Dialectical Materialism

by Henri Lefebvre

With the aim of widening the scope of Marxist theory, Henri Lefebvre finished Dialectical Materialism just before the beginning of World War II and the Resistance movement against the Vichy regime. As the culmination of Lefebvre’s interwar activities, the book highlights the tension-fraught relationship between Lefebvre and the French Communist Party (PCF). For Lefebvre, unlike for the PCF, Marxism was above all a dynamic movement of theory and practice. Dialectical Materialism is an implicit response to Joseph Stalin’s Dialectical and Historical Materialism and an attempt to show that the Stalinist understanding of the concept was dogmatic and oversimplified.This edition contains a new introduction by Stefan Kipfer, explaining the book’s contemporary ramifications in the ever-expanding reach of the urban in the twentieth-century Western world.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Theory, History

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space, and for his work on dialectics, alienation, and criticism of Stalinism, existentialism, and structuralism.

In his prolific career, Lefebvre wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. He founded or took part in the founding of several intellectual and academic journals such as Philosophies, La Revue Marxiste, Arguments, Socialisme et Barbarie, Espaces et Sociétés.

Lefebvre died in 1991. In his obituary, Radical Philosophy magazine honored his long and complex career and influence:
the most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals, died during the night of 28–29 June 1991, less than a fortnight after his ninetieth birthday. During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henri Lefebvre is best known in the English-reading world for his later works laying some of the foundations for cultural studies, his inspiration of and links with the Situationists and his writings on space and cities, all of which is fabulous work but it is a shame that is overshadows some of his earlier work, including his time while still (kind of) in favour in the Communist Party of France. This superb short book published in 1938 draws together much of that work, and for those of us schooled in the stultifying Stalinist orthodoxy of Diamat (dialectical materialism) a deeply unsettling piece.

Whereas Diamat solidified the world into an inexorable set of law-bound steps towards (state) socialism, Lefebvre’s is an invigorating case for a humanist outlook which in its first section (about ⅔ of the text) explores in a sympathetic but deeply critical manner both the Hegelian dialectic and Marx’s critical reformation of it. The second section (which many will find demanding) explores and extends Marx & Engels’s (separately and together) humanist philosophy and politics of human action, drawing on, for instance, Engels’ Dialectics of Nature but also on Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

Some critics will (and have) suggested that approaches of the kind Lefebvre develops here are misguided in that they are over-reliant on the (so-called) ‘Early Marx’, before Capital and the like, but to my mind this work is better understood as laying the humanist basis for the later more explicitly political economic analyses.

The discussion of Hegel, focussing on the development and form of the Hegelian dialectic and its adaptation by Marx & Engels, is close to the traditions of analytical philosophy, highlighting the logic structure of the Hegelian dialectic along with the language use throughout as well as the structure and form of responses as they emerge from work by Marx and Engels. I found this more straightforward, but then I understand the philosophical style and have a sound grasp of the Hegelian dialectic and well as the Marx & Engels texts discussed.

The second section is more challenging (or at least for me) as it draws on and explores the making of ‘man’ as a critique of alienation through the integration of dialectical understandings of the ‘natural’ and the ‘social’ world in a way that makes humanity the agent of its own creation trough struggles for liberation and socialism. These are not the ‘inexorable’ laws of Stalinist Diamat but a humanistic assertions of our abilities as humans to free ourselves from the partial existence of our lives under capitalism. This section, drawing on Marx’s work on alienation and the vital need to overcome that in the development of a humanist path to liberation, takes Marx’s work further by exploring the dialectical relationship between human’s engagement with the natural world (drawing the Engels) and the development of ‘species being’ in Marx’s vision of a non-alienated existence; this is a sophisticated and exciting discussion of Marxist theory.

This is a book the merits multiple visits, especially the second section, in that it challenges the rigid simplicities of Diamat as well as the excessive rationalism that dominated Marxist and socialist thinking in the 2nd half of the twentieth century, while in asserting a materialist outlook it also challenges many of the flights of fancy in contemporary uses of Marxist thinking. It is a valuable addition to any theoretical reading.

[Mina Talaat]

هو تقريبًا أي حاجة ليها علاقة بهيجل و المنطق مش بقدر أستوعبها بشكل ما، مش عارف السبب فيّ ولا في هيجل نفسه!
هقرأ كتاب زكريا إبراهيم لهيجل و هشوف

[Ali Buzaid · Rating 3 out of 5]

استعراض و مقارنة مجهودات هيغل بماركس ، و ابراز صور كل نظرية منهما. الكتاب غير ممتع لانه يحتوي على مصطلحات فلسفية و عبارات هيغلية موغلة في التخصص و الغموض. إلا أن الفصل الاخير من الكتاب ربما يفوق كل ما عداه، فهو جميل في لغته عميق في معانيه، يستشعر القارئ أن لوفيفر فيلسوف عميق.

