 4he fact is, "uantit% @ust means "ualit% superseded and absorbed+ and it is b% the dialectic
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of "ualit% here e amined that this supersession is effected. Birst of all, we had being+ as the truth of/eing, came /ecoming+ which formed the passage to /eing )eterminate+ and the truth of that wefound to be Alteration. And in its result Alteration showed itself to be /eing9for9self, e empt fromimplication of another and from passage into another- which /eing9for9self finall% in the two sides ofits process, 6epulsion and Attraction, was clearl% seen to annul itself, and thereb% to annul "ualit% in

the totalit% of its stages. *till this superseded and absorbed "ualit% is neither an abstract nothing, nor an e"uall% abstract and featureless being+ it is onl% being as indifferent to determinateness or character.4his aspect of being is also what appears as "uantit% in our ordinar% conceptions. ;e observe things,first of all, with an e%e to their "ualit% = which we ta&e to be the character identical with the being ofthe thing. 'f we proceed to consider their "uantit%, we get the conception of an indifferent and e ternalcharacter or mode, of such a &ind that a thing remains what it is though its "uantit% is altered, and thething becomes greater or less .

4hen he wor&s through uantit% and arrives at Measure. 4hese he sums up so far+

4hus "uantit% b% means of the dialectical movement so far studied through its several stages, turns outto be a return to "ualit%. 4he first notion of "uantit% presented to us was that of "ualit% abrogated andabsorbed. 4hat is to sa%, "uantit% seemed an e ternal character not identical with /eing, to which it is"uite immaterial 4his notion, as we have seen, underlies the mathematical definition of magnitude aswhat can be increased or diminished. At first sight this definition ma% create the impression that"uantit% is merel% whatever can be altered = increase and diminution ali&e impl%ing determination ofmagnitude otherwise = and ma% tend to confuse it with determinate /eing, the second stage of "ualit%,which in its notion is similarl% conceived as alterable. ;e can, however, complete the definition b%adding, that in "uantit% we have an alterable, which in spite of alterations still remains the same. 4henotion of "uantit%, it thus turns out, implies an inherent contradiction. 4his contradiction is what formsthe dialectic of "uantit%. 4he result of the dialectic however is not a mere return to "ualit%, as if thatwere the true and "uantit% the false notion, but an advance to the unit% and truth of both, to "ualitative"uantit%, or Measure .

4his is worth pondering over, it is not too difficult. 4here 8egel sa%s something which he oftenrepeats, as ' have shown before. Men it seems could be as stupid then as now. 8e is tal&ing about

Nature where simple determinate being, "ualit%, abounds. Measure is a ver% low stage of thedialectical logic. And 8egel sa%s+

't ma% be well therefore at this point to observe that whenever in our stud% of the ob@ective world weare engaged in "uantitative determinations, it is in all cases Measure which we have in view, as thegoal of our operations 4his is hinted at even in language, when the ascertainment of "uantitative

features and relations is called measuring .

Now come two splendid e amples of the dialectical relation between "ualit%, "uantit%, and measure+

;e measure, e.g. the length of different chords that have been put into a state of vibration, with an e%eto the "ualitative difference of the tones caused b% their vibration, corresponding to this difference oflength. *imilarl%, in chemistr%, we tr% to ascertain the "uantit% of the matters brought intocombination, in order to find out the measures or proportions conditioning such combination, that is tosa%, those "uantities which give rise to definite "ualities .

4hen comes a reall% superb passage in which %ou see what the Logic meant to him and how he used it.

't is ver% long. /ut this is in its wa% an antholog% and ' would li&e it in+
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4he identit% between "uantit% and "ualit%, which is found in Measure, is at first onl% implicit, and not%et e plicitl% realised. 'n other words, these two categories, which unite in Measure, each claim anindependent authorit%. On the one hand, the "uantitative features of e istence ma% be altered, withoutaffecting its "ualit%. On the other hand, this increase and diminution, immaterial though it be, has itslimit, b% e ceeding which the "ualit% suffers change. 4hus the temperature of water is, in the first

place, a point of no conse"uence in respect of its li"uidit%+ still with the increase of diminution of thetemperature of the li"uid water, there comes a point where this state of cohesion suffers a "ualitativechange, and the water is converted into steam or ice. A "uantitative change ta&es place, apparentl%without an% further significance+ but there is something lur&ing behind, and a seemingl% innocentchange of "uantit% acts as a &ind of snare, to catch hold of the "ualit%. 4he antinom% of Measurewhich this implies was e emplified under more than one garb among the #ree&s. 't was as&ed, fore ample, whether a single grain ma&es a heap of wheat, or whether it ma&es a bald9tail to tear out asingle hair from the horse:s tail. At first, no doubt, loo&ing at the nature of "uantit% as an indifferentand e ternal character of being, we are disposed to answer these "uestions in the negative. And %et, aswe must admit, this indifferent increase and diminution has its limit+ a point is finall% reached, where asingle additional grain ma&es a heap of wheat- and the bald9tail is produced, if we continue pluc&ingout single hairs. 4hese e amples find a parallel in the stor% of the peasant who, as his ass trudgedcheerfull% along, went on adding ounce after ounce to its load, till at length it sun& under theunendurable burden. 't would be a mista&e to treat these e amples as pedantic futilit%- the% reall% turnon thoughts, an ac"uaintance with which is of great importance in practical life, especiall% in ethics.4hus in the matter of e penditure, there is a certain latitude within which a more or less does notmatter- but when the Measure, imposed b% the individual circumstances of the special case, ise ceeded on the one side or the other, the "ualitative nature of Measure Cas in the above e amples ofthe different temperature of waterD ma&es itself felt, and a course, which a moment before was heldgood econom%, turns into avarice or prodigalit%. 4he same principles ma% be applied in politics, whenthe constitution of a state has to be loo&ed at as independent of, no less than as dependent on, thee tent of its territor%, the number of its inhabitants, and other "uantitative points of the same &ind. 'fwe loo&, e.g. at a state with a territor% of ten thousand s"uare miles and a population of four millionswe should, without hesitation, admit that a few s"uare miles of land or a few thousand inhabitantsmore or less could e ercise no essential influence on the character of its constitution. /ut on the otherhand, we must not forget that b% the continual increase or diminishing of a state, we finall% get to a

point where, apart from all other circumstances, this "uantitative alteration alone necessaril% drawswith it an alteration in the "ualit% of the constitution. 4he constitution of a little *wiss canton does notsuit a great &ingdom- and, similarl%, the constitution of the 6oman republic was unsuitable whentransferred to the small imperial towns of #erman% .

