Dear Eugene:
You have now reached the age at which the students go to the university.
There, according to custom, they register first of all for a course in
logic, whether they choose the study of law, medicine, or theology.
Logic is, so to say, the elementary study in all branches of learning.
Now you know, my dear, that school and life are regarded as two separate
things. I should like to call your attention to their connection. We
live also in school, we are schooled also by life. I should like to
consider your trip across the Atlantic ocean as your first venture in
the high school of life, and assume the role of your professor of logic.
I feel well qualified for this office. Although I am not well up in
Latin and Greek, still I feel competent to guide you to the depths of
logical science better than a German professor trained and installed
according to the most approved pattern. You will admit the possibility
of such a thing. For one who knows little may explain that little with
more ease and efficacy than one who has his head stuffed full of the
prescribed bunch of official wisdom.
You, my son, have been so fortunate as to enjoy a seven years' course in
a German college. And since your teachers, at your departure, gave you
the highest certificate, I may well consider you as qualified not only
to enter the school of life in the United States, but also to listen
intelligently to my lectures on logic.
But in order that my well trained pupil may not look down upon his
self-taught teacher, I appeal to the fact that even the man with the
best all-around education will be a tyro in specialties; and that, on
the other hand, ignorance in many things does not exclude the
possibility of knowing more about a certain specialty than science has
heretofore grasped. Now I claim in this case to have acquired a
knowledge of the subject with which I intend to deal here that surpasses
anything I have been able to find in the professional literature. I
mention this, my dear Eugene, with all due modesty, not for the purpose
of throwing a halo around my personality, but in order to give a certain
authority to my office as teacher and to inspire my pupil with
confidence.
Yes, I value confidence. Although you know me as a democrat who cares
nothing for authority, you shall also learn to know me as a graduate in
dialectics who, though he may empty the bath, still retains his hold on
the child and does not permit it to float off with the water. Children,
and one may say nations in their childhood, cannot do without authority,
and a teacher, whether he instruct children or nations, cannot dispense
with a certain confidence-inspiring air. The pupil must believe in the
wisdom of his teacher, in order that he may approach the master with the
necessary attention and willingness to learn. Later on the understanding
of the subject makes all authority superfluous. Thus a thing so sublime
as authority is subject to the destructive tendencies of time, to the
historical process.
Hitherto mankind has often been tempted by preconceived notions to
idolize vain things. It has been attempted to shield not only authority
in general, but, what is still worse, this or that throne or altar,
against the attacks of time. The relation between the perishable and the
imperishable has always been subject to much misunderstanding. Now since
logic is that science which aims to set the intellect aright, we shall
have to touch occasionally on the general misconception of time and
eternity.
The most famous expounders of logic are reproached for their cumbrous
style and their obscure mode of explanation. Even masters of languages
have complained in my hearing about the foreign terms used by that
branch of science, terms which even they could not understand. Much of
the blame for this condition of things may fall on the difficulties of
the subject, which have baffled all elucidation for thousands of years.
Some of the blame also falls on the bad habit of using learned
vernacular. But the greatest fault lies with the mental laziness of the
students. Nothing can be learned without mental exertion. If you are
concerned in your further development, you will recognize the Christian
word as to the curse of work as untrue. Work cannot be descended from
sin, for it is a blessing. You will have experienced in yourself how
elated one feels after successful physical or mental work.
The things which science yields without exertion can be at most
axiomatic commonplaces.
I assume that you are quite willing to perform the necessary mental
labor, and I promise you that I shall do my best to make this study easy
for you. I do this so much more readily, as I frankly confess that these
letters to my son are written with the intention of making them
accessible to a wider circle of readers by means of the press.
Before concluding, let me say a word about my aim of speaking especially
of democratic-proletarian logic. You will think or say: Logic may be a
subject worthy of study, but a special democratic-proletarian logic can
surely treat of nothing but party matters. But just as the special
accomplishments in this or that line, the special advances of this or
that nation, are at the same time general advances, progress of
civilization, so the ideas of proletarian logic are not party ideas, but
conclusions of logic in general. You may reply: Even though the special
thought of a Chinaman may be quite consistent and logical, still we
would not call it Chinese logic. That would be quite true, but it does
not meet my point.
The thought on which the proletarian demands are based, the idea of the
equality of all human beings, this ultimate proletarian idea, if I may
say so, is fully backed up by the deeper insight into the tortuous
problem of logic. Now, since this idea dominates mankind, it certainly
has more right than any Chinese idea. Furthermore, industrial
development has leveled, simplified, cleared all social conditions to
such an extent that it becomes ever easier to penetrate with sober eyes
into the secrets of logic. Finally, my logic deserves its proletarian
qualification for the reason that it requires for its understanding the
overcoming of all prejudices by which the capitalist world is held
together.
The cause of the people is not a party matter, but the general object of
all science.
The people's cause as the ultimate object, and logic as the most
elementary and most abstract science, as ultimate science, are as
intimately connected as plants and botany, or as laws and the legal
profession. So are the interests of democracy and the proletariat
intimately connected. The fact that this has not been well recognized in
the United States so far, is more a proof of the lucky condition of that
country than of the scientific knowledge of its democracy. The spreading
primeval forests and prairies offered innumerable homesteads to the poor
and they obscured the antagonism between capitalists and wage workers,
between capitalist and proletarian democracy. But you still lack the
knowledge of proletarian economics which would enable you to recognize
without a doubt that it is precisely on the republican ground of America
that capitalism makes giant strides and reveals ever more clearly its
twofold task of first enslaving the people for the purpose of freeing
them in due time.