p The categories of Marxist dialectics are a result, a generalisation of the centuries-old experience of people, of their labour and knowledge. In the course of his practical activity man, coining in contact with, and cognising objects and phenomena of the world, has singled out their essential, general features and has fixed the results in categories, concepts. Categories of cause and effect, content and form and others took shape in man’s mind as he came into contact, billions of times, with objectively existing causes and effects, the content and form of definite material bodies and other major aspects of reality. Hence categories are a result of man’s practical and cognitive activity, a stage in his knowledge of the world around him. “Man is confronted with a web of natural phenomena,” Lenin wrote. “Instinctive man, the savage, does not distinguish himself from nature. Conscious man does distinguish: categories are stages of distinguishing, i.e., of cognising the world.”  [120•* 

p A result of practice and knowledge, the categories of materialist dialectics are of great importance for man’s practical and cognitive activities. As stepping stones to knowledge, they help people to find their way in the intricate web of phenomena in nature and society, reveal the interconnection and interdependence of things, the definite order and the law-governed character of their development, 121 and to choose the right course of practical activity.

p Marxist dialectics discloses the essence of categories, the sources of their origin and above all emphasises their objective character. Categories have their source in objects and phenomena existing independent of man’ and reflect their most general, essential features. Categories of cause and effect thus reflect the objectively existing relation between objects and processes, by which some of them cause other objects and processes to come into being, these latter being their effect.

p In contrast to materialism, idealism denies the objective character of categories. From the point of view of subjective idealists, for example, categories exist only in the consciousness of man and have no relation to reality. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant maintained that before man begins to cognise the world his consciousness already contains categories of causality, necessity, chance, etc., which allegedly helps him to introduce order into the chaotic world of natural phenomena. Present-day subjective idealists, the neo-positivists in particular, also claim that categories are general concepts which are connected only with the direct sense-emotions of the subject and have no relation to the objective world existing independent of man. While paying lip service to the objective character of categories, the objective idealist Hegel in fact regarded them as stages, moments in the development of the absolute idea, the universal spirit.

p Idealist views of the origin of categories are absolutely untenable. Practical activity, the development of science and people’s personal experience show that categories were not invented by man, but discovered by him in objective reality.

p From the standpoint of Marxist dialectics categories have other important features, namely interconnection, changeability and mobility which reflect the unity of the material world itself, the universal connection, interaction and development of its objects and phenomena. Categories are so closely connected that Under certain conditions one can turn into another; thus, cause becomes effect and vice versa, necessity becomes chance and chance turns into necessity, and so on. Categories are not only interconnected, but also changeable and mobile. As they reflect the 122 constantly developing material world, they themselves change.

p Metaphysicians of all sorts misrepresent the dialectical nature of categories. As a rule, they separate categories from one another, ignoring the role played by some of them and absolutismg the significance of others. And this perverts reality and often leads to reactionary political conclusions.

p In order to comprehend the true nature of categories and use them as an instrument of scientific cognition and practical activity, they have to be approached from the standpoint of dialectical materialism. Later, when we examine separate categories, we shall endeavour to show their scientific and practical significance.

In studying the material world, man first of all notices the countless multitude of particular, individual objects and phenomena. Then, comparing them, he singles out features and connections that they have in common. We shall do the same and begin the examination of categories with the individual and the universal.