4hat is about all we need.

Now for a little recapitulation and a @umping9off place into 5ssence. /eing means "ualit%, determinate being. 't comes out of Nothing. 't deals with the categories of other determinate beings that onedeterminate being automaticall% creates. /ut Measure as the last stage of such /eing which createsother over there. 4he dialectic of Measure leads it into 5ssence, where being is no longer simpl%determinate. 't is reflected . ;e now begin to see an ob@ect whose parts are separated b% thought. One

part creates an other, true, but the other is inherent in the ob@ect itself, not one ob@ect here and anotherover there, but the ob@ect splits into related categories that are both contained within the ob@ect itself.

4his has been ver% "uiet, ver% eas%. 4he smaller Logic is worth reading on the )octrine of /eing in particular. ' have purposel% &ept the pitch low. Just read and get ac"uainted. Bor after this we are

going to begin to go places and it is going to be hectic.
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The Doctrine of Essence

E!!ENCE I! A M"#EMENT "$ NE%ATI"N

8ere goes then, right into the heart of it, and ta&e the worst first. /race %ourself+


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/ecoming in 5ssence = its reflective movement = is hence the movement from Nothing to Nothing and through Nothing bac& to itself. 4he transition or /ecoming transcends itself in its transition+ that Otherwhich arises in the course of this transition is not the Not9being of a /eing, but the Nothing of a

Nothing = which constitutes /eing = /eing e ists onl% as the movement of Nothing to Nothing, andthus is 5ssence- and 5ssence does not contain this movement in itself but is this movement, an

absolute *how and pure negativit%, which has nothing without it that could negate it, but negates onl%its own negativit%, which is onl% in this negation.

't is as tough a passage as %ou can have. 7et we can brea& its bac&. Just tr% to remember. 8egel must write this wa%. 'f he said, as we do, the labour movement this and that, or atomic energ%, or the theor%of the state, he would at once limit himself. 4he reader would thin& of this as politics or whatever itwas 8egel had chosen. 4he movement would be from politics to something else, then to somethingelse, and so on ad infinitum . /esides it would, ' feel sure, limit his freedom of anal%sis. 8e e aminesinstead an infinite number of processes, studies the relation between stages, and e tracts, abstracts theessential movement. /esides, as ' read him, ' get the impression that from the stud% of phenomena andthe methods of other philosophers he had learnt to handle these abstractions b% themselves, and as aman does in mathematics, push them further b% their own movement. *o the% have to be accepted asvalid.

;e are to ta&e this passage all wa%s, worr% it li&e a dog. ;hat is the central idea? 4he thing that 'want %ou to notice is where he sa%s 5ssence does not contain a movement, but is that movement.

'magine a spirit, a genie Ariel, a disembodied being flitting around in the spiritual void. 8e does not&now who he is or what he is. /ut he wants to find out and he has been told that inside his spiritualconstellation are a number of elements which periodicall% e plode into an ob@ect, stone, flower, horse,ape, man, etc. 8e gets a chance in these to see what he reall% is. /ut he will &now whether this is thereal thing or not. 'f after a while he feels that this is not the real thing he dissolves it and he steps bac&again into a pure spirit. 8is onl% wa% of &nowing an%thing about himself is to become one of thethings that is in him. 4he da% he becomes something and &nows, feels, that this is it, then he issomething new at last. 8e has we ma% sa% a notion of his true self at last. /ut, e cept as somethingthat has become something for a while, he himself is a pure spirit, abstract, waiting in those coldregions.

4he essence is the fact that something continuall% becomes something else and negates it because itisn:t what the thing that is becoming wants to be. 4his being( that it becomes, we &now from the)octrine of /eing has become( out of Nothing. All immediate being comes out of Nothing and cango bac& to nothing. 4he difference with 5ssence is that it creates a lot of different beings- the% go bac&

to nothing, but essence &eeps on tr%ing, for poor 5ssence is the fact that he has to &eep on tr%ing. 8e isa &ind of being that does not rest at becoming nothing but from his ver% nature must &eep on tr%ingand tr%ing again. ;e can now go bac& to the passage and concentrate on certain things.

Now we can do a loose paraphrase. CAs far as 5ssence is concerned, the process of becoming is being,that is to sa% it comes from nothing, sta%s as being for a while and goes bac& to nothing, but thereb%gets bac& to itself, which is the imperative necessit% to become( once more.D Ordinary being is themovement of nothing to being9for9other and going on, or ma%be, @ust becoming and disappearing, andthat:s that. /ut 5ssence tries again. *o that the being in which 5ssence tries to find itself is pure *how-it does not become a "ualit%, which becomes a "uantit%, which becomes a Measure, etc. No, sir. $ure*how. Absolute Negativit%. *how No. 0. No good. Negated. *how No. E. Not what ' am loo&ing for =

out with it into limbo. *how No. F. No good. Negate it. Negate them all. One da% we:ll get to it Candwe:ll see a lot of things which we could not see beforeD. /ut for the time being 5ssence can trul% sa%,
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Me< ' &now what ' am b% now. ' am @ust Negativit%, becoming something and negating it. ' am amovement, me. 7es, that:s it. ' am movement of negation. /ut that isn:t all of me. One da% ':ll findout.( 5ssence of course does not &now that there is a logic to his negativit%. A philosopher, a 8egelian

philosopher, who was watching him through an atomic microscope would sa%+ first he was a stone,then he was a flower, then he was a horse, then he was an ape, then he was a man. 4he poor

abstraction doesn:t &now it, but ' thin& one da% he will be an angel. 4hat:s what all this restlessness andnegativit% must mean. /ut that of course does not concern us here.

Now from there into the labour movement.

