In this post, we will see the book The Principles of Philosophy by Anatoly Rakitov. About the book:The structure of this book permits the student to read and master its matter in varying order according to the aims and purposes he or she is pursuing. The introduction "What Is Philosophy?" provides basic information about philosophy, its subject-matter and methods, the main points that distinguish it from other disciplines, and its place in the system of Marxism-Leninism. This chapter also contains information on the origin and various stages in the evolution of philosophy, and singles out the main matters that will subsequently be discussed. These problems will be treated in more detail in the following chapters, the material being arranged in order of increasing difficulty. Each of the successive chapters depends on the preceding ones. For the reader's better assimilation of the proofs and arguments by which the superiority of materialism over idealism, of dialectics over metaphysics, and of Marxist-Leninist philosophy over other philosophical schools and currents is demonstrated, the text includes dialogues and talks between imaginary persons who express different points of view. These dialogues should be read and studied as attentively as the basic text.The book was translated from the Russian by H. Campbell Creighton and was first published in English by Progress Publishers in 1989. This book is a part of the series Student's Library in which many books were published especially pertaining to philosophy and sociology.Original scan by IA user Uploaded by Thomas Mrett. We cleaned, OCRed, bookmarked the scan. ContentsHow to Use This Book 7Introduction 9What Is Philosophy 9Who Needs Philosophy? And Why? 9001 Man in the Modern World 9002 "The Intellectual Quintessence of Its Time" 10003 Philosophy and World Outlook 12004 Philosophy and the General Methodology of Activity and Cognition 13005 Philosophy and Ideology 16006 The Main Task of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy 20The Basic Question. The Subject Matter and Method of Philosophy 22007 The Basic Question of Philosophy 22008 The ' First Aspect of the Basic Question of Philosophy. Idealism and Materialism 24.009 A Dialogue of a Materialist and an Idealist 26010 The Second Aspect of the Basic Question of Philosophy 30011 A Dialogue about the Knowability of the World 31012 The Method of Philosophy; the Preliminary Concept of Dialectics and Metaphysics 34.013 The Subject Matter of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy 36014 The Principle of Partisanship in Philosophy 37The Origin and Development of Philosophy 39015 The Philosophy of Antiquity 39016 The Philosophy of the Orient 41017 The Philosophy of the Middle Ages 42 018 The Philosophy and Culture of the Renaissance 43 019 The Philosophy of Bourgeois Society 44 020 The Philosophical, Social, and Scientific Prerequisites of Marxian Philosophy 46021 The Rise of Dialectical Materialism: a Radical Turn in the Development of Philosophy 49 022 A New Stage in the Development of Marxist Philosophy 51 Chapter IMatter and ConsciousnessMatter and the Picture of the World 56101 Notion and Category 56 102 What Is Matter? 57 103 How Views of Matter Developed 59 104 The Contemporary Scientific Picture of the World 62 105 The Material Unity of the World 65 106 System, Structure, Element 65 107 Necessity and Chance 68 108 Laws of the Objective World 70.Motion, Time and Space 74109 Matter and Motion 74110 Dialogue on Motion and Rest 76 111 Form and Content 77112 The Forms of the Motion of Matter 79 113 Time and Space 81 114 The Irreconcilability of the Idealist and Materialist Conceptions of Time and Space 82 115 Modern Scientific Notions of Time and Space 84 116 Cause and Effect 85Reflection as a General Property of Matter 88117 The Basic Question of Philosophy in the "Computer Age" 88 118 What Is Reflection? 89 119 Reflection in the Inorganic World 90 120 The Complication of Reflection during the Transition to Animate Nature 92 121 The Evolution of Life and Origin of the Nervous System 93 122 Active and Passive Reflection of Reality 95 123 The Psychic and the Physical, the Ideal and the Material 97Human Consciousness 101124 The Brain as the Material Organ of Mental Activity 10l125 Work as the Basis of Consciousness 102126 Language and Thought 104 127 On the Relative Character of the Opposition of Matter and Consciousness 106 128 Can Computers Think? 108 129 Some Conclusions. The Synthesising Function of Philosophy 111Chapter IISocial Being and Social Consciousness 114The Materialist Conception of Society and Its History 114201 A Talk about the Idealist and Materialist Conceptions of Society 114202 Man and Activity. Preconditions for the Materialist Conception of History 116203 The Development of Society &s a NaturalHistorical Process 118204 The Mode of Production as the Basis of the Development and Functioning of Society 120 205 Basis and Superstructure 125206 Classes and Class Struggle 127207 The State in the System of the Superstructure 130208 Political Parties in the System of the Superstructure 134209 Social Organisations in the System of the Superstructure 137210 Social Being and Social Consciousness 139211 The Basic Principle of Historical Materialism 142The Theory of SocioEconomic Formation 144212 The Individual, Particular, and Universal 144213 What Is a SocioEconomic Formation? 