p Materialism, in its contemporary, .Marxist-Leninist form is a progressive scientific world outlook. It correctly portrays the world and is a true ally of science and man’s practical activity on the basis of which it itself has arisen and is developing.

p Materialism has always been the world outlook of the advanced classes and sections of society interested in promoting the wellbeing of the people, the progress of mankind and its economic and cultural development. In the slaveowning society materialism was used by the democratic strata to fight against the aristocracy, the upper crust of the slave-owners. In the period of the rise of capitalism it was an ideological weapon of the bourgeoisie in its battles against the feudal lords and the church. Today materialism is a mighty weapon of the progressive part of mankind in its struggle against imperialist reactionary forces.

p Idealism is at cross-purposes with a scientific interpretation of the world. Like religion it places supernatural forces in the centre of the picture of the world and essentially is a masked, refined form of religion. The reason is obvious: idealism cloaks the religious myth about the divine creation 17 of the world in subtle philosophical verbiage. Idealism is particularly dangerous because it tries to pose as a science and prey upon man’s reason, not limiting itself to blind faith, as religion does.

p As a rule, idealism serves the reactionary forces of society in their struggle against the progressive social forces. The exploiters always tried to use idealism and religion to enslave the working people spiritually and to justify and reinforce their domination. Today, too, the moribund capitalist system tries to rely on idealism and religion.

p By preaching humility and submission and promising paradise religion distracts the attention of the working people from crucial social problems and from fighting against exploitation and poverty, for peace, democracy, national liberation and socialism.

p Idealism, in effect, does the same thing. Denying the objective existence of the world and regarding it as a product of consciousness alone, it attributes all social contradictions and suffering, all the vices of capitalism to the delusions of the people and their moral failings. Thus, like religion, it diverts the working people from fighting against the forces of imperialist reaction.

p There is a kinship between idealism and religion, but they should not be fully identified. And although some idealists made a certain contribution to the development of philosophical thought, on the whole, all of them gave a distorted picture of the world.

p The achievements in science and practical experience demonstrated idealism’s insolvency a long time ago. Yet idealist views are still popular in capitalist countries chiefly because this is in the class interests of the exploiters. The exploiting classes need idealism as a means of fighting against materialism and as an instrument of the spiritual enslavement of the working people. That explains why they support and spread idealism in every way.

p Since there are no exploiters in socialist society there are no people interested in implanting idealism and no one disseminates it there. The scientific, materialist world outlook prevails under socialism.

We have established that philosophers are divided into materialists and idealists, depending on how they solve the fundamental question of philosophy. But as they draw a 18 picture of the world each of them unavoidably employs a specific method of cognition. What, then, is a method?