P

Pacifism

A bourgeois liberal trend advocating peace. Pacifists preach passive methods of preserving peace, they reject revolutionary action of the masses as a means of defending peace and consider that the chief means of preventing war is to denounce it as being "sinful" and immoral. The fundamental fallacy of Pacifism, the theoretical basis of which is idealist explanation of war, is failure to understand the deep material causes which give rise to war in bourgeois society. By renouncing all wars, including just ones, the pacifists hamper the development of the liberation struggle in the dependent countries. The bourgeoisie often utilises pacifist ideas for deceiving the working people, camouflaging the predatory wars it is preparing, and for preventing revolution.

In present-day conditions, when the imperialists threaten mankind with devastating thermonuclear war, many pacifists are taking to more active struggle for peace. The Programme of the CPSU stresses that a world war can be prevented by the combined efforts of the peace-loving peoples. Unity of all parties and organisations, including pacifists, in struggle for the prevention of war, disarmament, and peaceful coexistence is a cardinal task of our time. Pacifism must not be identified with the struggle for peace conducted by the socialist countries and the progressive forces of the world. For this struggle is based on a profound knowledge of social and political changes under way in the life of peoples and states and in international relations.

The present world-wide peace movement proceeds from the possibility of preventing another world war, from the fact that world war has ceased to be inevitable as a result of the change in the relationship of world forces in favour of peace and against imperialism which is no longer able to influence world economic and political affairs as it did in the past. The position of the progressive forces, too, has changed: socialism has gained in strength, the struggle of the workers, of the democratic and peace-loving forces, and of the peoples fighting for national liberation has grown in intensity. Work for peace and disarmament helps the people better to understand their fundamental interests.

Panlogism

An objective idealist teaching on the identity of being and thinking according to which all development in nature and society is the realisation of the logical activity of the idea. Considering the laws of logic to be the only laws of motion of the material world, Panlogism turns the true relationship between being and consciousness upside down. At the same time one could discern in this view the true idea that everything existing can be rationally, logically cognised. Panlogism was most fully developed by Hegel.

Panpsychism

An idealist view that all nature possesses life and psychic activity, it is a philosophical reproduction of animism. Many modern idealist philosophers—personalists, Whitehead, the critical realist Strong, etc.—are open proponents of Panpsychism. The scientific understanding of psychic activity as a special property inherent only in highly organised matter rejects any kind of Panpsychism.

Pantheism

A philosophical teaching according to which God is an impersonal principle which is not outside of nature but identical with it. Pantheism dissolves God in nature, rejecting the supernatural element. The term was introduced by Toland. Whereas earlier Pantheism often enough included essentially materialist views of nature—for example, Bruno and especially Spinoza—it has now been transformed into an idealist theory of the existence of the world in God and is an attempt to reconcile science with religion.

Paradoxes (in logic and the set theory)

Formal logical contradictions which arise in the set theory and in formal logic, while preserving the correct line of reasoning; they are akin to Zeno's aporias and semantic antinomies known since antiquity. In modern science Paradoxes were discovered in the 19th century in some branches of the set theory—for example, by George Cantor in 1895 and Cesare Burali-Forti in 1897. One of the best known Paradoxes was discovered by Bertrand Russell in 1902 when two mutually exclusive (contradictory) propositions are equally demonstrable. They can appear both in a scientific theory and in ordinary arguments—for example, Russell's rewording of his paradox about a set in all normal sets: "Barber in a certain village who shaves all and only those persons in the village who do not shave themselves. Does he shave himself?"

Since a formal logical contradiction destroys inference as a means of finding and demonstrating truth—in a theory in which Paradoxes appear, any proposition both true and false is equally demonstrable—the task arises of revealing the sources of Paradoxes and finding ways of eliminating them. A dialectical materialist analysis shows that Paradoxes are an expression of profoundly dialectical and epistemological difficulties associated with concepts of an object and the objective sphere in formal logic, of a set or class in logic and in the set theory, with the employment of the principle of abstraction which makes it possible to introduce new abstract objects, and with methods of defining abstract objects in science, etc. That is why there can be no universal method of removing all Paradoxes.

Various ways are possible for solving the problem of removing Paradoxes from scientific theories: construction of the theory of types, or hierarchy of types, restriction of the principle of abstraction, etc. Thus, to remove Paradoxes from the set theory, axiomatic set theories were created in which restrictions were introduced sufficient for excluding the known Paradoxes—the first system was proposed by E. Zermelo in 1908. The problem of philosophical understanding and finding concrete solution of Paradoxes is an important methodological problem of formal logic and the logical principle of mathematics.

Paralogism

Unpremeditated violation of the laws and rules of logic, which deprives an argument of the force of proof and usually leads to false conclusions. A distinction must be made between Paralogism and a deliberate violation of the rules of logic.

Parmenides (6th–5th century B.C.)

Greek philosopher from Elea in Southern Italy, head of the Eleatic school. Parmenides conceived the world as an immobile and completely filled sphere. He vigorously opposed the "doctrine of truth"—true being is single, eternal, immobile, indivisible, and free from void—to the "doctrine of opinion"—there exists a plurality of things arising and transitory, moving, divisible into parts, and separated from each other by a void. The "doctrine of truth" is authentic, the "doctrine of opinion" is only seemingly true.

Parmenides deliberately directed the "doctrine of truth" against the dialectics of Heraclitus and his followers. In the "doctrine of opinion" Parmenides expounded his astronomical, physical, and physiological hypotheses. His naive materialist "physics" proceeds from the assumption that there are two elements: an active one—fiery and bright, and an inert one—dark. Mistrust of the evidence of the senses and high appraisal of speculative knowledge introduce an element of idealism and even rationalism into his teaching, while the denial of motion makes Parmenides the father of ancient Greek metaphysics.

Part and Whole

Philosophical categories reflecting relations between different objects and their aspects and elements and also their connection. This connection bears the nature of a whole, while objects in relation to it appear as its parts. The difference between the whole and the simple quantitative sum of its parts is met for the first time in the works of Aristotle.

In pre-Marxian philosophy, two opposite solutions of the problem of the whole were offered: the summative metaphysical one—a whole is the sum of its parts; there is nothing in a whole which is not in the parts; and a mystical idealist one—a whole is more than a sum of parts; it is an unknowable spiritual essence. German classical philosophy—Schelling, Hegel—differentiates between the inorganic whole and the organic self-developing whole, but the latter is associated with the development of the spirit, and not of matter. In the 19th century, speculation on the problem of the whole was widely exploited by many idealist schools—neo-vitalism, holism, Gestalt psychology, structuralism, universalism, intuitionism, etc.

The real objective "part-whole" relationship is expressed in the two most general types: inorganic and organic. The inorganic whole is a form of unification of objects within which the elements comprising it are in a close, stable interconnection. The properties of the inorganic whole cannot be reduced to a mechanical sum of the properties of its parts. Atoms, molecules, crystals, etc., are examples of such whole formations.

On the other hand, the organic whole—living organism, society, etc.—is a form of connection of objects in which the given association as a whole realises its ability for self-development, passing through consecutive stages of progressing intricacy. Components of the organic whole stand in relations not only to coordination but also to subordination, determined by the origin of some elements from others in the course of the differentiation of the whole. Outside of the whole they not only lose a number of their properties, as is the case in the inorganic whole, but cannot exist at all.

It is of great importance to the process of cognition to take into account the dialectical interaction of the part and the whole. In cases of complex phenomena it is especially necessary to consider: (1) that it is incorrect to reduce the whole to its parts, because this can lead to a misunderstanding of the whole as a qualitatively definite subject to specific laws; (2) the need to examine the whole in all its complexity and the relative independence of the aspects, elements, and parts of which it consists, inasmuch as the latter can have their concrete features which do not coincide directly with the whole; (3) that examination of individual aspects and parts must be based on knowledge—at least preliminary, hypothetical—of the nature of the whole and, on the contrary, study of the whole must rest on the knowledge of the properties of its components, its elements.

"The Part Played by Labour in the Transition From Ape to Man"

A work by Engels (1876) studying the social laws of the origin of man and society. Generalising the material accumulated by biology, paleontology, and anthropology, Engels shows that the prerequisites for labour—erect gait, freeing of the upper limbs, higher development of the psyche of the anthropoid apes, the ancestors of man—were created in the process of biological evolution. Labour acquires the features of specific human activity with the beginning of instrument-making, and this led to the appearance of speech and thought, which developed as social forms of life asserted themselves. Man masters the forces of nature. He does not only use it as a consumer, as is the case with animals, but also makes it serve his pre-established purposes. Labour, speech, thought, and corporal organisation influence each other mutually.

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition From Ape to Man is an unfinished manuscript originally written as an introduction to Engels' big projected work, Three Main Forms of Slavery. This essay was first published in 1896 in German. Later it was included in Dialectics of Nature.

Partisanship in Art

The fullest expression of the ideological trend of art, defence in artistic works of the interests of a definite social class. Lenin, in his article "Party Organisation and Party Literature" (1905) and other works, rejecting the theories of "pure art", put forward and substantiated the principle of Partisanship in Art, according to which art in contemporary conditions can develop only by linking itself with the most progressive movements, above all the struggle and ideology of the proletariat.

The slogan of "impartiality" of art is a form of camouflaging bourgeois partisanship. Some present-day theoreticians of aesthetics counterpose freedom of creative endeavour to Partisanship in Art and declare them to be incompatible. In bourgeois society, so-called "freedom of creation" is intended to hide the fact that the creative endeavour of most artists in bourgeois society depends on the interests of capital. Only progressive artists realise what adverse effect this dependence of art on the exploiting classes has, and side with the people.

The principle of communist partisanship implies that the artist freely and consciously serves mankind's most elevated and noble aims. The artists of socialist realism are guided by the Leninist understanding of free creative endeavour, which consists in siding with the people and creating aesthetical values for them.

Partisanship in Philosophy

A cardinal principle of the Marxist-Leninist world outlook. The principle of partisanship was formulated and grounded by Marx, Engels, and Lenin. In a class society, philosophy, like any ideology, cannot be non-partisan: it reflects and serves the interests of definite classes. In the history of philosophy, materialism and idealism were the main opposite trends and contending parties in philosophy.

The contemporary ideological struggle is a reflection in the consciousness of mankind of the historical process of transition from capitalism to communism. The partisanship of bourgeois ideologists is displayed in their anti-communism, their striving to discredit socialism and Marxism-Leninism, in attempts to gloss over the antagonisms of bourgeois society, to picture the bourgeois state as a welfare state and present the interests of the capitalists as the universal ideals of mankind.

Marxism consistently acts on the principle of partisanship in philosophy and regards dialectical and historical materialism as a scientific weapon of the proletariat in its struggle against capitalism, for the victory of communism. In contrast to bourgeois partisanship, disguised as objectivism, the partisanship of Marxist-Leninist philosophy is openly militant. It is distinguished by an uncompromising attitude towards idealism and metaphysics, revisionism and dogmatism, by a scientific approach, i.e., genuine objectivity in analysing reality, an organic tie-up of theory and practice, philosophy and politics, and a creative approach to problems of Marxist theory, and the building of communism.

Pascal, Blaise (1623–1662)

French mathematician and physicist, one of the founders of the theory of probability. The evolution of his views was contradictory. He combined outstanding discoveries in the natural sciences with religious fanaticism and scepticism directed against science and rational knowledge. His logical views continued Descartes' teaching on method and exerted influence on the logic of Port Royal. Pascal's struggle against the spiritual tyranny of the Jesuits was supported by advanced sections of French society. His main work was Pensées (published posthumously in 1669).

Pasteur, Louis (1822–1895)

French scientist, founder of scientific microbiology. His experiments refuted the unscientific ideas of autogenesis of living organisms from inorganic substances and played a positive part in developing the scientific theory of the origin of life.

Patriarchy

A historical level in the development of the primitive-communal system at the stage of its disintegration; Patriarchy arose after matriarchy and its specific feature was the domination of the man in the economy and the entire way of life in the clan community. Patriarchy arose in the period when the first large-scale social division of labour—the separation of stock breeding from agriculture—led to the relatively fast development of the productive forces, regular exchange, private property, and slavery.

As stock breeding and farming developed the men gradually assumed ownership of cattle and of the slaves received in exchange for cattle. Under Patriarchy group marriage was replaced by pairing marriage; the husband is recognised as the father of the children; the wife and children belong to him by right of ownership. The patriarchal family, numbering up to a hundred and more people, was above all an economic unit.

Further development of the productive forces, private property, and exchange led to the break-up of the patriarchal family into separate small monogamous families.

Patriotism

Love for one's country, "one of the most deeply ingrained sentiments inculcated by the existence of separate fatherlands for hundreds and thousands of years" (Lenin, Vol. 28, p. 187). Patriotism is a result not of a mysterious "national spirit" or "racial soul", as asserted by idealist sociologists, but of definite socio-economic conditions. It is a historical phenomenon which has different content in different epochs.

Being an element of social consciousness Patriotism acquired special importance in the epoch of emerging capitalism as nations and national states were formed. But the further development and aggravation of the antagonism of classes increasingly revealed the falsity and hypocrisy of the Patriotism of the bourgeoisie who places profit and "the safeguarding of the alliance of the capitalists of all countries against the working class" (Lenin, Vol. 27, p. 366) above the interests of its country. Only the class connected with progressive tendencies of society's development can truly express the national interests. In bourgeois society, the working masses and above all the proletariat, are such classes and, therefore, real patriots.

The working class fighting for the revolutionary remaking of society and the building of socialism expresses the deepest national interest of its country, of the entire people. Only as a result of a socialist revolution does Patriotism merge with the devotion to the new social system, the new state created by the people themselves under the leadership of the working class. It is only in socialist society that the working people for the first time gain a true fatherland. This gives rise to new, socialist Patriotism which becomes one of the driving forces of the new society. Socialist Patriotism is inseparably bound up with proletarian internationalism and abhors both nationalism and cosmopolitanism.

Patristics

Christian theology of the 1st-8th centuries, apologetics of the "Church fathers" who at first upheld the dogmas of Christian religion against paganism and asserted the incompatibility of the religious faith with ancient philosophy; from the 3rd century, Patristics tried to adapt the philosophy of Hellenism—see Neo-Platonism—to Christianity. Patristics was represented mainly by Tertullian (150-222), Clement of Alexandria (150-215), Origen (185-254), and St. Augustine.

Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich (1849–1936)

Russian natural scientist. Professor of the Military Medical Academy (up to 1925), member of the Academy of Sciences (from 1907), Nobel Prize winner. Founder of objective experimental study of higher nervous activity in animals and man by the method of conditioned reflexes. He developed the teaching of Sechenov on the reflectory nature of mental activity.

The method of conditioned reflexes enabled Pavlov to discover the basic laws and mechanisms of the activity of the brain. Studies of the physiology of digestion led Pavlov to the idea that the method of conditioned reflexes could be used for investigating the behaviour and mental activity of animals. The phenomenon of "psychic saliva secretion" and numerous experimental investigations served as the basis for his conclusion about the signal function of the psychic activity and for the elaboration of his teaching on the two signal systems.

Pavlov's doctrine as a whole provides the natural-science foundation of materialist psychology and the dialectical materialist theory of reflection—proposition of the connection between language and thinking, sensuous reflection and logical cognition, etc. The works by Pavlov and his school now serve as a basis for developing cybernetic devices which imitate individual sides of mental activity.

Main works: Twenty Years of Objective Study of the Higher Nervous Activity (Behaviour) of Animals. Conditioned Reflexes, 1923; Lectures on the Work of the Large Hemispheres of the Cerebrum, 1927.

Pavlov, Mikhail Grigoryevich (1793–1840)

Russian natural philosopher. As professor of Moscow University (1820-40) he taught a number of subjects in natural science, including physics and agronomy. Not finding an answer to many questions in metaphysical materialism, Pavlov became a follower of Schelling's natural philosophy. His main work in natural philosophy is Basic Principles of Physics, in two volumes, published in 1833-36. Thanks to the dialectical nature of his world outlook and his close ties with science Pavlov, though remaining an idealist, worked fruitfully on problems of the relationship between empirics and speculation, science and practice, and the classification of the sciences.

Peaceful Coexistence

A principle of the foreign policy carried out by the USSR and other socialist countries with a view to preventing a new world war. The idea of the coexistence of states with differing social systems was for the first time put forward by Lenin, who based himself on the law of the uneven economic and political development of capitalism. On the strength of this law the transition to socialism is not accomplished simultaneously in all countries; it comprises a whole historical epoch, starting with the triumph of socialism in one country, or some countries, and ending with the triumph of socialism and communism all over the world. Herein lies the objective necessity for the protracted coexistence of socialist and capitalist states.

Peaceful Coexistence implies renunciation of war as a means of settling international disputes, and their solution by negotiation, mutual understanding and trust between nations, non-interference in internal affairs, strict respect for the sovereignty of all countries, promotion of economic and cultural cooperation on the basis of complete equality and mutual benefit. Lenin's idea of Peaceful Coexistence is embodied and creatively developed in the activities of the CPSU and fraternal Communist Parties.

The coexistence of socialist and capitalist states does not mean, as the revisionists maintain, the relaxation of the class struggle or conciliation with the bourgeois ideology. Peaceful Coexistence is a specific form of the class struggle waged with peaceful means. This being the case, the main field of struggle between socialism and capitalism is economic competition, where socialism, thanks to its inherent advantages, shall triumph. Not war with other countries, but setting the example of a more perfect social organisation, the rapid advance of productive forces, the creation of all conditions for human happiness and prosperity, help the ideas of communism capture the minds and hearts of the people.