146 214 Social Revolution 148215 The Structure of a Social Revolution 149216 The Forming of Human Society 151217 The Primitive Communal Formation 152218 The SlaveOwning Formation 154219 The Feudal Formation 156220 The Capitalist Formation 158221 The Communist Formation 161222 The Category "SocioEconomic Formation" and Historical Reality 164The Functions and Forms of Social Consciousness 166223 Social Consciousness and the Development of Society 166 224 Ideology in the System of Social Consciousness 168 225 Social Psychology and Everyday Consciousness 170 226 Political Consciousness and Politics 172 227 Legal Consciousness and Law 174228 Morality as a Form of Social Consciousness 176229 Economic Consciousness 179230 Religion as a Form of Social Consciousness 181231 Artistic Consciousness and Art 183232 Individual and Social Consciousness 187233 On the Relative Independence of Social Consciousness 189234 Growth of the Role of the Subjective Factor under Socialism 192Chapter IIINature and Society 196On the Relationship of Nature and Society 196301 Nature and Society 196302 Dialogue about Nature and Society 198303 PreMarxian Views on Nature and Society 201304 Dialectical Materialism on the Relation of Nature and Society 203.The Environment. The Biological and Social in Social Development 205305 The Structure of the Environment 205 306 Mankind and the Natural Environment 206307 The Biological and Social in Man 209308 Races and Nations 211309 The Role of Population in the Development of Society 216310 The Artificial Habitat 220Nature and Society in the Age of Scientific and Technological Progress 222311 What Is Scientific and Technological Progress or the Scientific and Technical Revolution? 222312 Scientific and Technical Progress and Its Consequences under Capitalism and Socialism 226313 Ecological Consciousness and Ideological Struggle 230Chapter IVThe Main Laws of Dialectics 234The Sources of Development 234401 The Idea of Development 234402 What Is the Source of Development? 237403 The Categories of "Opposition" and "Contradiction" 239404 The Unity and Mutual Conversion of Opposites 241405 The Struggle of Opposites and Resolution of Contradictions: the Source of Development 244406 Forms of Contradictions 247407 The Resolution of Contradictions in Socialist Society 252408 The Law of the Unity and Struggle of Opposites: the Essence and Core of Dialectics 255Forms of Development 257409 On the Form of Development 257410 A Dialogue about the Continuous and Intermittent, the Gradual and Sudden in the Process of Development 257411 Quantity, Quality, Measure, and Leap 260412 Evolution and Revolution 263413 The Dialectic Connection between Quantitative and Qualitative Changes 266 414 The Law of the Transition of Quantitative Changes into Qualitative, and Vice Versa 270415 Quantitative and Qualitative Changes in the Structure of the Socialist Revolution 271 416 The Dialectic of Quantity and Quality in the Present Stage of the Development of Socialism 274The Direction of Development 417A Dialogue on the Direction of Development 277 418 The Spiral Like Character of Development 278419 Dialectical Negation and Continuity 279420 Possibility and Actuality 283421 The Dialectic of the Possible and the Real in a Revolutionary Situation 285422 What Is Social Progress? 286 423 The Dialectical Law of the Negation of Negation 289Chapter VThe Theory of Knowledge 291The Dialectics of Knowing 291501 What Does It Mean to Know? 291. 502 Cognition as Reflection 293. 503 A TalJ... about the Sources of Knowledge · 294. 504 The Role of Sensation in Knowing 298. 505 The Role of Abstraction in Knowing. The Method of the Ascent from the Abstract to the Concrete 300. 506 The Epistemological Roots of Idealism 304. 507 What Is Truth? 305. 508 The Role of Practice in Knowing 309. 509 Appearance and Essence. The Dialectics of Knowing 311.The Forms and Methods of Scientific Cognition.510 Theory and Hypothesis 314511 Experiment and Observation in Scientific Cognition 318512 Certain General Scientific Methods of Cognition 320513 Models and Modelling in Scientific Cognition 326514 The Application of Mathematics and Modern Science 327515 Science and Society 329.Chapter VIMan and Society601 A Chat on the Essence of Man and the Sense of Life 333602 Freedom and Necessity 338603 The Role of the Individual and of the Masses in the Development and Life of Society 342604 The Individual and the Masses in Socialist Society 346605 Socialist Democracy and Communist Education 348606 Acceleration of Socio-Economic Progress. Reorganisation (Perestroika) and the Human Factor 351607 The Road to a New Civilisation 353608 The Struggle for Peace and the Destiny of Humankind 356609 Predicting the Future 359A Last Chat with the Reader 363