N

Naigeon, Jacques-André (1738–1810)

French materialist philosopher and atheist, opponent of the Catholic Church. Naigeon's world outlook was shaped under the direct influence of Diderot, whom he met in 1756. Diderot enlisted him to work on the Encyclopédie, and subsequently he became one of its editors. Naigeon adhered to materialist sensualism in the theory of knowledge. In 1768, published Le militaire philosophe, in which he proved that all religions are false and that any search of God should be abandoned. Naigeon took part in editing Holbach's System of Nature and jointly with him wrote a Théologie portative, a dictionary giving a witty criticism of religion. Naigeon devoted the last years of his life to publishing the works of Diderot.

Nalbandyan, Mikael Lazarevich (1829–1866)

Armenian materialist thinker, revolutionary democrat, utopian socialist, enlightener, eminent poet, and publicist. Graduated from the department of natural sciences of Moscow University, was a contributor to the progressive Armenian journal Northern Lights. Took an active part in the Russian people's struggle for liberation. Was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress and died in exile.

In his activities Nalbandyan sought to strengthen Armenian-Russian friendship; he associated the liberation of the Armenian people with the victory of the Russian anti-serfdom revolution and fought against bourgeois nationalists and liberals. In his philosophical views Nalbandyan was a materialist who tried to combine materialism with dialectics. In the theory of knowledge he proceeded from the unity of the sensory and rational, deduction and induction, and criticised the idealist understanding of the nature of general concepts and ideas. Nalbandyan criticised the philosophy of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel, especially their political views. In aesthetics he highly valued the realism and views of the Russian revolutionary democrats; he embodied these ideas in his artistic efforts. Nalbandyan's ideas became one of the wellsprings of progressive Armenian culture in the 19th century.

His main works: Two Lines (1861), Agriculture as the True Road (1862), Hegel and His Time (1863).

Name

In logic, a linguistic expression denoting some object understood in the broadest sense, as everything we can name and not only as a material object. Logical semantics usually deals with the so-called "semantic triangle": (1) name; (2) object designated by it (denotation or designation); (3) sense of name.

As distinct from the ordinary word usage, contemporary logic regards as names not only terms (words) but also sentences. The denotation of a term is the object it denotes, the sense of the term is the property it expresses. The denotation of a sentence is its truth-value (that is, truth or lie) and the sense is the judgement it expresses.

Narodism

An ideology of petty-bourgeois peasant democracy in Russia. The specific features of Narodism as a variety of democratic ideology are: (1) socialist dreams, the hope of avoiding the capitalist road, and of preventing capitalism; (2) advocacy of a radical change of agrarian relations. Narodism is of international significance, being characteristic of countries which have taken the road of the bourgeois democratic revolution at a relatively late period, when capitalism in Western Europe and North America has already revealed its intrinsic contradictions and has given rise to the socialist movement of the proletariat.

The social source of the ideology of Narodism in Russia was the struggle of the peasants for the abolition of the feudal estates and a radical redistribution of the land which belonged to the landowners. Herzen and Chernyshevsky were the founders of the Narodnik ideology in Russia. They first raised the question of the possible direct transition from the peasant commune to the higher, communist form of society.

So-called active Narodism developed in the 1870s. Its characteristic feature was the desire to apply the political programme of Narodism, to awaken the peasantry, and rally it to the socialist revolution. Bakunin, Lavrov and P. N. Tkachev were the most prominent ideologists of this Narodism. Being the ideology of militant revolutionary democracy, the Narodism of the 1870s theoretically made a step backward as compared with Chernyshevsky. Opposing "socialism" to "politics" the Narodniks held that struggle for political freedoms was of benefit only to the bourgeoisie. They denied that capitalism was in any way progressive.

In philosophy the Narodnik theoreticians of the subjective school preached agnosticism, eclectically combined fragments of various idealist systems—positivism, Neo-Kantianism, Machism, and others. In contrast to Chernyshevsky who regarded social development from the viewpoint of historical necessity, the Narodniks approached social phenomena from positions of an abstract ideal. They tried to prove the possibility of non-capitalist development by means of the subjective method in sociology. Formally Narodism did not deny the importance of the masses in history, but it held that the movement of the masses and, correspondingly, the direction of the historical process depended on the activity of the intellectual minority. The main thesis of the economic theory of Narodism was that small peasant farming ("people's production") was the antithesis of capitalism.

In the mid-1880s, a liberal, reformist trend (V. P. Vorontsov, Mikhailovsky, S. N. Krivenko, S. N. Yuzhakov, and others) prevailed in Narodism. Under the influence of reality some Narodniks had to admit Russia's capitalist evolution and the process of differentiation among the peasantry. But admission of capitalist development in Russia was accompanied by all kinds of utopian and reactionary schemes concerning aid to "people's production". The liberal Narodniks actively fought against Marxism, and this struggle ended in their complete ideological defeat.

The advance of the peasant movement early in the 20th century and the Russian revolution of 1905-07 determined the appearance of a number of Narodnik groups and parties, of which the most leftward was the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Its ideology was of an eclectic nature, combining the old dogmas of Narodism with some distorted propositions of Marxism. In the course of the revolution the Socialist-Revolutionaries constantly vacillated between submission to the leadership of the liberals and a determined struggle against the landowners. Lenin and Plekhanov presented a profound critique of Narodism.

Nation

A historically formed community of people. A nation is distinguished first of all by common material conditions of life: territory and economic life; community of language, psychological make-up and also certain traits of national character, manifested in the national specifics of its culture. Nation is the broadest form of human community which comes into being with the appearance of the capitalist formation.

The abolition of feudal disunity and the consolidation of economic ties between regions within a country and the merging of local markets into a national market serve as the economic basis for the crystallisation of nation. The bourgeoisie was the leading force of nations during that period, which laid a definite imprint on their sociopolitical and spiritual aspects. As these bourgeois nations develop social antitheses within them grow sharper and the antithesis between the classes becomes apparent. The bourgeoisie seeks to cover up these contradictions and fan antagonisms between nations. It advocates the ideology of nationalism and national selfishness. Discord and hatred between nations, national conflicts are an inevitable consequence of capitalism.

In opposition to bourgeois nationalism the proletariat puts forward the ideology and policy of proletarian internationalism. With the abolition of capitalism the aspect of a nation radically changes. The old, bourgeois nations are transformed into new, socialist nations with the alliance of the working class and working peasantry forming its class basis. Socialist nations are free of class antagonisms, the remnants of the former distrust between them vanishing and friendship of the peoples developing.

The abolition of national oppression and the establishment of equality between the peoples, their mutual assistance, and the elimination of economic and cultural backwardness of peoples who had been retarded in their development have created all the requisites for the thriving of socialist nations in the Soviet Union. In socialist society, on the one hand, nations develop and flourish and, on the other, they draw closer together. In future, after the complete victory of communism, the all-round drawing together of nations will ultimately bring about the gradual disappearance of national distinctions. A new form of social community of people, broader than the nation and uniting all mankind into one family, will arise in a fully developed communist society. But such a community will come into being only as a result of prolonged social progress and, moreover, much later than full social homogeneity is attained.