;e &now what the labour movement is. 't was at one time the 02G2 revolutions, including !hartism,02F19G2. 't too& the form of the Birst 'nternational. 't too& the form of the *econd 'nternational at itshighest pea&. 4he unions were also organised. 4here are asses who would sa%+ the !ommune, fore ample, too& place in one cit%, how can %ou sa% that was a form of the whole labour movement?4hin& of all the millions and millions who had no connection with the !ommune. Bools. *ince 010Hthe labour movement in countr% after countr% has repeatedl% tried to imitate the !ommune. 5uropeand Asia seethe with would9be !ommunards. *o it is obvious that the !ommune Cin a single cit%Dshowed the pattern of the future = to the millions and millions in the hundreds and thousands of citieswho perhaps paid little attention to the !ommune = which was a form of nothing in particular. 4he!ommune represented them.

*o these forms show the labour movement going somewhere. /ut the 02G2 revolutions, the% came andwent, the !ommune came and went. 4he Birst 'nternational came and went. 4he *econd 'nternationalremains, but is a relic. oo& at it in Brance = the 4hird Borce. 't is a @o&e. 'n Brance the two forces are)e #aulle and the 4hird 'nternational. ;ho chooses to bother himself about the *econd 'nternationaland !atholic wor&ers is in the same position as those who did not understand that it was the !ommuneand not the apparentl% inert millions that was decisive for the future of 5urope. Mar pounced on it.

/ut, as ' sa%, these forms disappear. /ut the proletarian movement continues. 4he% have an e ternal being, and these vanish, the new e ternal forms appear. ;e can alwa%s, if we are Mar ists, see theform and what for the moment we will call the 5ssence. /ut the 5ssence is not one thing that changes.

No, the form was the Birst 'nternational- the essence was the labour, the proletarian, the revolutionar%movement of 02H0, which was different from that of 02G2. And we have established that therevolutionar% movement toda%, the wor&ers that follow *talinism, are not the same wor&ers whofollowed Menshevism. 4he% are further advanced "ualitativel%, further advanced along the road oftheir ultimate goal.

4he !ommune, therefore, the Birst 'nternational, the 013I struggles were @ust /eing, the% were Nothing. 4he% did not e ist, the% e isted, the% did not e ist an% more. 4he% were from nothing andwent bac& to nothing. /ut their e perience, what the% represented was stored up . 't was not lost.5ssence is a movement but a movement of stored up /eing. 4he wor&ers under *talinism have thee perience of eninism. 5ssence we ma% certainl% regard as past /eing, remembering howevermeanwhile that the past is not utterl% denied, but onl% laid aside and thus at the same time preserved.(

4he reactionar% 4hird 'nternational has, stored up in it, the past being of eninism which is gone = ite ists no longer. $hilosophers, Mar ists, have to trace this.

4he thing that continues to move, however, is the labour movement, the revolutionar% movement

itself. 't stored up the e perience of the follies and wea&nesses of $roudhonism and /a&uninism. 'tlearnt the value of organisation. 't stored up the e perience of parliamentarianism, national defence,


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etc. 't became richer and richer. C't organised the ideas too, but alwa%s as a result of the ob@ectivemovement, changing , developing capitalism.D

At a given moment, this proletarian movement loo&s li&e the Birst 'nternational or the !ommune or010H9E3. And if %ou stop, loo& at it, and be precise about it, as you have to do Cremember %ou cannot

thin& unless %ou have fi ed and precise determinationsD, then %ou see that the essential movement isreflected in the form. 4he Birst 'nternational reflected it, 010I reflected it, etc. 4he reflectionsdisappear. ;hat the% reflected is stored up and becomes part of the new proletariat. 4his process, thedisappearance of the reflection, and the new proletariat with its e perience of the reflection stored upin it, starting off again, this process is 5ssence. 4he essence of a thing is the fact that it must move,reflect itself, negate the reflection, which was nothing, become being, and then become nothing again,while the thing itself must move on because it is its nature to do so. 4hat it must move, the consistentdirection in which it moves, its necessit% to negate its reflections, store them up, and go on to someultimate goal, this is its 5ssence. 4he essence of the proletariat is its movement to incorporate in itselfe perience of the evils of capitalism until it overcomes capitalism itself. 4he essence of the proletariatis not that it is revolutionar% and tries a lot of different parties and re@ects them because the% fail. 't isnot an e istent substratum(. 't negates not onl% its reflection, it does more than that, it further negatesits own e periences and stores them up, so it is alwa%s further than it was before in its own special

purpose. Nor does it negate in general. C4he "uote will show.D 'ts negation is a specific negation of itsown contradictions, inherent in capitalism and therefore inherent in it as inseparable from and in factunthin&able e cept as an opposite to capitalism. And now, sentence b% sentence.

/ecoming in 5ssence = its reflective moment = is hence the movement from Nothing to Nothing andthrough Nothing bac& to itself.

Obvious. !ommune, Birst 'nternational, eninism, all, as e isting entities, all pure being. 4he proletariat had a being, a certain feeling, ideas, impulses, desires, will. 't gained these in its e perience,ob@ective e perience with capitalism, with its past stored9up being. 4his was abstract being, abstract

proletarian being. /ut abstract being is Nothing. 4he Nature of being is to become determinate. Just asthought organises impulses, desire, will, etc., the proletarian part% organises itself, becomesdeterminate in enin, /u&harin, 4rots&%, 6a&ovs&%, the /olshevi& $art%, the 4hird 'nternational,determinate being.

eninism, therefore, the 4hird 'nternational, is a cr%stallisation of abstract being, which is Nothing.eninism negates this nothing b% becoming something. 4hen it is superseded b% *talinism. /ut the

fact that this ta&es place is the essence of the proletariat. 'ts desires, will, impulses, needs Cbasicall%implanted in it b% its position vis-a-vis capitalismD are alwa%s first abstract being, i.e., nothing, then

ta&e determinate form, then these vanish bac& into nothing, but their essence is stored up. 4he proletariat, in essence, has an Other, its reflection, but this @ust comes and goes.

4he transition or /ecoming transcends itself in its transition+ that Other which arises in the course ofthis transition is not the Not being of a /eing, but the Nothing of a Nothing- and it is this = the fact that it is the negation of a Nothing = which constitutes being.