This form of struggle was brought to life by the tremendous changes in the world. War, which in the past too was considered undesirable by the people as a means of settling conflicts, is now fraught with dangers of a world conflict, which could mean a tremendous disaster for humanity as a whole. This is seen at present even by the enemies of socialism. Big changes have taken place in the relation of forces in the international arena—the increased might of socialism, of the working-class and the democratic movements in the capitalist countries, and of the national liberation struggle. The imperialists cannot but reckon with these changes. All this creates the possibility and necessity of settling international conflicts by peaceful means.

Peaceful Coexistence does not mean giving up the national liberation movement; on the contrary, it creates the most favourable conditions for it. Moreover, since the struggle for peace, for peaceful coexistence, is conducted against imperialism—the source of military danger—this brings the masses to a better understanding of their vital interests.

Pearson, Karl (1857–1936)

English mathematician, idealist philosopher, Machist. He is well known for his works in the field of the mathematical theory of statistics and biometry. He was director of the biometrical and eugenic laboratories at London University. His main philosophical work The Grammar of Science is devoted to the methodological problems of science. The task of science, in his opinion, is not to explain but to classify and describe facts. Like all other Machists he regarded material objects as a group of sensual perceptions, and the natural laws, space and time as the products of the human mind. At the same time the subjective idealism of Pearson is distinguishable from Machism as a whole by its frankness and consistency as well as by the absence of any attempt to pass off as materialism. Comprehensive criticism of Pearson is given by Lenin in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.

Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914)

American philosopher and logician, founder of pragmatism, professor at Cambridge, Baltimore, and Boston universities. In his article "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) he introduced the so-called "Peirce's law": the value of an idea lies in its practical results. Having identified the latter with sensations, Peirce adopted the position of Berkeley. Understanding science as the "strengthening of faith", Peirce worked out three methods of pragmatism: the "method of persistence", the "method of authority" and the "scientific method" reducible to "Peirce's principle". Contrary to the subjective-idealist theory of knowledge, Peirce worked out an objective-idealist theory of development, based upon the principle of "chance" and "love" as the guiding force of development.

His works on logic, which he understood as a "general theory of signs", have significantly influenced mathematical logic and modern positivism. His main works are in the field of the theory of probability and the logic of relations.

People

In the usual sense, the population of a state, of a country; in the strictly scientific sense, a historically changing community of people including those sections and classes which, owing to their objective position, are capable of jointly participating in the development of the given country in the given period. "In using the word 'people' Marx did not thereby gloss over class distinctions, but united definite elements capable of bringing the revolution to completion." (Lenin, Vol. 9, p. 133.)

The concept of People as a sociological category reflects the change in the social composition of society: for the primitive-communal society the difference in the terms "population" and "people" was of no essential significance; but in antagonistic societies this difference is very important, because there is an increasingly deeper chasm between the dominating, exploiting groups and the mass of the people. Only with the abolition of exploitation of man by man in socialist society, does the concept of People again cover the entire population, all its social groups.

The major criterion for considering definite groups of the population a part of the People is their objectively determined interest in society's progress and ability to participate in accomplishing its tasks. In the course of social development, as revolutionary changes are effected, the objective tasks themselves and the content of the revolution change, and, therefore, the social composition of the sections which at the given stage make up the People is also inevitably altered. In his works Lenin carefully traced these changes. At the beginning of the 20th century, when Russia was confronted with the task of overthrowing the autocracy, Lenin wrote: "Any worker who is at all class-conscious knows full well that the people struggling against the autocracy consists of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat." (Vol. 8, p. 503.) Later on, when Russia was faced with socialist tasks, Lenin stressed that in the all-out struggle for socialism and against the bourgeoisie, the People at the given stage included only the workers and the poor peasantry.

Consequently, the concept of People includes the direct producers—working people and non-exploiting groups of the population, but cannot always be reduced to these classes and sections. This should be especially borne in mind in present-day conditions, when wide popular movements against imperialism, for peace, democracy, and socialism are under way. Marxism for the first time established that People, the masses, are the decisive force in history, that it is they who create all the material and the bulk of the spiritual wealth, thereby ensuring the decisive conditions for society's existence. They develop production, which leads to change and development in all social life; they make revolutions, thanks to which there is social progress. Thus, it is the People who are the real makers of history.

People's Democracy

One of the forms of the dictatorship of the proletariat reflecting the distinctive development of socialist revolution at a time when imperialism is weakened and the balance of forces has tilted in favour of socialism. It also reflects the distinctive historical and national features of the various countries. (Programme of the CPSU.) People's Democracy arose in the course of people's democratic revolutions in a number of East European and Asian countries. These revolutions resolved the contradictions between the foreign imperialists, internal big bourgeoisie and landowners, on the one hand, and a wide coalition of the other classes, on the other, and were carried out under the leadership of the proletariat and its vanguard, the Communist Party.

The successful development of people's democratic revolutions led to the establishment of People's Democracy in East European and some Asian countries. As the revolution deepened, it increasingly invaded the capitalist economy (nationalisation of means of production) and at the same time restricted the political influence of the bourgeoisie. Land reforms, which put an end to the feudal survivals and strengthened the alliance of the proletariat with the working peasantry, were of great importance for the development of people's democratic revolutions. Deep-going democratic reforms ensured the development of these revolutions into a socialist revolution. Accordingly, People's Democracy, which at first acted as the democratic dictatorship of the people, began to discharge the functions of proletarian dictatorship. This general course of the revolution had its specific features in various countries.

The form of People's Democracy is determined by the broad class basis of the people's democratic revolution (not only the proletariat and the peasantry, but also definite sections of the bourgeoisie), and the peaceful development of people's democratic revolution into a socialist revolution, which made it possible to utilise some old forms of the representative system (parliament). The characteristic features of People's Democracy are: the existence of a multi-party system (except in a few European countries); in addition to the Communist Party, there are other democratic parties which adhere to the positions of socialism and recognise the leading role of the working class; the existence of a specific form of the people's front which unites political parties and mass organisations. Other characteristics of the period in which People's Democracy is formed are the absence of restrictions in political rights, a longer period for the break-up of the old state machinery, etc.

Experience has shown that People's Democracy is a powerful instrument in building socialism. At present "in the People's Democracies socialist production relations are dominant and the socio-economic possibility of capitalist restoration has been eliminated". (Programme of the CPSU).

Perception

1. Reflection of an object arising in the consciousness owing to the effect of the objective world on the senses. The sensations are elements of Perception, which may be visual, tactile or auditory. Visual perceptions are the most important from the standpoint of epistemology. They are formed out of the visual sensations a person experiences in his relations with the environment, the effect of the shape of an object determining the movements of the hand that touches it, and the movements of the hand in their turn determining the structure of the visual image. True perception of the objective world depends on the structure of the image of the external object and the structure of the object itself being isomorphic (see Isomorphism).

The role of Perception in the process of cognition is as follows: (1) it forms the basis of general conceptions such as "island", "plant", "man", which do not reveal the essence of the objects; (2) it provides the primary material for the formation of scientific concepts, certain separate connections and relations which form the primary elements of theory being abstracted from the structure of the image acquired through perception.

1. Perception as understood by Leibniz, is a lower (unconscious) form of spirituality, as distinct from apperception.

Peripatetics

Greek peripatitikos—performed or performing while moving about. The followers of the philosophy of Aristotle. The name derives from the fact that in the philosophical school of Aristotle (Lyceum), founded in Athens in 335 B.C., teaching usually took place during walks. The peripatetic school existed for nearly one thousand years (up to 529 A.D.) and was a great centre of antique science.

The most prominent leaders of this school (scholarchs) after Aristotle's death were Theophrastus of Ephesus (c. 371–286 B.C.), particularly famous for his works in botany; Strato of Lampsacus (c. 305–270 B.C.), who developed the materialist trend in Aristotle's philosophy; Andronicus of Rhodes (1st century B.C.), who published Aristotle's works; Alexander of Aphrodisias (end of 2nd century A.D.–beginning of 3rd century A.D.), who wrote materialistically inspired commentaries on Aristotle's philosophy.

Personalism

A religious idealistic trend which spread in American philosophy at the turn of the century, as well as in contemporary French philosophy. The term was first used in the USA by Bronson Alcott (1863) and in France by Charles Renouvier (1901). The main features of Personalism are: (1) recognition of the "individual" as the primary reality and the supreme spiritual value, the "individual" being regarded as the spiritual primary element of being; (2) intimate connection with theism. To the materialistic world outlook Personalism opposes the conception that nature is the sum total of "individual" spirits (see Pluralism). A great number of "individuals", being at various levels of evolution and constituting the world, are governed by the "supreme being"—God.

The founder of Personalism in the USA was B. P. Bowne (1847–1910). G. W. Howison (1834–1916), M. W. Calkins (1863–1930), A. K. Knudson (1873–1954) had views close to Personalism. The chief exponents of Personalism in contemporary American philosophy are: Bowne's disciple, the leader of the Californian school R. T. Flewelling (b. 1871) and the leader of the Bostonian school E. S. Brightman (1884–1953). All of them associate Personalism with Protestant theology.

In Britain the most prominent representative of Personalism was H. W. Carr (1857–1931), in Germany the psychologist W. Stern (1871–1938). In their teachings, however, there is no direct connection with theology, as is the case with the American personalists. According to Personalism, the main social task is not to change the world but to change the individual, i.e., to promote his "spiritual self-perfection".

A group of French personalists occupies a special place; it was headed by E. Mounier (1905–1950). This group of intellectuals, united round the journal Esprit (founded in 1932), represents the left Catholic circles who took part in the French Resistance and now advocate world peace and bourgeois democracy.

Petrashevsky's Group

Members of a political circle which existed in Petersburg in 1845–49 and was organised by M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky (1821–66). Most prominent among them were N. A. Speshnev, A. V. Khanykov, P. N. Filippov, N. P. Grigoryev, N. A. Mombelli, I. M. Debu, D. D. Akhsharumov, V. A. Golovinsky, P. A. Kuzmin, A. P. Balasoglo, F. M. Dostoyevsky, S. F. Durov, and others. In April 1849, the circle was destroyed by the tsarist government.

Petrashevsky's Group was not homogeneous in composition. Besides the revolutionary democrats (Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Filippov, Akhsharumov, Grigoryev, Khanykov, and some others) it included supporters of a liberal trend (N. Y. Danilevsky, A. P. Beklemeshev, V. N. Maikov, etc.). The revolutionary-minded members of the Petrashevsky's Group hated tsarist autocracy and serfdom in Russia, advocated revolutionary methods of struggle against tsarism. Petrashevsky's Group studied socialist literature; they highly valued the works of Belinsky, Herzen, Feuerbach, and Fourier. Their library contained the works of Rousseau, Proudhon, Michelet, Leroux, Saint-Just, L. Blanc, and others, and also Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy and Engels' The Position of the Working Class in England.

The philosophical and sociological ideas of Petrashevsky's Group were fully expounded in Petrashevsky's Karmanny Slovar Inostrannykh Slov (Pocket Dictionary of Foreign Words), 1846, in Speshnev's Letters to K. Khayetsky, in the Speeches of Khanykov, Kashkin, Aksharumov and Tol, in Filippov's Ten Commandments, in Grigoryev's Soldier's Talk, etc. Adhering to the materialist positions, Petrashevsky, Speshnev, and some others criticised the idealism of Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling. They recognised nature and its laws to be objective reality, undergoing continuous change and development. They declared nature to be the prime source of life and human knowledge. Petrashevsky's Group maintained that "there is nothing in the world except matter", there is nothing that is supernatural, nothing that could not be included in the natural world and not developed from it. While highly assessing Feuerbach's philosophy, Petrashevsky's Group, however, criticised his propagation of love as a new form of religion which "draws all men to God" (Speshnev).

Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Kashkin, and others were atheists. They critically assimilated Fourier's theory, rejecting religious elements in his teaching. The utopian socialist ideas of the Left wing of Petrashevsky's Group were close to the ideas of the revolutionary democrats.

Phenomenalism

A theory of knowledge based on the postulate that only sensations are the immediate object of knowledge. Extreme Phenomenalism leads to subjective idealism: the world is a "sum total of ideas", "of complexes of sensations" (Berkeley, Empirio-Criticism) or agnosticism: we are unable to know what is concealed behind the sensations (Hume). Moderate Phenomenalism, recognising the existence of objects manifested in sensations, leads either to inconsistent materialism which considers objects as material things (see Locke) or to Kantian agnosticism, if objects are regarded as unknowable "things-in-themselves" (see Kant, J. St. Mill, Spencer).

In contemporary positivism Phenomenalism assumes the linguistic form, inasmuch as its main thesis is reduced to the possibility of expressing experience in an "object" or "phenomenalistic" language. Acknowledging initially the complete possibility of reducing statements about things to statements about the content of consciousness, some neopositivists are lately realising the futility of these attempts. From the viewpoint of dialectical materialism, the initial thesis of Phenomenalism is insolvent because it divorces knowledge from reality.

Phenomenology

A subjective idealist trend founded by Husserl which exerted a great influence on many trends in contemporary bourgeois philosophy. The central concept of Phenomenology is the "intentionality" (intentionalitat) of consciousness (its being directed on the object), which is designed to assert the subjective idealist principle: "There is no object without a subject." The main requirements of the phenomenological method are: (1) phenomenological reduction, i.e., abstention from any judgements pertaining to objective reality and going beyond the bounds of "pure", i.e., subjective experience; (2) transcendental reduction, i.e., consideration of the subject of knowledge itself not as a real, empirical, social, and psycho-physiological being, but as "pure" transcendental consciousness.

The ideas of Phenomenology became the philosophical basis of existentialism (M. Scheier, Heidegger). Some bourgeois philosophers (Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) counterpose Phenomenology to dialectical materialism. Catholic philosophers (Edith Stein, Van Breda) synthesise Phenomenology with Neo-Thomism. The openly idealist and irrationalist conclusions from Phenomenology have aroused opposition within the phenomenological school itself; its Left wing is trying to protect Phenomenology from existentialism, preserving only its supposed "rational kernel" (Farber and partly Ingarden). The theoretical centre of the phenomenological trend is the Husserl archives of the Louvain Catholic University in Belgium.

Phenomenon

Or appearance. Greek phainomenon—to appear. An object of experience perceived by means of the senses. In Kant's philosophy, Phenomenon differs in principle from noumenon which remains beyond the bounds of experience and is inaccessible to human contemplation. Kant tried, by means of the concept of Phenomenon, to discriminate between essence and appearance regarding the first as unknowable (see Agnosticism). From the viewpoint of dialectical materialism there is no sharp boundary between appearance and essence; the essence is perceived through the phenomenon (see Phenomenalism, Phenomenology).

Philogenesis and Ontogenesis

Terms introduced by Haeckel (1866) for designating the historical, generic (Philogenesis) and individual (Ontogenesis) development of organisms. In organic nature Philogenesis and Ontogenesis are inextricably connected and reciprocally conditioned (see Biogenetic Law). Ontogenesis is the result of historical development, i.e., the result of Philogenesis. On the other hand, Philogenesis is based on individual changes, i.e., on Ontogenesis. This interaction reflects the unity of the part (individual) and the whole (genus), the particular and universal, the dialectics of the spirallike process of development, at each stage of which the qualitative leaps made at previous stages are reproduced. The idea of the unity of Philogenesis and Ontogenesis was put forward by Darwin and elaborated by Haeckel, Michurin, and others.

Philosopher's Stone

Stone of wisdom, elixir, tincture. According to ideas prevailing in the Middle Ages, a substance supposedly capable of converting base metals into gold and silver, of curing all diseases, and rejuvenating people. Practical observations of different transmutations of some substances into others and also natural philosophic surmises about the unity of matter were the basis of these ideas. In the Middle Ages they acquired a distinctly religious mystic tinge. The development of scientific chemistry exploded the idea of Philosopher's Stone. At present the possibility of transmutation of chemical elements has been scientifically proved.

Philosophical Communism

A term used by Engels to designate a trend of utopian communism among the revolutionary bourgeois intelligentsia of Germany in 1842–43. Philosophical Communism wanted to connect the theoretical views of the Young Hegelians, particularly of Feuerbach, with elements of the teachings of utopian socialists and also with tasks of a social nature, chiefly anti-feudal changes. Philosophical Communism completely ignored the role of the proletariat and did not understand the class nature of communism. This, together with the inadequate level of concrete historical and especially economic studies, explains the speculative nature of Philosophical Communism. Its rational element consisted in stressing the ties of communism with classical German philosophy. Herwegh, Hess, Luning, Bernays, and Grun belonged to this vague and confused trend. Subsequently, Philosophical Communism degenerated into true socialism.

Philosophical Notebooks

Lenin's notes on philosophy, which were published for the first time in 1933. Philosophical Notebooks are extensive excerpts copied by Lenin (mainly between 1914 and 1916) from various philosophical works. Besides summaries of their content Lenin made important critical remarks, conclusions and generalisations.

Philosophical Notebooks contain summaries of the following books by Marx and Engels: The Holy Family, Ludwig Feuerbach, Lectures on the Essence of Religion; Hegel: The Science of Logic, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, and Lectures on the History of Philosophy; Lassalle: The Philosophy of Heraclitus the Obscure of Ephesus; and Aristotle: Metaphysics. Of great interest is the fragment "On the Question of Dialectics" in which Lenin gives in a concise form a profound exposition of the essence of materialist dialectics.

Philosophical Notebooks also deal with books on natural science and contain many valuable ideas and statements on diverse problems of philosophy. The central subject of Philosophical Notebooks is dialectics. Lenin gave a definition of dialectics which reveals all aspects of its essence and elements; he formulated the basic principles of the Marxist understanding of logic and its categories, characterised the dialectical process of knowledge, and the doctrine of opposites as the core of dialectics.

