To make clear the dialectical-materialist movement of cognition arising on the basis of practice which changes reality -to make clear the gradually deepening movement of cognition – a few additional concrete examples are given below.
In its knowledge of the process of capitalism,[3-322] the proletariat was only in the perceptual stage of cognition in the first period of its practice, the period of machine-smashing and spontaneous struggle; the proletariat was still then a “class-in-itself”. But when it reached the later period[3-323] of its practice, the period of conscious and organized economic and political struggles, the proletariat was able to comprehend the essence of capitalist society, the relations of exploitation between social classes,[3-324] and create the theory of Marxism; and it was able to do so because of its own practice and because of the lessons taught it through experience of prolonged struggle.[3-325] It was then that the proletariat became a “class-for-itself”.
Similarly with the Chinese people’s knowledge of imperialism. The first stage was one of superficial, perceptual knowledge, as shown in the indiscriminate anti-foreign struggles of the Movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Yi Ho Tuan Movement, and so on. It was only in the second stage that the Chinese people reached the stage of rational knowledge, saw the internal and external contradictions of imperialism and saw the essential truth that imperialism had aligned itself with China’s[3-326] feudal classes to oppress and exploit the great masses of the Chinese people. This knowledge began about the time of the May 4th Movement.[3-327]
Next, let us consider war. If those who lead a war lack experience of war, then at the initial stage they will not understand the profound laws pertaining to the directing of a specific war (such as our Soviet War[3-328] of the past decade). At the initial stage they will merely experience a good deal of fighting and, what is more, suffer many defeats. But this experience (the experience of battles won and especially of battles lost) enables them to comprehend the inner thread of the whole war, namely the laws of that specific war, to understand its strategy and tactics, and consequently to direct [p. 227] the war with confidence. If, at such a moment, the command is turned over to an inexperienced person, then he too will have to suffer a number of defeats (gain experience) before he can comprehend the true laws of the war.
“I am not sure I can handle it”. We often hear this remark when a comrade hesitates to accept an assignment. Why is he unsure of himself? Because he has no systematic[3-329]understanding of the content and circumstances of the assignment, or because he has had little or no contact with such work, and so the laws governing it are beyond him. After a detailed analysis of the nature and circumstances of the assignment, he will feel more sure of himself and do it willingly. If he spends some time at the job (and gains experience)[3-330] and if he is a person who is willing to look into objective matters with an open mind and not one who approaches problems subjectively, one-sidedly and superficially, then he can draw conclusions for himself as to how to go about the job and do it with much more courage. Only those who are subjective, one-sided, and superficial in their approach to problems will smugly issue orders or directives the moment they arrive on the scene, without considering the circumstances, without viewing things in their totality (their history and their present state as a whole) and without getting to the essence of things (their nature and the internal relations between one thing and another). Such people are bound to trip and fall.
Thus it can be seen that the first step in the process of cognition is contact with the objects of the external world; this belongs to the stage of perception. The second step is to synthesize the data of perception by arranging and reconstructing them; this belongs to the stage of conception, judgement, and inference. It is only when the data of perception are very rich (not fragmentary) and correspond to reality (are not illusory) that they can be the basis for forming correct concepts and theories.
Here two important points must be emphasized. The first, which has been stated before but should be repeated here, is the dependence of rational knowledge upon perceptual knowledge. Anyone who thinks that rational knowledge need not be derived from perceptual knowledge is an idealist. In the history of philosophy [p. 228] there is the “rationalist” school that admits the reality only of reason and not of experience, believing that reason alone is reliable while perceptual experience is not; this school errs by turning things upside down. The rational is reliable precisely because it has its source in sense perceptions, otherwise it would be like water without a source, a tree without roots, subjective, self-engendered, and unreliable. As to the sequence in the process of cognition, perceptual experience comes first; we stress the significance of social practice in the process of cognition precisely because social practice alone can give rise to human knowledge and it alone can start man on the acquisition of perceptual experience from the objective world. For a person who shuts his eyes, stops his ears and totally cuts himself off from the objective world there can be no such thing as knowledge. Knowledge begins[3-331] with experience – this is the materialism[3-332] of knowledge.
3-324
Addition in official text: “… and its own historical task…”; SW I, p. 301; XJ I, p. 265.
3-325
Addition in official text: “… which Marx and Engels scientifically summed up in all its variety to create the theory of Marxism for the education of the proletariat”. SW I, p. 301; XJ I, p. 265.