Dialectics of the concrete totality

pp. 1-35

in: Karel Kosík, Dialectics of the concrete, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

Dialectics is after the "thing itself". But the "thing itself" does not show itself to man immediately. To grasp it calls not only for a certain effort but also for a detour. Dialectical thinking therefore distinguishes between the idea of a thing and the concept of a thing, by which it understands not only two forms and two degrees of cognition of reality but above all two categories of human praxis. Man approaches reality primarily and immediately not as an abstract cognitive subject, as a contemplating head that treats reality speculatively, but rather as an objectively and practically acting being, an historical individual who conducts his practical activity related to nature and to other people and realizes his own ends and interests within a particular complex of social relations.