National Democracy

A form of political organisation of society which arises in the course of the development and deepening of the revolution. The basic features of a national democratic state are consistent struggle for political and economic independence, against imperialism and neocolonialism, the existence of broad democratic rights and freedoms, the participation of the people in determining the government's policy and revolutionary social changes, a land reform in the first place.

"The political basis of the state of national democracy is the bloc of all the progressive, patriotic forces fighting to win complete national independence and broad democracy and to consummate the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution." (Programme of the CPSU) The formation of national democracy is ensured by the active participation of the working class in the national liberation revolution. Socially, national democracy is not a socialist state, but under certain conditions it can become a political form of transition of individual countries to socialism, bypassing the capitalist road of development.

National Form in Art

Specific features of artistic form introduced in art by each people. Marxist-Leninist aesthetics, considering art a reflection of reality, notes that the forms of this reflection are associated with the specific features of a people's life, its socio-economic system, traditions, character, and psychology. All this imparts a national colouring to art. Language is an important element of national form. The interaction of national cultures enriches the forms of art.

Soviet art is socialist in content, that is, it asserts socialist ideology; at the same time it is extremely diverse in form, which is explained by the wealth of life itself and the free, all-round development of nations in socialist society. True national art is always international because art, reflecting the depths of a people's soul, carries general human elements. The organic blending of the national and the international in socialist art is determined by the very nature of socialism and the Marxist ideology of friendship and brotherhood of peoples.

National Question

The question of liberation and the conditions for the free development of nations. The National Question should be approached historically, because its content and importance are not the same in different epochs. In the period of the emergence of nations, the National Question involved the overthrow of feudalism and liberation from foreign national oppression.

In the epoch of imperialism, the National Question has become an inter-state problem, has merged with the general problem of liberating the colonial peoples, and has developed into the national colonial question. It is also closely linked with the peasant question, because the majority of participants in the national movements are peasants. The epoch of socialist and national liberation revolutions, the epoch of abolition of the colonial system was ushered in by the October Revolution.

In the present epoch the National Question has again arisen in a number of developed capitalist countries in view of the striving of the imperialist states (Nazi Germany and Japan during the 2nd World War, the United States in the post-war period) for world domination. The proletariat and the Communist Parties in a number of countries are faced with a historical task—to rebuff the predatory plans of the imperialists, to assume leadership in upholding national independence and sovereignty, rallying round themselves all the democratic and patriotic forces of the nation.

While the ideologists of imperialism hold that the only way to solve the National Question is to isolate nations, which actually leads to greater hostility between them and to the subordination of some nations by others, the October Socialist Revolution demonstrated the possibility and expediency of a different, revolutionary way. This is to destroy capitalism, completely abolish national oppression, and establish friendship of the peoples. The Soviet system has not limited itself to proclaiming the legal equality of nations, but has done everything to eliminate in the shortest possible time their actual economic and cultural inequality inherited from the old system.

Drawing on fraternal assistance and above all the assistance of the Russian people, all Soviet non-Russian republics built up a modern industry, trained their own skilled workers and intellectuals, and developed culture, national in form and socialist in content. It is pointed out in the Programme of the CPSU that the building of communism leads to still greater unity of the Soviet peoples; obliteration of the distinctions between classes and the development of communist social relations make for a greater social homogeneity of nations and contribute to the development of common communist traits in their culture, morals, and way of life and to a further strengthening of their mutual trust and friendship.

Nationalism

A principle of bourgeois ideology and politics expressed in national isolation, the advocacy of mistrust of other nations and enmity among nations. Nationalism has its roots in capitalism's specific features of development. Reflecting the character of relations among nations under capitalism, nationalism appears in two forms: Great-Power chauvinism of a dominating nation, marked by contempt for other nations, and local nationalism of an oppressed nation stamped by the striving for national seclusion and mistrust of other nations.

Nationalism developed in the process of formation of nations which was accompanied by the emergence of national languages and cultures and the moulding of a special national psychology and national sentiments. Speculating on the slogans of "nationwide" interests, bourgeois and reformist ideologists and revisionists utilise nationalism as a refined means for stifling the class consciousness of the working people, splitting the international working-class movement, and justifying colonialism and wars between nations.

Nationalism is inacceptable in any form to the working people, whose interests are expressed only by proletarian internationalism. But at a definite stage of the national liberation movement, Communists consider it historically justified to support the nationalism of the oppressed nation, which has a general democratic content (anti-imperialism, striving for political and economic independence). This variety of nationalism, however, also has another side, expressing the ideology and interests of the reactionary exploiting top group, which leans towards compromise with imperialism.

Nationalism is most widespread and tenacious in a petty-bourgeois environment. Under socialism, which establishes real equality of nations, the social roots of nationalism are removed and its manifestations are preserved only as survivals of capitalism in the minds and behaviour of people.

Natural Law

A doctrine of an ideal law which is independent of the state and is held to be derived from the reason and "nature" of man. Ideas of Natural Law were put forward in ancient times (by Socrates, Plato, etc.). In the Middle Ages Natural Law was considered a variety of the law of God (see Thomas Aquinas). The idea was taken up widely in the period of Western bourgeois revolutions (17th-18th centuries) and its chief advocates (Grotius, Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach, Kant, Radishchev, etc.) used it to criticise feudalism and affirm the "naturalness" and "reasonableness" of bourgeois society. A very much distorted version of Natural Law is to be found in the contemporary "social doctrine" of Catholicism.

Natural Philosophy

The name given to philosophy distinguished by the predominantly speculative interpretation of nature taken in its entirety. The boundaries between natural science and Natural Philosophy and also the place of Natural Philosophy itself in the system of other philosophical sciences have undergone changes in the course of the history of philosophy.

In antiquity, Natural Philosophy merged with natural science and in ancient Greek philosophy was usually called physics. Ancient Natural Philosophy gave a spontaneous and naive dialectical interpretation of nature as an integral and living whole, and asserted the identity of the microcosm (man) and macrocosm (nature). Cosmology and cosmogony were also an organic part of Natural Philosophy.

Elements of Natural Philosophy were present even in medieval scholasticism. They consisted chiefly in the adaptation of some principles of Aristotelean Natural Philosophy and cosmology to the geocentric picture of the world. Natural Philosophy became widespread in the Renaissance. The Natural Philosophy of that epoch, preserving in the main the concepts and principles of ancient Natural Philosophy, was based on a higher level of natural science. In the course of struggle against the scholastic picture of nature the Renaissance Natural Philosophy developed a number of profound materialistic and dialectic ideas, for example, the idea of the infinity of nature and the countless number of its worlds (see Bruno) and the idea of the coincidence of the opposites in the boundlessly great and boundlessly small (see Nicholas of Cusa, Bruno).

