Notes on Dialectics: Hegel, Marx, Lenin

by C.L.R. James

Notes on Dialectics, probably the key work in the development of C.L.R. ]ames’s thinking, was written in 1948, and though its influence has been deeply felt through privately circulated mimeogtaphed editions, this is its first publication in book form, with a new introduction by the author.

James aims at making Hegel’s Logic — a thorough study of which Lenin saw as essential for understanding Marx’s Capital — ‘a part of our m.arxist thinking today’. Close textual and explanatory reference to the Science of Logic itself, and to Marx’s and Lenin's use of ‘dialectic’, provide a conceptual framework for examining the history of the workers’ movement and the Internationals; and Iames concludes that Trotsky’s marxism, that of the Fourth International, was inadequate for the post-war world.

This book’s central and prophetic concerns — the revolutionary nature of the proletariat, the state and the party — are just as important in the present world crisis as they were when it was first written.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Theory

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

C. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution and the classic book on sport and culture, Beyond a Boundary. His play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History was recently discovered in the archives and published Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Khitkhite Buri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first hundred pages were a pure pedagogic experience - oh, to be taught by a teacher again! Tautologically helpful. The latter sections on Lenin are tedious as methodological examples, and the rigor wanes. Confused about teleological tendencies here, but in so far as it is an introduction(which is what I want) I'm satisfied.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I often find James' writing style quite frustrating, but that frustration is usually offset by the quality of the content. However, this was not the case for Notes on Dialectics. The quality of the content really felt lacking in this text. I don't understand why James felt the need to use Hegel, and then Hegel through Lenin, to make a critique of his contemporary Trotskyist movement that, all in all, doesn't even particularly add up. The whole thing seems tediously and unnecessarily methodological, whilst also lacking in materialist analysis. Some of the critiques made seems to be basically - used in the hope that if you say it enough times maybe they will eventually become true. Perhaps the benefit of historical hindsight allows one to make these critiques of the political conclusions of this text, but nonetheless, I feel they stick.

If it wasn't for a few jovialities in the text and a few glimmers of good substance, in all honestly, this would have certainly been a 2 star review.

[DeterminedStupor]

Status: have only read up to “Essence is a Movement of Negation” (p. 82).