p It is the one-sided exaggeration, absolutisation of the aspects of the most complex process of knowledge, their divorce from reality, from the objective world, that make up the gnosiological roots of idealism.

p Lenin called idealism a sterile flower, but a sterile flower that is not groundless, but grows on the living tree of fertile and powerful human knowledge. The gnosiological roots of idealism are contained within the process of knowledge itself which, as we have seen, is uncommonly complex and contradictory.

p Knowledge possesses the possibility of deviation, divorce of thought from the cognised object, from reality. This deviation can be seen in the simplest concepts which man uses all the time, such, for example, as a “house in general”, a “table in general”. In reality there is neither a “house in general" nor a “table in general”, but only definite houses, definite tables. The concepts “house” and “table”, as we know, single out only the general essential features which all houses and all tables have. The moment we forget that concepts have their source in real objects and divorce them from reality, we can imagine that they have arisen and exist of themselves, independently of the object. This is idealism.

p This is how objective idealism arose. Its supporters hold that the concept exists independently of the object, “creates" this object On the other hand, subjective idealists, proceeding from sensations as the direct source of our knowledge, declare that the only thing that exists is these sensations, and regard objects and phenomena as the sum-total of sensations.

p Thus, rectilinearity and one-sidedness, subjectivism and subjective blindness are, according to Lenin, the gnosiological roots of idealism.

p It should be noted, however, that the gnosiological roots create only the prerequisites, the possibility for idealism to exist and that definite social forces turn this possibility into reality. These forces are the reactionary classes interested in a perversion of the truth. It is their class interests that cause them to consolidate the subjectivist, one-sided approach to knowledge, the divorce of thought from reality.

p The spread of idealism is also facilitated by the antithesis between mental and manual labour which exists in an antagonistic class society and gives rise to a seeming independence of the consciousness of men from their material, productive activity. Their monopoly of mental labour enables the exploiting classes to propagate and support idealism in every way and utilise it to justify and maintain their rule.

p Idealism has not only gnosiological roots, but also class roots—the definite interests of the reactionary classes.

p And so, knowledge develops from the sensory to the logical through practice. The results of knowledge naturally have to be verified; it is necessary to ascertain whether they are true. It could not be otherwise as only true knowledge can serve the practical requirements of people.

Before describing how the results of knowledge are tested, how truth is reached, let us examine truth.