Lenin's proposition on the unity of dialectics, logic, and the theory of knowledge and also his statements concerning the elaboration of dialectical logic are of great importance for the development of philosophy. Of particular significance in this respect are Lenin's ideas that the history of thought and the laws of thinking coincide in logic and that to elaborate a correct theory of knowledge it is necessary philosophically to sum up the history of technology, natural science, the mental development of children, animals, etc.

As regards the history of philosophy, Lenin showed that it is a history of the struggle between materialism and idealism; he pointed to the importance of studying the history of dialectics; examined a number of methodological questions in the history of philosophy and assessed the views of many philosophers, paying special attention to Hegel. In his notes on books dealing with the natural sciences Lenin stressed the importance of dialectical materialism as the only scientific methodology.

Philosophical Notebooks are a model of creative development of materialist dialectics and offer a programme for further work in Marxist philosophy. At the same time one should bear in mind in reading Philosophical Notebooks that these are notes Lenin made for himself and which he did not prepare for publication.

Philosophy

Science of the general laws of being (i.e., nature and society), human thinking, and the process of knowledge. Philosophy is one of the forms of social consciousness. It is ultimately determined by society's economic relations. The fundamental question of philosophy as a special science is the relation of thinking to being, consciousness to matter. Every philosophical system gives a concretely elaborated solution of this problem even if the "fundamental question" is not directly formulated in it.

Pythagoras was the first to use the term "philosophy"; it was singled out as a special science by Plato. Philosophy arose in slave society as a science embracing the sum total of man's knowledge of the objective world and himself, which was natural, considering the low level of knowledge at that early stage in human history. As social production developed and scientific knowledge accumulated, individual sciences branched out from philosophy, the latter being singled out as an independent science.

Philosophy as a science arose out of the necessity to elaborate a general view of the world, to study its general elements and laws, out of the need for a rational method of thinking, for logic. This need put the relationship of thinking to being in the foreground in philosophy, because its solution underlies all philosophy and is the basis of the method and logic of knowledge. This also resulted in the polarisation of philosophy into two diametrically opposed trends, materialism and idealism, dualism holding an intermediate position between them.

The struggle of materialism and idealism lays its imprint on the entire history of philosophy and is one of its main driving forces. This struggle is closely associated with the development of society, the economic, political, and ideological interests of the classes. Elaboration of the specific problems of philosophy led to the singling out of various aspects as more or less independent and at times sharply delineated divisions. These are ontology, epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics, psychology, sociology, and history of philosophy.

At the same time philosophy, in view of the inadequacy of concrete knowledge, tried to replace the missing links and laws of the world by invented ones, thereby becoming a special "science of the sciences", standing above all other sciences. In relation to nature it was natural philosophy and in relation to history, the philosophy of history. The last system of this kind was Hegel's philosophy. But as knowledge was accumulated and differentiated, all grounds for the existence of philosophy as a "science of the sciences" disappeared.

Marxism-Leninism for the first time clearly understood the social requirements, giving rise to philosophy as a special science, and its place and role in spiritual culture, and consequently also the range of its problems, its subject-matter. Theoretical knowledge of phenomena of the surrounding world is impossible without logically developed thinking. But it was philosophy that elaborated logical categories and laws because of the historically shaped division of labour between the sciences.

Marxist-Leninist philosophy developed and consistently applied the materialist principle in understanding the objective world and thought, fructifying it by its dialectical outlook and constructing dialectical logic as the "science not of external forms of thought, but of the laws of development 'of all material, natural, and spiritual things', in other words, of the development of the entire concrete content of the world and of its cognition, i.e., the sum total, the conclusion of the history of knowledge of the world." (Vol. 38, pp. 92-93.)

Marxist philosophy considers logical forms and laws as forms and laws of development of natural and socio-historical processes cognised and tested by entire human experience. It abolishes the distinction between ontology, logic, and the theory of knowledge. This is a fundamental principle of the philosophy of dialectical materialism. The philosophical theory of Marxism thus represents a dialectical materialist solution of the fundamental question of philosophy, a solution concretely expounded and elaborated in all details.

Logical forms and laws appear here as universal forms and laws governing every natural and socio-historical process reflected in man's mind, as stages in the theoretical reproduction of objects in conformity with their real development. Philosophy based on such an understanding of its role, subject-matter, and tasks in the development of human culture is a powerful instrument of man's knowledge and activity, an active factor in further developing knowledge and practice.

With such an understanding of philosophy its parts, psychology and sociology, ethics and aesthetics increasingly turn into independent sciences which are only traditionally regarded as philosophical. True, this tradition has its grounds, for these sciences are mainly connected with specific problems of philosophy, especially the relationship of the subject and the object.

Anti-philosophical tendencies are inherent in some contemporary theories. They are especially characteristic of neo-positivism, which declares the problems of philosophy to be pseudo-problems and tries to replace philosophical analysis of development of contemporary knowledge and practice by analysis of the "language of science", i.e., a linguistic semantic analysis of the "external forms of thought"—language, sign systems for expressing thoughts, etc. Thereby they hold that philosophy as a science is actually abolished.

This tendency is opposed by dialectical materialism, which continues the finest traditions of world philosophy. It develops philosophy as a special science which promotes man's self-awareness, his understanding of the place and role of scientific discoveries in the general development of human culture and thereby provides a criterion for assessing them and connecting separate links of knowledge in a single world outlook.

Philosophy, Analytical

A widespread and somewhat varied trend in present-day philosophy which unites different groups, tendencies, and individual philosophers who consider it the business of philosophy to analyse language. Analytical Philosophy is today most widespread in the USA and Britain, with individual philosophers and groups in the Scandinavian countries, Finland, Australia, etc.

Analytical Philosophy is championed by supporters of logical empiricism and neo-pragmatism—W. Quine, N. Goodman, and Morton White. A number of American analytical philosophers do not belong to any school (Wilfrid Sellars and others). In Britain the dominant form is linguistic philosophy. A. J. Ayer and Karl Popper occupy a special position, close to logical empiricism. All these groups of Analytical Philosophy are varieties of neo-positivism. At the same time it is typical of most of them that the centre of gravity is shifted from general epistemological questions to concrete forms and means of analysing language.

Two basic approaches may be discerned: (1) the construction of artificial "model" languages with a precisely fixed logical structure (logical empiricists, the neo-pragmatists, and a number of "independent" analysts). These investigations are based on logic and logical semantics; (2) the historical study of existing natural languages (linguistic philosophy).

To a great extent the writings of modern analytical philosophers are not really philosophical or epistemological studies in the real meaning of the word, but the studies in concrete logic, specific methods or concrete linguistics which have an undoubted scientific content. As far as general philosophical problems are concerned, Analytical Philosophy either avoids them or provides an incorrect, idealist solution to them.

Philosophy, Fundamental Question of

The question of the relationship of consciousness to being, of thinking to matter and nature, examined from two aspects. First, what is primary—spirit or nature, matter or consciousness—and second, how is knowledge of the world related to the world itself or, to put it differently, does consciousness correspond to being, is it capable of truthfully reflecting the world? A consistent solution of the Fundamental Question of Philosophy is possible only if both sides are considered.

The philosophers who formed the camp of materialism regarded matter, being, as primary, and consciousness as secondary, and held that consciousness is the result of influence exerted upon it by the objectively existing external world. The philosophers in the camp of idealism accepted the idea of consciousness as primary and regarded them as the solely true reality. From their viewpoint cognition is not a reflection of material being but merely cognition of consciousness itself in the form of self-cognition, an analysis of sensations and concepts, cognition of the absolute idea, universal will, etc.

Dualism and agnosticism hold an intermediary, inconsistent position in solving the Fundamental Question of Philosophy. A metaphysical approach to solving this question was inherent in pre-Marxian philosophy; it consisted either in underestimating the activity of consciousness or in reducing knowledge to passive contemplation (metaphysical materialism) and the identification of consciousness and matter (see Materialism, Vulgar), in exaggerating the activity of thought, elevating it into an absolute and divorcing it from matter (idealism), or in asserting their incompatibility in principle (dualism, agnosticism).

Only Marxist philosophy has given an all-round, dialectically materialist, scientifically-based solution of the Fundamental Question of Philosophy. It sees the primacy of matter in that: (1) matter is the source of consciousness, while consciousness is a reflection of matter; (2) consciousness is a result of a long process of development of the material world; (3) consciousness is a property and function of highly organised matter—the brain; (4) the existence and development of the human mind and thinking is impossible without the linguistic material shell, without speech; (5) consciousness arose as a result of man's material labour activity; (6) consciousness is social and is determined by social being.

Noting the absolute antithesis of matter and consciousness only within the bounds of the Fundamental Question of Philosophy, Marxism-Leninism simultaneously points to their interconnection and interaction. A derivative of material being, consciousness possesses relative independence and in its development also exerts retroactive influence on the material world, facilitating its practical mastery and transformation. The human mind, relying on practical experience, is capable of truthfully knowing the world.

The relationship of matter and consciousness is the fundamental question of philosophy because, by virtue of its universality, it encompasses all philosophical questions, determines the solution not only of particular problems, but also the nature of the world outlook as a whole and provides a reliable criterion for differentiating the basic trends in philosophy. That is why a scientific formulation of the Fundamental Question of Philosophy makes it possible consistently to apply the principle of partisanship in philosophy, strictly to delimit and counterpose materialism and idealism and resolutely to uphold the scientific world outlook of dialectical materialism.

Philosophy, History of (as a science)

Studies the origin and development of philosophy, the laws and phases of this development, and the struggle of philosophical schools and trends. Even in antiquity, philosophers (e.g., Aristotle) turned to the views of their predecessors with the object of criticising or utilising them in their own concepts. Diogenes Laertius, Sextus Empiricus and others contributed compendiums of the opinions and biographies of philosophers.

A more or less arbitrary list of "opinions" of philosophers is contained in the main works of the History of Philosophy up to the 18th century. Empiricism dominated in studies of History of Philosophy, and they were primarily of an educative nature. Gradually, with the development of philosophy, elements of a scientific approach to its history appeared: History of Philosophy was released from the grip of theology and attempts were made to apply the principle of historicity, to establish the connection between the development of philosophy and the general development of history and scientific knowledge.

Materialist philosophers (see Francis Bacon, Spinoza) and also thinkers who drew close to the idea of historical laws (see Vico, Herder, and others) made an important contribution to History of Philosophy. Hegel's concept of History of Philosophy is especially interesting. His main principle was that the succession of philosophical ideas in point of time reproduces the sequence of logical categories in a developed philosophical system, namely, in the Hegelian system.

According to Hegel, History of Philosophy is the process of development of thought and apprehension of truth (see Absolute Idea); truth can be uncovered only in the entire history of human thought. Each separate definition of truth, expressed in a special world outlook or system, is historically limited, incomplete, and one-sided. The birth of a new philosophical system elevates thought to the stage of a higher, more concrete and developed logical category.

Hegel's concept contained valuable surmises: the idea of the necessary and natural development of philosophy, its dependence on the history of society and knowledge, etc. On the whole, however, this concept is unacceptable because of its idealistic nature: Hegel conceives History of Philosophy as the self-development of the absolute spirit, which leads to many mistakes and to a distortion of real history.

Russian 19th century thinkers, especially Herzen, contributed valuable ideas towards the elaboration of a scientific History of Philosophy. Nevertheless, pre-Marxists could not, any more than contemporary idealist philosophers, transform History of Philosophy into a science. A scientific approach is provided only by dialectical and historical materialism.

Marxist philosophy, first, establishes the objective laws governing the development of all forms of social consciousness and, second, brings out the structure and characteristics of scientific knowledge, which alone makes it possible to study its history scientifically. The central place in a scientific History of Philosophy is held by a study of the history of formation and struggle of materialism and idealism, dialectics and metaphysics.

In the process of the development of philosophy, scientific materialist views, based on the progress of knowledge and the practical activity of people, oust unscientific idealist views. A Marxist analysis of History of Philosophy includes partisanship as an important element in the assessment of the various schools and trends (see Partisanship in Philosophy). Such an approach does not, of course, mean discarding the positive elements achieved within the framework of idealist philosophy.

A scientific analysis of History of Philosophy proceeds from the necessity to examine the development of philosophy as a process determined by the socio-economic and political advance of society, to evaluate philosophical ideas and systems (ultimately) as an expression of the interests and ideology of this or that class or social group, as a reflection of the requirements of production and the development of scientific knowledge.

But it is not enough to find a "social equivalent" to some theoretical construction; it is necessary first of all to determine why the given social system and the sum total of historical conditions have produced this philosophical system and not another. Otherwise it is impossible to avoid simplification and a vulgar materialistic identification of economics and philosophy.

The dialectical materialist approach makes it possible to present History of Philosophy as a single process, to disclose the necessary connections between the different schools and trends, the progress in the solution of philosophical problems, the connection between History of Philosophy and the history of knowledge in general. Then the recurring attempts to solve some problems (methodology of scientific cognition, relationship of rationalism and empiricism, the universal and the particular, the concrete and the abstract, the nature of human activity, etc.) are no longer regarded as development determined by an aim immanent in philosophy, but appear as specific landmarks in the history of society and knowledge.

Since History of Philosophy is the process of development of philosophical cognition of the world, it must establish the direct connections between the historical development of human knowledge and its internal structure and logic. Here we see clearly the dialectical principle of the unity of the logical and the historical: the history of an object (philosophy) is inseparably connected with its developed logical structure, the emergence of science is inseparable from its developed state and only from the standpoint of the latter can it be properly understood.

It is this that opens the way to comprehending the laws by which philosophy develops and helps to understand the real place and significance of concepts and ideas that arise in the course of history. At the same time, History of Philosophy must not be separated from the history of the natural sciences and the historical experience of society. Philosophy must dialectically analyse and summarise the history of thought, science, and technology.

Study of History of Philosophy is of great importance for the development of contemporary philosophy. Marxist philosophy has assimilated everything positive created by human thought. Study of History of Philosophy is necessary for developing and improving the modern methods of scientific research and practical transformation of the world, for raising the level of philosophical thought. As Engels put it, "Theoretical thinking is an innate quality only as regards natural capacity. This natural capacity must be developed, improved, and for its improvement there is as yet no other means than the study of previous philosophy." (Dialectics of Nature, p. 58.)

Philosophy, Linguistic

Also known as "logical analysis", "linguistic analysis", and the "philosophy of everyday language". A trend in analytical philosophy widespread in Britain (G. Ryle, A. J. Wisdom, J. Austin, and others). In the US, similar views are held by Max Black, N. P. Malcolm, and others. The trend stems from the "philosophy of common sense" of George Edward Moore and the views of the later Wittgenstein.

Like other schools of neo-positivism, Linguistic Philosophy denies that philosophy is a world outlook, and regards the traditional philosophical problems as pseudo-problems arising out of a failure to comprehend the real nature of language owing to the confusing influence of language on thought. On the contrary, it is maintained, philosophy should elucidate the difficulties that arise through the wrong use of words.

According to the representatives of the Cambridge school of Linguistic Philosophy, philosophy should perform a "therapeutic" function by curing the disabilities of our language. In their efforts to "get rid of metaphysics", linguistic philosophers not only reject the "ontological metaphysics" of traditional philosophy. Denying the possibility of arriving at any comprehensive philosophical conception, they also reject the "metaphysics" of logical positivism with its principle of "verification". But it is the denial that philosophy is a world outlook that distinguishes Linguistic Philosophy as an extreme and most reactionary form of positivism.

With the analysis of language as the sole aim of philosophical investigation the advocates of Linguistic Philosophy, particularly the representatives of the Oxford group, unlike the logical positivists, concentrate their attention not on artificial model languages but on the language of common speech. Here they proceed from the true assumption that the rich resources of the natural spoken language cannot be fully expressed within the framework of any "ideal language".

In renouncing analysis of the problems of epistemology (the relation of language to thought, the connection between language and the cognitive processes involved in forming mental images, the genesis of linguistic forms, etc.), which are the sole context in which the phenomena of language can be successfully studied, Linguistic Philosophy confines research to a superficial description of various types of usage and closes the path to a true explanation of the essence of language, arriving ultimately at a merely conventional interpretation.

For Linguistic Philosophy language is a means of construction, not a reflection of the world; it becomes something mystical, a self-sufficing force. The justifiable criticism of attempts to make an all-embracing reconstruction of the language within the framework of an "ideal language" goes hand in hand with a refusal to investigate language in general on the basis of any all-round theoretical platform. Thus the refusal to tackle the basic problems of philosophy leads to the collapse of Linguistic Philosophy even in the field to which it confines philosophical investigation.

Philosophy of Antiquity

The totality of philosophical theories developed in the Greek slave-owning society from the end of the 7th century B.C. and in the Roman slave-owning society from the 2nd century B.C. up to the beginning of the 6th century A.D. The Philosophy of Antiquity is an original, but not isolated, phenomenon in the development of man's philosophical cognition.

It took shape on the basis of the rudiments of astronomical, mathematical, physical, and other knowledge brought into the Greek cities from the East as a result of interpretation of ancient mythology in art and poetry and attempts to remove from philosophical thought the mythological conceptions of the world and of man that had held them captive. By the 5th century B.C., philosophical and cosmological systems had been developed in which myths were a means of figuratively expressing ideas rather than the basis of an outlook.

In the 6th and even in the 5th centuries B.C., philosophy and the knowledge of nature had not been separated. The number of hypotheses that occurred owing to the absence of experimental verification was enormous. As far as philosophy was concerned, this multiplicity of hypotheses meant a multiplicity of types of philosophical explanations of the world. This multiplicity and the level of elaboration made Philosophy of Antiquity a school of philosophical thinking for later times. "...The manifold forms of Greek philosophy," wrote Engels, "contain in embryo, in the nascent state, almost all the later modes of outlook on the world." (Dialectics of Nature, p. 44.)