A number of natural sciences, first of all mechanics and mathematics, were singled out from Natural Philosophy in the 17th century but the latter was still regarded as closely connected with them. It was no accident that Newton's main work, which formulated the principles of mechanics and mathematics, was called Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In the 18th century philosophy of the French and European Enlightenment and materialism, Natural Philosophy put forward the idea of the encyclopaedic connection of all the sciences, which had been extended and deepened as compared with the preceding century.

Schelling's Natural Philosophy played a big part at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. Although it rested on an idealist foundation, it formulated the idea of the unity of nature's forces and summed up a number of important natural science discoveries of that epoch. Oken, a follower of Schelling, voiced the idea of the development of the organic world.

Characterising Natural Philosophy, Engels wrote that "it could do this only by putting in place of the real but as yet unknown interconnections ideal, fancied ones, filling in the missing facts by figments of the mind and bridging the actual gaps merely in imagination. In the course of this procedure it conceived many brilliant ideas and foreshadowed many later discoveries, but it also produced a considerable amount of nonsense, which indeed could not have been otherwise. Today, when one needs to comprehend the results of natural scientific investigation only dialectically, that is, in the sense of their own interconnection, in order to arrive at a 'system of nature' sufficient for our time; when the dialectical character of this interconnection is forcing itself against their will even into the metaphysically-trained minds of the natural scientists, today natural philosophy is finally disposed of. Every attempt at resurrecting it would be not only superfluous, but a step backwards." (Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 389-90.)

Subsequently, at the turn of the 20th century such a step backwards was taken by Ostwald, Avenarius, Lipps, Driesch, and some other idealist philosophers who tried to overcome the crisis in contemporary natural science by means of Natural Philosophy.

Natural Science

Science of nature, the natural sciences taken as a whole; one of the three basic divisions of human knowledge (the other two being the social sciences and the sciences concerned with thought). Natural Science forms the theoretical basis of industrial and agricultural technology and of medicine; it is the scientific foundation of philosophical materialism and the dialectical comprehension of nature. It studies the various forms of matter and forms of their motion, how they operate and manifest themselves in nature, their connections and laws, and the basic forms of being.

Natural Science may be either empirical or theoretical depending on its content, methods of investigation and approach; it may also be either non-organic, that is, studying forms of motion in inanimate nature (the mechanical, physical, and chemical forms of motion), or organic, where the subject studied are the phenomena of life (biological form of motion). These subdivisions indicate the structure of Natural Science (the classification of the sciences). Since it helps to provide a natural scientific or "physical" picture of the world, Natural Science is closely associated with philosophy, mainly with its theoretical part (concepts, categories, laws, theories, hypotheses) and also with the elaboration of devices and methods of scientific research; it has a direct influence on the development of philosophy and determines changes in the forms of materialism brought about by great scientific discoveries.

On the other hand, Natural Science is closely linked with technology, with the process of production. Since it is the "spiritual potential of production" (Marx), Natural Science acts as a kind of direct productive force; moreover, in the process of building communist society this social function of Natural Science shows itself to the full, as is pointed out in the Programme of the CPSU.

In the course of its development Natural Science has passed from the immediate contemplation of nature (among the ancients) through the period of analytical dissection (15th to 18th centuries), which in its absolute form became the metaphysical view of nature, to the synthetic reconstruction of nature in its universality, wholeness and concreteness that has been achieved in the 19th-20th centuries. The spontaneous penetration of Natural Science by dialectics in the 19th century was complicated in the 20th by the crisis of Natural Science, the causes of which were revealed by Lenin in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.

In the same work Lenin indicated ways of overcoming the crisis in physics which, with its discovery of the uses of atomic energy and pioneering of the microcosm, the world of elementary particles, is leading the way in contemporary Natural Science and stimulating the development of its other branches—astronomy, cosmonautics, cybernetics, chemistry, biology, etc. Physics in company with chemistry, mathematics and cybernetics is helping microbiology to solve the theoretical and experimental task of biosynthesis (artificial preparation of living protein); it is also contributing to the discovery of the material nature of heredity and the solution of other important problems.

Naturalism

In philosophy, the desire to explain the development of society by the laws of nature (climatic conditions, geographical environment, biological and racial distinctions between people, etc.). Naturalism is close to anthropologism which also fails to see the specific laws governing social life. While in the 17th and 18th centuries naturalism played a positive part in the struggle against spiritualism, subsequently it degenerated into a reactionary idealist theory. It included Malthusianism, Spencer's organic theory of society, and the theory of Social-Darwinism.

A system of aesthetic views on art and a corresponding artistic method which took shape in the second half of the 19th century. Positivism represented by Comte, Spencer, H. A. Taine, and others, formed the philosophical foundation of naturalism. Naturalism does not try to fathom the essential, deep-going processes of reality and reduces artistic portrayal to copying accidental, singular objects and phenomena. The contradictory nature of the aesthetic concept of naturalism was strikingly displayed in the works of Emile Zola, which often clashed with his theoretical views (Le Roman expérimental, 1880; Le Naturalisme au théâtre, 1881) on the identity of social and biological phenomena, the independence of art from politics and morality, etc. Concentration on the physiological side of life, striving for primitive entertainment, sentimentality and melodrama are characteristic features of modern naturalistic art expressed in diverse genres: in pulp novels and comics, gangster films, detective stories, pornographic drawings and naturalistic painting, in jazz rhythms of rock 'n' rolls and twists. The ideas of passivity, renunciation of social struggle, indifference to the joys and suffering of the people, concentration on the base sides of human life, preached (directly or indirectly) by proponents of naturalism, bring them close to the formalists, e.g., surrealists.

Naturalism, Ethical

A general name given to theories (see Hedonism, Evolutionary Ethics, and others) united by the principle that the concept of good is determined through some kind of "natural", i.e., "extra-moral" concept, for example, pleasure, biological evolution, etc. (logical positivists and intuitionists consider this a "naturalistic mistake"). Marxism has proved that from naturalistic positions it is impossible to give a consistently materialistic account of the essence of moral categories or to trace the origin of morality.

In the 1940s and 1950s naturalism became a trend whose proponents defended some scientific principles of ethics against the frankly idealist criticism of the neo-positivists and intuitionists. These principles are: (1) moral good is objective, it is connected with the social system, the interests and requirements of people; (2) the concept of good can be determined and moral standards objectively justified; (3) moral judgements have objective importance, their truth can be verified and demonstrated; (4) ethics and moral principles can be scientific if they are based on data of other social sciences. The criticism levelled by naturalists against idealism in ethics and the elements of materialism contained in their theories are progressive on the whole. Mention should be made of the works of Mario Bunge (Argentina) and Abraham Edel (USA).

Nature

The world surrounding us in the endless diversity of its manifestations. Nature is the objective reality existing outside consciousness and independently of it. It has neither beginning nor end, it is endless in time and space, and it is in a constant state of movement and change. According to the laws of its development, inorganic nature engenders organic nature (see Biosphere), and the latter prepares all the necessary biological conditions for the appearance of man. However, the decisive factor in the process of the appearance of man is the formation of society. The emergence of society considerably changes nature itself (see Noosphere).

