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Dialectics of Nature: Engels on Dialectical Materialism as a Worldview
🕑 Added 2025-05-28 12:52:38 +0000 UTCIn this episode, Alyson and Breht explore Friedrich Engels’ Dialectics of Nature, a bold and underappreciated attempt to apply dialectical materialism to the natural sciences. Often dismissed or misunderstood, this unfinished work offers a sweeping view of reality - from physics and chemistry to evolution, human consciousness, and ecological breakdown - through the lens of Marxist philosophy. Together, they unpack Engels’ central claim that nature itself unfolds dialectically: through contradiction, motion, transformation, and interconnection.
They cover the three laws of dialectics, Engels’ materialist account of human evolution, his critique of mechanistic science, vulgar materialism, and metaphysical thinking, as well as his early warnings about capitalism’s ecological consequences. Along the way, they connect these insights to Marx’s concept of species-being, and reflect on what this revolutionary worldview offers in the age of climate crisis, hyper-alienation, and late capitalist decay. Finally, Alyson and Breht have a fascinating open-ended discussion about the existential and spiritual implications of dialectical materialism as a worldview.
Whether you're new to dialectical materialism or looking to deepen your understanding, this conversation reframes Engels’ work as a profound contribution not just to Marxism, but to the philosophy of science itself.
Here are the episodes recommended for further listening in the episode:
Comments
Mason Herzing
Right when Brett said, “Look at your hands…” I was at my job as a mechanic using my hands to fix a truck, and that was a cool moment. Labor really is what makes us human.
Ted
Hey! listening to this made me think something you may find interesting to look into is Relational Quantum Mechanics, an interpretation in which the role of the observer can be played by any object and ultimately posits that the properties of objects exist only in the moment of their interactions and that all properties exist only relative to another object. I think there's fascinating (and challenging) implications for a dialectical world outlook. I'll leave a more technical overview below but a popular introduction can be found in Carlo Rovelli's book Helgoland. Interestingly he relates the debate between Lenin and Bogdanov exemplified in Lenin's "Materialism and Empiriocriticism" to the implications of this interpretation of QM however he ultimately comes down more on the side of Bogdanov and criticises Lenin's definition of "matter". Obviously this is something you likely won't get to anytime soon but I thought it's something you might have some interesting thoughts on! plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-relational/