الترجمة للعربية إطلاقاً غير مرضية .

[Berit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lefebvre traces the development of dialectical materialism by lining out how Marx revised ("transcended") Hegelian idealism. Put simply, Lefebvre shows how Marx was able to create a "practical" dialectical theory (i.e. dialectical materialism). I particularly liked the first half of this book (which is pretty much a narrative), in which Lefebvre shows how Marx's thinking developed. It is dense, but not nearly as dense as Hegel's work.

[Ahmed Fathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

gave me a very good , clear and dense basic understanding about issues i was confused about ,uses technical philosophical terms ,not recommended as introductory book for whom not read philosophy before especially materialism .

[Páidí Ó Madáin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but dense introduction

[Nouru-éddine · Rating 4 out of 5]

::انطباع عام::
++++++++
لا منجاة من الصيرورة.
كل مولود يحمل في داخله بذور فناءه.
لا منجاة من الإنتروبيا.
لا منجاة من التجاوز!

كتاب جيد جدًا، لكنني حزين لأنني لم أفهم كل ما ورد فيه وذلك بسبب عدم تعمقي كفاية في كتابات هيغل وماركس. لدي فكرة لا بأس بها عن جدلية هيغل وتطوير ماركس لجدلية هيغل وتلقيحها مع مادية فيورباخ منتجًا المادية الجدلية التي لم يصك مصطلحها ماركس أصلاً. فلا أزعم أنني فهمت كل ما ورد في الكتاب، لكن كان من الواضح جدًا أن هذا الفيلسوف القدير هنري لوفيفر قد هضم فعلاً أصعب فلسفات الوجود الإنساني قاطبةً: مثالية هيغل، ومادية فيورباخ، ومادية جدلية ماركس. حتى أن لوفيفر يقتبس بحرية شديدة وخفة من كتاب ظاهريات الروح: الذي يُعد أصعب كتاب يمكن لإنسان أن يقرأه! وهذا يدل على تمكن لوفيفر من هذه الموضوعات.

إذن إنها الصيرورة الدائمة، ولا يمكننا معرفة من نحن في ذاتنا، بل نحن نكون بالفعل ما نصير إليه بشكل يومي عبر التفاعلات الاجتماعية والاقتصادية المستمرة. وبالتالي نحن لا نحدد إلا لحظة من الزمان، هذه اللحظة هي مجردة تمامًا وتعبر عن الفكر الإنساني، ولكنها لا تعبر عن محتوى الواقع المعاش: "إن الوحدة هي وجود منتزع من التناقض والعدم. أما الوحدة الجدلية ليست اختلاطًا للحدود المتناقضة في ذاتها، ولكنها وحدة تنتقل عبر التناقض وتعيد بناء نفسها في مستوى أعلى. فكل تناقض يمكن تجاوزه في قفزة الروح إلى الأمام. من المثمر أن يحتدم ما في داخلنا من تناقض لأن التناقضات بمجرد أن تصبح غير قابلة التحمل تبرز الحاجة إلى تخطيها بشكل أقوى من أي مقاومة من جانب العناصر السائرة إلى الفناء."

التجريد العقلي المنطقي الصوري هو غلطة أرسطو تجاه البشرية جمعاء: "إن موضوعًا دون تناقضات ليس إلا تجريدًا خالصًا يقوم به الفهم، فيؤكد واحدًا من هذه التحديدات بتلك الدرجة من العنف ويخفي بعيدًا عن الوعي التحديد المضاد الذي يحتوي التحديد الأول." إنني بشكل عام أفهم جدلية هيغل هكذا بالسليقة دون تفاصيل، لكن إذا دخلت في تفاصيلها أضيع تمامًا! لذلك، لي عودة مع هذا الكتاب ومع هيغل وماركس أكيد، وكلما مرت الأيام، نضج العقل واستطاع تصور العديد من هذه الأمور.
***
::في سطور::
++++++++
"ليس هناك شيء في السماء أو على الأرض لا يحتوي في داخله على الوجود والعدم."

