Page 305 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume I.indd

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the deepening movement of cognition, the movement by which man
in society progresses from perceptual knowledge to logical knowledge
in his complex, constantly recurring practice of production and class
struggle. Lenin said, “The abstraction of matter, of a law of nature,
the abstraction of value, etc., in short, all scientific (correct, serious,
not absurd) abstractions reflect nature more deeply, truly and com-
4
pletely.” Marxism-Leninism holds that each of the two stages in the
process of cognition has its own characteristics, with knowledge mani-
festing itself as perceptual at the lower stage and logical at the higher
stage, but that both are stages in an integrated process of cognition.
The perceptual and the rational are qualitatively different, but are
not divorced from each other; they are unified on the basis of practice.
Our practice proves that what is perceived cannot at once be com-
prehended and that only what is comprehended can be more deeply
perceived. Perception only solves the problem of phenomena; theory
alone can solve the problem of essence. The solving of both these
problems is not separable in the slightest degree from practice. Who-
ever wants to know a thing has no way of doing so except by coming
into contact with it, that is, by living (practising) in its environment.
In feudal society it was impossible to know the laws of capitalist
society in advance because capitalism had not yet emerged, the rel-
evant practice was lacking. Marxism could be the product only of
capitalist society. Marx, in the era of laissez-faire capitalism, could
not concretely know certain laws peculiar to the era of imperialism
beforehand, because imperialism, the last stage of capitalism, had
not yet emerged and the relevant practice was lacking; only Lenin
and Stalin could undertake this task. Leaving aside their genius,
the reason why Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin could work out their
theories was mainly that they personally took part in the practice
of the class struggle and the scientific experimentation of their time;
lacking this condition, no genius could have succeeded. The saying,
“without stepping outside his gate the scholar knows all the wide
world’s affairs”, was mere empty talk in past times when technology
was undeveloped. Even though this saying can be valid in the present
age of developed technology, the people with real personal knowledge
are those engaged in practice the wide world over. And it is only
when these people have come to “know” through their practice and
when their knowledge has reached him through writing and technical
media that the “scholar” can indirectly “know all the wide world’s
affairs”. If you want to know a certain thing or a certain class of