Cognising the objective laws of nature, acting on it by means of specially created tools and implements of labour, people utilise the substances and energy of nature for creating the material wealth necessary for mankind. In this way the natural habitat is supplemented by an artificial one, the so-called "second nature", i.e., the sum total of things not found in nature in ready form and created in the process of social production. That is why man's attitude towards nature always bears a social character and reflects a definite stage in the development of the productive forces and the relations of production. This applies entirely to the theoretical attitude of man to nature. But, in acquiring greater power over nature, in actively reforming it, people do not cease to belong to it, to be an integral part of it.

The true essence, the internal regularity, the specific character of objects and phenomena (e.g., the nature of the state, the nature of psychology, etc.).

Nebular Hypothesis

A cosmogonic hypothesis, according to which the solar system (or celestial bodies in general) arose from a rarefied nebula. The term was applied to the hypothesis voiced by Laplace, who assumed that planets arose from an incandescent gas nebula, and more seldom to the hypothesis of Kant, who assumed that planets originated from a dust nebula; at times it is also applied to modern hypotheses. The idea underlying the Nebular Hypothesis, the natural origination of cosmic bodies from other forms of cosmic substance (gas, dust), has not lost its importance to this day.

Necessity and Chance

Philosophical categories which reflect two kinds of objective connections in the material world. Necessity follows from the inner essence of phenomena and denotes their regularity, order, and structure. Necessity is that which necessarily must occur in the given conditions. On the contrary, chance is rooted not in the essence of phenomena, but in the influence of other phenomena on the given phenomenon; chance might or might not occur.

The dialectical materialist understanding of the relationship of necessity and chance stands in contrast to two other concepts, one of which denies necessity and reduces everything to chance, to a chance concurrence of circumstances, while the second, on the contrary, denies all chance whatsoever and reduces it to necessity. The first concept found its expression in numerous subjective idealist theories (e.g., Narodism, in Russia). Both Laplacian determinism and religious fatalism adhered to the second concept. But fatalism, considering every chance deviation from the norm as eternally necessary, as the fundamental law of nature, actually did not raise chance to the level of necessity; on the contrary, it reduced necessity to the level of chance. Hegel was the first to overcome both metaphysical extremes from idealist positions. But only dialectical materialism provided a scientific understanding of the essence and relationship of necessity and chance.

Because of the universal interconnection and interpenetration of all phenomena, every phenomenon can be regarded as being in an essential or inessential relation to any other phenomenon and, therefore, in each phenomenon or complex of phenomena, in each process, it is always possible to single out the essential (necessary) and inessential (chance) properties. Necessity and chance are dialectical opposites which are mutually connected and do not exist without each other. In view of the material unity of the world, each event has its cause and is part of the universal causal connection, necessity is an expression of this connection owing to which necessity is inseparable from the universal, is "universal in being" and constitutes an absolute, universal connection. Each phenomenon emerges by virtue of internal necessity, but the emergence of this phenomenon is associated with a plurality of external conditions which, because of their specific nature and infinite diversity, serve as a source of chance, of accidental features and aspects of the given phenomenon. Any phenomenon is inconceivable both without its internal necessity and also without its external "chance" prerequisites. That is why internal necessity is inevitably supplemented by external chance. The latter has necessity as its basis, is a form of its manifestation. Behind chance there is always necessity which determines the course of development in nature and society. "But where on the surface accident holds sway, there actually it is always governed by inner, hidden laws and it is only a matter of discovering these laws." (Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 391.)

The dialectical materialist understanding of the relationship of necessity and chance makes it possible to trace the causal, law-governed natural chain of phenomena. Thereby this understanding corresponds to the task of science to reveal the necessity of phenomena behind chance connections. Science, including dialectical materialism, is the enemy of fundamental unknowability. Science, Marx said, ends where the necessary connection loses its force. However intricate a given phenomenon (e.g., the development of society), however numerous the seeming chances on which it depends, it is ultimately governed by objective laws, by objective necessity. Dialectical materialism helps to see not only the connection but also the interpenetration of necessity and chance. Darwin's theory of the evolution of the organic world is based on consideration of such interpenetration. Marx revealed this important aspect of the dialectics of necessity and chance in his teaching on the development of value forms. Contemporary natural science enriches the dialectical materialist conclusions concerning the essence of necessity and chance and their connections (see Laws, Statistical and Dynamic).

Negation

In materialist dialectics negation is regarded as a necessary moment of development, a condition for qualitative change of things (see Negation of the Negation, Law of).

A logical operation with the help of which a new proposition is inferred from a given proposition (so-called negation of the initial proposition). If the initial proposition was true, its negation is false, and vice versa. The negation operation is usually performed by introducing the particle "not" and at times with the help of turns like "it is wrong", "it is false". Propositions resulting from a negation operation are usually designated in logic through A, ¬A or \~ A. Negation is one of the main operations in propositional calculus and functional calculus.

Negation of the Negation, Law of

A basic law of dialectics first formulated and interpreted from idealist positions by Hegel. The Law of Negation of the Negation expresses continuity of development, the connection of the new and the old in the process of the law-governed replacement of some qualitative changes by others, relative repetition, at a higher stage of development, of some properties of the lower stage. It also proves the progressive character of development and determines the tendency, the chief trend of the general course of development. This law is organically bound up with the law of the unity and conflict of opposites (see Unity and Conflict of Opposites, Law of), inasmuch as negation of the old by the new in the process of development is nothing else than the solving of contradictions. The specific features of the manifestation and operation of the Law of Negation of the Negation are determined by the essence of the object negated, the nature of its contradictions and the concrete historical conditions.

Dialectical negation is an objective moment, the motive element of every development. The relationship of the old and the new in development, the character of the negation of the old are explained in directly opposed ways by metaphysics and by materialist dialectics. Metaphysical negation signifies the simple discarding, destruction of the old. The other metaphysical extreme is the view that development proceeds along a closed circle, that development is merely a simple return to the old. According to materialist dialectics, negation is a condition, a moment of development, retaining in the old everything which is positive and necessary for further advance. Without this there would be no continuity in development. At the same time breaks in continuity, too, are characteristic of forward movement, because negation means a transition from the old to the new, the birth of a qualitatively new phenomenon. Negation of the initial point does not end development because the new is in turn subject to negation. At one stage in the course of development there occurs, as it were, a return to the starting point, some features and peculiarities are repeated, but on a new, higher basis. It is this that is expressed in the concept of "negation of the negation".