يقدم كتاب "المادية الجدلية" (1940) لهنري ليفبفر تفسيرًا مقنعًا ودقيقًا للفلسفة الماركسية. ويُعد هذا العمل شهادة على براعة ليفبفر الفكرية والتزامه بتقديم منظور جديد لنظام فلسفي معقد وغالبًا ما يُساء فهمه. يعد كتاب "المادية الجدلية" مرجعًا جيدًا لأي شخص مهتم بالماركسية أو الفلسفة الهيغلية أو النظرية الاجتماعية. يقدم عمل لوفيفر منظورًا جديدًا للفكر الماركسي ويضع عدسة نقدية يمكن من خلالها فحص القضايا الاجتماعية والسياسية المعاصرة. في حين أن الكتاب قد يتطلب بعض الجهد لفهمه بالكامل.
***
::المحتوى::
+++++++
"جدل المحتوى هو سبب تقدمه إلى الأمام."

1_ إعادة تفسير ماركسية: هذا الكتاب ليس مجرد إعادة صياغة للفكر الماركسي التقليدي. بل إنه يقدم بدلاً من ذلك إعادة فحص نقدية للماركسية، مع التركيز بشكل كبير على الممارسة والتاريخ.
2_ الممارسة باعتبارها جوهرًا: يؤكد الكاتب على الدور النشط الذي يلعبه الأفراد في تشكيل تاريخهم. ويُنظَر إلى الممارسة، أو النشاط التجاوزي للبشر في العالم، باعتباره القوة الدافعة للتطور الاجتماعي: "الوعي لا يحدد الحياة، بل الحياة هي التي تحدد الوعي."
3_ نقد الستالينية: يقدم المؤلف نقدًا لاذعًا للستالينية، مسلطًا الضوء على ميولها البيروقراطية والاستبدادية. ويزعم لوفيفر أن هذه الانحرافات عن الروح الحقيقية للماركسية أدت إلى فهم مشوه للفلسفة الماركسية.
4_ التاريخ المكاني: يقدم لوفيفر بعدًا مكانيًا للتحليل التاريخي، مدعيًا أن البنى الاجتماعية مرتبطة ارتباطًا وثيقًا بالتنظيم المكاني. يوفر هذا المنظور الجغرافي طريقة جديدة لفهم العمليات التاريخية.
5_ نظرة ديناميكية للتاريخ: يقدم المؤلف نظرة ديناميكية وجدلية للتاريخ، مع التأكيد على الحالة المستمرة للتغير والتحول "العالم يجب تغييره لا مجرد تفسيره من جديد."
***
::المادية الجدلية::
++++++++++
"الفكر يجب أن يقبل تناقضات المحتوى ونزاعاته، ويجب أن يحدد تجاوزها وحلها وفقًا لحركة المحتوى دون فرض أشكال قبلية."

قام ماركس قام بمزاوجة مادية فيورباخ الساكنة مع مثالية هيجل التاريخية وخرج طفل جديد يسمى المادية الجدلية هي مادية بحتة بكل ما تعني الكلمة من معنى لكنها تؤمن بالتطور وفق قوانين الدياليكتيك الثلاثة وهم:
1_ نفي النفي: لا يوجد شيء مادي باق، بل الحياة في تطور دائم فكل شيء للزوال لا يدوم سوى المادة التي لا تفنى.
2_ وحدة صراع المتناقضات: المتناقضات التي تؤثر في بعضها تكون في دائرة واحدة والمتناقضات تكون في وحدة واحدة، وإلا لما كان الصراع التطوري.
3_ تحول الكم إلى كيف: التزايد التدريجي في التغيرات التي تلحق الكم، والتي تكون أول مرة ضعيفة وغير ملموسة، تؤدي عندما تصل إلى درجة معينة إلى تغيرات في الكيفية الجديدة مقابلة اختلاف الكيفية القديمة (تساقط الشعر من رأس المرء هو كمية حتى الوصول للحد الذي يصبح فيه المرء أصلع وهذا هو الكيف)
*.*.*.*.*

[BerndBummser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being an incredibly concise (and exhilarating) read, Lefebvre's "Dialectical Materialism" left me not just with many new perspectives on it's central topic, but first and foremost with a great sadness, that the reception of Lefebvre's work seems to this day tragically limited.

"Dialectical Materialism" manages to tackle the topic of how a Marxist theory of man, nature, history, politics, culture and more should be conceptualised in three major ways:

1. Retrospectively the book can be seen as an incredibly valuable intervention at a time when Marxism was historically in a great ubheavel. Critically pulling from at the time freshly rediscovered, until then unpublished writings, like Marx's 1844 Manuscripts, Lefevbre stages a radical turn away from the dogmatic stalinist reading of the "DiaMat". Crucially he does so in a way that incorporates both humanist Marxist commitments as well as - at the time - just developing insights from existential philosophy.

