Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 14:48:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: SCIABRRC-AT-ACFcluster.NYU.EDU
Subject: Dialectics & Materialism


     Great posting from Carl on dialectical materialism and
Lukacs.

     However, my own view of dialectics is that it is a
METHOD, not a `logic' per se.  I think that dialectical
materialism is derivative of dialectical method, but it also
includes certain substantive assumptions about the nature of
history, reality, etc.  (It must also be remembered that the
term "dialectical materialism" was never used by Marx; it was
first used by Joseph Dietzgen, and later popularized by the
Russian Marxist, Plekhanov).

     In any approach to the social sciences, there is always
a certain reciprocity between the method and the content -
the "how" and the "what" - of one's analysis.  HOW a theorist
conceptualizes social reality very much affects WHAT factors
the theorist sees at work.  WHAT a theorist observes in
social reality simultaneously affects HOW the theorist thinks
about it.  Dialectics, I believe, refers exclusively to the
HOW, while Dialectical Materialism extends into the realm of
the WHAT.  There have been many other dialectical thinkers in
the history of social thought who are not materialists, but
who are just as concerned with the totality, organic unity,
internal relations, dynamic movement, evolutionary
development, systemic context, and reciprocal causation.
While these thinkers are not dialectical MATERIALISTS, they
are certainly dialectical in a very profound, methodological
sense.

                              - Chris
============================================================Dr. Chris M. Sciabarra
Visiting Scholar, N.Y.U. Department of Politics
INTERNET:  sciabrrc-AT-acfcluster.nyu.edu
BITNET:    sciabrrc-AT-nyuacf
=============================================================


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