4his is an e ercise in the development of the ideas of the )octrine of /eing. 4his passage contains the&e%. 6ead it slowl% and get it+

/eing e ists onl% as the movement of Nothing to Nothing, and thus is 5ssence9 and 5ssence does not

contain this movement in itself but is this movement, an absolute *how and pure negativit%, which has
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nothing without it that could negate it, but negates onl% its own negativit%, which is onl% in thisnegation.

*o that loo&ing bac& we can see that we had one &ind of being in "ualit%, immediate being, whichwent its own wa%. Now we have another &ind of being, 5ssence, which has its wa%, constant

negativit% of the *how, in which it must find itself. 4he rest of 5ssence is to trace the dialecticaldevelopment of this *how, and the movement that constantl% negates it. C' do not guarantee theseinterpretations. 4he point is once the% are down we begin to /et somewhere. ' am not afraid ofmista&es.D

*o now we have 5ssence. 't is a form of Reflection . As 8egel describes it in the smaller Logic +

4his word reflection( is originall% applied when a ra% of light in a straight line impinging upon thesurface of a mirror is thrown bac& from it. 'n this phenomenon we have two things, first an immediatefact which is, and secondl% the deputed, derivated, or transmitted phase of the same. *omething of thissort ta&es place when we reflect, or thin& upon an ob@ect- for here we want to &now the ob@ect, not inits immediac%, but as derivative or mediated.

Mediated. A lovel% word. 8ug it to %our bosom. ' sa%, we sa% that people:s consciousness is one thing,immediac%, an entit% that we can sa% has "ualit%(. /ut as Mar ists we &now that consciousness is inessence the reflection of economic and political, i.e. social environment. 4he social bac&ground,therefore, is mediated through consciousness. 'n the doctrine of /eing, "ualit% was, if %ou li&e,mediated into "uantit%. 'n the )octrine of 5ssence "ualit% is, or rather would be a *how of somethingwhich is reflecting itself through "ualit%. 8egel goes on+

4he problem or aim of philosoph% is often represented as the ascertainment of the essence of things+ a phrase which onl% means that things instead of being left in their immediac%, must be shown to bemediated b%, or based upon, something else. 4he immediate /eing of things is thus conceived underthe image of a rind or curtain behind which the 5ssence lies hidden.

4he maestro is ta&ing it eas%. 5ver%thing, it is said, has an 5ssence- that is, things reall% are not whatthe% immediatel% show themselves. 4here is something more to be done than merel% rove from one"ualit% to another, and merel% to advance from "ualitative to "uantitative and vice versa+ there is a

permanent in things and that permanent is in the first instance their 5ssence. (

4hat is simple enough. ;h% didn:t ' begin with it? No. /ecause that simple phrase in the firstinstance( covers a lot and it would have given us a lot of trouble. 7ou would have believed %ou

understood something which %ou did not. 4he essence of consciousness is social environment. /ut %ouget there an impression that is static. 't is onl% because consciousness is a &ind of show, which mustreflect environment, and environment must go on e pressing itself, forever see&ing, can we call it5ssence. 4he importance of this cannot be overestimated. 'f %ou do not see that clearl%, %ou get theconception of tr%ing this, tr%ing that, tr%ing the other. 7ou soon sa%+ it never seems to learn, becauseit( is static. 4hen %our essence becomes a thing. /ut when %ou see 5ssence as the movement, and themovement which stores up the superseded being, but %et is impelled to go on, then %ou have 5ssencein truth and in fact.

Now to &now that 5ssence is a movement which reflects into a *how Cwhich is dismissedD and thengoes off again, to &now this is onl% to &now 5ssence in general. 4his is the beginning of 5ssence.

5ssence, a movement, moves on dialecticall%. 4he reflection and the thing reflected have their ownlife- the% develop into different things and we trace them, and see how at each stage the% change into
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something else. 8egel calls their most important form the 6eflections of )eterminations. 6ememberthat for a long time the% are creations of thought. Bor e ample, when %ou loo& at consciousness, %oudo not see it divided into consciousness and e istence, to use Mar :s word. !onsciousness isconsciousness. 4hought, however, ma&es this separation, these determinations of the ob@ect, into itscomponent parts.

;e see eninism as a determination which reflects a certain stage of development of the perpetualmovement. /ut eninism is a thought9determination. 4here is the proletariat, in capitalist societ%, at acertain stage of development. 4o isolate what we call eninism is a determination of thought. 4oisolate it as a fact and give it an independent life of its own, ah< Jesus, that is something that brings aterrible retribution. isten to 8egel even before he begins to develop the )eterminations of 6eflection,telling us how certain people get stuc&+

. . . the reflected determinations are of a &ind different from the merel% immediate determinations of/eing. Of the latter it is easil% admitted that the% are transitor% and merel% relative, related tosomething other, while the reflected determinations have the form of /eing9in9and9for9*elf. 4he%accordingl% assert themselves as essential, and instead of passing over into their opposites, the% appearrather as absolute, free, and indifferent to one another. 4he% therefore stubbornl% resist theirmovement+ their /eing is their selfidentit% in their determinateness, according to which, while

presupposing one another, the% %et preserve themselves as absolutel% separate in this relation.

eninism is eninism and *talinism is *talinism- the Bourth 'nternational is the Bourth 'nternational.4his is giving them the form of /eing9in9and9for9*elf. 4he above e tract poses the problem. 4here isno need to ta&e ever%thing sentence b% sentence. A looser interpretation is here indicated. CAnd 8egelwill sing this song for nearl% five hundred pages .D 'f %ou loo& at the immediate( determinations of

being, %ou see eninism, and %ou sa%+ it will pass- things come and go. l remember the Brench consulin an island where ' sta%ed who told me that the Brench politician /riand was a socialist in his %outh,

but there always arise people more to the left than %ou, which pushes %ou to the right. 4hat ideaappears to have movement, but it ta&es /riand and those more left( than he as immediates(9 4hereflection is e ternal.

