epistemology – Unity–Struggle–Unity

First principle

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:39:24 +0000

A first principle is a basic assumption or axiom about the world that cannot be deduced from logical arguments. First principles are generally the result of material conditions of individuals combining with their class interests and their particular psychological makeup and history.

Contradiction

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:37:03 +0000

A core analytical tool; contradictions are the inherently opposed logical extensions or compositions of any given state of affairs. Contradiction is what drives change as two or more incompatible propositions hold sway for varying periods of time and gradually resolve.

Contradictions may be antagonistic or non-antagonistic and may also be primary, secondary, or tertiary. They may also be internal or external.

Antagonistic contradictions are those contradictions which cannot resolve without systemic change. These are essentially contradictory.

Non-antagonistic contradictions are only in contradiction due to one or more temporary constellations of material conditions and may fall out of contradiction. These are accidentally contradictory.

Primary contradictions are the driving contradictions from which other pairs and clusters of contradictions arise during any given period. Without the resolution of primary contradictions, the underlying problems are not solved.

Whether a contradiction is internal or external is a matter of perspective. Internal contradictions are contradictions between elements or conditions that are within a single analyzed system or unit (internal contradictions of capitalism, say) and external contradictions are those which arise from outside that unit (contradiction between an element of capitalism and, for example, the environment). However, when performing material analysis, it is always possible to shift frame of reference and thus re-categorize contradictions are either internal or external.

Class analysis

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:27:59 +0000

The scientific and structural determination of class interests, founded in the material benefits that flow to a given social class based on the juridical, social, and economic structures in place in any given class society. This mode of analysis can be used to determine, broadly, what various classes are likely to do as an aggregate.

Causes, the four

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:27:04 +0000

Aristotle posited four logical causes for any phenomenon to help analyze that phenomenon:

1. Material causes are those things which are caused by the underlying matter itself. The material cause of a table having grain is that it is made of wood;

2. A formal cause is something that is caused by the actual structure of a thing. The formal cause of a table standing up is that it distributes its weight on its legs;

3. An efficient cause is that which is performed by an agent other than the thing being examined. The efficient cause of the table is the carpenter carving it from wood;

4. A final cause is the ultimate outcome of a change. Aristotle’s example here is that the final cause of the seed is the tree – it is what is within the thing to become. This is better classified as the reason for which things are done.

A-priori

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 21:34:20 +0000

Knowledge that proceeds from axioms, whether logically or otherwise. Axioms are created through the gathering of a-posteriori information over time.

A-posteriori

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 12:14:46 +0000

Knowledge that comes from interacting directly with the world. A-posteriori knowledge is that which, in a Marxist sense, is assembled by the struggle of an individual with their material conditions, subject to their own personal psychological makeup. A-posterior knowledge comes from direct observation and from logical connections made between direct observations.

For instance, knowledge of the redness of a specific apple is a-posteriori knowledge; knowledge that “apples tend to be red” is an axiomatic deduction from many specific instances, another form of a-posteriori information.