(i) The opposition of two worldviews

1. The opposition between materialism and idealism, dialectics and metaphysics, materialist and idealistic views of history

The whole history of philosophy is the history of the struggle and development of the two opposing philosophical schools of idealism and materialism. All philosophical currents and factions are in disguise of these two basic schools.

- Dialectical Materialism (Outline of Speech) (1937), published by the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, p. 1

What is the fundamental difference between idealism and materialism? It lies in the opposite answer to the fundamental question of philosophy, the question of the relationship between spirit and matter (the question of the relationship between consciousness and existence). Idealism recognizes the spirit (consciousness, ideas, subject) as the root of all things in the world, and matter (nature and society, objects) as mere appendages. Materialism recognizes that matter exists independently of spirit, and that spirit is nothing more than an appendage. Proceeding from the opposite answer to this fundamental question, divergent opinions arise on all questions.

In the idealistic view, the world is either a synthesis of our perceptions or a mental process created by our or the rationality of the world. To the external material world, either it is seen entirely as a fictitious illusion, or as a physical shell of the spiritual element. Human cognition is the automaticity of the subject and the product of the spirit itself.

Materialism, on the other hand, recognizes that the unity of the universe lies in its materiality. Spirit (consciousness) is one of the natures of matter, which occurs when matter reaches a certain stage of development. The natural, material, objective world, exists outside the spirit, independent of the spirit. People's understanding is a reflection of the objective outside world.

Dialectical Materialism (Outline of Speech) (1937), published by the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, p. 2

The bourgeoisie, in order to fight against the feudal classes and when the proletariat has not yet threatened them, has also found and used materialism as an instrument of its struggle, and has been convinced that the things around it are the product of matter and not of the spirit. It was not until they themselves became rulers and the struggle of the proletariat threatened them that they abandoned this "useless" instrument and took up another tool, philosophical idealism.

- Dialectical Materialism (Outline of Teaching) (1937), published by the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, p. 5

The difference between the Marxist worldview (or cosmology) is dialectical materialism, not metaphysical materialism (or mechanical materialism), and this distinction is a big problem that turns the world upside down. What is the world like? There are three main answers from ancient times to the present. The first is idealism (whether metaphysical idealism or dialectical idealism), which says that the world was created by the mind and, by extension, God-made. The second is mechanical materialism, which denies that the world is the world of the mind, saying that the world is the world of matter, but that matter is not developed and does not change. The third is the Marxist answer, which overturns the first two, saying that the world is not created by the mind, nor is it a material world that does not develop, but a material world of development, which is dialectical materialism. Isn't it a big talk of Marxism to look at the world like this and turn the world upside down in the eyes of people?

- Dialectical Materialism (Outline of Teaching) (1937), published by the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, p. 38

In the history of human knowledge, there have always been two views on the law of the development of the universe, one is a metaphysical view and the other is a dialectical view, forming two opposing cosmological views.

—The Theory of Contradictions (August 1937), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1, p. 300

Only the present and historical reactionary ruling classes and the metaphysics that serve them do not look at opposing things as vivid, conditional, changeable, mutually transformative things, but as dead, frozen things, and propagate this erroneous view everywhere, to confuse the masses of the people in order to achieve their aim of continuing their rule.

—The Theory of Contradictions (August 1937), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2nd Edition, vol. 1, p. 330

In philosophy, materialism and idealism are the unity of opposites, and these two things are in struggle with each other. There are two other things, dialectics and metaphysics, which are also opposed, unified, and combative. When we talk about philosophy, we can't help but have these two pairs.

——" Speech at the Meeting of Party Secretaries of Provinces, Municipalities and Autonomous Regions " ( January 27, 1957 ), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 7, p. 193

We openly acknowledge the struggle between materialism and idealism, dialectics and metaphysics, fragrant flowers and poisonous weeds. This kind of struggle must be fought forever, and every stage must be taken one step further.

——" Speech at the Meeting of Party Secretaries of Provinces, Municipalities and Autonomous Regions ( January 27, 1957 ), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 7, p. 193

Replace idealism with materialism and theism with atheism.

— "Speech at the Congress of the Communist and Workers' Parties in Moscow" (November 18, 1957), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 7, p. 331

Both idealism and materialism exist as instruments of the class struggle... Idealism, in the course of its own historical development, represents the ideology of the exploiting classes and plays a reactionary role. Materialism, on the other hand, is the cosmology of the revolutionary class, which grows and develops within class society from the constant battle against the idealism of reactionary philosophy. Thus, the struggle between idealism and materialism in philosophy always reflects the struggle between the reactionary and revolutionary classes in terms of interests. A tendency in philosophy, whether the philosophers themselves are aware of it or not, always ends in the political direction of the class to which they belong. Any tendency in philosophy always contributes directly or indirectly to the fundamental political interests of the classes to which they belong. In this sense, the implementation of a certain tendency in philosophy is the special form of the policy of the class to which they belong.

—— Dialectical Materialism (Outline of Teaching) (1937), published by the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, pp. 1-2

The communist cosmology is dialectical materialism and historical materialism, while the Cosmology of the Three People's Principles is the so-called people's livelihood history view, which is essentially dualism or idealism, and the two are opposites.

— On New Democracy (January 1940), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2nd Edition, vol. 2, p. 688

There are two world outlooks and methodologies: the proletarian world outlook and methodology and the bourgeois world outlook and methodology.

——" The Situation after the Victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan and Our Policy" (August 13, 1945), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2nd Edition, Vol. 4, p. 1134

The proletariat must transform the world according to its own world outlook, and the bourgeoisie must also transform the world according to its own world outlook.

--"On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" (February 27, 1957), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 7, p. 230

As far as the world outlook is concerned, in modern times, there are basically only two, that is, the proletariat family, the bourgeois family, or the proletarian world view, or the bourgeois world view. The communist world outlook is the proletarian world outlook, it is not the world outlook of any other class.

——"Speech at the National Propaganda Work Conference of the Communist Party of China" (March 12, 1957), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 7, p. 273

The bourgeois philosophers are all in the service of their present politics, and in every country, in every period, there are new theoreticians who put forward new theories. There were bourgeois materialists like Bacon and Hobbes in England; There were such materialists as the encyclopedic school in France; The German and Russian bourgeoisie also had their materialists. They were all bourgeois materialists, each with its own characteristics, but all in the service of the bourgeois politics of the time. So, with The British, there must be the French; With France, there must be German and Russian.

—"A Conversation on Reading the Soviet Union (Political Economy Textbooks) (Excerpts)" (December 1959 – February 1960), The Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 8, pp. 109-110

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