ABSTRACT
Lenin compensated for his practical betrayals of the Marxian philosophy, by asserting it theoretically with extreme and violent dogmatism. Lenin defended in philosophy a position inconsistent with his fundamental attitude in politics. The conception of conscious thought as an instrument of adaptation produced by material nature in the evolution of living organisms, just as other organic functions are produced, is a product and a continuation of that hard-headed confrontation of scientific facts, which Lenin tried to defend in his philosophy. With this conception Lenin could have escaped from the inconsistency between his philosophy and his politics. He could have got rid of the Marxian metaphysics which tended to impede him as an engineer, without falling into the idealistic metaphysics which would impede him as a revolutionist. Lenin never made a statement which was non-partisan and did rise above the interests of his side in the class struggle, this partisan thing as dialectic materialism as his nearest approach to philosophy.
