Dialectical Materialism

With the aim of widening the scope of Marxist theory, Henri Lefebvre finished Dialectical Materialism just before the beginning of World War II and the Resistance movement against the Vichy regime. As the culmination of Lefebvre’s interwar activities, the book highlights the tension-fraught relationship between Lefebvre and the French Communist Party (PCF). For Lefebvre, unlike for the PCF, Marxism was above all a dynamic movement of theory and practice. Dialectical Materialism is an implicit response to Joseph Stalin’s Dialectical and Historical Materialism and an attempt to show that the Stalinist understanding of the concept was dogmatic and oversimplified. This edition contains a new introduction by Stefan Kipfer, explaining the book’s contemporary ramifications in the ever-expanding reach of the urban in the twentieth-century Western world. CONTENTS......Page 8 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE......Page 10 CODE TO REFERENCES......Page 12 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION......Page 14 Dialectical Materialism......Page 4 Foreword to the Fifth Edition......Page 34 I. THE DIALECTICAL CONTRADICTION......Page 42 A critique of Hegel's dialectic......Page 67 Historical materialism......Page 81 Dialectical materialism......Page 100 Unity of the doctrine......Page 121 II. THE PRODUCTION OF MAN......Page 135 Analysis of the Product......Page 140 The activities of integration......Page 145 The controlled sector and the uncontrolled sector......Page 153 Physical determinism......Page 162 Social determinism......Page 166 The total man......Page 169 Towards the total content......Page 187 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 190 9780816656189 CONTENTS 8 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 10 CODE TO REFERENCES 12 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION 14 Dialectical Materialism 4 Foreword to the Fifth Edition 34 I. THE DIALECTICAL CONTRADICTION 42 A critique of Hegel's dialectic 67 Historical materialism 81 Dialectical materialism 100 Unity of the doctrine 121 II. THE PRODUCTION OF MAN 135 Analysis of the Product 140 The activities of integration 145 The controlled sector and the uncontrolled sector 153 Physical determinism 162 Social determinism 166 The total man 169 Towards the total content 187 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 190