And 8egel Cin the complete e tract = ' have left out some of the paragraphD sa%s it is eas% for seriousthin&ers to throw these e ternal determinations aside. /ut when %ou thin& seriously , see the apparent

being as merel% reflections of essence, then these determinations become themselves essential . 4he!ommune, the *econd 'nternational, eninism, *talinism, etc., become free(. 4he% becomeindependent of life. 4he% live on after the% are dead, and what does live on is dead = for

nderstanding. 7ou see, %ou know %ou are a superior thin&er. 4hese determinations %ou have traced to

their roots. 4he% presuppose( one another of course(. eninism is in a wa%( connected withMenshevism, and *talinism comes from eninism. 4he% are in inseparable connection withdeveloping capitalism and the developing proletariat. Of course, of course(, but %et the% are &eptseparate(. 4he individual thin&er, having wor&ed hard, overcome vulgar common sense, andestablished these, holds tight on to them. 8is creative energ% is e hausted. Or his energ% fororganisation of concrete things is such that he throws himself into organisation within these categories.8e would ordinaril% do little harm. /ut when these marvellous, new categories were established, the%came from the impulses, will, desire, etc., of people. And there are alwa%s some people who, forob ective reasons , wish to sta% right there. 4he% catch hold of this individual and ma&e him a hero.4he ogic of nderstanding has a base.

/ut there are some even more pathetic cases, and as ' thin& of this, ' am moved to tears. 4here is the powerful intellect and spirit which moves in categories that, once powerful in their da%, now have no
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ob@ective base. ;hat wasted effort< ;hat vain sacrifices< 8egel &new. All the time he &eeps sa%ing+4hat is the enem%, thin&ing in the categories which were precise, but ac"uire independent life and donot move.( 8e is going to tell us about opposites and transition. 4hat is the main content of 5ssence./ut before he begins he sa%s that this nderstanding t%pe of thought can strangle us before we can getstarted.

I&entit'( Difference an& Contra&iction( es)eciall' Contra&iction

;e now approach the core of 8egel:s s%stem, in the three noted above. 't must not, however, beforgotten that the larger Logic is nine hundred pages in all. 4a&e for e ample the "uestion of #roundwhich follows these three. #round, sa%s 8egel, is the real self9mediation of 5ssence. OK. And then heis off. Absolute #round which is further determined into )etermined #round, which he furtheranal%ses into Bormal #round and 6eal #round, which finall% ends up as !omplete #round. /ut thesub9divisions of Absolute #round alone are CaD Borm and 5ssence, CbD Borm and Matter, CcD Borm and!ontent. 't is thirt%9four pages in all. ;hat the hell can we do with that? And %et it contains such

crucial things as Borm and !ontent, 5 istence, Appearance, *ubstance, and so on and on. 7ou willread it for %ourselves. M% selections are arbitrar%. ;e ta&e bits. /ut in realit% there are no arbitrar%selections. !y purpose, my &nowledge of the Logic , my &nowledge of the labour movement, m%&nowledge of m% probable readers, are all at wor& deciding which bits ' shall ta&e. 'f m% &nowledge isnot too superficial and m% purpose not too narrow, a real insight into the Logic will be given and a realinsight into the labour movement too. /ut we must &now the limits of what we are doing. ;e aregetting an idea of the thing, that:s all. 8owever, when it comes to 'dentit% and )ifference and!ontradiction, ' thin& we should ma&e some attempt to follow his abstract method, as we did to somedegree in the )octrine of /eing. 4he% are, as ' sa%, the core.

4he treatment of 'dentit% in the smaller Logic is one of the most baffling and most irritating things in

8egel. ' suspect that a thorough &nowledge of the old9fashioned logic would help. 'n an% case 8egelseems to be sa%ing something li&e this+ 7ou see that tablecloth? 't is more than a tablecloth- athorough &nowledge now of a tablecloth is absolutel% necessar% to understand logic- let us now go onto the ne t section.(

M% e planation, as man% of m% e planations, undoubtedl% will commit violations. /ut %ou will probabl% learn something from it. ' have read numbers of brief e planations of 8egel and the Logic in particular, which e plained nothing. 4hat is wh% ' am using m% own method. As the translators of thelarger Logic sa% "uite fran&l%+ ;e have no doubt that we have failed to understand the thought inman% places. ' too &now how eas% it is to misinterpret. /ut that need not deter us. Now =

' loo& at something and in m% view ' get a picture of it Chow ' could tear that formulation to pieces


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also something else. 7ou find it in the boo&s as A is not e"ual to A. 4hat formula is the mostmisleading formula that could be. An% fool can agree with it, and an% fool can disagree. *impl%

because b% itself it proves nothing. 7ou have to ta&e the whole of the 8egelian argument or %ou had better leave it alone.

Bor 8egel, having established the uncertain character of 'dentit%, moves on at once to )ifference. Andhere he is e"uall% bold but a little easier to follow. 8e sa%s that if identit% implies difference, thene"uall% difference implies identit%. ' do not compare a camel to a Brench dictionar%. 4hose are merel%things which are unli&e- there is no difference( between them. *ure the% are different(, but that is avulgar difference, as vulgar in its wa% as the identit% that house is house. ' can seriousl% compare thedifferences of two boo&s, two novels, two novels of the same period, two novels of the same author.)ifference, difference worth tal&ing about, can onl% e ist on the basis of some identit%. And identit%conversel% can onl% e ist on the basis of difference, this house is and is not that house. And this housetoda% is not this house tomorrow or in two %ears: time.

'n fact 8egel sa%s at the moment %ou thin&, whether %ou &now it or not, %ou negate the e istent. 4hishouse is worth I,333( means it was worth more and that tomorrow it will be worth onl% G333, or ifthe inflation goes on, 03,333, Negroes and all. 'f ' am sa%ing that this house is worth I,333, wasalwa%s worth I,333 and will alwa%s be worth I,333, for ever and ever, 0 am sa%ing nothing, at least' am not seriousl% thin&ing. 4hought has significance onl% when the house has relation to other houseswhich do not possess this priceless attribute of constantl% maintaining the price.

