V. I. LENIN


  MATERIALISM  
AND
EMPIRIO-
CRITICISM


FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS
PEKING 1972


First Edition 1972



Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@cruzio.com (August 1997)
(Added Previously Omitted Ch. 3, September 2009)

PUBLISHER'S NOTE


 
C O N T E N T S


TEN QUESTIONS TO A LECTURER
 

1
 

MATERIALISM AND EMPIRIO-CRITICISM
  Critical Comments on a Reactionary Philosophy


3

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

5

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

8

In Lieu of Introduction
HOW CERTAIN "MARXISTS" IN 1908 AND CERTAIN IDEALISTS
  IN 1710 REFUTED MATERIALISM


 
9

Chapter One
THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE OF EMPIRIO-CRITICISM AND OF
  DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM. I


 
31

  1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Sensations and Complexes of Sensations
"The Discovery of the World-Elements"
The Principal Co-ordination and "Naive Realism"
Did Nature Exist Prior to Man?
Does Man Think with the Help of the Brain?
The Solipsism of Mach and Avenarius

31
47
65
75
90
99

Chapter Two
THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE OF EMPIRIO-CRITICISM AND OF
  DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM. II


 
104

1.
 
2.
3.
4.
5.
 
6.

The "Thing-in-Itself," or V. Chernov Refutes Frederick Engels
"Transcendence," or Bazarov "Revises" Engels"
L. Feuerbach and J. Dietzgen on the Thing-in-Itself
Does Objective Truth Exist?
Absolute and Relative Truth, or the Eclecticism of Engels as Discovered by A Bogdanov
The Criterion of Practice in the Theory of Knowledge


104
115
129
135
 
147
155

Chapter Three
THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE OF DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
 AND OF EMPIRIO-CRITICISM. III


 
163

1.
2.
3.
4.
 
5.
6.

What Is Matter? What Is Experience?
Plekhanov's Error Concerning the Concept "Experience"
Causality and Necessity in Nature
The "Principle of Economy of Thought" and the Problem of the "Unity of the World"
Space and Time
Freedom and Necessity

163
172
175
 
195
202
218

Chapter Four
THE PHILOSOHPHICAL IDEALISTS AS COMRADES-IN-ARMS
 AND SUCCESSORS OF EMPIRIO-CRITICISM


 
227

1.
 
2.
 
3.
 
4.
5.
6.
 
7.
8.
 

The Criticism of Kantianism from the Left and from the Right
How the "Empirio-Symbolist" Yushkevich Ridiculed the "Empirio-Criticist" Chernov
The Immanentists as Comrades-in-Arms of Mach and Avenarius
Whither Is Empirio-Criticism Tending?
A. Bogdanov's "Empirio-Monism"
The "theory of Symbols" (or Heiroglyphs) and the Criticsm of Hemholtz
Two Kinds of Criticism of Dühring
How Could J. Deitzgen Have Found Favour with the Reactionary Philosophers?


227
 
241
 
245
256
267
 
275
283
 
289

Chapter Five
THE RECENT REVOLUTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE AND PHILO-
 SOPHICAL IDEALISM


 
298

1.
2.
3.
4.
 
5.
6.
7.
8.

The Crisis in Modern Physics
Matter Has Disappeared
Is Motion Without Matter Conceivable?
The Two Trends in Modern Physics, and English Spirit-
ualism
The Two Trends in Modern Physics, and German Idealism
The Two Trends in Modern Physics, and French Fideism
A Russian "Idealist Physicist"
The Essence and Significance of "Physical" Idealism

298
301
308
 
318
328
339
360
364

Chapter Six
EMPIRIO-CRITICISM AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM


379

1.
 
2.
3.
4.
5.

The Excursions of the German Empirio-Criticists into the Field of Social Sciences
How Bogdanov Corrects and "Develops" Marx
Suvorov's "Foundations of Social Philosophy"
Parties in Philosophy and Philosophical Blockheads
Ernst Haeckel and Ernst Mach


380
389
400
406
420

CONCLUSION
 

433
 

Suppliment to Chapter Four, Section I
FROM WHAT ANGLE DID N. G. CHERNYSHEVSKY CRITICISE
  KANTIANISM?
 


436
 

NOTES

440




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