Dialectics of Nature

Dialectics of Nature is one of the more important works of Frederick Engels. It gives a dialectical materialist generalisation of the principal achievements of the natural sciences in the mid-nineteenth century develops materialist dialectics and criticises metaphysical and idealist conceptions in natural science. Dialectics of Nature has come down to us in the form of four fold­ers into which Engels divided shortly before his death all the articles and notes relating to this work. He gave the folders the following headings: (1) “Dialectics and Natural Science” (2) “The Investigation of Nature and Dialectics” (3) “Dialectics of Nature” and (4) “Mathematics and Natural Science. Miscellaneous.” Only two of the folders—the second and the third—have tables of contents made by the author. It is from these tables that we know exactly of the material which Engels assigned to the second and third folders and of the order of its arrangement in the folders. As for the first and fourth folders we are not certain that their various sheets are arranged exactly as Engels wanted them to be.