Page 41 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume III.indd

RECTIFY THE PARTY’S STYLE OF WORK 39
numbers of intellectuals and, insofar as they are revolutionary and
willing to take part in the resistance to Japan, welcome them one
and all. It is entirely right for us to esteem intellectuals, for without
revolutionary intellectuals the revolution cannot triumph. But we all
know there are many intellectuals who fancy themselves very learned
and assume airs of erudition without realizing that such airs are bad
and harmful and hinder their own progress. They ought to be aware
of the truth that actually many so-called intellectuals are, relatively
speaking, most ignorant and the workers and peasants sometimes
know more than they do. Here some will say, “Ha! You are turning
things upside down and talking nonsense.” (Laughter.) But, com-
rades, don’t get excited; there is some sense in what I am saying.
What is knowledge? Ever since class society came into being
the world has had only two kinds of knowledge, knowledge of the
struggle for production and knowledge of the class struggle. Natural
science and social science are the crystallizations of these two kinds
of knowledge, and philosophy is the generalization and summation
of the knowledge of nature and the knowledge of society. Is there
any other kind of knowledge? No. Now let us take a look at certain
students, those brought up in schools that are completely cut off
from the practical activities of society. What about them? A person
goes from a primary school of this kind all the way through to a
university of the same kind, graduates and is reckoned to have a
stock of learning. But all he has is book-learning; he has not yet
taken part in any practical activities or applied what he has learned
to any field of life. Can such a person be regarded as a completely
developed intellectual? Hardly so, in my opinion, because his knowl-
edge is still incomplete. What then is relatively complete knowledge?
All relatively complete knowledge is formed in two stages: the first
stage is perceptual knowledge, the second is rational knowledge, the
latter being the development of the former to a higher stage. What
sort of knowledge is the students’ book-learning? Even supposing
all their knowledge is truth, it is still not knowledge acquired through
their own personal experience, but consists of theories set down by
their predecessors in summarizing experience of the struggle for pro-
duction and of the class struggle. It is entirely necessary that students
should acquire this kind of knowledge, but it must be understood
that as far as they are concerned such knowledge is in a sense still
one-sided, something which has been verified by others but not yet
by themselves. What is most important is to be good at applying this