'dentit% means difference. )ifference means identit%. And now with a leap we can get into it. 8egelsa%s that this principle becomes important, in fact decisive, when %ou watch, ma&e a philosophicalcognition, about a single ob@ect. ;ithin the identit% of an ob@ect, %ou have to establish the specificdifference , and within its specific difference, %ou have to establish the identit%. 'f %ou have establishedthe specific difference, the difference which belongs to the ob@ect, which distinguishes it from all otherob@ects andtheir differences, then %ou have the Other of the ob ect . 4he other is the difference thatmatters, the essential difference. /ut as it is special CessentialD difference to no other ob@ect, then Otheris therefore identical with its ob@ect. 4o find that out is to find out what ma&es the ob@ect move. l loo&at bourgeois societ% and ' see capital, but labour is its other. 'n capital is essential difference, but bothcapital and labour are one identit%.

' thin& m%self that all this is thrilling. et us now ta&e this principle a little further, letting 8egelhimself do most of the tal&ing, if even ' do not alwa%s use "uotes. 8e sa%s that this "uestion ofessential difference within ever% identit% is the indispensable necessit% for philosophic cognition.

ater he will tell us when %ou sa% father, %ou have in mind son. *on is interpenetrated with father.

Bather has no meaning e cept in relation to son. Above has no meaning e cept in relation to below. 'f' did not mean father in relation to son ' would not sa% father, ' would sa%+ man or baseball9pla%er orsomething, but then ' am loo&ing at another ob@ect or ob@ects. *o that simple, abstract identit% is afiction, a deadl% trap for thinkers .

't is of the greatest importance to recognise this "ualit% of the )eterminations of 6eflection whichhave been considered here, that their truth consists onl% in their relation to each other, and therefore inthe fact that each contains the other in its own concept. 4his must be understood and remembered, forwithout this understanding not a step can reall% be ta&en in philosoph%.

"hat is how house is not merel% house. 8ouse is essentiall% a protection against Nature. *o that

identical with house is its Other, destruction b% Nature. 8ouse can be a fort containing soldiers. *oidentical with house in that connection is its destruction b% artiller%, etc. 8ouse can be also a source of
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income. *o that identical with it is decline in rent. 5ver%thing has its own specific comple ofrelations, and the something has different comple es of relations which continue to give it a specificOther, in other words, control its movement. 4hat is a ver% important aspect of dialectic. And as 8egelloves to sa%, dialectic is not practised onl% b% philosophers. 4he real9estate merchant, the architect, allthese people &now the particular Other of their house ver% well. 't is alwa%s in their concept. 4rue the

dialectic of the house is as a rule on a ver% low level, e cept in case of Blorida hurricanes, fire, orrunawa% inflation. /ut that 8egel &nows too. And he &nows too that where %ou e amine great socialand intellectual forms in societ%, then %ou have got to remember that ever% ob@ect contains its Other inits own concept and ever% determination of thought has its other in its concept too. abour alwa%s hascapital in its concept. 4hat is wh% labour in 02LG had the capital of 02LG in its concept, labour in 01G2has the capital of 01G2 in its concept. Menshevism had eninism in its concept, and eninism had*talinism in its concept. 8ow *talinism? /ecause as long as the new organism, socialism, had not

been achieved, the revolutionar% determination, eninism, would be attac&ed b% the reflection withinit of the fundamental enem% of the proletariat, capital, and state capital within the labour movement is

precisel% *talinism, as Menshevism was monopol% capital Cin its stage of super9profits fromimperialismD within the labour movement. 7ou don:t know this? 7ou cannot move a foot. 't is worse.7ou can move but in the wrong direction.

4heir truth consists onl% in their relation to each other. 5ach contains the other in its own concept. #now this. 6ead it in the two Logics . 6eflect on it. Bor if %ou don:t, %ou cannot think . 4heir truthconsists onl% in their relation to each other. 4he truth of the labour movement consists onl% in itsrelation to capital. 8ow we have sweated to show that the truth of the Birst 'nternational can onl% begrasped in relation to the specific capital of the da%, that the *econd 'nternational had a similarrelation, that the truth of the 4hird 'nternational, in relation to the Bourth 'nternational, must be thesame. nderstand it and remember it. 6emember it. 6emember that Menshevism as a politicaltendenc% in the labour movement had its precise opposite, eninism. 4hat is the histor% of the *econd'nternational, of the *econd 'nternational and no other. ;hen Menshevism reached its pea& it perishedand eninism too& its place. 4hat is the wa% it went, and it could move no other wa%. 4he abourmovement could move from the revolutionar% ideas of 0221 to 010H onl% b% wa% of an opposition, atransition through the growth of Menshevism, and b% overcoming it. C;e &now but we have to repeatthat these represented ob@ective forces. /ut for the time being, let us concentrate on the process ofthought.D ' don:t &now if %ou have it. A determination of reflection is identit% and difference. And thedifference, the Other, emerges, becomes strong, and the 'dentit% has to overcome it, for identit% is the

beginning of 5ssence, the movement forward.

4he histor% of the 4hird 'nternational is the histor% of the supersession of eninism b% *talinism. 8oldthe movement tight. 7ou see what was show is now more than show. 't is Other which forms the

heartbrea&ing mountain that 'dentit% has to create and climb before it can reach the height to re9establish itself as 'dentit% once more on a higher plane. 4hus the reflections of determination must beviewed. )o not give them a free, independent life of their own. 4he% will murder %ou. oo& into them.*ee their Other, and see if when something serious appears it is not Other which is coming out. 4hen%ou &now it, %ou can trace it, %ou &now wh% it is there, and %ou can mobilise forces to overcome it./ut if %ou do not see it as )ifference in identit%, cruel, murderous, but Cgiven the ob@ective forcesDnecessar% transition , then %ou rush off into fantastic e planations such as tools of the Kremlin( or theincapacit% of the wor&ers to understand politics and such li&e. Once more. 4hat which ultimatel%

becomes the obstacle over which %ou must climb is an Other which was inside it, identical with it and%et essential difference.

