The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism: Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Part 1

"In order to build socialism, first and foremost, we need to have socialist people who understand socialist ideology and have socialist values." These are the immortal words of Ho Chi Minh, who helped guide Vietnam through decades of revolution against French colonialism, Japanese fascism, and American imperialism. These words reverberate today in the classrooms of Vietnamese high schools and colleges, where students are required to study a full curriculum of socialist theory rooted in the foundational works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Now, for the first time, the materials used to train Vietnamese students in the core ideological system of dialectical materialism and materialist dialectics is available to the English speaking world through Luna Nguyen's groundbreaking translation of Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Part 1: The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism for University and College Students Not Specializing in Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought. This text, originally produced by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training for use in universities, provides a brief history of Marxism-Leninism as well as thorough explanations of the principles and laws of dialectical materialism, materialist dialectics, and the cognitive theory of dialectical materialism. The first English edition is brought to you by Banyan House Publishing in collaboration with Iskra Books and The International Magazine. We have done our best to deliver a textbook which is highly optimized for collective training as well as self-study and for use as a companion piece for further reading. The book includes an original glossary, appendices, and illustrations and annotations by Emerican Johnson as well as a foreword by Dr. Vijay Prashad and introduction by Dr. Taimur Rahman. Chapter 3 1. Praxis, Consciousness, and the Role of Praxis in Consciousness 2. Law of Unification and Contradiction Between Opposites IV. BASIC laws of materialist dialectics 1. Law of Transformation Between Quantity and Quality III. BASIC PAIRS OF CATEGORIES OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS 2. Reason and Result 3. Obviousness and Randomness 4. Content and Form 5. Essence and Phenomenon 6. Possibility and Reality II. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS 1. The Principle of General Relationships 2. Principle of Development 2. Materialist Dialectics 1. Dialectics and Basic Forms of Dialectics 4. Meaning of the methodology 3. The Relationship Between Matter and Consciousness II. DIALECTICAL MATERIALIST OPINIONS ABOUT MATTER, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATTER AND CONSCIOUSNESS 1. Matter 2. Consciousness 1. The Opposition of Materialism and Idealism in Solving Basic Philosophical Issues Chapter I Excerpt from the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism 1. Objects and Purposes of Study 2. Some Basic Requirements of the Studying Method II. Objects, purposes and requirements for studying I. BRIEF HISTORY OF MARXISM-LENINISM 1. Marxism and the Three Constituent Parts 2. Summary of the Birth and Development of Marxism-Leninism 3. Law of Negation of Negation Workers of the world, unite! Basic Pairs of Categories Used in Materialist Dialectics Appendix B THE TWO BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM Appendix C THE three UNIVERSAL LAWS OF MATERIALIST DIALECTICS Appendix D FORMS OF consciousness AND knowledge Appendix E PROPERTIES OF TRUTH Appendix F Common Deviations from dialectical materialism GLOSSARY & INDEX