The starting point for the development of the Philosophy of Antiquity was philosophical materialism. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, despite the many differences between them, all assumed that things originated from some single material source. Among those who held these naive materialist views, certain ideas arose which later led to the development of idealism. The germs of the schism into materialist and idealist trends can be discerned among the earliest Greek thinkers.

In the second half of the 5th and early 4th centuries B.C. these trends developed into the opposites of materialism and idealism. Equally clear in the Philosophy of Antiquity is the antithesis of the dialectical and metaphysical methods of thinking. Many of the early Greek philosophers were actually dialecticians, who studied nature as a single whole and, consequently, in the interaction and connection of its phenomena.

In the more than a thousand years of the development of the Philosophy of Antiquity, the materialism and idealism, dialectics and metaphysics which took shape in early Greek philosophy underwent an intricate evolution, reflecting, in the final analysis, the dialectics of the development of the society of antiquity.

The materialism of the Philosophy of Antiquity was developed by Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus. In the teachings of Socrates and, particularly, Plato philosophical idealism took shape, counterposing itself, first and foremost, to the materialism of the atomists. From this time onwards there was a clearly marked struggle between the two main lines of development, materialism and idealism (or, as Lenin said, "the line of Democritus and the line of Plato").

Aristotle, who wavered between materialism and idealism, also expressed his ideas in polemics with theories preceding and contemporary to him. Aristotle's criticism of the theory of the "idea", the central theory in Plato's idealism, was particularly energetic and witty.

In the Hellenic period, the beginning of the crisis of the slave-owning system, the struggle between the different schools in the Philosophy of Antiquity became more acute. Especially sharp was the struggle between the Epicurean school of materialism and the stoics into whose fundamentally materialist doctrine elements of idealism had made extensive inroads.

Questions of ethics came to be placed first among philosophical problems, but these ethics had their basis in the theory of nature and the theory of knowledge and thought. Philosophical schools were shut off from the world, they became coteries of people united in their indifference to external events and their excessive interest in questions of ethics and education.

At the same time there were changes in the relations of philosophy to the specialised sciences, and a new type of scientist and a new type of scientific literature made their appearance; this was special literature comprehensible only to those with special training.

In the epoch of the Roman Empire the crisis of the slave-owning community became more acute and the urge for religious self-oblivion and solace became stronger. A wave of religious cults, doctrines, and mysteries spread from the East to the West. Philosophy itself became religious, even mystical in some doctrines. Examples of this were Neo-Platonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism, the first of which exerted considerable influence on the development of Christian philosophy.

In 529 the Emperor Justinian issued a decree closing down the philosophical schools in Athens. But before this decree and quite independently of it, the basic ideas of the Philosophy of Antiquity had completed their course of development.

Philosophy of History

The name given to a sphere of knowledge which studies the meaning of history, its laws, and the main trends of man's development. Historically, Philosophy of History dates back to antiquity. It was elaborated by the 18th century Enlighteners (Voltaire, Herder, Condorcet, Montesquieu). To combat the influence of theology on history, dating back to St. Augustine, the Enlighteners introduced into Philosophy of History the idea of causality, elaborated the theory of progress, voiced the idea of the unity of the historical process, and emphasised the influence of the geographical and social environment on man. Hegel regarded history as a single, law-governed intrinsic process of self-development of the spirit, the idea.

The limitations of Philosophy of History, expressed in its speculative, a priori, and idealistic nature, were overcome by Marx and Engels. The discovery of historical materialism provided the basis for creating a scientific history. In contemporary Philosophy of History, the concepts of Toynbee and Spengler enjoy the greatest influence. The objective laws of history are feared by the bourgeoisie, and this makes most bourgeois sociologists and historians renounce philosophical generalisations of history. They regard it as a chaotic succession of accidents and reject the concepts of causality, law, and progress.

Philosophy of Identity

A philosophical concept aimed at solving the question of the relationship of thinking and being, spirit and nature by acknowledging their absolute identity. The basic principle of Philosophy of Identity is diametrically opposed to the principle of dualistic systems (see Dualism). Philosophy of Identity as a definite philosophical concept is historically associated with the name of Schelling, who tried to overcome the dualism of Kant's and Fichte's systems by advancing a new initial principle of monistic philosophy, the absolute identity of the subjective and the objective, the ideal and the real.

The principle of the identity of thinking and being also underlies the Hegelian system. But this principle is realised by Hegel differently, because Hegel understood identity dialectically, not as an immobile absolute, an indefinite unity, and one indifferently opposed to multifarious being, but as a self-developing logical idea, whose definiteness and diversity are contained within itself as its immanent infinite form. What sets Philosophy of Identity apart from other objectively idealist conceptions is not recognition of the identity of thinking and being, but the metaphysical understanding of this identity. Philosophy of Identity attempts to solve the fundamental problem of philosophy by dissolving the difference between spirit and nature, thinking and being, in immobile and absolute substance.

Ideas close to Schelling's Philosophy of Identity were expounded by Parmenides and Spinoza. At present the ideas of the metaphysical identity of thinking and being are advocated by certain schools of Neo-Thomism. In contrast to Philosophy of Identity, Marxist philosophy bases its monism on the ideas of the material unity and development of the world.

Philosophy of Life

(Ger. Lebensphilosophie), a subjective-idealist trend of philosophy which arose in Germany and France at the turn of the century. Schopenhauer was its main ideological predecessor. The origins of this philosophy are associated with the rapid development of biology, psychology, and other sciences which revealed the insolvency of the mechanistic picture of the world. Philosophy of Life tried to overcome the limitations of mechanistic materialism from idealist positions. Its appearance signified a crisis of bourgeois philosophy, its renunciation of science and transition to irrationalism and nihilism.

As regards its objective content Philosophy of Life is a distorted, idealist interpretation of the socio-historical process. The pivot of this philosophy is the concept of life as the absolute, infinite principle of the world which, in contrast to matter and consciousness, is active, multiform, and in eternal motion. Life cannot be cognised with the help of the senses or logical thinking, it is perceived intuitively and is accessible to emotion (chiefly religious).

Two main groups can be singled out in Philosophy of Life: one (Bergson) understood life in the biological sense and extended biological properties to all reality; the other (Nietzsche, Dilthey, and Simmel) conceived life as the will, internal emotion, irrational play of spiritual forces. The central ideas of Philosophy of Life were the ideological source of existentialism.

Philosophy, Practical

1. The ethical branch of classical philosophical systems, the teaching on the principles and laws of action (for example, the Ethics of Spinoza, the Critique of Practical Reason of Kant, etc.).

2. A widespread trend in modern philosophy, directed against materialism and science. In Practical Philosophy one can include Nietzscheism, pragmatism, the philosophy of life (Bergson), existentialism, and other schools related to them, which consider cognition as an "instrument" of achieving practical results. Denial of theoretical thought and objective truth and the cult of the subconscious in Practical Philosophy are due to the dissolution of thought in the biological function of adaptation: the truth of an idea is determined not by its reflection of objective reality but by its practical validity, utility: all ideas (including religious ones) are "true" if they lead to success. Thus, the relativism and agnosticism of Practical Philosophy are disguised by reference to practice, interpreted in an extremely subjectivist spirit.

Physical Picture of the World

A term which has become widespread chiefly in recent years and which denotes a conception of nature (at times, in a narrower sense, the inorganic world) proceeding from certain general principles of physics. In this sense, ancient atomism, the physics of Descartes, and the system of Newton were a Physical Picture of the World.

A feature of all attempts to construct a Physical Picture of the World in the 17th and 18th centuries was the idea that complex natural phenomena are reducible to simple mechanical motion of discrete particles of matter. The idea of specific laws irreducible to the more simple forms of motion became established in 19th century natural science. This conception was voiced in the most profound and generalised manner in Engels' Dialectics of Nature.

The 19th century Physical Picture of the World was based on a hierarchy of the forms of motion and their reciprocal transitions, and in this sense the law of conservation of motion was its most general principle. In the 20th century, the laws of Newtonian mechanics could no longer play the part of the most general laws. The laws of electromagnetic phenomena laid claim to this role, but the electromagnetic picture of the world could not embrace all physical phenomena. On the other hand, electromagnetic fields did not fit into the general theory of relativity which describes gravitational fields.

Attempts by Einstein and other physicists to construct a single theory of the field did not lead to the creation of a new and harmonious Physical Picture of the World. A single theory of elementary particles and their transmutations, the rough outlines of which are now emerging in physics, can be the basis of such a picture. Thus the development of science confirms the ideas of dialectical materialism, which, as Lenin put it, by no means "professed a 'mechanical' and not an electromagnetic, or some other, immeasurably more complex, picture of the world of moving matter." (Vol. 14, p. 280.)

Physicalism

A conception in logical positivism, elaborated by Carnap, Neurath, and others, that every descriptive term in science can be translated into the language of physics. Propositions which cannot be translated are regarded as devoid of scientific meaning. The problem of the unity of all scientific knowledge and of its objective truth is thus replaced by the search of a common, or, to be more exact, a single language of science.

Instead of analysing the objective connection of different sciences and their unity, physicalists seek to translate specific kinds of existing knowledge into the language of physics and, on this basis, achieve their unification. This is a kind of revival by neo-positivism of the mechanistic principle of reducibility. But in this the logical positivists failed and subsequently many of them broke with 'orthodox' Physicalism.

Physics

A science of the changes and movements of elementary particles, structure of atoms, gravitational, electric, magnetic, and other fields, and molecular processes. In antiquity, the word "physics" designated the sum total of knowledge about nature. Subsequently physics was understood as the study of the laws governing the motion of bodies (mechanics) and the causes of sound (acoustics), of thermal, electric, magnetic, and optical phenomena. Classical physics sought to ascribe the causes of these phenomena to Newton's laws of mechanics.

In the 19th century, it was established that physics deals with specific laws. Thermodynamics studies the behaviour of large sets of molecules a distinctive feature of which is irreversible transition from less probable to more probable states, while mechanical processes as such do not possess such irreversibility. On the other hand, in classical electrodynamics, the view arose that the laws of the origin and spread of an electromagnetic field cannot be reduced to the laws of mechanics. Physics was thus emancipated from mechanics in the 19th century.

At the same time, the mechanical heat theory demonstrated the reversible transition of mechanical processes into thermal, and the study of electricity established that mechanical processes pass into electrical and vice versa. It was established in the 19th century that mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic processes are connected by reversible transitions, the quantitative measure of all these forms of motion, energy, remaining constant. The principle of the conservation of energy (see Conservation of Energy, Law of) became the basic principle of Physics.

At the turn of the century, many new, hitherto unknown physical phenomena were discovered—the origination and propagation of radio signals, X-rays, and radioactivity. At the same time the periodicity of the chemical properties of elements discovered by Mendeleyev held the focus of theoretical physics. Exploring the causes of these phenomena, Physics branched out into atomic and nuclear physics and then the physics of elementary particles.

In the first half of the 20th century, theoretical physics passed from the basic classical concepts to ideas associated with the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Experimental physics, which has registered striking successes, is exerting an unparalleled impact on technology and people's living conditions.

Throughout its development Physics has been closely connected with philosophy. In antiquity, physical knowledge and hypotheses were a component of materialist philosophical systems. Generalisation of physical knowledge accumulated through the development of classical mechanics, formed the basis for the materialist ideas of modern times. Their analysis and summary of 19th century discoveries in physics provided Marx and Engels with a basis on which the teaching of dialectical materialism was founded.

In the 20th century, as in earlier periods, idealist trends have been seeking to make use of the changes in the conception of physics in favour of idealist, positivist conclusions (see Idealism, Physical). The analysis of the real meaning of new concepts, made by Lenin in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, and subsequent development of science show that Physics provides irrefutable arguments in support of dialectical materialism and that the application of the philosophical ideas of Marxism in physical research gives fresh stimuli to the study of nature.

Piaget, Jean (1896–1980)

Swiss psychologist, philosopher, and logician, professor at Geneva University. Piaget made a valuable contribution to many of the branches of psychology. Using vast experimental data, Piaget created in the 30s and 40s the theory of the intellect formation, which regards the intellect as a system of operations, i.e., the inner actions of the subject, derivative from the external object actions, and forming a certain structural unity.

Piaget's psychological and logical ideas were synthesised in his "genetical epistemology", a theoretico-cognitive conception based upon a genetical and historico-critical approach to the analysis of knowledge. According to Piaget, the development of a subject's knowledge of an object makes it more and more invariant, more and more stable in the changing conditions of experience, this invariance of knowledge being considered as a reflection of the object itself and its properties.

Pisacane, Carlo (1818–1857)

Italian revolutionary democrat and utopian socialist. Active fighter for the liberation of Italy from foreign yoke, Pisacane linked up the unification of his country with the establishment of a socialist system. Seeing in private property the main and eternal cause of the split of society into antagonistic classes, Pisacane called for its abolition, for the introduction of public property and the organisation of a collective economy. This was, according to him, the only means of eliminating social inequality and exploitation.

Pisacane called for an expropriation of the bourgeoisie and big landowners through a popular peasant revolution. In his works Pisacane acts as a confirmed materialist and enemy of religion.

Pisarev, Dmitry Ivanovich (1840–1868)

Russian materialist thinker, critic, revolutionary journalist. He was born in a landlord's family. His literary activity began in 1859. In 1861, he graduated from St. Petersburg University. He was a staff member and actual editor of the journal Russkoye Slovo (The Russian Word) from 1861. For defending Herzen he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress from 1862 to 1867. In the years 1867-68 he was on the staff of the magazines Dyelo (Cause) and Otechestvenniye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland).

Pisarev's revolutionary and socialist views, which took shape towards the end of 1861 ("Scholastics of the 19th century", 1861; a leaflet against Shedo-Ferroti, 1862), changed significantly. The rapid decline of the wave of revolutionary emancipation movement which arose in 1859-61 convinced Pisarev of the lack in Russia of the conditions necessary for a revolution, of the peasantry's inability to emancipate themselves and to build a new society.

Pisarev saw the main purpose of his activity in the solution of "the problem of the starving and destitute people", he advocated the socialist ideals (it is true that Pisarev was not satisfied with any of the existing socialist doctrines). Not giving up the use of revolutionary violence against the exploiters (The Historical Ideas of O. Comte, 1865; The Thinking Proletariat, 1865; The Propagators of Negative Doctrines, 1866; Heinrich Heine, 1867, and others), Pisarev put forward the idea of a "chemical" path of revolution—gradual social changes, leading to public education, to the growth (due to the dissemination of knowledge) of the productivity of labour and to the improvement of the living conditions of the masses as the main prerequisites of a radical "reconstruction of social institutions". He sought to entrust the progressive intelligentsia, "the thinking realists", with the task of public education. His works written during the last years of his life (e.g., The French Peasant in 1789) testify to the growth of the radical tendencies in Pisarev's world outlook.

His socio-political conception made a considerable stress on the social functions of science. He regarded the progress of scientific knowledge as the basis of historical development. This fact determined Pisarev's incessant struggle against religion and the various manifestations of "narrow-minded mysticism" in science, drawing mankind away from the path of reasonable progress and completely ignoring "the most elementary testimonies of experience" (Plato's Idealism, 1861, and others) and conditioned Pisarev's negative attitude towards Hegel's "speculative philosophy".

Pisarev saw a counter-balance to idealism in the theories of the "vulgar materialists" T. Moleschott and Vogt, whom he assessed positively (The Physiological Studies of Moleschott, 1861; The Process of Life, 1861; Physiological Pictures, 1862). Pisarev was one of the first in Russia actively to propagate Darwinism (Progress in the Animal and Plant World). Inclining towards sensualism in epistemological problems, Pisarev was, however, opposed to empiricism (The Blunders of Immature Thought, 1864) and pointed to the constructive role of creative vision. Lenin highly appraised Pisarev's appeal to creative vision.

A confirmed adherent of realism, Pisarev engaged in sharp polemics with the supporters of "pure art", sometimes going so far as to proclaim the "strictest utilitarianism" of art and considering it as one of the obstacles to scientific progress (The Destruction of Aesthetics, 1865; Pushkin and Belinsky, 1865).

Planck, Max (1858–1947)

German physicist and theoretician, member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences from 1894. In December 1900, while elaborating the thermodynamic theory of thermal radiation, Planck arrived at the necessity of introducing a new universal constant—quantum of action. Thus Planck became the founder of the quantum theory, which established the fact of discontinuity in the energetic processes and extended the notion of atomism to all phenomena of nature.

Many works of Planck are devoted to the philosophical problems of natural science, including the philosophical significance of the law of the conservation of energy, the unity of the natural-scientific picture of the world, the methodology of physical investigation, the principle of causality, the interrelation of natural science with philosophy and religion. Planck sharply criticised positivism, particularly the philosophy of Mach.

Plato (428/427–347 B.C.)

Greek idealist philosopher, disciple of Socrates, founder of objective idealism, author of more than 30 philosophical dialogues (Sophistes, Parmenides, Theatietus, Republic, and others). In defending the idealist world outlook, Plato actively fought against the materialist teaching of that time. He widely employed the teachings of Socrates, the Pythagoreans, Parmenides, and Heraclitus.

To explain being, he developed the theory of the existence of immaterial forms of objects, which he called "Forms" or "Ideas" and identified with being. To these "Ideas" Plato counterposed nonbeing, identified with matter and space. According to Plato, the sensible world, which is the product of "Ideas" and "Matter", occupies an intermediate position. "Ideas" are eternal, "transcelestial"; they neither arise nor perish, they are irrelative and do not depend upon time and space. Sensible objects are transient, relative, and they depend upon time and space.

