Dietzgen, Joseph
DIETZGEN, JOSEPH (1828–1888). Born near Cologne in 1828, Joseph Dietzgen was a tanner by trade and was almost entirely self-educated—hence his nickname, “the Proletarian Philosopher.” He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and was forced to flee to America. In 1884 he became editor of Der Sozialist, the official weekly of the Socialist Labor Party. Moving to Chicago two years later, he became editor of the Chicagoer Vorbote, the paper of the Haymarket anarchists—a development that caused much friction with the Socialist Labor Party and strengthened Dietzgen’s anarchist sympathies. As he stated, “While anarchists may have many mad and brainless individualists in their ranks, the socialists have an abundance of cowards.”
Dietzgen, one of the first original philosophers among American Marxists, developed “materialist dialectics” independently of Marx and Engels through his readings of Hegel, Kant, and Spinoza. His first book, The Nature of Human Brain Work, explaining the dialectical nature of the thinking process, appeared in 1869. His collected letters and essays were published posthumously by Charles H. Kerr. Dietzgen’s views were popular with the editors of the Left-socialist International Socialist Review, which published a number of articles about him.
Dietzgen emphasized the provisional nature of theory and thus opposed dogmatic and positivist Marxism. A radical monist, he dismissed the “reflection theory” of cognition (ideas as a mirror of the “material world”) as dualistic ideology. Certain aspects of his thought have affinities with pragmatism and phenomenology. His libertarian dialectic challenged the influence mechanistic materialism had on socialism, but with the rise of the Communist Party and dialectical materialism, Dietzgen was pushed into obscurity. Henrietta Roland-Holst and Anton Pannekoek of the Dutch-German Left were Dietzgenists, as were many members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Socialist Party of Canada, the World Socialists, and the Proletarian Party.
Further reading
Buick, Adam. “The Workers Philosopher – Joseph Dietzgen.” Radical Philosophy. 10 (Spring, 1975).
Easton, Lloyd. “Empiricism and Ethics in Dietzgen.” Journal of the History of Ideas. 19(January, 1958).
Dietzgen, Eugene, “A Sketch of Joseph Dietzgen's Life” Marxists Internet Archive. Encyclopedia of Marxism https://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/d/i.htm#dietzgen-joseph
Dietzgen, Joseph. The Nature of Human Brain Work. San Francisco: PM Press, 2010.
Dietzgen, Joseph. The Positive Outcome of Philosophy. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1906.
Dietzgen, Joseph, Marxists Internet Acrhive. Dietzgen collected works,
Other resources
https://www.marxists.org/archive/dietzgen/index.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/dietzgen/index.htm