'f the Bourth 'nternational is to supersede *talinism then it must contain( *talinism in its concept ofitself. 't begins from all the things that *talinism too& over from eninism and &ept Cob@ective forces


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bring out Other = different ob@ective forces would bring out a different OtherD. 4he moment %ou thin&,or allow it to lur& in %our mind that the wor&ers are bac&ward or deceived, %ou repudiate two or threedecades of histor% and %our concept contains as its opposite, Menshevism. 7ou then fight a ghost. 4he/ritish wor&ers, the American wor&ers are not Menshevi&, neither are the wor&ers in Norwa% and*weden. A poll ta&en a few months ago in all the 5uropean countries showed that over si t% per cent

of the populations were read% to abolish customs duties, integrate economies, etc. ;hat wasvanguardism in enin:s da% is now an essential part of the whole populations. 4he Other ofMenshevism was eninism. 4he Other of *talinism is an international socialist economic order,embracing from the start whole continents. 4heir truth consists onl% in relation to each other. 5achcontains the other in its own concept. 't goes forward b% overcoming this specific opposite. ;e havenot laboured in vain. ;e have now C' hopeD grasped without &nowing what 8egel means b% his great

principle of contradiction.

Contra&iction

4he most important pages in the )octrine of 5ssence ' have found to be Observation F of the larger Logic . ' thin& when we have finished with this the hump will be behind us, though much will remainto be done.

8egel in his tantalising wa% begins b% tal&ing calml% about 'dentit%, ariet% and Opposition, which hecalls the primar% determinations of 6eflection. ' preferred to tal& about 'dentit% )ifference and!ontradiction. #o loo& them up %ourself if %ou want to. 4hen he sa%s that contradiction is the root ofall movement and life and onl% through it an%thing moves and has impulse and activit%. 5ver%bod%,ever% Mar ist, &nows those statements.

4hen 8egel does something ver% characteristic. 8e sa%s that in regard to the assertion of some people

that contradiction does not e ist, we ma% disregard this statement(. Just leave it. Birst of all he is, blessed man, not a politician. 'n politics %ou cannot disregard opponents. *econdl% he cannot begin b% proving such a statement. 4o as& him to do this is, he considers, unscientific. 4he proof is all that hewill sa% and the conclusions that he will reach. 'f %ou don:t li&e it go %our wa%. 4hen after a lot of thesame paneg%ric to contradiction, he ends+

*peculative thought consists onl% in this, that thought holds fast !ontradiction, and, in !ontradiction,itself, and not in that it allows itself to be dominated b% it = as happens to imagination = or suffers itsdeterminations to be resolved into other, or into Nothing .

7ou have not got "uite simple insight( into what this means, ' am "uite sure when %ou do %ouunderstand dialectic. ntil %ou have that simple insight %ou do not understand it. 4o get that simpleinsight is going to be a @ob. et us get down to it.

7ou remember that each contains the other in its own concept. ' tal&ed about organisation andspontaneit%, part% and mass, politics and economics. 4o sa% that each of these concepts must containthe other is to ma&e a profound but general statement. Much wor& has been done in /olshevism toshow that politics contains economics in its concept. $o work , absolutel% none, has been done on theothers, e cept for some marvellous beginnings b% enin. C4he sub@ects of organisation andspontaneit%, part% and mass, were not urgent in Mar :s da%.D

As ' said+ to sa% that the truth of part% consists in its relation with mass, the truth of organisationconsists in its relation to spontaneit%, is to sa% an abstract truth, but still important truth, a beginning.
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movement, being what it is in essence, the bureaucratic, criminal, organisational domination of*talinism, will form inevitabl% the point of transition for another stage higher. 't sees the degradingorganisation and in despair Cor hopeD scans the hori on loo&ing for salvation. 4he 8egelian dialectic&eeps its e%es glued on the *talinist organisation for it &nows that the Other of it is there. Now see8egel:s chief enem% nderstanding ma&e its bow+

On the other hand intelligent reflection, if we ma% mention this here, consists in the understanding andenunciating of !ontradiction. 't does not e press the concept of things and their relations and has onl%determinations of imagination for material and content- but still it relates them, and the relationcontains their contradiction, allowing their concept to show through the contradiction.

nderstanding is the same as intelligent reflection. nderstanding cannot, does not e press theconcept of things and their relations. 'ts determinations are what is familiar to it, not what is familiar ingeneral but what is familiar to it, what once it wor&ed out. 't operates with bureaucracies which areunalterabl% tied to private propert%, and reformist internationals which alwa%s in crisis defend private

propert% and the national state, things familiar to it . /ut nderstanding relates these determinations =it thin&s, it has perspectives. 't sa%s, this is what it is, and this is what it ought to be.( 7ou are able toglimpse the genuine concept. 't shows through the contradiction. 't is possible to have a more @ust, amore precise appraisal of the nature of 4rots&%:s writings? And now to see what the% are , b% seeingstill more clearl% what the% are not . et us see how the true )ialectic, 4hin&ing 6eason, handles thesethings. 4his is a clause b% clause section. ' hope %ou get it the first time. ;e wor&ed hard enough.

4hin&ing 6eason, on the other hand, sharpens Cso to spea&D the blunt difference of ariet%, the meremanifold of imagination, into essential difference, that is, Opposition.

Magnificent. MA#9nificent. 'magination sees a lot of various things, and sees them as i&e andnli&e, a manifold variet%. 6eflection, nderstanding, relates them and shows how the% contradict

each other. *ee how *talinism contradicts a true revolutionar% organisation. /ut 6eason, 6eason,catches hold of the variet% and see&s out the Opposition, the !ontradiction, and drives them together ,ties them together, ma&es one the Other of the other. 4hen things happen.

4he manifold entities ac"uire activit% and liveliness in relation to one another onl% when driven on thesharp point of !ontradiction.

4hat is it. ;hen the% are both @ammed together, loc&ed together, each in the other, that is theguarantee of their movement. ;hen %ou concentrate all attention on the contradiction between*talinist bureaucratism and the necessit% of the proletariat for free creative activit%, then all the

phenomena begin to move . 4he% do this onl% when the contradiction is at its sharpest. 8egel meansthat we can see the movement, onl% when we have clarified the contradiction = thence the% drawnegativit%( .

uite so. 4he negativit% of the free creative activit% of the proletariat can onl% come completel% into pla% when it is in contradiction with a concrete obstacle, something which, to release its own nature, itmust overcome. 't is the unbearable nature of the contradiction that creates negativit%, which is theinherent pulsation of self9movement and liveliness(.

4hus it is not a blemish, a fault, a deficienc% in a thing if a !ontradiction is to be found in it. 4hat is itslife.
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On the contrar%, ever% determination, ever% concrete, ever% concept is essentiall% a union ofdistinguished and distinguishable moments, which pass over through determinate and essentialdifference into contradictor% moments.