The centre of Plato's cosmology is the teaching of the "world soul", while the centre of his psychology is the teaching of the reincarnation of the soul, which lives in our body. Plato distinguished the types of knowledge depending upon various cognisable objects. Authentic knowledge is possible only of truly existent "forms". The source of such knowledge is the immortal human soul's reminiscence of the world of ideas, contemplated before its incarnation in the mortal body. We cannot have knowledge of sensual objects and phenomena, but only a probable "opinion". Between "Ideas" and sensible objects Plato placed the mathematical objects, accessible to rational knowledge.

The method of cognition is "dialectics", which Plato understood as a two-way process: ascending by degrees of generalising concepts up to the highest kind and descending again from the most general concepts to those of lesser and lesser generalisation. In this process the descent involves only "forms" ("Ideas"), and not the sensible individual things.

Plato was a representative of the Athenian aristocracy. His teaching on society portrayed an ideal aristocratic state, the basis of which is slave labour (Laws); the state is governed by "philosopher-rulers"; it is watched over by soldiers, or "guardians"; below these free citizens are the "handicraftsmen". In the words of Marx, Plato's utopia was the Athenian idealisation of Egypt's caste system. Marx remarked that Plato fully understood the role of the division of labour in the formation of the Greek "polis" ("city-state"). Plato's teaching played a prominent role in the further evolution of idealist philosophy.

Plekhanov, Georgi Valentinovich (1856–1918)

Russian revolutionary and thinker, founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia, an eminent Marxist theoretician and publicist. Plekhanov's world outlook and political activity underwent a complicated evolution. Initially Plekhanov was the leader of the Narodnik organisation "Land and Freedom" (later, "Black Redistribution"); later (in 1880), having emigrated from Russia, he studied the works of Marx and Engels and established connections with the Social-Democratic movement in Western Europe. As a result of this he deserted Narodism and became a convinced adherent of Marxism, an active propagandist of its ideas in Russia; the "Emancipation of Labour" group which he founded in Switzerland (1883) played a great role in the dissemination and victory of Marxism in the Russian emancipation movement.

Plekhanov himself greatly contributed to the development of the Marxist theory, refuting the ideology of Narodism, "legal Marxism", revisionism, and bourgeois philosophy. After 1903, Plekhanov could not understand the peculiarities of the new epoch. He departed from revolutionary Marxism and took a compromising position in relation to the opportunists, and then became a Menshevik. During the First World War Plekhanov sided with the social-chauvinists. He did not accept the October Revolution of 1917.

Although he took part in the factional struggle against the Bolsheviks, to the end of his life Plekhanov remained loyal to Marxism, to the cause of the working class. That is why Lenin, while calling the Menshevik tactics "the height of banality and meanness", at the same time stressed that "in philosophy Plekhanov upheld the righteous cause".

Plekhanov's works The Development of the Monist View of History, 1895; Essays on the History of Materialism, 1896; The Role of the Individual in History, 1898, and many others brilliantly expound the Marxist theory. Plekhanov assessed Marxism as a new stage in philosophy, showed its qualitative distinctions from all previous philosophical and sociological doctrines. Plekhanov developed the materialist understanding of history, showing what intricate relations exist between social being and social consciousness; he emphasised the role of social psychology in the struggle of ideas, which is the expression of the struggle between the antagonistic classes in a given society.

Plekhanov was one of the founders of Marxist aesthetics and art criticism; he developed the Marxist teaching on the origin of art, of art as a special form of reflection of social life, of realism as the essence of art. Plekhanov laid the foundation of the Marxist history of Russian social thought, notwithstanding certain unacceptable principles in his assessment of Russian philosophy. He disclosed the historic role of the Russian revolutionary democrats as the forerunners of Marxism in Russia.

Plekhanov drew many valuable conclusions on the origin and development of religion, on the role of religion in social life, on its place among the other forms of social consciousness, on the attitude of the Marxist Party towards religion. In philosophical problems Plekhanov committed a number of errors: he underestimated the role of subjective factors in historical development, made concessions to the hieroglyph theory, gave inexact formulations in which he leaned towards "geographical materialism", and "reduced Marxism to Spinozism", etc. But these individual errors seem extraneous against the background of Plekhanov's system of philosophical views as a whole and his lifelong defence of dialectical and historical materialism.

Plekhanov's philosophical works are rich and convincing, and the popularity and the captivating interest of his exposals make them even today valuable manuals for the study of Marxist philosophy.

Plotinus (205–270)

Greek idealist philosopher, born in Egypt and lived in Rome. Plotinus was the founder of Neo-Platonism, which intensified the mysticism of Plato's teaching. According to Plotinus, the world process begins with the incomprehensible and inexpressible divine One, which is the eternal source of all being and emerges first as universal reason, then as the world-soul, and later as individual souls, as individual bodies including matter, which Plotinus considers as non-being. For Plotinus, the object of human life is to ascend to the One. This can be achieved by restraining the bodily attractions as well as by developing spiritual forces, including those of cognition. At its supreme ecstatic stage of ascent the soul achieves the communion with God.

Plotinus's teaching develops mystical dialectics: the principle of opposites and their unity, determines harmony and beauty, evil and ugliness in the world.

Pluralism

The conception opposed to monism, which holds that all that exists consists of a multiplicity of equivalent isolated substances, irreducible to a single principle. Pluralism's views were the basis of Leibniz's monadology (see Monad). Modern idealists (pragmatists, neo-positivists, existentialists, and others) gravitate towards pluralism in their attempt to be above materialist and idealist monism. In the last analysis, however, pluralism in its objective content is opposed only to dialectical materialist monism.

In sociology, pluralism serves as the basis for denying the existence of a single determining principle of society, for understanding history as a current of accidental events, and, consequently, for refusing to analyse the objective laws of social development.

Poincaré, Jules Henri (1854–1912)

French mathematician, professor at the Paris University, member of the French Academy. His main works are devoted to mathematical physics, differential equations, combinatorial topology, etc. In 1905, simultaneously with Einstein, Poincaré arrived at some understanding of the special theory of relativity. He devoted much study to general methodological problems of science; he maintained that the laws of science do not relate to the real world, but that they represent arbitrary conventions destined to promote a more convenient and useful (according to the "principle of the economy of thought" of Mach) description of the corresponding phenomena.

In Lenin's words, "the essence of Poincaré's 'original' theory amounts to a denial... of objective reality and of objective law in nature" (Vol. 14, p. 165). The conventionalism of Poincaré represents one of the varieties of physical idealism. Poincaré was one of the forerunners of the intuitional (constructive) trend in mathematics.

Polarity

A conception characterising the forms of contradiction, i.e., antithesis, the correlation of the extremes of any unity. Polarity's sides stand in opposition to each other but at the same time are in need of each other. Thus, capital and wage labour form the polar opposites of capitalist society.

Politics

Participation in the affairs of the state, its guidance, determination of the forms, aims, and the content of the activity of the state (see Lenin, Miscellany, Book XXI, p. 14). Politics include problems of the state structure, the management of the country, leadership of classes, problems of party struggle, etc. The fundamental interests of classes, the relations between the classes are reflected in politics. Politics also express the relations between nations and states (foreign politics). The relations between classes, and hence between their politics, arise from their economic position.

Political ideas and the institutions corresponding to them are the superstructure of the economic basis (see Basis and Superstructure). This does not mean, however, that politics are the passive result of economics (see Economics and Politics). For politics to be a great transforming force they must correctly reflect the needs of the development of material life of society. The politics of the reactionary segment of the bourgeoisie hinder the progressive development of society, because they run counter to its objective needs. The strength of the Communist Party's policies lies in the fact that it takes into account these needs.

The scientifically grounded politics are based on the laws of social development and directed to suit the interests of society. The politics of the Communist Party answer the essential needs of the people, find permanent support among the masses. Successful guidance of the building of communism is secured due to the integration of the correct politics with the corresponding organisational work. This fact is a guarantee of the reality of the politics itself. That is why the Communist Party attaches great significance to the political education of the masses, to the training of Party cadres.

The Communist Party guides the development of culture and all the spheres of ideology: science, art, morality, etc. It condemns every manifestation of apolitical attitude and ideological unprincipledness in the cultural development, demands a systematic struggle against reactionary ideology. The internal policy of the Communist Party, directed towards the building of communism, is linked up with its foreign policy, whose object is to ensure peaceful conditions for building communism in the USSR and save mankind from world war.

Polysyllogism

The complex syllogism, which is a sequence, chain of syllogisms, in which the conclusions of preceding syllogisms (called prosyllogisms) are included in the premises of consequent ones (called episyllogisms). A polysyllogism in which each episyllogism is preceded by only one prosyllogism, is called linear. We distinguish the progressive and regressive relation of syllogisms in polysyllogisms according to whether the conclusion of the prosyllogism becomes the major or the minor premise of the episyllogism. A polysyllogism in which each episyllogism is preceded by two prosyllogisms is called a cascade polysyllogism.

Formal logic lays down certain general conditions for the correctness of various kinds of polysyllogism.

Polytheism and Monotheism

The worship of many gods or of one god. Polytheism arose from totemism, fetishism, animism in the period of the decay of primitive-communal society. Belief in the plurality of equal fetishes and spirits was replaced by belief in gods who assumed concrete appearance, name, and cult. Social division of labour, earthly relations of supremacy and submission were reflected in the hierarchy of gods.

The consolidation of the slave-owning system, the creation of monarchies, led initially to the worship of one God, with recognition of the existence of others. Then from the Pantheon of gods one Almighty God was singled out—a copy of the earthly king; monotheism was thus established. Pure monotheism, however, did not exist. Signs of polytheism are discernible even in such monotheistic religions as Islam and Judaism, to say nothing of Christianity, with its Trinity, the Virgin, and a great number of saints.

Pomponazzi, Pietro (1462–1524)

Italian philosopher of the Renaissance. He developed Aristotle's teachings in a materialist and anti-scholastic spirit. In his main work De Immortalitate Animi (1516) Pomponazzi stressed the elements of sensualism in Aristotle's philosophy, and claimed that the soul, constituting the form of the body, was, nevertheless, mortal. This gave rise to indignation on the part of the clergy, and Pomponazzi's book was burned.

Rejecting one of the main dogmas of religion, the immortality of the human soul, this theoretician of humanism stressed the fact that only refusal to believe this dogma corresponds to the real nature of man, because the object of his activity is found not in a life beyond, but here, in this earthly world. Adhering similarly to the conception of twofold truth, Pomponazzi aspired for the complete separation of philosophy and politics from religion.

Popovsky, Nikolai Nikitich (1730–1760)

Russian enlightener, philosopher, and poet, disciple of Lomonosov. He was professor of elocution and philosophy at the Moscow University (since 1755). Of the works of Popovsky the following have been preserved: "Speech, delivered at the secondary school of Moscow University, on the beginning of lectures on philosophy" (1755), "Letter on how science benefits society and the education of youth" (1756), and others.

In philosophy Popovsky took the standpoint of deism, although his views could be assessed generally as materialistic. He translated into Russian John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, and a number of works of Quintus Horace, Titus Livy, and others. He was the first to lecture on philosophy in Russian at the University, proving that philosophy "is the mother of all sciences and arts", that it must be independent of theology and is destined to satisfy the inquisitiveness of the human mind concerning the nature and structure of the worlds in the Universe.

Popovsky advocated enlightenment and the development of the sciences, reasonable legislation and good government, and wider civil rights.

Population

All the people living in a given territory. Growth of population is one of the requisites for society's material life.

Population is a unity of two aspects: socio-economic (population as the aggregate of members of society who are in definite social relations among themselves) and biological (population as the aggregate of biological individuals). The natural and social aspects of population are closely connected, being sides of a single whole. Population as a socio-economic category includes the producers of material wealth and children and the aged who do not take part in social production, and also (in antagonistic class formations) the exploiting classes. As socio-economic conditions change the biological characteristics of population are essentially altered (health, birth rate, reproduction, etc.).

Each socio-economic formation has its own historically transient law of population (capitalism, for example, is marked by relative surplus population). Unscientific theories (see Malthusianism) proceed from the false idea of eternal and immutable laws of population, justifying capitalist exploitation, oppression of the peoples in the colonies, and poverty and shortage of food by the high birth rate and other similar causes.

In reality the growth of population depends on diverse factors: the level of the productive forces, relations of production, the state and law, morality, religion, political and other ideas, and, lastly, on the geographical environment. However intricate the relationships between these factors, the main role in the growth of population is played by the relations of production, the socio-economic system which determines the position of the working people, the overwhelming majority of the population. Although other factors, operating in the opposite direction, may temporarily outweigh the influence of production relations, ultimately it is always decisive. This is the initial proposition for a Marxist analysis of population problems.

Poretsky, Platon Sergeyevich (1846–1907)

Russian logician. Between 1887-88, at the Kazan University, he was the first in Russia to lecture on mathematical logic. Poretsky contributed to the elaboration of the algebra of logic. For this theory he found original and simple methods of solving the problem of finding a set of consequences following from a given system of premises and a set of hypotheses, from which these consequences are deducible (On the Methods of Solving Logical Equations and the Inverse Method in Mathematical Logic, 1884).

Poretsky's philosophical views can be described as natural-scientific materialism.

Port Royal

The celebrated Cistercian Abbey near Paris, which in the 17th century was the most active centre of Jansenism (a socio-religious movement based on the teaching of the Dutch theologian Cornelis Jansen). Port Royal was a major centre of enlightenment in France in the 17th century. It was here that Pascal lived and worked. Various textbooks were written for use in this school, one of which was the well-known manual of logic (by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole). It was written in the tradition of Cartesian rationalism, and contained, among other things, a detailed classification of propositions and an investigation of the distinction between synthetic and analytic methods.

In 1712, Louis XIV, who took the side of the Jesuits in their struggle against the Jansenists, ordered the complete destruction of the Abbey.

Positivism

A widely spread subjective-idealist trend in philosophy of the middle 19th-20th centuries. It denies that philosophy is a world outlook, rejects the traditional problems of philosophy (the relation of consciousness to being, etc.) as "metaphysical" and unverifiable by experience. Positivism attempts to create a methodology or a "logic of science" which would stand above the antithesis between materialism and idealism. One of the main principles of the positivist methodology of science is extreme phenomenalism, according to which the task of science is declared to be a pure description of facts and not their explanation.

The positivist claim to "neutralism, non-partisanship" in philosophy has its profound social roots. The most important of them derives from the contradictory attitude of the bourgeoisie to the specialised sciences: on the one hand, it is interested in the development of the natural sciences, without which the development of production is impossible; on the other hand, it rejects philosophical conclusions which go beyond the limits of natural-scientific theories and undermine the idea of the eternity of bourgeois society.

Positivism was founded by Comte, who introduced the term positivism. Historically, there are three stages in the development of positivism. The exponents of the "first" positivism were Comte, E. Littré, and P. Laffitte (France), John Stuart Mill and Spencer (England). Alongside the problems of the theory of knowledge (the problem of the general historical laws of its development—Comte) and logic (Mill), solved in a spirit of extreme empiricism and phenomenalism, the main place in the "first" positivism was assigned to sociology (see Organic Theory of Society by Spencer), the object of which was to prove the natural and eternal nature of capitalism.

The rise of the "second" positivism—empirio-criticism—dates back to the 70s-90s of the 19th century and is associated with the names of Mach and Avenarius, who renounced even formal recognition of the objectively-real objects, which was a feature of the "first" positivism. In Machism the problems of cognition are interpreted from the viewpoint of extreme psychologism, merging with subjectivism.

The rise and formation of the "third" positivism is linked up with the activity of the Vienna circle (O. Neurath, R. Carnap, M. Schlick, P. Frank, and others) and of the Berlin Society for Scientific Philosophy (H. Reichenbach, F. Kraus, and others), which combined a number of trends: logical atomism, logical positivism, general semantics (close to these trends are operationism and pragmatism). The main place in the "third" positivism is taken by the philosophical problems of language, symbolic logic, the structure of scientific investigations, and others. Having renounced psychologism, the exponents of the "third" positivism took the course of reconciling the "logic of science" with mathematics, the course of extreme formalisation of epistemological problems.

Possibility and Reality

Categories reflecting the dialectical development of the objective world, the various stages and periods in the emergence and development of objects. Possibility expresses the objective tendency of development inherent in existing phenomena, the presence of conditions requisite to the appearance of the objective thing (object, phenomenon) or at least the absence of conditions that would exclude its coming into being. Reality is the name for anything objective (object, condition, situation) which actually exists as the result of the realisation of a possibility.

The mutual connection and conversion of possibility and reality are closely linked with the law-governed, necessary development of the objective world, with recognition of the principle of determinism. A distinction is made between real and abstract possibility. Abstract (or formal) possibility expresses the absence in reality of any conditions that might exclude any given phenomenon, but does not assume the presence of any conditions making its appearance inevitable. It may also express a tendency which has not as yet developed and may be connected with lack of knowledge of the circumstances requiring analysis. In the latter case it may involve impossibility. Real possibility denotes the presence of all the necessary conditions under which a possibility will inevitably be realised. In certain circumstances, however, abstract possibility may become real possibility, and vice versa.

The quantitative relation between abstract and real possibility may be expressed in probability (see Probability, Theory of). Possibility of any one phenomenon does not in itself exclude the possibility of the opposite phenomenon, or the possibility of its not occurring. Allowance for real possibilities, the steps taken to turn some of them into reality, and removal of the danger of undesirable possibilities constitute an important part of human activity. Such activity is presupposed by the theoretical analysis of possibility, particularly the consideration of its relations to necessity and chance.

