Notes p. 104
(1a) The words 'dialectic' and 'dialectical' are used so frequently in this
book for agitational reasons. They are to be understood as a call for the
intensive, practice-orientated, mutually complementary study of the
hegelian dialectic and of political economy, the sake of producing
the conditions under which alone they can be thoroughly applied to
the satisfaction of human needs. The realm of the dialectic is the
permanent revolution! At the same time the emphasis on the dialectic and
the denunciation of ruling science which is infected with the virus of
positivism, serves the purpose of a radical critique of that science. That
emphasis should be the seed from which the transcending and abolition ( =
socialisation) of this science sprouts.
When we are repeatedly questioned about the necessity of studying Hegel, we
are forced to point out that one's understanding of Marx must remain
superficial unless one has understood the method of the dialectic developed
by Hegel and applied by Marx. it is much easier to master that method from
hegel's philosophy, than having to recover it for oneself from marxist
writings. The classical authors of marxism repeatedly make the same point.
...
Intensive, practice-orientated study of the hegelian dialectic, specially
of The Phenomenology of the Spirit, went somewhat as follows in the
study groups of SPK: After the collective reading of a section of this work
(one patient read aloud, the others read silently) everybody tried to
establish a connection between the content of that section and the actual
needs of the collective as well as of some given patient, for example acute
problems at the place of work, or the actual family situation. This
practice arose in the first place out of the fact that most group
participants were not used to dealing with scientific texts as such, and
out of the socially determined 'education gap' between students on the one
hand and workers on the other. Here it transpired that, after they overcame
their initial inarticulateness, it was precisely those who according to
prevailing preconceptions are on the wrong side of the gap who made the
contributions which were most fruitful and best promoted progress, whereas
many students stuck at first to attempting academic interpretations and
laboured under a compulsion to display their acquired 'knowledge'. In
practice-orientated
SG,
conjointly with the
IA
and
GA,
it was possible to
work out and dissolve precisely these consumption and authority-orientated
fixations. This was made easier by the fact that The Phenomenology of
the Spirit in particular contains in every section very rich material
for this purpose (eg Master and Slave!)
....
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