Engels wrote about the "metaphysical way of thinking" in Anti-Dühring and Dialectics of Nature. He believes that this kind of thinking has long dominated people's ideas, and it arose around the second half of the 15th century, when with the establishment of natural science, people gradually adopted the method of analysis to understand the natural world, decomposing it into independent parts for special research. This approach leaves people with an inertia of thinking: isolating various natural objects and natural processes, leaving aside the grand general connection, and doing a one-sided investigation only from the perspective of stillness. Later, the Englishmen Bacon and Hobbes transplanted metaphysical thinking into philosophy, forming English empiricism in the 17th century and French materialism in the 18th century.
In Engels's view, isolation, one-sidedness and fixation are the basic characteristics of metaphysical thinking, and the lack of recognition of contradictions is the essential characteristic of this thinking. The creed of metaphysicians is: "Yes is, no is not; and apart from that, it is all nonsense." For example, neither Newton nor Huygens recognized the wave-particle duality of light; the law of the center of formal logic also says that "something is either A or not A, and the third party does not have it."
Engels focused on the analysis of metaphysical thinking from the point of view of the natural sciences, while Hegel based on the history of philosophy
According to Engels's thought, the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences compiled the Principles of Marxist Philosophy, proposing that the view of connection, development and contradiction are dialectical thinking. This view was later transplanted to China and became the content of the Introduction to the Basic Principles of Marxism. Thus, anyone with a modicum of common sense of philosophy says that metaphysical thinking is an isolated, static, and one-sided view, while dialectical thinking is a holistic, developing, and comprehensive view. This kind of concise generalization is naturally beneficial to education and indoctrination, but it also has the problem of simplifying complex problems. Just as a layman says that economics is the study of how to buy and sell, we laugh at his superficiality, but we also admit that there is some truth in this statement, because mercantilism is the study of trade; but a few points of truth alone are far from enough, it is still far from true understanding.
To understand metaphysical and dialectical thinking one needs to read several classics by Marx and Engels; and to understand more deeply the difference between these two kinds of thinking one has to read Hegel's book. For, Engels said, Hegel was the first to criticize metaphysical thinking and restore it. Hegel's critical perspective is different from That of Engels, and it is more difficult to understand.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > hegel's "metaphysical thinking."</h1>
"Metaphysical way of thinking" and "metaphysics" do not mean the same thing, and Hegel exposes the flaws of the "metaphysical way of thinking" by criticizing "metaphysics".
In Little Logic, Hegel divides the attitude of thought toward objectivity into three categories: the first is a metaphysics based on intellectuality; the second is empirical and critical philosophy based on experience; and the third is direct knowledge based on speculation. Comparing the Lectures on the History of Philosophy, we can see that "metaphysics" refers to philosophical thought before the 17th century (Aristotle, Scholastic philosophy, Descartes, Leibniz, etc.); "empiricism" refers to 17th-century English empiricism (Bacon, Locke, etc.) and 18th-century French materialism (Condiac, Diderot, etc.); "critical philosophy" refers to Kant's thought; "direct knowledge" refers to Jacobi's philosophy.
According to Hegel's positive, negative, and combined thinking formulas, metaphysics is regarded as the lowest and most simple stage of the right topic, and the thinking of this attitude has not yet reached the point of maturity, and it needs to go through the development of the second and third types before it can finally abandon dialectical thinking.
Hegel believed that the history of the development of philosophy is the evolution of the spirit of thought
Like Engels, Hegel argued that the fundamental flaw in metaphysical thinking is the lack of contradictions, saying in Little Logic:
"[Metaphysical thinking] is not yet aware of the contradictions contained in thought itself and the opposition of thought itself to faith, but believes that truth can be known only by reflection."
Metaphysical thinking proceeds from established principles and beliefs, first accepts a certain belief, then depicts and understands the object according to this belief, and then creates the content of feeling and intuition, which is characteristic of most early philosophies. But it fails to realize that thought itself implies a direct contradiction and opposition to faith.
For example, Chinese philosophers after the Han Dynasty basically started their thinking from the five Confucian classics, first accepted the Confucian Taoist system, and then described the world according to this Taoist idea, describing natural phenomena as heavenly induction, saying that all things in heaven and earth were parents and compatriots, saying that male and female males and females were yang and singing yin and yang, and saying that the smog covered the sun was a traitor and seducing the lord, and so on; and the Western medieval scholastic philosophy was also based on the teachings of the Bible, they said that good thoughts were blown into people's hearts, and evil thoughts were blown in by the devil. The laws of the universe are only manifestations of God's will. Even if you put the truth before them, they will say that this must be an illusion created by God to test us.
Metaphysicians enshrine several classics as golden rules and worship the ancestors of the school. No Taoist in the East dares to question the Four Books and Five Books; no theological father in the West dares to doubt Aristotle and the Bible. Because of this, their thinking is always stuck in limited regulations, afraid of seeing contradictions between different dogmas, and afraid of contradictions between their own ideas and beliefs, thus forming a deliberate avoidance of contradictions. They refuse to admit that concepts and categories change with the development of the times.
Thus, Hegel says that "the old metaphysics is finite thinking", which is fundamentally different from the "infinite rational thinking", which can only stay in the finite rules and regard these finite rules as the ultimate thing.