Development proceeds not in a straight line and not in a closed circle, but in an ascending line, a spiral. Transition from the lower to the higher follows intricate ways, is contradictory, passes through many deviations, including regressive movement at individual stages. Pointing to this distinction of development as applied to human history, Lenin wrote: "It is undialectical, unscientific and theoretically wrong to regard the cause of world history as smooth and always in a forward direction, without occasional gigantic leaps back." (Vol. 22, p. 310.) But in general, society is constantly progressing. The entire course of world history shows how one socioeconomic formation arises on the basis of negating the preceding one and in its turn is replaced by a more progressive one. Capitalism, which arose through the negation of feudalism, has now outlived itself and has ripened for revolutionary negation by a more progressive socio-economic formation, communism.

The specifics of dialectical negation in the development of socialist society are determined by the non-antagonistic nature of the contradictions of socialism, i.e., the processes of negation of the old do not bear the character of political revolutions, conflicts of classes, etc. During the transition to communism, negation of the principles of socialism will proceed through their full development, which will prepare the conditions for their growing over into communist principles.

Neo-Classicism

A trend in art of the second half of the 19th and the 20th centuries marked by the use of forms taken from some earlier styles in art (ancient, Renaissance, classicism). Neo-Classicism utilises the images and subjects of classical art for idealising capitalist reality and glossing over its contradictions. A reversion of Neo-Classicism to the past and its worship of the traditional standards of life and art have been utilised by bourgeois ideologists to consolidate their ideological and aesthetic positions.

The Italian painter G. Severini (born 1883) is the theoretician of Neo-Classicism. In his book Du Cubisme au Classicisme he put forward a programme of "aesthetics of harmony of numbers and the dividers". Divorcement from life, unwillingness to reflect contemporary ideas and subjects, a predilection for stylisation, and other strictly formalistic methods are characteristic of the work of such painters and sculptors as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and M. Denis (France), A. Hildebrand and H. Marees (Germany), and others. Neo-Classicism became the official art trend in Italy and Germany during the period of the fascist dictatorship.

Neo-Darwinism

A mechanistic trend in the doctrine of evolution founded by the German biologist A. Weismann (1834-1914). The pivot of his doctrine is the idea of continuity of the "germ-plasma". He differentiated in the organism the sexual "germs" (plasma) and the organic elements (soma). The latter, according to Weismann, change under the influence of the environment and are of a correlational character, i.e., are interconnected with the other parts of the organism. But these changes are not heritable and, consequently, play no part in the process of the historical development of organisms. At the same time accidental influences of external factors may cause stable hereditary changes in the germ-plasma, where selection takes place at the level of individual germs (material particles or "determinants"). Weismann thus distorted Darwin's principle of natural selection in the spirit of autogenesis, applying this principle to the processes within the organism.

Weismann's followers (the Dutch biologist H. de Vries, the Swedish scientist Johannsen, and others) drew idealist conclusions from his theories, taking to positions of anti-Darwinism. At the same time, at a definite stage in the development of biology, the works of some Neo-Darwinists served as a working hypothesis, facilitating the study of the laws of heredity. At present molecules of nuclear nucleonic acids are regarded in biology as the material carriers of heredity. As for the ideas of the Neo-Darwinists, they are supported in a somewhat modified form by a number of biologists (J. Huxley in Britain, J. Simpson in the United States, and others). Modern Neo-Darwinists in contrast to various neo-vitalist and teleological concepts are trying to give a causal explanation to the processes of biological evolution. Philosophically, these attempts, however, do not go beyond the bounds of metaphysical materialism.

Neo-Hegelianism

An idealistic philosophical trend which arose in Britain and the United States in the second half of the 19th century as a reaction to natural historical materialism and positivism and for the defence of religion and speculative philosophy (Green, Bradley, Royce, M'Taggart, and others). At the turn of the century Neo-Hegelianism assumed an anti-Marxist trend and spread in Italy (see Croce, Gentile), in Russia (A.I. Ilyin and others) and Holland (G. Bolland). German Neo-Hegelianism (Kroner, Glockner, Litt) came to the fore on the eve of, and after, the 1st World War. After the 2nd World War Neo-Hegelianism spread in France, largely merging with existentialism (J. Wahl, J. Hyppolite, Kozhev).

Neo-Hegelianism in general renounces dialectics or limits its application only to the sphere of consciousness, and irrationally interprets Hegel in the spirit of philosophy of life. A solution of the problem of contradiction in Neo-Hegelianism varies from "reconciliation" (Bradley, Haering) to denial of any possibility of resolving contradictions (Wahl, Croce). In sociology, Neo-Hegelianism utilises the reactionary aspects of Hegelian philosophy of the spirit for "justifying" the imperialist state (Bosanquet) and also the fascist "corporate state" (Gentile, Haering) as a means of reconciling classes in society. In 1930, a Neo-Hegelianism centre was set up under the name of International Hegelian Union.

Neo-Impressionism

Also known as Pointillism or Divisionism, an artistic trend in France in the 1880s resulting from one-sided development of some methods of impressionism. G. Seurat (1859-91), P. Signac (1863-1935), and other artists who joined them (C. and L. Pissarro, H. Cross, M. Luce, T. van Rysselberghe, G. Previati), turned the formal methods, supposedly discovered on the basis of the knowledge of the optical laws of light, into an aim in itself. These methods consisted in the mechanical division of shades into basic pure colours and laying them evenly on the canvas in small points or strokes of pure colour, which merged into a whole when viewed from a definite distance. Neo-Impressionism is marked by subjectivism in the selection of objects for painting, which often serve merely as a pretext for constructing pre-conceived colour combinations, for a mechanical "arrangement" of colour patches usually lacking definiteness and precision of form.

Neo-Kantianism

An idealist trend which sprang up in Germany in the second half of the 19th century under the slogan "Back to Kant!" (O. Liebmann, F. Lange). It also spread in France (Ch. Renouvier, Hamelin), Italy (C. Cantoni, Tocco) and Russia (see Vvedensky, Chelpanov, and "Legal Marxism"). Neo-Kantianism reproduces and develops the idealist and metaphysical elements in the philosophy of Kant, ignoring its materialist and dialectical elements. The thing-in-itself is either discarded or interpreted in a subjective idealist way as an "extreme" concept.

Neo-Kantianism received full expression in two German schools: the Marburg school (Cohen, P.G. Natorp, Cassirer) and the Freiburg, or Baden school (Windelband, Rickert). The former paid particular attention to an idealist interpretation of the objective, scientific concepts and to philosophical categories, regarding them as logical constructions. The second school focussed attention on justifying the antithesis of the natural and the social sciences on the basis of the Kantian doctrine of practical and theoretical reason and on striving to demonstrate the impossibility of scientific cognition of social phenomena. Neo-Kantianism was utilised by revisionism in its struggle against Marxism and practically became the official philosophical dogma of opportunists in the Second International (Bernstein, M. Adler, K. Vorländer). Lenin and Plekhanov struck crushing blows at Neo-Kantian revisionism. At present Neo-Kantianism enjoys influence in some trends of axiology and in a special branch of Kantianism (initiated by Hugo de Vries) advocated by W. Kraft.

