Dialectics, the Logic of Marxism and Its Critics.

PROLOGUE
Tms essay is an attempt to clear the ground for a better and fuller appreciation of that which gives Marxism its living unity-namely, the Dialectical Materialist Method. Its special feature is that it seeks to show what this method is by means of an examination of what it did in the hands of Marx and Engels. It considers the Dialectical Materialist Method in action in the theoretical practice of these its first elaborators, and following them (so far as falls within its purpose) that of their disciples, Lenin and Stalin. No pretence is made that this essay is in any way final or authoritative. Very much to the contrary : it is in every
respect an essay, a venture-an attempt at a provisional exploration of a field which no British Marxist has hitherto attempted on anything but a most perfunctory scale. It is therefore liable to all the faults and mischances necessarily attending such provisional essays. None the less it is-an attempt ! If its demerits-whatever they may be-provoke others better qualified to cover the ground in a more worthy manner it will have more than served its purpose.