Koryakovtsev Andrey
Abstract: The methodology is a key of understanding of philosophical teaching. The improvement of methodological technique is a fundament for the development of human thought. However, the study of the development of the methods of human thinking is still in embryonic state. Hegel and Feuerbach tried to describe the development of philosophy from the point of view of its internal laws but failed. Hegel subordinated history of philosophy to teleology. Feuerbach just started to criticize the teleological approach from anthropological point of view. The problem of method is very important for the Marxist tradition. The dialectical method is crucial for the understanding of Marxist thought. The article analyzes Marxist classics statements about method, as well as Soviet Marxists’ statements. The authors underline incompleteness and metaphoric character of Marx’ judgments on dialectics, as well as contradictions of Engels’ statements. The authors show the insufficiency of Soviet studies of dialectics and conclude that dialectics remains unsolved problem in Marxism. The particular part of the problem is the attitude of Marx's method to Hegelian method, and to materialistic and idealistic worldview. Philosophical trends, which dominate in post-Soviet period, do not eliminate this confusion. Today, certain revival of the interest towards dialectics is observed only in the Marxists tradition, yet contemporary Marxists do not see any problem in Marxist approach towards dialectics. They still just repeat in different ways what already have been argued by Engels and Lenin or, at the best, by Il’ienkov or Zinoviev. Nothing new has been investigated about dialectical method even nowadays, although it is assumed that philosophy is free from ideological control. Consequently, if the Engels’ dictum that “Marx’s worldview (Auffassungsweise) is not a doctrine, it is a method” is correct, we still know very little about this worldview, or, to be more precise, about its research potential. The reconstruction of the philosophy of classical Marxism is the only solution of the problem.
Keywords: dialectics, classical Marxism, materialism, idealism, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Plekhanov, Soviet version of Marxism, Il’ienkov, Zinoviev, methodology of social science, historical materialism, dialectical materialism.