2. In doing so Lefebvre not only lays the groundworks for the commitments he would keep with him throughout all his following works (e.g. the attempt at finding a synthesis between Nietzschean and Marxist theory and method that would later be at the heart of French post structuralist thought), but he manages to read Marx in a way that already straddles the line and finds unexpected moments of synthesis between usually and at times fiercely opposed existential/humanist, materialist and (an early critical engagement with) structuralist registers; making good on the dialectical promise of sublating such oppositios.

In doing so he also seems prefigure a lot of the twists and turns Marxist thought (and he himself) would later see in the pull between (post-)structuralist, existentialist, phenomenological and new materialist readings; especially thinkers like Sartre, Deleuze, Althusser, Trần-đức-Thảo and the Merleau-Ponty of the PoP and the Adventures came to mind. In that vein, even in 1938 it already seemed fitting that Jean Baudrillard would later be a student of Lefebvre.

3. Lastly Lefebvre plainly and simply manages to elucidate the development of Marx's relation to Hegel's thought (here Lefebvre manages a convincing case against the supposed epistemic break between early and late Marx), Marx's materialist Transcendence of classical dichotomous problems like the materialism/idealism- or the subject-/object-divide and it's ontological, epistemological, political and metaphysical upshots incredibly well.

[Jasper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A type of philosophy that we don't see much today; one that gives an account of the totality of the world, natural and social. In 155 pages Lefebvre sets out and develops his interpretation of Marx's work, as well as its relation to Hegel and his dialectic. This work is dense and challenging but deeply rewarding. It reconstructs the philosophical framework which, on the Lefebvrian view, underlies Marx's economic analyses. Thus, the most characteristic aspect of this interpretation is that it completely denies (or rather, lacks; predates the famous interpretations that posit) the so-called 'epistemic break' between an 'early' and 'late' Marx over which so much ink has been spilled. Instead, it explains Marx's intellectual development as itself a specifically dialectical weaning off from Hegel resulting in a reintegration of the famous "rational kernel" contained in his work: crucially Lefebvre posits that (because of its dialectical character) this should be seen as a reconciliation and continuation of materialism and idealism. In doing so it broadens Marxism beyond the economism (and even narrower, anti-capitalism) it is usually construed as, toward an approach which can take stock of all of human reality in a critical way, and which maintains no illusions as to the finality of the analysis and solutions it can offer, nor of the inevitability of the historical dynamic it describes.

[Jade Aslain]

Lefebvre relies too much on Hegel, shows himself to be very much a Hegelian. His account of the development of dialectical materialism in Marx's work is flawed. He seems to think that the rejection of the hegelian dialectic in the young Marx was a rejection of dialectics entirely, and that only later Marx reintegrated dialectics into his historical materialism. This is not so, since in the German Ideology, Marx had clearly demonstrated his method as dialectical, and called it as such, only he insisted on a dialectical relation between being and consciousness (as opposed to the Hegelian terms: reason and logic, which remain within consciousness and therefore make no account of being, or material reality). Consequently, Lefebvre makes the mistake of reading Marx as a hegelian, of looking to his critique of social change as having a very hegelian trend toward the absolute idea.

Lefebvre is very informative however, and this is a good text, but it is full of problems. The student who starts with Lefebvre will be stuck for a long time with inconsistencies of their understanding which will be very frustrating to resolve unless directly through the study of Marx's work, the primary sources.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful antidote to Stalin's Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but still doesn't quite get to the level of clarity that more contemporary thinkers do. If you want a more straightforward understanding of Dialectical Materialism maybe look to Bertell Ollman, Lawrence Wilde, or someone else

[Ömer Fidan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bir Henri Lefebvre klasiği diyebileceğim, hafta tatili okuması için güzel bir kitap. Bu tarz konulara ilginiz yoksa biraz sıkıcı gelebilir. Keyifli olumalar. 😉 @gundembizim

[Taylor Dorrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lefebvre does a great/dense job of explaining the transcendence of dialectics from Hegel's idealism to Marx's materialism. There's a lot packed into this little book.

[Alan Akhondnejad · Rating 1 out of 5]

به نظرم خیلی سخت و خسته کننده و ناامید کننده بود
منکه نصفه ول کردم و دیگ هیچ وقت نمیخونمش.