Possibility becomes reality only when the full set of conditions for the existence of a certain phenomenon either arises spontaneously or is consciously prepared. The more there are of such conditions and the more essential these conditions are, the more likely a possibility becomes. Thus, the possibility of an economic crisis under commodity production is already implicit in the act of selling commodities. But the conversion of this possibility into reality requires a whole set of conditions and relations that does not exist within the framework of simple commodity production. These arise only in capitalist society, where crises become inevitable.

By combining certain materials and forces of nature, man is able to bring into being such phenomena as he desires (creating the full set of conditions required for such a phenomenon) and to prevent such phenomena as he does not desire (removing their cause). Such activity is not, of course, unconditional. It is limited by the objective laws of the world and develops in accordance with these laws.

In social life, possibility becomes reality through man's practical activity. For example, the building of communist society is impossible unless people work consciously for it under the leadership of a Communist Party, but this activity must be in accordance with the objective laws of social development. In the history of philosophy up to the time of Marx and Engels, the most profound analysis of possibility and reality was given by Aristotle and Hegel.

Postulate

A principle or proposition in a scientific theory, which is taken as the initial proposition, incapable of proof within the framework of that theory. In modern logic and scientific methodology the concepts "postulate" and "axiom" are, as a rule, equivalent. Sometimes the difference in the meanings of these concepts derived from ancient philosophy is preserved: axioms signify the initial logical principles, and postulates initial propositions in a special scientific theory.

"The Poverty of Philosophy"

One of Marx's early works, which outlined the basic principles of scientific socialism. It was written in French in 1847 and was directed against the views of the French petty-bourgeois philosopher and economist, the anarchist Proudhon. Marx came out against the "dialectical" phraseology of Proudhon, demonstrating that the latter did not rise above the bourgeois outlook. Marx devoted much attention to criticism of Hegelian dialectics and the elaboration of materialist dialectics.

A scientific analysis of the capitalist mode of production is given in The Poverty of Philosophy and the foundations of Marxist political economy are laid. Marx deeply studied the economic situation, the historical role of the proletariat in the class struggle. "The condition for the emancipation of the working class," Marx wrote, "is the abolition of every class.... Meanwhile the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is a struggle of class against class, a struggle which carried to its highest expression is a total revolution.... It is only in an order of things in which there are no more classes and class antagonisms that social evolutions will cease to be political revolutions. Till then, on the eve of every reshuffling of society, the last word of social science will always be [here Marx quotes the following words of George Sand in her Jeanne]: 'Combat or death: bloody struggle or extinction. It is thus that the question is inexorably put.'" (Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, p. 197.)

Practice

See Theory and Practice.

Pragmatics

A branch of semiotic.

Pragmatism

(Greek pragma, things done) A widespread subjective idealistic trend in modern philosophy. The so-called "principle of pragmatism" is the core of pragmatic philosophy and determines the value of truth by its practical utility (see Peirce). In James's works pragmatism is formulated both as a method of solving philosophical disputes by means of comparing "practical consequences", following from a theory, and as a theory of truth: truth is that "what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands".

A subjective understanding of "practice" and truth leads pragmatism to define a concept (idea) as an "instrument" of action (Dewey), and cognition as the sum total of subjective "truths" ("humanism" of F. C. S. Schiller). By practical utility, however, pragmatism understands not confirmation of objective truth by the criterion of practice, but what meets the subjective interests of the individual.

In explaining reality pragmatism adopts the standpoint of "radical empiricism", which is closely related to empirio-criticism. Objective reality is identified in pragmatism with "experience", and the division of cognition into a subject and object is made only within experience. Proceeding from "radical empiricism" and the comprehension of truth as practical utility, pragmatism "... deduces from all this a God for practical purposes, and only for practical purposes..." (Lenin, Vol. 14, p. 342).

In logic pragmatism comes to irrationalism, in open form in James's works, and in disguised form by appeals for the creation of a "logic of scientific investigation" in Dewey's. Pragmatism regards the laws and forms of logic as useful fictions. Pragmatism subscribes to meliorism in ethics, while in sociology it varies from the cult of "outstanding individuals" (James) and apology for bourgeois democracy (Dewey) to an outright defence of racism and fascism (F. C. S. Schiller).

At the present time pragmatism appears in the form of "experimental naturalism", combining subjective idealism with anti-Marxism and anti-communism (Sidney Hook), or in the form of neopragmatism, combining pragmatism with neopositivism, and semantic idealism ("semiotics" of C. W. Morris, operationism of P. W. Bridgman, pragmatist interpretation of formal logic of C. I. Lewis, R. Carnap, and W. Quine). For a long time pragmatism dominated the spiritual life of the USA, only recently has it given way to neo-positivism and religious philosophical conceptions.

Praxiology

A teaching within the framework of practical sociology; it is a method of considering various actions or aggregates of actions from the point of view of their effectiveness. Founded by the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences Tadeusz Kotarbiński, it is one of the methods of modern sociological investigation.

The essence of this method consists in practical (and historical) investigation and description of the various habits and methods of work, revealing their integral elements and hence arriving at various practical recommendations. Praxiology studies the history of these categories, and undertakes concrete investigations of the work of collective bodies, analyses forms of labour organisation, its specialisation, the subjective (less frequently objective) factors in the change of organisation and the degree of efficacy of labour. Praxiology studies the interaction between individuals, and between the individual and the collective, in the process of production. It is spread to some extent in Poland.

Predestination, Theory of

The teaching according to which everything in the world, including the phenomena of the human psyche, is predetermined by the sheer will of God (Augustin, Luther, Calvin, pre-established harmony), or by strict mechanical necessity. Consistent advocacy of the Theory of Predestination leads to denial of development and recognition of the fact that any activity is senseless. Modern science rejects the Theory of Predestination and corroborates the teaching of dialectical materialism on the self-motion of matter.

Predicables

Types of predicates in Aristotle's logic. In Topics Aristotle counts four predicables: genus, species, property, and accident. Porphyry, Aristotle's commentator, adds differentia specifica to this list. Predicables are opposed to individual names, because the latter, as distinguished from predicables, cannot be used as predicates. Aristotle's teaching on predicables is linked with the teaching on the kinds of proposition—categories (praedicamenta).

Predicate (in traditional logic)

An element of any proposition, which is either affirmed or denied in respect of the subject of the proposition. As a rule, the concept predicate expresses the concept of properties. Aristotle himself was at variance with traditional logic in that he defined predicate somewhat differently (and from the functional point of view more precisely), by uniting the predicate and the copula.

Contemporary formal logic proceeds from a more general conception of predicate, understanding it as a logical function which is specified for an object-field and assumes this or that truth-value. Unlike the traditional conception of predicate as a one-term function, this function may be of two, three, etc., variables, i.e., it may express multi-term relations. Thus, "x is a river" is a one-term predicate, "x\<y" is a two-term predicate and "x lies between y and z" is a three-term predicate. The substitution for variables of the names of individual objects belonging to those object-fields, for which the predicate has sense, gives true or false statements.

Pre-established Harmony

Recognition of divinely ordained harmonic changes of soul and body, denying cause-effect connection between the soul and the body and holding that every desire of the soul and the corresponding motion of the body are pre-established, preordained parallel to, and independently of, each other. The teaching of pre-established harmony represents an attempt to overcome the dualism of spiritual and material substances.

Hints of pre-established harmony are to be found in Descartes's teaching, but it is explicit in the works of the occasionalists, viz., Arnold Geulincx, Nicolas Malebranche. The concept pre-established harmony was somewhat revised by Leibniz, who professed pre-established harmony of all monads in the Universe. According to Leibniz, the world and each one of the creatures inhabiting it develops by its own abilities, but these abilities are created and chosen by God in such a way as to predetermine the best possible order in the world.

Preformationism

An anti-dialectical conception of development which dominated biology in the 18th century. According to Preformationism, the properties and signs of the mature organism are laid in a ready form in the embryo. The influence of Preformationism was undermined by Darwin's theory of evolution, according to which the development of the embryo is accomplished by means of successive transformations conditioned by heredity and appearing only in definite conditions of the external medium.

Premises (in logic)

Propositions from which a new proposition, or inference is drawn. According to the kind of inference, the premises may be a great variety of propositions or their combinations. For the conclusion to be true the premises must be true and correctly (according to the laws of logic) combined in reasoning.

Pre-Socratics

Name for the earliest Greek philosophers (7th to beginning of 4th century B.C.). The term is conventional because many of the most notable Pre-Socratics made their contribution to philosophy after Socrates. It is not conventional in the sense that the Pre-Socratics did not pose the problem of the purpose and destiny of the individual, of the relation of thought to being, of the immanent dialectics of thought, and confined themselves to the study of nature, the Universe, and objective reality as it was apparent to the senses.

These problems were all treated from the standpoint of a sensual Universe consisting of a perpetual cycle of Heraclitus, Diogenes of Apollonia (5th to 4th centuries B.C.), Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Parmenides and his Eleatic pupils, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus. The main object of study of pre-Socratic philosophy—the Universe—was believed to consist of the usual sensual elements—earth, water, fire, and ether, which constantly interchange by means of densification and rarefaction. The dialectics of the elements is a characteristic feature of the natural philosophy of the Pre-Socratics, particularly Democritus and Heraclitus. These elements are sensual and imbued with an organizing but purely material principle (logos in Heraclitus, love and enmity in Empedocles, the eternally moving atoms in the atomists, etc.).

The founders of Marxism-Leninism gave a high appraisal of the spontaneous materialism of the Pre-Socratics, which emerged from the attempt to refute mythology and uphold scientific philosophy.

Priestley, Joseph (1733–1804)

English scientist and materialist philosopher. He discovered oxygen and worked on the problems of optics and electricity. He was an advocate of the principles of the French Revolution. As a result of persecution Priestley emigrated to the USA (1794).

He continued the traditions of F. Bacon and Hobbes. In Priestley's opinion, all matter possesses the properties of extent, density and impenetrability, its characteristics being determined by the presence of the forces of attraction and repulsion. Man's thought and sensations are the product of other organization of the very same matter. Priestley rejected Locke's dualism from the mechanistic position: for example, he tried to explain association of ideas by vibration. He demanded the combining of experiments and theory. He paid great attention to the problems of hypothesis, analogy, etc.

In sociology Priestley advocated the principle of determinism, but opposed fatalism. Priestley was an adherent of the ethics of eudemonism. In his opinion, the greatest individual happiness is compatible with the happiness of other men.

Primary and Secondary Qualities

The terms used to distinguish the qualities (properties) of things according to their objectivity. The terms were introduced by Locke, although this distinction was made earlier by Democritus, Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes. By primary, or objective, properties Locke meant motion, impenetrability, solidity, cohesion of particles, shape, volume, etc. Secondary, or subjective, qualities (colour, smell, taste, sound), according to Locke, "are nothing in the objects themselves" and they depend upon the primary properties.

This point of view is explained by the mechanistic nature of Locke's materialism. Thus, all properties that could not be explained by means of mechanics were declared by him to be secondary, definable only by the subject's organization and state. The singling out of subjective properties was based on confusion of the objective existence of the properties with their degree of adequacy and the form of their reflection in consciousness, and resulted from the misunderstanding of the special role played by thought in reflecting the properties of objects.

Turning to account the inconsistencies of metaphysical materialism, the subjective idealists, D. Berkeley, D. Hume, and others, classed primary properties as subjective. Dialectical materialism denies the division of the properties of things into objective and subjective.

Primitive-Communal System

The first socio-economic formation, which existed many thousands of years ago and was common to all peoples in the early stage of their development. The production relations of this system were the product of a low level of development of the productive forces, of the primitive state of the tools of labour, of the natural division of labour by sex and age. The basis of the production relations was common ownership of the means of production (tools of labour, land, dwellings, agricultural implements, etc.). Within the framework of common ownership there was also private ownership of weapons, clothes, household utensils, etc.

In the Primitive-Communal System production was carried out collectively, by the clans. The produce was divided into equal parts and consumed collectively. Only by working together could the primitive people secure their means of subsistence and protect themselves against the attacks of wild animals and neighbouring communes.

On the basis of the first major division of labour—the separation of animal husbandry from cultivation—the productive forces of the Primitive-Communal System began developing with considerably greater speed. With their development there arose and developed exchange, private property, and economic inequality of individual members of the commune. Slave labour led to further economic inequality and was responsible for the disintegration of the primitive commune. Collective production and equal distribution of the product began to fetter the productive forces.

At the higher stage of development of the Primitive-Communal System the second major division of labour took place: the separation of the handicrafts from agriculture. This facilitated the further break-up of the Primitive-Communal System. The result was the emergence of the poor and the rich, exploitation, classes and the state. The Primitive-Communal System was replaced by class societies, e.g., the slave-owning system and feudalism.

Primitivism

A formalistic trend in modern art which arose at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical representative was the French self-educated artist Henri Rousseau (1844–1910). Inherent in Primitivism is the emphatic rejection of the historically evolved artistic rules and technical achievements, which are deliberately replaced by imitation of the art patterns of primitive society, and admiration of the naive and simplified forms of children's creation. Primitivism prefers pseudo-popular and pseudo-juvenile stylization, exaggeration, and inflation of individual details to the reproduction of reality in development.

Principal Co-ordination

A subjective idealist theory developed by R. Avenarius and his disciples (R. Willy, I. Petzoldt, and others). According to this theory, between our "ego" (system C, or the central term) and the environment (system R, or the counter-term) there is Principal Co-ordination (inseparable link). The objective world cannot exist without a certain "ego" which perceives it. People in their "experience" deal only with the values in a given expression (E-values)—sensations of green, cold, etc. ("elements")—and affectional relations of the pleasant, the true, the known, etc. ("characters").

This theory is incompatible with science, which considers man as the product of a long evolution of matter, and nature as existing before man and independently of him. Echoing Berkeley and Fichte, the theory of Principal Co-ordination leads to solipsism. The criticism of Principal Co-ordination is given in Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.

Principle

The leading idea, the basic rule of behaviour. In early ancient philosophy water, air, fire, the earth, etc., were taken as the prime elements. The Principle was considered as the expression of necessity or the law of phenomena. Logically, the Principle is the central concept, the basis of a system, and the generalization and extension of some proposition to all the phenomena of the field from which the Principle is abstracted. The Principle of activity, for example, means the ethical standard characterizing the relations between people in society.

Probability Logic

Logic in which propositions signify not only truth or untruth but may have the intermediate significance of probability of truth (p), of likelihood. The logical framework built on this basis is used to arrive at an approximate judgement of hypotheses not by comparing them with reality but through other propositions expressing knowledge already available to us. Thus, the degree of probability contained in the proposition "it will rain tomorrow" may be estimated by reference to the meteorological data available.

Consequently, the p of a hypothesis is a function of two arguments: the hypothesis itself (h) and the available information (k). If h follows logically from k, p is true to the extent that k is true; if h contradicts k, p is false; in all other cases p has an intermediate significance. The problem of the precise numerical value of the p of certain propositions in relation to others is open to discussion and has been treated in various ways by representatives of various trends in Probability Logic. The p of complex hypotheses, when the p of all the propositions comprising them is known, is calculated according to the rules of mathematical calculation of probability (see Probability, Theory of), Probability Logic being one of the interpretations of this calculation.

It would seem that the most fruitful application of Probability Logic is in inductive logic. Reference to Probability Logic was made by Aristotle and the sceptics of ancient times, but Leibniz was the first philosopher to have serious ideas on the subject. The theory of probability which arose at the end of the 17th century could more properly be described as Probability Logic or as an undivided science of probability. The separation of Probability Logic from the theory of probability began in the middle of the 19th century, when the attention of the latter became concentrated on mass chance events. Even today, many attempts have been made to regard the study of probabilities as an integral science with two branches, the theory of probability and Probability Logic.

Probability, Theory of

The study of mass-scale random events, i.e., of events that occur repeatedly under certain circumstances. When, for instance, several times a coin is tossed in the air, the result of each throw being an individual elementary random event, there can be only two alternatives: the coin must land heads or tails. In many instances of the operation of chance the most important factor is, of course, what will happen in each individual case. With this the Theory of Probability is not concerned. But mass random events cover an extremely wide field (e.g., the sex of an infant, frequency of defects in mass production, etc.). They occur also in physical, chemical, biological, and social phenomena. Hence the extremely wide application of the Theory of Probability in technology and the natural and social sciences.

One of the basic properties of mass-scale random events on which the theory is based is the stability of their relative frequencies (see Great Numbers, Law of), i.e., of the ratio of the number of experiments (or observations), in which the mass-scale random event occurs to the total number of experiments (or observations). This quantity is stable, particularly over a large number of experiments, and it is called the probability of the given mass-scale random event. The probability of any given event is calculated experimentally, but once it is given a mathematical expression, we can judge by the probability of certain initial events the probability of other events connected with them.

The concepts of chance and probability are not part of pure mathematics. Neither can the Theory of Probability be considered part of pure mathematics, although it can be made part of it by use of axiomatising (see Axiomatic Method). In spite of the value of such mathematical treatment, the Theory of Probability remains a science in its own right, with its own specific subject-matter, its function being to reveal the objective regularity in chance phenomena. These regularities, however, are statistical in character (see Laws, Statistical and Dynamic).

The investigation of probability, therefore, gives a fuller insight into law and also into the problem of the relation between chance and necessity. Moreover, it should be stressed that the probability of events is one of their objective properties and not the result of our observations of them, as is held by the advocates of the subjective-idealist approach to the Theory of Probability (e.g., the German mathematician Richard von Mises).