Neo-Lamarckism

An unscientific trend in the theory of evolution which became widespread at the end of the 19th century. The characteristics of Neo-Lamarckism are an explanation of evolution only as a result of physiological processes, denial of the creative role of selection, recognition of primary purposefulness of organisms. One of the varieties of Neo-Lamarckism was so-called mechanical Lamarckism. It was most consistently elaborated by Spencer in his equilibrium theory, according to which the interaction of the organism and the environment led to their equilibrium. Evolution, on the other hand, is a result of the continuous disturbance of this equilibrium. The inability of mechanistic Lamarckists to give a scientific explanation of the relative purposefulness of organisms led them to idealism. So-called Psycho-Lamarckism, founded by the paleontologist E. Cope (1840-1907), is an extreme idealist variety of Neo-Lamarckism. According to Psycho-Lamarckism, the source of evolution lies in primitive forms of consciousness and will, in some kind of "creative principle" interpreted in the spirit of vitalism.

Neo-Platonism

A reactionary mystic philosophy in the epoch of the decline of the Roman Empire (3rd-6th centuries). Plato's idealist theory of ideas assumed the form of a doctrine of mystic emanation of the material world from the spiritual primary element. Matter is only the lowest link in the hierarchy of the Universe, an emanation of the "world soul", over which rises the "spirit" and still higher the "prime essence" or the "One". The highest stage of philosophy is attained not through experience and reason, but through mystic ecstasy. In this philosophy, idealism degenerated into theosophy.

The Neo-Platonic school first arose in Egypt, in Alexandria (Ammonius Saccas and later Hypatia). Plotinus founded a Neo-Platonic school in Rome. The school of Iamblichus (died c. 330) existed in Syria and elements of Pythagoreanism were strong in it. The last Neo-Platonic school was organised by Proclus in Athens and existed until 529.

Neo-Platonism originally was hostile to Christianity and contained numerous elements of Oriental magic and mythology. Nevertheless it exerted a great influence on Christian patristics and on the development of philosophy in feudal society both in Christian and Moslem countries.

Neo-Positivism

A subjective idealist trend of philosophy in the 20th century, the contemporary form of positivism. According to Neo-Positivism, knowledge of reality is given only in everyday or concrete scientific thinking, while philosophy is possible only as an analysis of language, in which the results of these forms of thinking are expressed (see Philosophy, Analytical). Philosophical analysis, in the opinion of neo-positivists, does not extend to objectively real things, it must be limited only to the "given", i.e., direct experience or language. The extreme, consistent forms of neo-positivism, for example, the early neo-positivist Vienna circle, by limiting "the given" to individual emotions, arrived directly at solipsism.

Logical positivism is the most influential variety of Neo-Positivism. The British analytical philosophers, followers of Moore (Stebbing, Wisdom) adhere to the general platform of Neo-Positivism. Some members of the Lvov-Warsaw logical school (K. Ajdukiewicz) were also neo-positivists.

An ideological and scientific organisational merger of various groups and individual philosophers who adhered to neo-positivist views took place in the 1930s. These were the Austro-German logical positivists of the Vienna circle (Carnap, M. Schlick, O. Neurath) and the Berlin Society of Scientific Philosophy (H. Reichenbach, C. Hempel), the British analysts, a number of Americans of the "philosophy of science" who adhered to the positivist pragmatic trend (E. Nagel, H. Margenau, Morris, W. Quine, Bridgman, and others), the Uppsala school in Sweden, the Munster logical group in Germany headed by Scholz, and others. Since then international congresses have been regularly held and the ideas of Neo-Positivism are widely advocated in the press.

Calling itself "scientific empiricism", Neo-Positivism is exerting influence on scientific circles. Idealist concepts in interpreting the discoveries of contemporary science are shaped under its influence. Mention should be made, however, of the positive significance of concrete results of studies in formal logic and methodology of science achieved both by the neo-positivists themselves and by scientists who are not neo-positivists but participate in congresses and discussions they arrange and periodicals they issue.

Since the end of the 1930s the United States has become the main centre of Neo-Positivism. At present this philosophy is represented above all by logical empiricism. Linguistic philosophy is a specific variety of Neo-Positivism in Britain. Ayer and K. Popper are representatives of Neo-Positivism in Britain. Contemporary Neo-Positivism is undergoing a deep ideological crisis, displayed in its inability to solve basic philosophical problems, in their avoidance, and concentration on concrete logical studies.

Neo-Realism

A trend in Anglo-American philosophy of the 20th century. Its main representatives are Moore and Russell in the early period of his activity, and others. The neo-realistic theory of knowledge is based on the idea of the "immanence of the independent", recognition that the cognised thing can directly enter the mind, but at the same time does not depend on knowledge as regards its existence and nature. One of the names given by Neo-Realism to the theory of knowledge, epistemological monism, is connected with the Machist concept of "neutral elements" of experience and the "functional" difference between the physical and the psychical.

In ontology, Neo-Realism recognises that general concepts which possess "ideal existence" are real and that things are independent of relations into which they enter (theory of external relations). Epistemologically, the neo-realistic theory of knowledge results from turning into an absolute the fact that the content of knowledge is independent of the process of cognition; ontology from divorcing the universal from individual things and also from the ontologisation of logical connections and concepts as results of the cognitive process.

Neo-Realism also has a "cosmological" trend, which develops, on the basis of an idealistically understood theory of development, all-embracing philosophical systems: Alexander's theory of emergent evolution, Whitehead's philosophy of the process, and holism of Jan Christian Smuts.

Neo-Slavophiles

Followers of the early Slavophiles in the second half of the 19th century; hence also called "late Slavophiles". N. Y. Danilevsky (1822-85), K. N. Leontyev (1831-91), and N. N. Strakhov (1828-96) were the main exponents of Neo-Slavophilism.

The socio-political views of the Neo-Slavophiles were extremely reactionary: they denied the law-governed development of history, opposed Russia to Europe, and spoke about a special road of Slavdom (associating this with the ideas of religion, autocracy, etc.), destined to "save" mankind from doom. They saw in the monarchy a force capable of resisting the destructive influence of the West on the countries of the East. (Danilevsky, Rossiya i Evropa [Russia and Europe], 1869; Leontyev, Vostok, Rossiya i slavyanstvo [The East, Russia, and Slavdom], 2 vols., 1885-86; Strakhov, Borba s zapadom v nashei literature [Struggle Against the West in Our Literature], 3 vols., 1882-96, and others.)

Denying class contradictions in Russian society, the Neo-Slavophiles came out against the ideology of the revolutionary democrats, against socialism. Strakhov (together with Dostoyevsky, A. F. Pisemsky, A. A. Grigoryev, and others) elaborated the unscientific theory of rapprochement between the people (the "soil") and the "upper classes" (the so-called soil theory). Neo-Slavophiles denied the scientific value of Darwinism; in philosophy they adhered to religious idealist positions. The ideology of Neo-Slavophilism reflected the interests of the exploiting classes.

