ABSTRACT
This chapter examines dialectical philosophy in the context of Western science and philosophy. It makes a critical assessment of the philosophical problem Marcuse knew was central to human history, human learning, and human liberation—theoretical explanation and its relation to social and natural reality. This chapter traces the broad outlines of the intellectual emergence of the view that not only social life, but also the natural world must be understood historically, dialectically, ecologically, in terms of its patterns of geological change and bio-ecological development. Controversies with Marxism with regard to the internal structure of the dialectic are examined and evaluated.
