| ON PRACTICE (Bujuan edition) | POSSIBLE SOURCES |
| pp. 220‒234 | SXFFL, pp. 39‒94 |
| DZZX, pp. 60‒88 | |
| JC, pp. 193‒221 | |
| XZXDG, pp. 341‒405 | |
| BZWWL, pp. 195‒211 | |
| SHXDG, pp. 208‒268 |
| ON CONTRADICTION (Bujuan edition) | POSSIBLE SOURCES |
| pp. 235‒278 | BZWWL, pp. 212‒238, 323‒342 |
| SHXDG, pp. 123‒134, 267‒280 | |
| JC, pp. 277‒311, 486‒494, 510‒515 | |
| XZXDG, pp. 231‒245, 413‒420 | |
| DZZX, pp. 116‒123, 154‒165 | |
| SXFFL, pp. 123‒131, 94‒105 |
Lecture Notes on Dialectical Materialism
Mao Zedong
Sources: Takeuchi Minoru (ed.), Mao Zedong Ji (Tokyo: Hokubasha, 1970‒72), Vol. VI, pp. 265‒305; and Takeuchi Minoru (cd.), Mao Zedong Ji Bujuan (Tokyo: Sososha, 1984), Vol. V, pp. 187‒239. Translated and annotated by Nick Knight.
(p. 265) [p. 187][2-173] Chapter One: Idealism and Materialism
This chapter will discuss the following questions:
(1) The two opposed forces within philosophy;
(2) The differences between idealism and materialism;
(3) The origins of the emergence and development of idealism;
(4) The origins of the emergence and development of materialism.[2-175]
1. The Two Opposed Forces within Philosophy
(p. 266) The entire history of philosophy is the history of the struggle and development of the two mutually opposed philosophical schools of idealism and materialism. All philosophical trends of thought and schools are disguised forms of these two fundamental schools.
The various forms of philosophical theories are all created by persons who belong to definite social classes. The consciousness of these persons is historically determined by a particular social life. All of the theories of philosophy express the needs of certain social classes, and reflect the level of development of society’s forces of production and the historical stage[2-176] of mankind’s knowledge of nature. The fate of a philosophy is determined by the extent to which it satisfies the requirements of a social class.
[p. 188] The social origins of idealism and materialism are to be found in the contradictory social structure of class. The occurence of the earliest idealism was a product of the ignorance and confusion of a primitive and barbaric humankind. The development of the forces of production which followed acted as a spur to the subsequent development of scientific knowledge, and idealism should have declined and materialism should have emerged to replace it. However, to the present day idealism has not only not declined but has developed, to compete vigorously with materialism on an equal footing; and the reason for this is that society has had class divisions. On the one hand, an oppressing class cannot but, in the pursuit of its own interests, develop and consolidate its idealist theories; on the other, the oppressed class, similarly in pursuit of its own interests, can do no other than develop and consolidate its materialist theories. Idealist and materialist theories both exist as instruments of the struggle between classes, and prior to the elimination of classes, the opposition between idealism and materialism cannot be eliminated. In the process of its own historical development, idealism has represented the consciousness of the exploiting classes, thus performing a reactionary function. Materialism, the world view of the revolutionary classes, has grown and developed in class society in the ceaseless battles with the reactionary philosophy of idealism. Consequently, the struggle in philosophy between idealism and materialism has consistently reflected the struggle of interests between the reactionary classes and the revolutionary classes. Whether philosophers are conscious of it or not, their particular philosophical tendency invariably approximates the political orientation of their own class. All tendencies within philosophy always directly or indirectly[2-177] fosters the fundamental political interests of their class. In this sense, the particular form taken by the policies of their class can be seen as the implementation of a particular tendency within philosophy.
2-173
Pagination in round brackets refers to the text published in
2-174
“(Lecture Notes)” in