' wonder if %ou have got the e treme, the unparalleled boldness of that statement. ' can well imagine

so man% of the people we &now sa%ing, 8egel, there is something in what %ou sa%. /ut as usual %ouexaggerate .( %very determination. %very concrete. %very concept. 4hat is his wa% of sa%ing ever%thinghas these moments, these oppositions- one of them is the opposite of what is the real, the essentialnature of the organism. /% its struggle against this the organism finds more of its real, its genuinenature. ;riters on American political econom%, writers on American histor%, students of #ree& drama,writers on the development of unions, all of %ou, get this into %our bones. 't is not simple. *trive to seeit, to see it simpl%(, as 8egel said in the 'ntroduction. 'f there is no sharp contradiction, then there isno movement to spea& of and there is stagnation, a compromise. 4hat is the onl% reason wh% there iscompromise and stagnation = because the contradiction is not sharp enough.

4he paragraph isn:t concluded %et, but ' propose to sta% here for a while. Birst of all, listen to 8egelagain, in the smaller Logic . Just as he approaches the clima of his wor&, his e position of theAbsolute 'dea.

'n the course of its process the 'dea creates that illusion, b% setting an antithesis to confront it- and itsaction consists in getting rid of the illusion which it has created. Onl% out of this error does the trutharise. 'n this fact lies the reconciliation with error and with finitude. 5rror or other9being, whensuperseded, is still a necessar% d%namic element of truth+ for truth can onl% be where it ma&es itself itsown result.

'f %ou had to write this, %ou would &now the bowed admiration with which ' read phrases li&enecessar% d%namic element of truth( to describe error- and the ma@est%, the completeness of the

phrase truth can onl% be where it ma&es itself its own result(. 4he proletariat itself will smash*talinism to pieces. 4his e perience will teach it its final lesson, that the future lies in itself, and not inan%thing which claims to represent it or direct it.

4his is the thing that people glibl% write as thesis, antithesis and s%nthesis. ;ho ever understood that?Ma%be a lot of other people understood it well and ' was @ust dumb. /ut it too& me a long, long time tosee it, to get it in m% bones, to get simple insight( into it ever%where, in ever%thing. ;hat am 'sa%ing? 4he thing constantl% evades me, but ' chase it. A few things of great importance can be said atonce, one general, and one particular.

/% this doctrine, 8egel gets rid of that tendenc% to ignore realit% or to be overwhelmed b% it, which isalwa%s lur&ing around to hold our movement b% the throat. 8e had the utmost contempt for peoplewho tried to brush awa% the harsh, the cruel, the bitter concrete, the apparently unadulterated evil.4his is the wa%, and the onl% wa% that truth and the good come. 4hus he could sa% that the real wasrational. 8owever evil realit% might be, it had its place, its function in the scheme of development.

4he great idealist, the man of ;orld9*pirit, etc., did not depend on ;orld9*pirit concretel% to teach people an%thing. 4herefore he was the last man to e pect people to be inspired, to see the light, torecognise( that we( were right all the time, or worst of all to be educated( b% a few gifted people.'n fact he believed that *pirit, conscious &nowledge, was onl% the province of a few philosophers. Asfar as great masses or classes of people learnt an%thing, the% learnt it concretel% in struggle against

some concrete thing. 8egel:s doctrine was reactionar% but that isn:t what concerns us here. ;hat doesconcern us is this. 8e would have laughed to scorn the idea that an% part% would teach the masses free
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creative activit%. 8e would have said instead+ the% will find themselves inevitabl% up against such as%stem of oppression, bureaucrac%, manipulation and corruption within their own arena, their owne istence, that the% will have to overcome it to live, and free creative activit% can onl% come intoe istence when it is faced with something that onl% free activit% and free activit% alone can overcome.4hat is the point of transition to a higher stage of e istence. 4here is no other. 4he *talinist

bureaucracies thus become a stage of development. Bree creative activit% becomes immeasurabl% moreconcrete in our heads. Our notion of socialism changes and we see the harsh realit% differentl%.

And finall%, note that the Logic itself moves b% @ust this method of opposition, transition, timeliness.8is anal%sis of identit%, variet%, opposition, ground, actualit%, etc., particularl% in the )octrine of5ssence, alwa%s represents, as he tells us, pairs of correlatives. One of them becomes overwhelming, itthreatens to disrupt the whole process, the other overcomes it, and we find ourselves further on. 4hat ishow identit% splits into difference- difference appears @ust as variet%, but variet%, variet%, variet% allover the place ma&es no sense- the manifold variet% either disintegrates into cra iness Cand thishappens- it means onl% that the ob@ect as such comes to an endD or this manifold variet% cr%stallisesinto opposition. And so on. ' thin& we got some place. /ac& now to the rest of the page. ' attach greatmethodological importance to this page. Among other reasons ' have it on m% conscience for the wa% 'am @umping from place to place and the still bigger @umps ' am going to ma&e. C8egel would not betoo angr%. 8e would sa%+ 4his impertinence of James, this undoubted evil is a necessar% point oftransition to some people so that the% will read the whole boo&.D 4he thirt% pages of #round which 'shall probabl% s&ip are on m% conscience. /ut this page happens to sa% a great deal which will cover#round C' hopeD. *o here goes. ' thin& ' shall write freel% and then "uote lengthil%.

5ver% concept there has these opposing movements. One becomes ob@ectionable, evil, and this formsthe bridge, the transition, for the real nature of the concept, to show itself. /ut when this overcomingdoes ta&e place, what happens? 4he new thing is a resolved contradiction. 't is, isn:t it? /ernsteinismhas been overcome. 4hat contradiction is resolved. /ut inasmuch as the complete nature of theorganism has not been revealed, i.e. socialism has not been achieved as %et, eninism contains a newcontradiction. Now this thing Cforgive me, philosophical friends = for !hrist:s sa&e, ' need noforgiveness, ' have @ust seen that 8egel himself calls it thing(D . . . now this thing that is alwa%s

producing contradictions, resolving them, and then finding new contradictions, this is the s

notes on dialectics part ii the hegelian logic

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