Dialectical Materialism - An Introduction (Maurice Cornforth) on icebarf's lair

Mechanistic Materialism

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:14:54 +0530

Materialism, specifically Mechanistic Materialism, treats all natural phenomena as a machine, comprised of individual moving parts called atoms, all working in tandem to represent the observed material reality. Idealist thought often sought divine nature for being the permanent cause of change introduced in material reality. Materialism always traces change back to material reality and no supernatural belief. To represent change in the material world, this indivisble and unchanging unit best fit the representation of the material itself, and thus change occurred from the interaction of and between atoms. Atoms gave this permanence to mechanistic ideology, which idealists have traditionally always sought as well to cement their position in society.

Idealism in History and Society, Idealism and Materialsm

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 09:53:54 +0530

Idealism is the philosophy that is described as which prioritizes or asserts the spiritual, the ideal to be the root cause of all things. It is the phiosophy in direct opposition to Materialism. These two philosophies are our tools for investigating, understanding and questioning a subject in two opposing way, and this is not applicable to some abstract concepts that we may try to understand. These two ideas as applicable to almost everything and anything that we choose to understand. Interestingly to me, the author quotes Engels on this, and makes the point that Idealism and Materialism should not be reduced to limiting terms, and that materialism historically has been defamed as the philosophy that only pertains to human vices, while Idealism is virtuous. This, he says, was done by priests and the general oppressing class. This shaping of moral attitudes on these philosophies has ruined their purpose, for these are tools of investigation.

Party Philosophy, Truth, Dialectical Materialism

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:14:54 +0530

I began reading Maurice Cornforth's Dialectical Materialism–An Introduction a few months back. After reading a couple or more chapters, I just put it on hold due to life's extringent circumstances. Now that I came around to reading it again, I realized I didn't retain much information. So this is my attempt at it. These document(s) primarily serve as my summary and thoughts on the text. The book is meant to be an introduction to Dialectical Materialism, containing three volumes.