The history of the Theory of Probability is usually divided into four periods: the first embraces the formation of its elementary concepts and theorems (Pascal, Fermat, Bernoulli) when no concrete scientific material was available for its application. In the second period, covering the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, the need for calculations of probability arises in various spheres: the theory of errors (Gauss), the theory of accuracy in shooting (Poisson and Laplace), but so far the claim of the Theory of Probability to the function of generalized logic still holds.

The third period, covering the second half of the 19th century, saw the development of statistics on the basis of obsolete theoretical material, and the beginnings of the breakaway of the Theory of Probability from probability logic. A revolution in method was brought about by Chebyshev, who placed a new emphasis on strictness of proofs and evaluations. In the fourth period, in the 20th century, there was a sudden widening of the application of the Theory of Probability in various fields of technology and the natural and social sciences and it was recognized as a science. In this period an extremely important role in the development of the Theory of Probability is played by the Soviet mathematicians S. M. Bernstein, A. N. Kolmogorov, A. Y. Khinchin, and others.

Process

A regular, successive changing of a phenomenon, its transition into another phenomenon (see Development).

Proclus (410–485)

Founder of the school of Neo-Platonism, born in Constantinople and died in Athens. Proclus was the initiator of the dialectical notion of triadicism (see Triad and also Hegel). Because of his effort to fit the contents of ancient mythology in a single philosophical system, Proclus is characterized in historico-philosophical literature as a systematizer of heathenism, a scholastic of Hellenism.

Proceeding from the idea of Plato that the singular is revealed in plurality, and that the latter strives to secure unity, Proclus recognized three stages of the development of all that exists: sojourn, aspiration forward, the reverse aspiration. According to Proclus, development proceeds not by division or transformation, but as a result of fullness of strength, in consequence of which one creates the other, itself not undergoing change.

Main works: The Elements of Theology, Platonic Theology.

Production

The process of consuming labour power and creating the means of production and articles of personal use necessary for the existence and development of society. The process of Production as the purposeful activity of people by which they act upon external nature and transform it to make it conform to their needs and at the same time change their own nature, is a perpetual and natural condition of human life.

The basic elements of every process of Production are: purposeful activity of people, their labour, the object of labour and the means of labour. In the process of Production men also influence one another, uniting in a definite way for joint activities. Therefore, Production always bears a social character. Consequently, there are two sides to Production: the productive forces and the relations of production. Production is inseparably linked with distribution, exchange, and consumption, the three of which forming an integral whole. Production is the starting point and the determining factor with respect to consumption.

Production is connected with consumption through distribution which, conditioned by the mode of production, by the form of ownership, establishes the share of individual members in the social product. Production always exists in a definite, historically established social form. It may be the primitive, the slave-owning, the feudal, the small-scale commodity, the capitalist, the socialist, or the communist social form. The general features of Production (the unity of its main elements, its relation to distribution, exchange, and consumption) assume a different nature depending upon its historical type, i.e., the mode of production, upon the nature of the relations of production (see Capitalism, Socialism).

Productive Forces

The means of production and people equipped with production experience and habits of work. The Productive Forces express the attitude of men to the objects and forces of nature used for the production of material wealth. The main productive force of society are the producers, the workers who constantly improve the instruments of labour, use more widely the wealth of nature, enrich their production experience, raise the productivity of labour. The condition of the Productive Forces are an index to the degree of human society's power over nature.

The Productive Forces undergo constant development: first of all the instruments of labour are perfected, and this determines the necessity for the development of the relations of production and the mode of production. The history of human society shows that in the formations with antagonistic classes, at a certain stage of the development of material production, there arises a contradiction, a conflict between the Productive Forces and the relations of production. The relations of production begin to lag behind the level of development of the Productive Forces, they become outmoded, outlive themselves, and turn from a form of development of the Productive Forces into an obstacle and hindrance to them.

The delay in the development of the Productive Forces of contemporary capitalism, where the relations of production have long ago become obsolete, corroborates this proposition. Under the socialist mode of production, when the relations of production are constantly and in a planned way brought in accord with the growing Productive Forces, there is powerful and accelerated development of the latter. The creation of the material and technical basis, i.e., the Productive Forces, of communism is a decisive link in the chain of the economic, social, and cultural problems involved in building communist society.

Progress and Retrogression in Social Development

Opposite forms of social development as a whole or individual aspects of it, signifying respectively either the progressive development of society on an ascending line, its rise, or the reversion to the old, outlived forms, stagnation, and decay. The criterion of social Progress is the degree of development of the productive forces, of the economic system, and the institutions of its superstructure determined by it, together with the development and dissemination of science and culture, the development of the individual, the degree of extension of social freedom. The development of the mode of production is basic and decisive here.

In individual historical periods, in individual countries an essential, if not decisive significance for the description of social development from the point of view of Progress or Retrogression may, on the strength of their relative independence, attach to such social phenomena as political life, culture, education, etc., although they are secondary, derivative and determined by the economic system. The history of the countries where a fascist dictatorial regime was established, or is established (see Fascism) may serve as example of social Retrogression determined by political factors.

The development of antagonistic socio-economic formations is extremely contradictory. Although in certain periods of history these formations serve as stages of Progress, in the period of decline and decay, the features of Retrogression become the dominant ones. However, in this period Retrogression cannot be universal, inasmuch as the basic tendency in the development of mankind as a whole is not Retrogression but Progress, which in the case in point is expressed in the emergence of the elements and prerequisites of a new society and in the development of certain aspects of social life.

Thus, for example, the Retrogression observed in the development of bourgeois society in the imperialist era is accompanied by Progress in many branches of science and technology, as well as in a number of other social phenomena. However, to assess the vitality of a given society, its ability to show Progress or Retrogression, it is more important to determine the general tendency of its development, which aids classes and social groups interested in social Progress to cognize more deeply and apply the laws of social development.

The concepts "Progress" and "Retrogression" are interpreted differently in philosophy and sociology. The scientists in the period of the progressive development of capitalism (Vico, Herder, Hegel, and others) recognized Progress and tried to find its rational foundation. Scientists in the period of the decline of capitalism either reduce the concept "Progress" to the spheres of individual cultures and civilizations (Spengler, Toynbee) or do not admit the possibility of studying Progress in history. They try to explain Retrogression by the action of purely subjective factors, the Retrogression of nazi Germany, for example, by the features of Hitler's personality and by the activities of the National-Socialist Party.

Marxism-Leninism gives a scientific explanation of Progress and Retrogression. Progress as a progressive development without relapses into Retrogression is possible only in a non-antagonistic, communist society.

Prolegomena

A short introduction to some science, the object of which is a preliminary acquaintance with its contents, problems, and the method of investigation. Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik, die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können, by Kant serves as introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason (in fact a short summary of this work).

Proletarian Internationalism

The ideology of the international solidarity of the proletarians and labouring people of all countries, one of the basic ideological principles by which the working class and its party are guided. The idea of Proletarian Internationalism was first enunciated by Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, which proved the community of interests of the workers of all countries in the struggle for liberation from capitalism. The essence of Proletarian Internationalism is expressed in the slogan "Working men of all countries, unite!"

The working class of every nation cannot regard its struggle disassociated from the struggle of the proletariat of other nations, for its enemy is not only the bourgeoisie of its own country but the bourgeoisie of other countries. Hence the common fundamental interests of the world proletariat as a whole. In Proletarian Internationalism the love of the proletariat for its country, the desire to see it free from class and other kinds of oppression, is integrally bound up with the support of the struggle of the working people of other countries for peace, democracy, and socialism. A scornful attitude to other nations, even small ones, is alien to Proletarian Internationalism, for every nation makes its own contribution to world culture.

The Great October Socialist Revolution and the victory of socialism in the USSR weakened the world system of imperialism, undermined its foundations, and rendered great support to the international proletariat in its just struggle; at the same time Proletarian Internationalism was shown by the support which the international working class rendered to the Soviet Republic. The ideas of Proletarian Internationalism are embodied in the solution of the question of nationalities in the USSR and other socialist countries and in the creation of a new type of the multinational state founded on friendship between nationalities.

With the formation of the world socialist system many more aspects of the content of Proletarian Internationalism have become manifest. One of the manifestations of Proletarian Internationalism in contemporary conditions is the friendship and mutual help of the countries forming the world socialist system. The safeguarding of the security of the socialist community, the struggle for peace and against war, aid to the peoples of backward countries in developing their national economy and culture are among the most important requirements of Proletarian Internationalism. Proletarian Internationalism is inseparably linked with socialist patriotism, with devotion to socialism, to the world socialist system. The building of communism in the USSR is a great internationalist task of the Soviet people, answering the interests of the world socialist system as a whole, the interests of the international proletariat, the whole of mankind.

In our times the principles of Proletarian Internationalism demand an uncompromising struggle against all varieties of national seclusion, against the ideology of cosmopolitanism, and the resolute defence of the unity of the Workers' and Communist Parties. All striving to divide peoples on a nationalist or even racial basis, all Great-Power attitudes to other peoples are incompatible with the ideology of Proletarian Internationalism. These are manifestations of petty-bourgeois ideology, which replaces the class approach by a geographical or racial approach and condemns the peoples to isolation and national parochialism, diverts them from the international revolutionary movement, and leads to the weakening of the anti-imperialist struggle.

Proof

Process of reasoning designed to establish the truth or falsity of an idea. The idea to be proved is called the thesis. The inferences on which the proof is built, and from which the thesis logically follows, are called arguments. Arguments are assumed to be true and must not involve premises which assume the thesis to be proved, otherwise the result is the error known as circular evidence.

A proof which establishes the truth of the thesis is called simply proof; one which establishes the falsity of the thesis is called a refutation. Proof may be direct, that is, it may consist of a series of deductions whose premises are arguments or propositions inferred from arguments, or it may be arrived at by means of additional assumptions. The latter type of proof is built up in the following manner. Certain propositions are proved with the help of assumptions, after which the proof of these propositions is converted in accordance with certain special rules into a proof of the original thesis without assumptions.

Proofs arrived at with the help of assumptions include: (1) those whose assumptions are eliminated by means of the deduction theorem; (2) proof by cases, in the following form: if we know of the existence of cases A₁, or A₂, or Aₖ, we first prove thesis B, assuming A₁, then A₂, and so on, up to Aₖ. Thesis B is thus proved without assumptions; (3) apogogic proof.

Proofs are subject to various errors due to ignoratio elenchi, acceptance of unfounded or erroneous arguments, or due to the employment of incorrect methods. A proof containing an error is invalid. But the detection of error in a proof does not constitute proof of the falsity of the thesis. It is possible to have proofs that establish the truth of a thesis not as a certainty but as a probability.

Proof of the Existence of God

Arguments seeking to prove the main dogma of religion—the existence of God—put forward by various idealist philosophers. The three basic arguments are as follows.

The cosmological argument, found already in Plato and Aristotle and maintained by Leibniz and Wolff, states that God exists as the prime cause of all things and all phenomena. This argument is based on the unscientific assumption that the world must be finite in time, and that its prime cause is non-material.

The teleological argument, proposed by Socrates and Plato, subsequently developed by the Stoics, states that everything in nature has a purpose that can be explained only by assuming the existence of a supernatural rational being, which arranges all phenomena harmoniously. This argument was disproved by Darwin's theory of evolution, which proved the natural causes of purposefulness.

The ontological argument was advanced by St. Augustine, who asserted that all men conceive of God as the perfect being. This conception, he argued, could not arise unless a perfect being existed in reality. Therefore God exists. In the Middle Ages this argument was taken up and defended by Anselm of Canterbury. Its weakness in assuming that what is thought must be real was so obvious that it was criticised not only by the materialist philosophers but by many theologians, for example, Thomas Aquinas.

Other arguments for the existence of God, epistemological, psychological, and moral, are advanced by various idealist philosophers. Arguments for the existence of God were disproved within the framework of idealism by Kant, who asserted that God is a being above experience (transcendental) and known only by reason, and therefore the existence of God cannot be proved. Analysis of the arguments for the existence of God reveals that they all contain a logical mistake and rest ultimately on blind faith.

Propaedeutics

Preliminary exercise, preparatory, introductory course in some science, expounded in a systematised and concise form. Propaedeutics precedes a more detailed study of the corresponding branch of knowledge. A school course of philosophy is sometimes called philosophical propaedeutics.

Property

A side of an object which determines its difference from, or similarity to, other objects and is manifested in the interaction with them. For example, extension, elasticity, colour, electric conductivity, etc. Every property is relative. In relation to wood, iron is hard, in relation to diamond it is soft. Each individual thing possesses a countless number of properties, the unity of which expresses its quality. Properties inherent in all objects or connected with the very nature of matter are called universal.

There are specific and general properties, basic and non-basic, necessary and accidental, essential and non-essential, external and internal, compatible and incompatible, separable and inseparable, natural and artificial, etc. Dialectical materialism asserts that all properties of things are inherent in the things themselves, that is, are objective. Properties do not exist independently and they can be separated from a thing only abstractly. A study of separate properties of objects is a stage in cognising their qualities.

Propositional Calculus

The logical system which formalises reasoning based on true relations between propositions which are regarded in abstraction from their internal subject-predicate structure. Various formulations of Propositional Calculus are possible. There is, for example, the inductive definition of a formula: (1) propositional variables p, q, r, ... are formulas; (2) if A is a formula then (A) is a formula; (3) if A and B are formulas, then (A)→(B), (A) ∨ (B), (A) · (B) are formulas; (4) nothing else is a formula.

An axiom is a formula of the following types: 1) A→(B→A); 2) (A→B)→A; 3) (A→B)→((A→(B→C)→(A→C)); 4) (A·B)→B; 5) A→(B→(A·B)); 6) A→(A∨B); 7) B→(A∨B); 8) (A→C)→((B→C)→((A∨B)→C)); 9) (A→B̄)→((A→B)→Ā); 10) A→Ā̄ where the line over the symbols is a sign of negation; · a sign of conjunction; → a sign of implication and ∨ a sign of disjunction.

The following rule of inference is assumed: from A and A→B, B is directly inferred. This is the basis for a definition of the formula, inference and proof deduced from Propositional Calculus. Propositional Calculus is non-contradictory and complete. The decision problem is decidable. For non-classical Propositional Calculus see Constructive Logic and Many-Valued Logic.

Propositional Function

One of the main concepts of contemporary formal logic. Propositional Function is characterised by the fact that it relates one of the values of truth (truth, falsehood) to the objects of a given object-field. For example, the concept "horse" (that is, the concept of the property of "being a horse") from this point of view fulfils the role of a function, ascribing to the objects of a given object-field (e.g., the field of material bodies) the value "truth", if the object is a horse and the value "falsehood", if the object is not a horse. The introduction of the Propositional Function and quantifiers, performed within the limits of a functional calculus makes it possible to express the structure of judgements more profoundly and completely than within the limits of a propositional calculus, to reflect a wider range of conclusions and proofs, used in reasoning.

Prosyllogism

See Polysyllogism.

Protagoras (481–411 B.C.)

Greek philosopher, a leading Sophist, lived in Abdera; he was expelled from Athens for his atheism, and his book On the Gods was burnt. Bourgeois researchers interpreted Protagoras as an absolute sceptic, translating extant fragments of his work as follows: "Man is the measure of all things: of those which are, that they are; of those which are not, that they are not." But the Greek word corresponding to "that" may be translated differently: "existing, so long as they exist", etc.

With this interpretation Protagoras is not a subjectivist and sceptic; his thesis contains an element of a materialistic shade of anthropologism; this agrees with the assessment of Sextus Empiricus which amounts to the fact that for Protagoras "matter is unstable" and "the main causes (logoses) of all things are in matter".

Protestantism

The third kind of Christianity, after Orthodoxy and Catholicism, originating in the period of the Reformation. Protestantism is the name of a number of various independent religions or churches differing in dogmatic and canonical principles. The Protestant religion has its own specific features. Protestants do not recognise the Catholic purgatory, reject Orthodox and Catholic saints, angels, the Virgin, worshipping only the divine Trinity.

The main distinction between Protestantism, on the one hand, and Catholicism and Orthodoxy, on the other, is that Protestantism professes an immediate link between God and man. In the Protestant view, grace is communicated to man by God, without the intermediary of the church and "salvation" is achieved only by man's own faith and God's will. This doctrine undermined the primacy of spiritual power over secular power, making the Catholic Church and the Pope of Rome redundant, liberating man from feudal chains and arousing in his soul the feeling of personal responsibility, opening the way for the bourgeois-democratic liberties and bourgeois individualism.

As a result of the different relations between God and man in Protestantism, not only the clergy and the church but also the religious cult are assigned a secondary place. There is no worship of icons or relics, the number of sacraments is reduced to two (Baptism and the Eucharist), divine service consists, as a rule, of sermons, congregational prayer, the singing of psalms. Formally, Protestantism is based exclusively on the Bible, but in practice every Protestant religion has its own symbol of faith, authorities, "sacred" books, etc., its own kind of "sacred tradition".

Contemporary Protestantism is spread mainly in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, and the USA. In the 20th century the oecumenic movement has gained considerably in Protestantism, resulting in the creation of the World Council of Churches.

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1809–1865)

French political figure, philosopher, sociologist, and economist, one of the founders of anarchism. Proudhon's works are: Qu'est-ce que la propriété? (1840), La Philosophie de la misère (1846), and others. In philosophy Proudhon was an idealist, eclectic; he vulgarised Hegelian dialectics, transforming it into a rough scheme, into a teaching of the mechanical combination of "good" and "bad" aspects in every phenomenon.

Proudhon considered the history of society as the struggle of ideas. While declaring big capitalist property as "stolen", he was perpetuating small property. He defended the utopian idea of organisation under capitalism of a "just exchange" between individual commodity producers. The founders of Marxism criticised the teachings of Proudhon and his adherents.

