p Bourgeois ideology is in a state of profound crisis. More and more people in the capitalist countries are becoming convinced that bourgeois theories and schools are incapable of providing a scientific answer to the questions that life raises and they are abandoning the bourgeois world outlook.

p Idealist philosophy too is in the grip of a crisis. More and more it runs counter to both the development of science and progressive social movements. It arouses the protest of conscientious, honestminded scientists, as indeed of all those who put the interests of the people and a radiant future for mankind above those of the capitalists.

p In the countries which the apologists of imperialism hypocritically call the "free World”, the ideological struggle between the progressive and reactionary world outlooks, between materialism and idealism, is becoming more and more intense. The Marxists organised in the Communist Parties are in the vanguard of this struggle. Even many bourgeois intellectuals realise the reactionary role of philosophical idealism and have come out in opposition to it.

p One example is the progressive American philosopher Barrows Dunham, a courageous fighter against spiritual and political reaction and a trenchant critic of retrograde philosophical doctrines and social myths. Dunham exposes the disparagement and degradation of philosophy by the pragmatists and positivists and upholds the dignity of philosophy, which he regards as the expression of the interests and aspirations of the people. "To my mind the most endearing thing about philosophy is its source in people,” he writes 57 in his book Giant in Chains. For Dunham, philosophy is riot a scholastic "analysis of language”, but "the guide of life”, "philosophy is the theory of human deliverance".^^20^^

p The Japanese philosopher Yanagida Kenjuro, who joined the struggle for peace, for the democratic rights of his people and their liberation from foreign dependence, came to the conclusion that idealist philosophy weakens man and dupes his mind with illusions. Kenjuro had the courage to abandon this deceptive philosophy, criticise it and embrace the scientific materialistic outlook. In his book, My Voyage to Truth, he writes:

p “The ruins of idealist philosophy have given way to the new, Marxist materialist philosophy, which has gripped the minds of our youth. That is understandable, for the more acute social contradictions become in our occupied country, the clearer do the broad masses see the truth of dialectical materialism.”^^21^^

p Dunham and Kenjuro are not isolated cases. Many other progressive philosophers and scientists are combating philosophical idealism and defend and propagate dialectical materialism.

p Among prominent champions of materialism in the United States are Harry Wells, Howard Selsam, and other Marxists. The wellknown progressive philosopher, John Somerville, has done much to acquaint Americans with the Marxist-Leninist world outlook. Other Americans who have helped to expose idealist doctrines and are closely associated with materialist philosophy are Roy Wood Sellars, Corliss Lamont and Paul Grosser. Among British materialists who have earned wide recognition are Maurice Cornforth, John Lewis, Arthur Henry Robertson and such eminent scientists as J. D. Bernal and J. B. S. Haldane, who have made a considerable contribution to the advance of a progressive world outlook. The French and Italian Marxists Roger Garaudy, Jean Canapa, Mario Spinella, Cesare Luporini and many more have rendered valuable services in disseminating progressive philosophical ideas. The works of Eli de Gortari (Mexico) and H. Theodoridis (Greece) show that in other countries, too, the materialist philosophy is gaining ever increasing support.

p Materialism is not only being defended by those who came to adopt it through active social activity and philosophical reflection. It is also winning increasing support among leading representatives of contemporary natural science, for many important discoveries in recent decades have furnished convincing proof of the truth of Marxist philosophical materialism.

p Einstein’s theory of relativity demonstrated the inseparable link between space and time and moving matter and confirmed the dialectical-materialistic view of space and time as modes of the existence of matter. Modern physics, by its disclosure of tho intricate structure of the atomic nucleus and its discovery of new elementary material particles, provided fresh confirmation of the 58 Marxist materialist thesis that matter is inexhaustible and its forms infinite. Gradually, physicists came to accept the dialectical view of the microparticle as the unity of corpuscular and wave properties.

p Progress in physics has been accompanied by progress in chemistry, biology and physiology. Achievements in theoretical natural science have led to immense advances in technology. Three great scientific and technical discoveries—atomic energy, electronics and rocket techniques—have ushered in a new era in the history of the productive forces of mankind and have immensely increased man’s power over nature. Artificial earth satellites and man’s travel beyond the bounds of the earth’s atmosphere have ushered in a new era, that of the conquest of illimitable cosmic space. The application of the latest physical and chemical methods in biology has made it possible to obtain a deeper insight into the structure of proteins and to come closer towards solving the riddle of life, and in particular towards elucidating the problem of the origin of living beings.

p These and other discoveries and achievements confirm the truth of dialectical materialism and often compel positivist-minded scientists to revise their views. This is indicated, for example, by the fact that in the closing years of his life Einstein more and more frequently made statements that supported materialism, and that such distinguished scientists as Leopold Infeld and Louis de Broglie, former adherents of positivism, have finally come over to materialism.

p Some world-renowned scientists (Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg), for many years the recognised leaders of positivist physics, later began to reject and criticise many of the theses of positivism. Among the scientists and philosophers who support positivism, there are already a number who have begun to waver and are gradually turning to materialism.

p The recent discoveries in natural science are of specially great importance because they undermine the old metaphysical world outlook and bring to the fore the dialectical conception of the world. V. I. Lenin, summarising in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism the new developments in physics in the early years of the century, had every justification to state: "Modern physics is in travail; it is giving birth to dialectical materialism.”^^22^^ The development of modern physics confirms the correctness of Lenin’s forecast.

p By its very development, contemporary natural science leads to the acceptance of materialist dialectics. This was realised by such outstanding physicists of our time as Paul Langevin, Frederic Joliot-Curie and many others. They became determined exponents of dialectical materialism.

Ours is a time when successful struggle against reactionary philosophy and ability to defend the materialist world outlook require more than acceptance of materialism) they require that one be an enlightened exponent of dialectical materialism.