Hegel saw metaphysics as a finite mind, without the ability to think infinitely
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "finite thinking" is a fundamental flaw in metaphysics</h1>
"Finite things" are those things that exist at an end, that end only when they reach a certain limit, and which are limited by other things above their own boundaries. In this sense, the human mind is infinite. Because no one can tell others to "stop thinking", there is no way to put obstacles to thinking ability. Thinking can be expanded by pushing outward, or reflecting deeply inward, constantly transcending the original scope and getting rid of the limits.
However, metaphysical thinking deliberately sets limits on thought, and through indoctrination and teaching, people dare not deviate from the scriptures, dare not think about things that are contrary to orthodox values, and actively give up the ability to think infinitely. In the end, it can only stay on a few classics, a few dogmas, and always circulate in a limited number of regulations.
We all know that truth is constantly changing, that there is no immutable truth, and that limited language is not enough to express it. Even Christians recognize God as infinite, and they use finite, scarce language to describe it in the face of this infinite object. For example, to say that "God exists," "the soul is simple," and so on, is tantamount to saying that thought is round, that everything is red, and that the universe is fragrant—to explain infinite objects with finite provisions, one will fall short of what one wants. "Being", "Simple", "Round", "Red", "Hard" are all finite rules based on sensory experience, while "God", "Soul", "Thought", "All Things" and "Universe" are infinite objects based on reason. No one has ever seen God, touched a soul, measured thoughts, or smelled the universe. Thus, many propositions in metaphysics are false.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Lao Tzu was already aware of this problem, and he said: "The Tao is Dao, very Tao." The name can be named, very famous. "I don't know its name, but the word 'Tao' is 'Dao', and the name of Qiang is 'Great.'" He cannot explain the infinite object with finite rules, so he can only forcibly call it "Tao", "Great", "Xuanmu", "Hundred Valleys", or "Things". The Yi Chuan also says: "The book is not exhaustive, and the words are not satisfactory." In this regard, Hegel praised: "The philosophers of the East are often right to call God an infinite number or an infinite number of names. ”
In Lao Tzu's view, the "Tao" is a limited stipulation, not enough to describe the object he wants to express. Understanding that object is the key, and it doesn't matter whether it's called "the Word" or "Great." However, many of Lao Tzu's disciples understood him with metaphysical thinking, exalting the word "Tao" as a sacred dogma and worshipping him; and also preaching Lao Tzu as a sacred "Dao ancestor", which is somewhat comical.
Metaphysics claims to study an object beyond the body, but describes it as a tangible thing
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > metaphysics does not acknowledge contradictions and advocates arbitrariness</h1>
Hegel said that metaphysics is divided into four parts: ontology, soulology, cosmology, and religious philosophy, which target the soul, the universe, and God, all of which transcend sensory experience and can only be thought and known through reason.
Since every metaphysical scholar has not been exposed to these objects, they can only deduce the dogmas in them from a few scriptures in order to form their own ideas. In this way, metaphysics is not a free mind, it is always bound by the basic dogmas, and it cannot be purely free, free from the limitations of all materials, to open up the unknown world.
Hegel believed that finite categories are always full of contradictions, and metaphysical thinking has always stayed on these categories, so it cannot understand contradictions. Metaphysicians fiercely debate "Is the universe finite or infinite?" "Can an object be infinitely divided?" "Whether the time has a beginning" and other issues. However, people with dialectical thinking have long discovered that these problems have the one-sidedness of "either-or".
In describing the Tao, the Great Master Zhuangzi cleverly goes beyond the one-sidedness of these limited regulations, saying that it "precedes Taiji but is not high, below the six poles is not deep, born in heaven and not for a long time, and older than ancient and not old." In this way, the infinite object of the "Tao" has both upper and lower, profound, successive, new and old attributes, and becomes "one or the other."
Metaphysical thinking leads to dogmatism and arbitrariness
It is precisely because metaphysics does not recognize contradictions that it has the color of arbitrariness and adheres to the strict "one or the other". Han Yu said: "Those who are morally benevolent and righteous, if they do not enter Yang, they belong to Mo; if they do not enter into old age, they belong to Buddha." That's the way it is. Dialectics understands that it is futile to use finite provisions to explain infinite objects, so it does not engage in unnecessary entanglement in word meaning. We can say that the universe is neither finite nor infinite, because "finite" and "infinite" cannot describe the universe in a complete and comprehensive way, nor can they explain time; the divisible and indivisible cannot also explain the properties of all things—a finite provision cannot be imposed on objects with infinite properties.
Finally, Hegel points out that the main feature of metaphysics "consists in the grasp of the object of reason by abstract finite intellectual provisions, and in the recognition of abstract identity as the supreme principle." ”
Metaphysical thinking is the first intellectual stage of philosophical thinking, which has not yet reached the level of speculation. It is also necessary to abandon and develop it, first of all, to transfer the foundation from a few classic works to the object of reality, to proceed from reality, to think freely, to think openly, without restrictions; and then to abandon the limited category, admit contradictions, overcome the arbitrariness of either-or, and know how to think about problems with the idea of one or the other; and finally, we can gradually establish the concept of dialectical thinking.