Neo-Thomism

The official philosophical doctrine of the Catholic Church based on the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. An encyclical of Pope Leo XIII (1879) recognised Neo-Thomism as the only true philosophy conforming to the Christian dogmas. In 1889, a higher institute of philosophy was established in Louvain, Belgium. Now it is the international centre of Neo-Thomism. This doctrine is widespread in countries with a large number of Catholics (France, Italy, West Germany, the United States, and Latin American countries). Outstanding Neo-Thomists are Maritain and E. Gilson (France), de Raeymaeker (Belgium), Lotz de Fries (West Germany), G. Wetter (Austria), Bochensky.

Neo-Thomist philosophy serves as the ideological mainstay of clericalism. Neo-Thomists hold leading positions among the ideologists of anti-communism. The scholastic principle: "philosophy is the handmaiden of theology" is the basis of Neo-Thomism. Neo-Thomism is a theological form of contemporary objective idealism.

Neo-Thomists regard "pure being", understood as the spiritual, divine prime element, as the highest reality. The material world is declared secondary and derivative. Neo-Thomists widely utilise as rational proof of religious dogmas the falsified Aristotelian categories of form and matter, potential, and action (possibility and reality) and also the categories of existence and essence. The Neo-Thomist speculative constructions result in recognising God as the prime cause of being and the prime foundation of all philosophical categories.

Falsification of contemporary natural scientific theories holds a big place in Neo-Thomism. Taken as a whole, the philosophy of Neo-Thomism is a widely ramified system of metaphysics, whose main parts are ontology, epistemology, and natural philosophy. In the presentation of problems and terminology Neo-Thomist metaphysics differs noticeably from medieval Thomism. It eclectically combines the basic elements of the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas (the principle of harmony of faith and reason, and others) with propositions of the 18th and 19th centuries idealist systems of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel.

In their views of the historical process, Neo-Thomists adhere to providentialism. Neo-Thomist sociology is based on the reactionary utopian idea of a "third" society, more progressive and just than capitalism and socialism, in which the church will rule.

New and Old, The

Two opposite forces and tendencies, whose struggle, especially in society, is the driving force of development. Everything that drives, directs development in definite historical conditions is the New, while everything that hampers and prevents it is the Old.

In the process of development, the New and Old are in dialectical interconnection. The New grows out of the Old, is contained in it in embryo; everything positive and valuable in the Old remains in the New. The emergence of the New is always a leap, the end of all contradictions and the beginning of new ones. But the appearance of the qualitatively new as such is prepared in the process of development of the contradictions of the Old.

At first the Old is stronger than the New. But the New is irrepressible, in one way or another it ultimately ousts the Old. The New carries within itself fresh contradictions and thereby the embryos of further development. At the next stage of development the New as a whole or its separate aspects and features grow old.

Not everything that arises is genuinely New, but only that which manifests itself as a more progressive form facilitating further development. The New displays itself as such in struggle, in victory over the Old, in development. The appearance of the New is an objective process and does not depend on subjective arbitrary will. But in socialist society the struggle of the Old and the New, the moribund and the incipient, the backward and progressive becomes purposeful and planned.

Newton, Isaac (1643–1727)

English physicist, founder of classical mechanics, who formulated the law of universal gravitation and exerted great influence on the development of mechanistic materialism. In 1669, became professor of Cambridge University and in 1703, President of the Royal Society.

Newton's main work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) contains three laws of motion (law of inertia, law of proportionality of force and velocity, law of equality of action and counteraction), from which many conclusions are deducted, forming the foundation of classical mechanics and classical physics. The Principia substantiate the concepts of absolute motion, related not to material bodies but to a void, absolute space and absolute time.

From the mutual gravitation of bodies proportional to their mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, Newton deduced in the Principia the laws of motion of planets established by Kepler. The law of universal gravitation completed the heliocentric concept of the solar system and, moreover, laid a scientific foundation for explaining many processes in the entire Universe, including physical and chemical processes. It became the foundation of an integral physical picture of the world.

But Newton's theory of gravitation encountered objections because it admitted the influence (moreover, instantaneous) of one body on another without an intermediary material environment undergoing this influence (see Action, Immediate and at a Distance). In Optics Newton proved that light when refracted is divided into rays of different colours, and put forward the corpuscular theory of light, the concept of light as special particles.

In mathematics Newton created the method of fluxions, which in the main coincides with the methods of differentiation and integration discovered in the same period by Leibniz, and laid the foundation for an analysis of infinitesimals.

Philosophically, Newton adhered to positions recognising objective reality and the knowability of the world, but combined them with defence of religion. In Newton's system inertia and gravitation explain the endless repetition of elliptical movements of celestial bodies but the "prime impulse" is attributed to God. Newton's theological views and interests and also his unwillingness to analyse the internal causes of the phenomena described (his words hypothesis non fingo — I do not make hypotheses — became the slogan of empiricism in 18th century science), did not prevent his system of a uniform and exact explanation of nature from exerting great influence on the development of materialism, especially in Europe.

Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900)

German idealist philosopher, forerunner of the ideology of fascism; professor of philology in Basel, Switzerland, in 1869-79.

Nietzsche's views were shaped in the period when capitalism entered the stage of imperialism and were a reaction of bourgeois ideology to the aggravation of class contradictions. His world outlook was pervaded with hatred for the "spirit of the revolution" and the masses. Slavery, according to Nietzsche, belongs to the "essence of culture", while exploitation is "associated with the essence of everything living". Nietzsche's ideas were concentrated on "retarding the stream of the evidently inevitable revolution".

It is from this angle that Nietzsche reassessed the principles and standards of liberal bourgeois ideology: rationalist philosophy, traditional ethics, and the Christian religion. He considered that they weakened the will to struggle and were incapable of crushing the mounting revolutionary movement and frankly proposed instead of them inhumane and undemocratic principles.

Nietzsche drew a sharp distinction between the ideology, designated to foster a spirit of submission among the working people ("morality of slaves") from the ideology intended to educate a "caste of masters" ("morality of masters"), advocating for the latter uncurbed individualism in law and morality. The philosophy of Nietzsche is voluntarism: he opposed the will to reason. "Struggle for existence" which grows over into the "will to power" is considered the universal driving force of development. Nietzsche put forward the myth of the "eternal return of all things" in opposition to the scientific theory of progress.

Main works: Also sprach Zarathustra, 1883-91; Beyond Good and Evil, 1886; The Will to Power, 1906.

Nihilism

Absolute denial, a viewpoint rejecting any positive ideas. The term Nihilism was first used by Jacobi and gained popularity thanks to Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons. In Russia reactionaries called the revolutionary democrats nihilists, ascribing to the supporters of Chernyshevsky unconditional denial of all past culture.

Actually, the revolutionary democrats, while rejecting serfdom and the bourgeois system, put forward their own positive programme with socialist ideals. Lenin differentiated between revolutionary Nihilism as a natural negative attitude to reactionary social orders (Vol. 4, p. 275) and anarchism of intellectualist Nihilism (Vol. 17, p. 187).

