An Understanding Of Engels’ Dialectics Of Nature

2020 marks the 200 th anniversary of Engels’ birth.The Chinese society for Dialectics of nature has also determined 2020 as the "Engels year" in the field of Dialectics of nature.However,Engels’ thought of "Dialectics of nature" has always been controversial in the academic circles at home and abroad.Whether "Dialectics of nature" deviates from Marx and whether "Dialectics of nature" lowers the level of Marxism is also an old topic.This paper makes some attempts to defend the legitimacy of Dialectics of nature.This paper firstly introduces the general situation of the research on "Dialectics of nature",mainly involving the views and evaluations of Western Marxist scholars and some domestic scholars on "Dialectics of nature".Secondly,starting from the situation of old materialism and idealism,this paper discusses the philosophical implication of practical materialism founded by Marx and Engels,that is,the practice of practical materialism is the social historical practice.At the same time,this paper discusses the "new world view" based on practice.The new world view takes "realistic individual" as the premise,focuses on material production,understands the change of "superstructure" from the change of "economic basis",and combines nature and history internally;On the basis of the above two points,this paper discusses the transcendence of practical materialism.Practical materialism has completely surpassed idealism and old materialism with the viewpoint of practice,which is also the key link to understand Engels’ Dialectics of nature.Thirdly,this paper discusses the specific connotation of "Dialectics of nature".Based on the introduction of the development level of productive forces and the current level of natural science in the 19 th century,this paper discusses the brief situation of the manuscript of "Dialectics of nature" and the origin of its naming,and points out that "Dialectics of nature" aims at dialectical thinking,which is also Marx’s method of "from abstract to concrete".Engels tried to eliminate the metaphysical way of thinking in natural science through dialectical thinking.Through dialectical thinking,we can see the dialectical unity of thinking,natural science and nature itself.Fourthly,this paper makes a brief analysis of the relevant disputes of "Dialectics of nature",and responds to the relevant disputes from the perspectives of "outlook on nature" and "Dialectics".It points out that the outlook on nature embodied in "Dialectics of nature" is not abstract,and there is no essential difference between it and Marx’s outlook on nature;Dialectics embodied in "Dialectics of nature" is a kind of dialectical thinking,and subjective dialectics and objective dialectics are identical.At last,this paper discusses the contemporary theoretical value of "Dialectics of nature".First,in the current tense relationship between man and nature,"Dialectics of nature" helps us to understand the dialectical relationship between man and nature,and still has important enlightenment for the construction of our socialist ecological civilization;Second,understanding dialectical thinking and mastering dialectical thinking are helpful to overcome metaphysical thinking mode,to overcome bourgeois ideology and to improve thinking level and working ability.