Motion, Matter and Dialectics: From Marx's Doctoral Thesis to Engels' Dialectics of Nature

Abstract

There is an underlying continuity between Marx's doctoral thesis and Engels' Dialectics of Nature. Although the two works are far apart in terms of time, style of writing, and specific topics, an exegesis of the core arguments reveals similar underlying interests: a focus on the materiality of motion; an identification of repulsion (and attraction) as the main dialectical feature of motion; and the philosophical implications of this dialectical interaction. The results of this exegesis raise once again the question of how we may understand the division of labor between Marx's main concern with human history and Engels' later concern with natural history and the hard sciences.