On the materialist dialectic of Marx, Engels, and Lenin

After “the settling of accounts with Hegelian dialectic and Hegelian philosophy as a whole” in his Economic and Political Manuscripts of 1844 and other works, Marx had little further to say on dialectics. His last words on dialectics appear in his 1873 Afterward to Capital: “My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite.” Marx entrusted to Engels the task of explaining dialectics. With Marx’s assistance, Engels wrote Anti-Dühring, which remains the classic—and best—statement on Marxist dialectics, as Lenin recognized. After brief introductions by Gene Ruyle and Bob Patenaude, everyone present will be invited to contribute their views in an egalitarian discussion.