Psyche

The product of interaction specific to a subject between that subject and the object. To simple speculation Psyche takes the form of phenomena of man's so-called subjective world accessible to self-observation: sensations, perceptions, ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. Speaking about the essence of Psyche, it is necessary to distinguish it as a philosophical concept and as a concrete scientific concept.

The philosophical concept of Psyche has a direct bearing on the fundamental problem of philosophy. In this respect the concept "Psyche" is identified with the concepts "consciousness", "thought", "cognition", "mind", "idea", "spirit", etc., and is regarded by dialectical materialism as a special property of a highly organised matter, which is the reflection of the objective reality in the form of ideal images. Matter and Psyche are in opposition, but only within the limits of the fundamental problem of philosophy, that is, the problem of the relation of thinking to being, for Psyche cannot exist outside and independent of matter. Lenin wrote: "To operate beyond these limits with the antithesis of matter and mind, physical and mental, as though they were absolute opposites, would be a great mistake." (Vol. 14, p. 246.)

As a concrete scientific concept, Psyche is simultaneously the product and condition, specific to the subject, of the interaction with the object. In the process of such interaction, systems of nervous links are formed in the human brain; ensuring the reflection of reality, these systems are at the same time the regulators of the process of the interaction of the subject and the object, allowing man to orientate himself in the surrounding world. Psyche as a material structure, with its own reflecting function, is not reducible to a nervous phenomenon: every individual element of this structure is built according to the laws of physiology as a result of the interaction of the organs and tissues of the organism; but Psyche itself is formed in the process of the interaction of the subject with the object and in this sense it is formed according to other, psychological, laws.

The appearance of Psyche is connected with the development of life, with the process of complication of the forms of interaction between living beings and their surroundings, with the appearance of the signal connections of the organism and the surroundings. In the process of animal evolution the special organ of Psyche is formed, first the nervous system and, later, its highest section, the brain. With higher animals and man such an organ is the cortex of the big cerebral hemispheres.

The Psyche of man developed in the process of labour inseparably linked with the development of speech. It differs qualitatively from the Psyche of animals, which is the result of biological development. The specific feature of human Psyche is consciousness of reality, which ensures prevision of events and planning of actions. The transition to the higher form of the development of the Psyche was the result of the reconstruction of the organ of the Psyche—the brain: in the human phase, the mechanisms of the nervous activity of animals were complemented with the mechanisms of the second signal system, that is, the signalisation of reality by means of words (see I. Pavlov).

From its very origin human Psyche has been a socio-historical product. In individual development the Psyche of contemporary man is formed in the process of his mastering the forms of activity developed in the course of history.

Psycho-Analysis

The general theory and method of treating nervous and psychical diseases proposed by S. Freud, and a theoretical tenet of Freudism. The main propositions of Psycho-Analysis are the following: the subconscious which dominates the psyche is inhibited in the depths of the psyche by "censorship", a psychic instance formed under the influence of the system of social interdictions. In special "conflicting" cases the unconscious inclinations evade "censorship" and appear before the consciousness as dreams, slips of the tongue or of the pen, neurotic symptoms (the appearance of diseases), etc. Since the psychic is primary with respect to the somatic (corporeal) it is necessary to investigate the psyche by subjective methods. One such method introduced by Psycho-Analysis is the so-called "method of free associations", a method of interpreting dreams, slips of the pen, etc. These methods are called upon to divine the "truth", i.e., the sexual condition which the apparent sense (or visible nonsense) of the manifestations of the unconscious conceal.

Psycho-Analysis is a glaring example of a "vicious circle": the supposed supremacy of the unconscious, which it is required to prove, "is proved" in every concrete case of Psycho-Analysis by means of arbitrary interpretations, based on this supposition itself. In the latter period of his activities Freud, and later his disciples and contemporary investigators, transplanted the subjective methods of Psycho-Analysis into social history, all the events of which they arbitrarily interpret as manifestations of the unconscious inclinations of the individual and the people as a whole. Psycho-Analysis is the theoretical and methodological basis of a number of trends of the modern psychological school in sociology.

Psycho-Physical Parallelism

One of the trends in psychology, dualistically offering a solution of the problem of the relation between the psychical as the ideal and the physiological, or physical, as the material. The adherents of Psycho-Physical Parallelism (W. Wundt, T. Lipps, H. Ebbinghaus, E. B. Titchener, T. Ribot, and others) regard the psychical and the physiological as mutually independent, parallel, cause-effect lines. But as corporeal injury, for instance, affects the psychical condition, and the sense-content of the psychical processes changes the course of physiological processes, Psycho-Physical Parallelism, as a rule, is supplemented by the theory of psycho-physical interaction (L. Busse, C. Stumpf, O. Külpe, and others), according to which the psychical and the physiological have constant influence one upon the other.

Here, as in the vulgar materialist conception, the very principle of the correlation of the ideal content of the psyche and physiology is erroneous. In reality the content of the psychical processes is determined causatively by the objective world and man's practical and theoretical mastery of it. The physiological processes constitute the necessary material mechanism, ensuring the vital activity and all the social functions of man, including the process of cognition, reflection. But physiology by itself does not determine the content of the psychical processes. That is why epistemologically the psyche must be contrasted not to the physiological mechanism of reflection but to what is reflected. In the last analysis, Psycho-Physical Parallelism necessarily leads to idealistic conclusions in the spirit of psycho-somatics.

Psycho-Physical Problem

The problem of the relation between the psychical and the physical. The Psycho-Physical Problem became particularly acute in the 17th century, when Descartes affirmed the existence of two substances (matter—the substance which has extent but does not think, and the soul—the substance that thinks but has no extent) and counterpoised the soul and the body.

In contemporary psychology there have always been tendencies towards a false solution of the Psycho-Physical Problem, e.g., the theory of psycho-physical parallelism and its varieties. According to this theory, psychical and physical phenomena seem to represent two parallels, sets of phenomena independent of each other, the links of which correspond to each other. The dialectical materialist approach to the Psycho-Physical Problem is based on the proposition that the unity of the world implies its materiality. The psychical is not a special principle (substance), but a product of the development of matter.

Psychological School in Sociology

A subjective idealist conception of society which spread at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The representatives of the Psychological School sought the key to the understanding of the social phenomena in the psyche of individuals or in the collective psyche (psychical interaction of individuals). The founder of the Psychological School was the American sociologist Lester Ward. Ward saw the qualitative peculiarity of society in the psychological character of social phenomena. Another prominent exponent of the Psychological School was the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde, who considered men's imitating one another (vogue, tradition) to be the main law of sociology. The German sociologist Georg Simmel was also close to the Psychological School.

The beginning of the 20th century saw the decay of the Psychological School, the rejection of frank, straightforward psychologism. The psychological theories of society merge with so-called "cultural sociology" (A. Weber and others). Contemporary psychologism does not constitute a special school, but is a peculiar methodological principle. The application of psychologism to social phenomena is practised to a greater extent in American social psychology (E. Bogardus, L. Bernard, and others). Freudism is also widespread. Psychologism may be considered as a kind of social reformism, since it is based on the aspiration to reform society by means of psychology. Psychologism in sociology also serves as a means of influencing the people.

Psychology

A science, dealing with one of the aspects of the interaction of the subject and the object. The object of Psychology is psychic activity, the psychic qualities and conditions of the subject. The border-lines, distinguishing Psychology from other related sciences (theory of knowledge, logic, ethics, aesthetics, and others), have never been clearly defined.

Psychology dates back to antiquity and it developed for long within the sphere of philosophy. The history of Psychology has been the arena of a fierce struggle between materialism and idealism. The fundamental problem whose solution determines the materialist or the idealist positions in psychology is the problem of the nature of psyche: whether it is the product of the development of matter or is a substance independent of matter. In the middle of the 19th century, with the introduction of the experimental method in Psychology, it became an independent field of knowledge. However, the false subjectivist methodological positions of many representatives of Psychology at that time plunged Psychology into a crisis. In the 20th century, it split into a number of idealist and mechanistic trends—behaviourism, Gestalt psychology, Freudism, and others.

Psychology as a science founded on dialectical materialism was created in the USSR. Scientific Psychology proceeds from the Marxist-Leninist theory of knowledge and its natural scientific basis is the theory of reflexes in the psyche, propounded by Sechenov and developed by I. Pavlov. Contemporary Psychology is very much differentiated and besides general Psychology, which investigates the nature of psychic activity and its laws, it includes child Psychology, pedagogical Psychology, labour Psychology, art Psychology, and others. One of the basic problems of Psychology is the investigation of human labour, especially in connection with man's modern technological control. Under socialism Psychology investigates the formation of the moral make-up of the new people, especially of the young generation, seeks new means and methods to assist an all-round development of the individual, his physical and mental capabilities. By disclosing the laws of psychical activity, its appearance and development, Psychology provides valuable data for the construction of a dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge and logic (see Psyche, Higher Nervous Activity).

Psychology of Creative Work

The field of psychology which investigates the laws of man's activity in creating what is new and original in science, technology, art, and other forms of labour activity. The object of the Psychology of Creative Work includes also the creative elements in learning and recreation. Despite the wealth of descriptions of the creative process, the Psychology of Creative Work has been but slightly worked out. Attempts to disclose the Psychology of Creative Work by the theories of "intuition", "unconscious work", and others are not of scientific interest, inasmuch as their authors erroneously consider creative work as an unexplained phenomenon, accessible only to the elect.

Often enough the role of any labour or any activity whatsoever, including thinking, has been denied in the act of creation; it was considered that the discovery of the new comes about by itself or as a result of unconscious work. Materialist psychology proceeds from the fact that creative work, in its developed forms, is a result of labour. The motives and aims of creative activity arise from the requirements of society, and the possibility of solving a given creative problem appears when the conditions necessary for it are provided in the course of social development. Scientists, inventors, artists make use of the knowledge and the means which have been worked out and stored in the development of science, technology, and the arts. However, the creative element proper often presupposes the discovery of a new mode, means or method of action, reflecting the properties and relations of objects and phenomena hitherto unknown.

Concentrating all his attention on a task, man usually cannot observe himself, and that is why often enough the finding of the solution is experienced by him as something sudden, although in reality it is the result of an intensive and persisting work. Creative activity demands the maximum application of the initiative, knowledge, and abilities of man. Such application is reflected in the will and the particular emotional conditions depicted in detail in many works of literature.

Psychology of Religion

A trend in psychology which investigates emotional experiences over the belief in the supernatural, the emotions, feelings, called forth by religious preaching and staging, the means of religious suggestion and autosuggestion, the cultivation of religious fear, the feeling of sinfulness leading to the appearance of a religious faith, religious ecstasy, and also the psychic factors promoting the conservation of religious faith, etc.

Contemporary theologians pay great attention to the psychological aspect of religion, attempting to turn religion into an eternal factor of inner life, into a psychic factor. The representatives of the empirical Psychology of Religion come out under the banner of positivism, the "objective" study of religion (James, Starbuck, Flournoy, Ribot, Godin, and others). This school studies the religious feelings of separate individuals, reducing religion to a subjective psychic condition. It completely ignores the social causes which distort people's psyche as well as their world outlook along religious lines. Adherents of the empirical Psychology of Religion make wide use of different questionnaires, methods of observation and experiment.

The psychology of religion openly attempts to prove the existence of God. A number of its works are carried out with the purely practical purpose of working out methods of religious influence upon the human psyche. Perverted emotions, broken will, morbid manifestations of the human psyche—neurosis, hysteria, ecstasy, etc., are used to strengthen religion, enhance the church's authority. The perversion of the human psyche by religion and the use of it for religious purposes is particularly fanatical in religious sects in which "direct" intercourse of believers with God is staged.

Psycho-Somatics

A subjective idealist theory, which regards man as the integral unity of soul and body, but with the psyche transformed into something isolated from social historical practice and into the primary principle and basis of all processes in the human organism. In the spirit of Freudism Psycho-Somatics elevates into absolute the role of psychical reactions in human behaviour, in the inception of diseases, and in maintenance of health. Psycho-Somatics appeared in the thirties of the 20th century (Alexander and Dunbar).

Public Authority

One of the main attributes of the state as distinct from pre-class tribal organisation. Its significance was for the first time disclosed by Engels (The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State).

Public Authority is isolated from the people, defends the interests of the exploiters, the minority of society. It is exercised by men for whom government becomes a profession (officialdom, army, police, etc.). Important adjuncts of Public Authority are the courts, prisons, and other penal institutions.

Public Opinion

A certain aggregate of ideas and concepts which express the attitude of one or several social groups to events and phenomena of social life, to the activity of classes and individuals. Public Opinion is manifested in the approval or condemnation of a man's actions by the people around him. It is formed purposefully by class organisations and institutions and also spontaneously when people are guided solely by practical experience and tradition. That is why Public Opinion reveals not only a difference of interests, but also an unequal degree of social awareness.

In an antagonistic society two mutually exclusive Public Opinions always exist as a reflection of the interests of the exploiters and the exploited. In socialist society Public Opinion differs radically in both its nature and its features. Here the struggle of opinions is not antagonistic and the differences are resolved through the growth of the communist consciousness of society's members, stimulated by criticism and self-criticism and ever growing consideration for the interests of the people. This is promoted by the activities of the Communist Party armed with the knowledge of the laws of social development.

The conversion of socialist statehood into communist public self-administration determines the growing role of Public Opinion as a means of communist education and a peculiar regulator of people's behaviour.

Purism

A trend in modern art; appeared in the twenties of the 20th century in France and detached itself from cubism. Its founders (A. Ozenfant, b. 1886, and Le Corbusier, pseudonym of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, 1887-1965) proclaimed the main task of art to be the "purification" of reality from what seems to be alien to it, namely the "ideological complexity", by reducing the vital phenomena and events to their elementary, simplest forms. Inasmuch as "man is a geometrical creature", art must also be permeated with geometry, and "a picture can be constructed in the same way as a machine".

Purism makes a fetish of the machine, transforming man into its appendage and adjunct. In a number of works of Fernand Léger (1881-1955), W. Baumeister (1889-1955), and others, the image of man is reduced to a mechanism, to a peculiar aggregate of pistons, gears, and cylinders. Still life has become the favourite genre of Purism.

Purpose

A result anticipated in the mind and on the achievement of which human action is concentrated. Purpose is a regular feature of man's cognitive activity; it expresses his dependence on the surrounding world and on objective laws with which the purposeful activity of people must be co-ordinated. Purpose which runs counter to these laws is unrealisable. The dialectical interaction between necessity and freedom is expressed in purposeful activity of people. Purpose is also a conscious motive which guides and regulates action. It pervades practice as an intrinsic law of actions, which determines their mode and nature and to which man subordinates his will.

Purpose may be distant, immediate, direct, general or specific, intermediate or final. The supreme ultimate Purpose of the Soviet people, communism, has now become a direct Purpose. In science (biology, sociology, cybernetics) Purpose also designates a stable condition of a system to be achieved through feedback (see Purposefulness).

Purposefulness

An aspect and manifestation of the intricate causal connection and law-governed development of the organic world, of social systems, man's actions, and so on. Purposefulness is expressed in various ways in different spheres: in the organic world, in the adaptation of organisms to the environment; in social life, in the withering away of obsolete social orders and the rise of new ones capable of promoting the progress of society, in the activity of people aimed at achieving definite aims, etc.

Facts of organic Purposefulness, utilised by teleology for proving God's existence, received scientific explanation in Darwin's theory of natural selection. The Purposefulness of the forms of social life is scientifically demonstrated in Marxist economic theory and historical materialism. Cybernetics in its general form means the adverse action of feedback, in which the information about the discrepancy between the required and actual state turns into a cause for the ever greater approximation of the system to the required state. The highest form of Purposefulness is that of human activity in which (and only in which) a purposeful aim is included in the cause-and-effect chain as its most important link.

All actions of men corresponding to some purpose are purposeful in the broad sense. In a more profound sense, only that activity is purposeful which conforms not only to the given conditions, but also to the general trend of development and is based on knowledge of the objective laws and requirements of development.

Pyrrho of Elis (c. 365–275 B.C.)

Greek philosopher, founder of antique scepticism. His teaching is clearly expounded in the works of his disciple Timon. Pyrrho concerned himself chiefly with ethics, the problems of happiness and its achievement. He sought to attain imperturbable happiness (see Ataraxia) by abstaining from sufferings (see Apathia), scepticism being the means of achieving this. According to Pyrrho, we cannot know anything about the things, and, therefore, it is best to refrain from judging them, the moral value of this action lying in the achievement of a peace of mind. Pyrrho's teaching influenced the New Academy (see Academy of Plato) and Roman scepticism.

Pythagoreans

Followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580–500 B.C.). The Pythagorean school flourished until the end of the 4th century B.C., making a valuable contribution to the development of mathematics and astronomy. However, by absolutising abstract quantity and divorcing it from material objects, the Pythagoreans arrived at an idealist philosophy, according to which quantitative relations constitute the essence of objects. Thus, having discovered that a certain quantitative interval is the basis of musical tones and harmony, the Pythagoreans absolutised this discovery in their teaching on the cosmic "harmony of the spheres".

This teaching gave rise to Pythagorean mathematical symbolism and mysticism of numbers which was full of superstitions and combined with Pythagoras's faith in the transmigration of the soul. As the school developed, its idealistic and mystical tendency grew. Pythagoreanism was not only a philosophical and mathematical school; it was also a religious brotherhood and political organisation of the slaveowning aristocracy. Pythagoras founded a reactionary Pythagorean Union in Croton (South Italy). Five hundred years later, in the epoch of the decline of the antique slave-owning system, the Pythagorean mysticism of numbers was adopted and revived in Neo-Platonism.