[ Outline of the General Plan][131]
( 1 ) Historical introduction : the metaphysical conception has become impossible in natural science owing to the very development of the latter.(1)
(3) Dialectics as the science of universal inter-connection. Main laws: transformation of quantity and quality — mutual penetration of polar opposites and transformation into each other when carried to extremes — development through contradiction or negation of the negation — spiral form of development.
(4) The inter-connection of the sciences. Mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology. St. Simon (Comte), and Hegel.
(5) Aperçus(2) on the separate sciences and their dialectical content:
1. Mathematics: dialectical aids and expressions.— Mathematical infinite really occurring. 2. Celestial mechanics — now resolved into a process.— Mechanics: point of departure was inertia, which is only the negative expression of the indestructibility of motion. 3. Physics — transitions of molecular motions into one another. Clausius and Loschmidt.
4. Chemistry: theories, energy.
5. Biology. Darwinism. Necessity and chance. (6) The limits of knowledge. Du Bois-Reymond(3) and Nägeli.(4)— Helmholtz, Kant, Hume.
(7) The mechanical theory. Haeckel.(5)
(8) The plastidule soul — Haeckel and Nägeli.[132]
(9) Science and teaching — Virchow.[133]
(10) The cell state — Virchow.[134]
(11) Darwinian politics and theory of society — Haeckel and Schmidt.[135]—Differentiation of man through labour [Arbeit].(6)— Application of economics to natural science. Helmholtz's "work" [Arbeit] (Populäre Vorträge, II).[136] ^*-%yy+^, - *' ^ ^. ^ ^ / ^ ^ û . -< 4^y " '
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Outline of the general plan of Dialectics of Nature
[ Outline of the Part Plan]
(1) Motion in general. (2) Attraction and repulsion. Transference of motion. (3) [Law of the] conservation of energy applied to this. Repulsion + attraction.—Addition of repulsion = energy.
(4) Gravitation — heavenly bodies — terrestrial mechanics. (5) Physics. Heat. Electricity. (6) Chemistry. (7) Summary.
(a) Before 4: Mathematics. Infinite line. + and — are equal. (b) In astronomy: performance of work by the tides. Double calculation in Helmholtz, II, [p.] 120.(1)
"Forces" in Helmholtz, II, [p.] 190.(2) "
Endnotes
[131] The general plan for Dialectics of Nature drawn up by Engels in late August or early September 1878 outlines the structure of this work. Indications of the date are provided by: reference in "Old Preface to [Anti-]Diihring" (see Note 154), Haeckel's pamphlet Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre, published in July 1878, and Engels' letter to Lavrov of August 10, 1878 (see present edition, Vol. 45).
[132] Plastidules was the name Haeckel gave to the smallest particles of live plasma,
[133] each of which, according to his theory, is a protein molecule of highly complex structure and possesses a kind of elementary "soul" (see E. Haeckel, Die Perigenesis der Plastidule, Berlin, 1876). The problem of the "soul of the plastidule", the existence of embryonic consciousness in elementary live organisms, and the relationship between consciousness and its material substratum were discussed by Haeckel, Nägeli and Virchow at the 50th Congress of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, held in Munich in September 1877. Haeckel devoted a special chapter in his Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre (Stuttgart, 1878) to defending his views against Virchow's attacks. As Engels' letter to Lavrov of August 10, 1878, shows, he had already obtained the pamphlet by that time (see present edition, Vol. 45). 33 Engels has in mind a discussion held by Ernst Haeckel and Rudolf Virchow at the 50th Congress of German Natural Scientists and Physicians in 1877 on the teaching of Darwinism in schools. The discussion developed into an argument about the freedom of science teaching in general. Virchow, who saw a direct link between the spread of Darwinism and the socialist movement, took a negative stand in this discussion (see R. Virchow, Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat, Berlin, 1877, p. 12). 23-1216
[134] On Virchow's concept of an individual animal as a federation of cell-states see Note 20.
[135] Engels was prompted to criticise inconsistent Darwinists (particularly, Haeckel and Schmidt) by the discussion at the 50th Congress of German Natural Scientists and Physicians in September 1877 (see Note 133), by Oskar Schmidt's intention to read a paper "Darwinismus und Socialdemocratie" at the forthcoming 51st Congress in September 1878 (Engels learned about this from the journal Nature of July 18, 1878, Vol. XVIII, No. 455, p. 316) and by the publication of Haeckel's pamphlet Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre, which Engels obtained in early August 1878. See, on this, Engels' letters to Oskar Schmidt of July 19 and to Pyotr Lavrov of August 10, 1878 (present edition, Vol. 45).
[136] H. Helmholtz, Populäre wissenschaftliche Vorträge, Zweites Heft, Braunschweig, 1871. Helmholtz is speaking of the physical concept of "work" chiefly in his lecture "Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft" of 1862 on pp. 137-79 of the book mentioned. Engels examines the category of "work" in the chapter "The Measure of Motion.—Work" (see this volume, pp. 378-91).