Dialectics of Nature -- A Specimen from Marx, in "Capital", volume I.

Dialectics of Nature -- A Specimen from Marx, in Capital, volume I.

Dear Readers,

Pasted-in below, for your information and enjoyment, is an E.D. [Encyclopedia Dialectica] ‘dialectogram’ diagram, representing an example of the dialectic of nature -- of ‘exo-human nature’ -- that was presented by Karl Marx in volume I of his «Das Kapital.».

Marx described this synchronic dialectic as follows:  “This is generally the way in which real contradictions are solved.  For instance, it is a contradiction to depict one body as constantly

falling towards another, and as, at the same time, constantly falling away from it.  The ellipse is a form of motion which, while allowing this contradiction to go on, at the same time reconciles it.” [Karl Marx, Capital, vol. I, New World [NY:  1967], pp. 103-104].

The passage immediately preceding that quoted above reads as follows:  “We saw in a former chapter that the exchange of commodities implies contradictory and mutually exclusive conditions.  The differentiation of commodities into commodities and money does not sweep away these inconsistencies, but develops a modus vivendi, a form in which they can exist side by side.”

Marx’s use of a dialectic of ‘exo-human nature’ to clarify an observation about a ‘dialectic of human nature’ phenomenon shows that Marx holds to a universal dialectical principle of opposition resolution, or of conflict reconciliation, or of dialectical contradiction solution/- dialectical synthesis presenting itself in real, as opposed to illusory, metaphysical, “dialectic”, across the material expanse of nature, physical & human [psychophysical] alike.

The captions for each of the categories in the triad of categories forming this dialectic are --

1.  «arché» category -- The gravitational fields centered in, e.g., a planetary body & a moon of that planet, manifest as vectors of acceleration whose directions make each body “fall toward" the other.  But self-critique of this description, in the face of observations, reveals its lacks.

2.  contra-category -- Immanent critique of the first description evokes a counter-description. The moon especially also evinces a radial acceleration directed away from its planet, breaking its fall towards. The “towards” & “away” motions constitute a physical opposition. Asserting both at the same time forms a contradictory proposition.

3.  uni-category -- The physical, directional mutual opposition of “falling” “towards” & “away” does not stop in this elliptical synthesis/solution.  But, if they balance, a “complex unity” Orbit with a certain degree of eccentricity arises & sustains.

The quoted passages should help to refute the false claims of those who hold that Marx denied, and disapproved of, the views of Engels regarding the existence of dialectic within ‘exo-human nature’.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Miguel