Evald V. Ilyenkov’s Perspective on the System of Categories in Dialectical Logic

The article examines the plan-prospectus of the system of logical categories developed by the Soviet philosopher Evald V. Ilyenkov in 1957 for the collective volume Dialectical Materialism. The document consisting of 5 sheets printed on tracing paper is preserved in the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the reports and minutes from the meetings of the Dialectical Materialism Section at the Institute of Philosophy of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Ilyenkov proposed a structure for presenting dialectical logic (theory of cognition) as a system of categories that progress from abstract to concrete. To the best of our knowledge, the issue of systematically presenting dialectical logic is neither resolved nor even addressed in Ilyenkov’s published works. However, this document elucidates his conception of the order for logical categories and the overall structure of logic. In addition to that, Ilyenkov was influenced by the arrangement of categories in Georg W.F. Hegel’s Logic, and aimed to develop a dialectical-materialist alternative. This article highlights key criticism of Hegel’s order of category derivation, particularly from Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg. In addressing this issue, Ilyenkov grounds his approach in the definition of philosophy as the relationship between thinking and being, or the process of cognition utilizing logical categories that express “those universal regularities to which the development of being (nature and society) and thinking are equally subordinated”. Ilyenkov believes that the first category of “concrete logic” is interaction, and he defines it as “the form and result of dialectical development”, with each subsequent category intending to reveal increasingly nuanced insights into the “true objective meaning” of interaction and development. The article identifies several drawbacks of Ilyenkov’s approach to constructing a system of dialectical categories. Central to his logical development is Ilyenkov’s category of contradiction, which he regards as the universal principle of interaction and the source of development. The article concludes by outlining the evolution of Ilyenkov’s thought on the foundational category of dialectical logic, highlighting that interaction gives priority to the category of the universal before advancing to the category of substance, with the latter interpreted in terms of Spinoza’s philosophy. 

Keywords: logical categories; deduction of categories; materialist dialectics; pure being; becoming; interaction; concrete; universal; substance