ABSTRACT
Finally, we come back to the question of Marx's method—Dialectical Materialism, as it is commonly called. There is, among professing Marxists, an extraordinary divergence of opinion about the interpretation of this method, most regarding it as the corner-stone of the Marxian system, but with many differences of view about its range of application and even about its essential content; whereas a few dismiss it as a tiresome fad of the master, who could never escape from the trammels of the Hegelianism of his youth. We shall have to ask which of these extreme views is right, and to come down on the one side or the other—for in this matter there is no possibility of splitting the difference. The Dialectic is either Marx's strength, or his weakness: it cannot be a matter of no account whether it is right or wrong.
