Introduction to the Logic of Marxism

This book is a collection of lectures given in 1942 that comprise a defense and explanation of the logical method of Marxist dialectical materialism, and its relevance to the working class movement. The lectures were given by George Novack (1905-1992), a longstanding leader of the Socialist Workers Party, in the context of an intra-party controversy on the eve of the Second World War over the party's defense of the Soviet Union in war. James Burnham and Max Shachtman, who had together questioned the validity and usefulness of the method, left the SWP in the wake of the debate. Novack contrasts dialectical materialism to formal logic, describing how formal logic isolates itself from material reality and fails to recognize the dynamic nature of that reality. In explaining dialectical materialism, Novack also provides a brief history of its origins in the work of Hegel and then in Marx's reworking of Hegel. New index and enlarged type. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)