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    "label": "Report, Dialectical Materialism and Russian Objectives by Edward F. Willett",
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    "id": "213875129",
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    "title": "Report, Dialectical Materialism and Russian Objectives by Edward F. Willett",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/213875129",
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            "day": 14,
            "logicalDate": "1946-01-14",
            "month": 1,
            "year": 1946
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    "seq": 7,
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    "ocrText": "he applied to materialistic philosophy; this methodology furnished him\nwith a motivating force which had been lacking in previous philosophies\nof materialism. This new philosophy, developed by Marx with the coop-\neration of Engels, was known as Dialectical Materialism; it is the basic\nphilosophy underlying the Communism of Marx and therefore, as adapted\nby Lenin, that of Soviet Russia today.\nMarxian Dialectical Materialism postulates an external\nreality whose existence is wholly independent of mind, but which is\nknowable. Mind is a function of the brain, and the brain is merely\nmatter organized in a special way as a result of a long process of\nevolution. Thought is a product of the brain but the material of\nthought is drawn from the external world.\nKnowledge is not merely a reflection of a pre-existing reality;\nan interaction takes place between the pre-existing reality and the\nknowing of it which makes of knowledge an active, creative force con-\nstantly tending to create a new reality.\nThe fact that knowledge is not purely subjective distinguishes\nDialectical Materialism from Hegelian idealism; the active role\nplayed by the mind in the acquisition of knowledge distinguishes\nDialectical Materialism from the previously existing purely mechanical\nphilosophies of materialism.\nThe external reality postulated by Dialectical Materialism is\na unity of opposites, as illustrated by such principles as attraction\n-5-\nANCHIVES\nRECORDE\nSERVICE"
}