Publication Details

Abstract

lbe paper criticizes some deficiencies arising by the use of the principle of the conservation of energy as an argument in Marxian philosophy: vagueness of the contents of this law, mistaking Engels's interpretation of the principle as a physical law for itself, making no difference between the physical law anf the philosophical principle, and the like. These deficiencies are the expression of a general want of clearness in the relationship of scientific laws and philosophical principles. The author emphasizes the necessity to differentiate on two levels in the comprehension of the qualitative moment of the principle of the conservation of energy; he also stresses the historicity of this principle and of concieving the principle of the impossibility to annihilate movement, a principle connected with the principle of the conservation of energy. By an uncritical overestimation of this principle and by an uncreative repetition of Engels's ideas nothing can be attained but an impairment of the indisputable importance of this principle as a way-out and argument of the dialectically material teaching on movement. The principle of the conservation of energy is to be given a place among the scientific impulses and arguments of philosophy which it deserves, and by taking it into consideration it is necessary to have before one’s eyes some less explored aspects (connexion with the principle of causality, with the symmetry of space and time, and the like).