Reviews for Mao Tse-Tung Four Essays on Philosophy

The average rating for Mao Tse-Tung Four Essays on Philosophy based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-09-08 00:00:00 Justin Meyer A collection of great essays, but of course, they're not perfect. The first essay, On Practice, is by far the best one all around. In this short essay, written in the summer of 1937 (along with the second essay, On Contradiction), Mao explains how knowledge (and as a result, theory) is obtained through the process of perceiving, cognising and conceptualisation, and the flaws of the theories of empiricism and rationalism. He goes on to explain how theory can only be proven correct by putting it back into practice, so to return the knowledge to the material world from which it came. Mao explains his theory in great detail, in terminology that isn't too hard to understand (he wanted to educate the masses, after all), and objectively. Every concept, theory and argument in this essay is well-nuanced, and he provides ample practical examples where necessary. The second essay, On Contradiction, is a good read as well, but Mao drags some points out for far too long, and his tone is more preachy than in the previous essay. In this essay, Mao splendidly explains Dialectical Materialism, which theorises that change and development, both natural and social, take place as a result of the internal contradictions in things, as opposed to the metaphysical theory, which theorises that change takes place because of external factors. He also goes into detail about the importance of the material and the social conditions, and how they influence each other. Aside from forming the base of Maoism, however, Mao spends quite some time throughout the essay criticising counterrevolutionaries, especially the dogmatist Marxists. At some points, this even makes him sound bitter, and those shifts away from his theory do decrease the quality of this essay. Nonetheless, On Practice and On Contradiction are obviously the essays in which he lies the basis for his own brand of Marxism-Leninism, which obviously improves on Stalin's flawed ideology. The third essay, On the correct handling of contradictons among the people, written in 1957 (seven years after the victory of CPC), is somewhat more of a drag. Divided into twelve sections, Mao explains how contradictions can be both antagonistic (between the people and the enemy) and non-antagonistic (between the people themselves), and how to deal with contradictions between specific groups. While he puts forth some really good points about dealing with less dangerous forces (like the bourgeoisie at that point) as well as with counterrevolutionaries. The rest of the essay, though, consists of him looking back at (and at times gloating over) the successes of the past years, and his plans for the future. This essay is a lot more openly propagandistic than the previous two, which seriously harms the quality of it. It is also far too long. The important parts of the essay could easily be contained within a third of the length of the essay. Finally, the fourth 'essay', Where do correct ideas come from?, is a short text reiterating some parts of the previous three essays, but basically repeats that ideas can only be proven correct after putting them back into practice, and adjusting them according to errors made. It's a nice, short conclusion. So all in all, these four essays put forth some great theories, but Mao spends far too much time criticising his opponents (which is of course justified, but he shouldn't do it in theoretical essays) and gloating over his own success. Nevertheless, after getting a better understanding of Mao's theories, I'm definitely more sympathetic to his ideology (with a critical eye, of course).

Review # 2 was written on 2009-03-17 00:00:00 Jordan Dsa These works are simply indispensable to understand Marxism, its epistemological method, and dialectical materialism. A fantastic and accessible read that demands constant revisiting.