The reactionary essence of Nihilism is expressed, for example, in the philosophy of Nietzsche, who proclaimed the "re-evaluation of values", i.e., denial of the standards of morality and justice elaborated by human culture.

Nominalism

A trend in medieval philosophy which regarded universal concepts only as names of individual objects. In contrast to medieval realism (see Realism, Medieval) nominalists asserted that only individual things with their individual properties really exist. General concepts created by our thoughts of these things, far from existing independently of things, do not even reflect their properties and qualities.

Nominalism was inseparably connected with materialist tendencies to recognise the primacy of things and the secondary character of concepts. Nominalism, according to Marx, was the first expression of materialism in the Middle Ages. But the nominalists did not understand that general concepts reflect real qualities of objectively existing things and that individual things are not separate from the general but contain it within themselves.

Roscelin, John Duns Scotus, and William of Occam were the most outstanding nominalists in the 11th-14th centuries. The ideas of Nominalism were developed on an idealistic basis in the doctrines of Berkeley and Hume and more recently in semantic philosophy (see General Semantics).

Non-Contradiction

A basic condition which knowledge must fulfil, and according to which a proposition P and its negation not-P cannot be simultaneously deduced within the bounds of every theory. Failure to fulfil this condition makes a theory invalid, because it could prove any proposition.

The dialectical law of the unity and conflict of opposites, which demands the disclosure of objective contradictions of every development, and the demand of Non-Contradiction of knowledge are not mutually exclusive. The proposition of logical Non-Contradiction applies to the method of presenting knowledge and implies that our thoughts and arguments must be consistent and free from contradictions (see Contradiction, Law of; Axiomatic Theory, Non-Contradiction of).

Non-Euclidean Geometries

Literally all geometric systems differing from the Euclidean. Usually, however, Non-Euclidean Geometries are understood as the geometries of Lobachevsky and Bernard Riemann.

From the viewpoint of logical structure, Lobachevsky's geometry has the same axioms as that of Euclid, except the axiom on parallels. It is accepted in Lobachevsky's geometry that through a given point not on a straight line a not less than two straight lines can be drawn parallel to a in a given plane (from this it follows that there is an infinity of such lines). The theorems of this geometry differ from the Euclidean; the sum of angles of a triangle is less than two right angles (180°).

Riemann's Non-Euclidean Geometry assumes that any straight line on a plane intersects any other straight line in the same plane (there are no parallel straight lines). Non-Euclidean Geometries play an important part in contemporary theoretical physics (see Relativity, Theory of; Quantum Mechanics). Its discovery is also of philosophical significance, because it refutes Kant's proposition about the a priori nature of the concept of space and the metaphysical view of space as an immutable essence. Non-Euclidean Geometries prove the dialectical view of space as a form of existence of matter capable of changing together with it.

Noosphere

(Greek — the sphere of reason), the sphere of the planet embraced by rational human activity, a concept introduced in science by Le Roy and developed by Vernadsky. With the development of human society the biosphere naturally turns into Noosphere because mankind, as it masters the laws of nature and develops technology, increasingly transforms nature in line with its requirements. Noosphere has a tendency continuously to expand as man penetrates outer space and reaches deep into the planet.

Notion, Sensory

Generalised image of objects and phenomena of the reality, retained and reproduced in the consciousness without immediate action of the objects and phenomena upon the sense-organs. What objectively becomes the property of individuals, thanks to their practice, takes shape and is retained in man's sensory Notion.

Although sensory Notion is a form of individual sensory reflection, in man it is inseparably linked up with socially-evolved values through the medium of language, is of social significance and always comprehended and realised. Sensory Notion is a necessary element of consciousness, since it permanently connects the denotation and sense of the concepts with the images of things and at the same time enables our consciousness to operate freely with sensual images of objects.

Noumenon

(Greek noumenon, that which is conceived, thought), a term signifying, in contrast to phenomenon, the essence conceived only by reason. Plato first used this term in the Timaeus Dialogue. He understood Noumenon to mean reality as it exists in itself and an object of speculative knowledge.

Kant examines Noumenon in two aspects: being a negative, problematic concept (in his Critique of Pure Reason), Noumenon is an object of reason, of intellectual intuition; in his Critique of Practical Reason Kant points to the possibility of a positive concept of Noumenon as an object of non-sensuous intuition. In this sense Noumenon is inaccessible to man, because the latter's contemplation, according to Kant, can be only sensuous.

Nous

(Greek — mind, reason), a basic concept of ancient philosophy denoting the concentration of all existing acts of consciousness and thinking in general. This concept appeared in a clear form for the first time in the philosophy of Anaxagoras where it is treated as the principle shaping and ordering formless matter.

This concept was given an idealist interpretation by Plato and especially Aristotle who considered it the form of all forms in a state of eternal self-contemplation. This concept acquired great importance with the Neo-Platonists who, on the ground of Aristotelianism, treated it as a special kind of supersensory being which imparts meaning and definite form to the world.

Materialists also used this concept. Democritus understood Nous as fire in a spherical shape. Thales also attached cosmological importance to Nous. Apparently, with ancient materialists Nous is the sum total of the laws of nature or their source which they conceived in a sensory-material form. In epistemology Democritus sharply contrasted Nous as the principle of precision to hazy sensations, which introduce confusion and disorder in knowledge. Ancient Nous is always extra-personal and even impersonal in contrast to medieval doctrines which found a personal element in it.

Number

One of the main concepts in mathematics; it serves to designate the quantitative definiteness of objects and processes. Originally, the concept "Number" arose as an immediate abstraction from the properties of the aggregate of objects people encountered with in their daily practical activity.

The first stage in abstraction was the concept of the natural number (1, 2, 3, and so on). In the process of development of science and practical activity, fractions, negative numbers, and the zero appeared. As mathematics developed there appeared complex numbers (at first in the 16th century and finally in the 19th century) and their generalisations (hypercomplex numbers and others in the 19th and 20th centuries).

In the history of philosophy, the concept "Number" was the object of various mystical speculations (for example, in the Plato, Pythagorean, and other schools).

Nyaya

An orthodox idealist system of Indian philosophy. Logic and epistemology played a particularly big part in the doctrine of Nyaya. The origin of Nyaya is associated with the name of the ancient mythical sage Gotama. Nyaya sutras were recorded in the second century A.D.

According to the doctrine of Nyaya, a material universe exists consisting of atoms, the combinations of which form all objects. In addition, a countless number of souls exist in the Universe. They can be either in a free state or bound with the material atoms. The supreme spirit or God Ishwara is not the creator of the souls and atoms, but of the combinations of atoms, and links the souls with the atoms or releases the souls from the atoms.

A syllogism theory, different from that of the ancient Greeks, was developed in India for the first time in Nyaya. The five members of the syllogism are premiss, proof, illustration, application of proof, and conclusion. Nyaya recognises four modes of knowledge: perception, inference, comparison, and testimony of other people and books. Nyaya also elaborated a detailed classification of the main categories of knowledge (padarth) and a classification of objects.