ABSTRACT
The motion of thought, in its origin and main development, is a motion back and forth and round about among given facts, desired ends, and plans of action for achieving the ends upon the basis of the facts. When thinking becomes very abstract and is cultivated for its own sake, or when an attempt is made to state the nature of certain facts independently of their relation to any specific end, this natural process is considerably changed, and a number of difficult problems about it arise. The emphasis in any given case may be upon an accurate definition of the factual situation-but even the end will show its influence in the facts selected and the manner of their formulation. Marxism, liberated from the metaphysical frame in which Marx tried to confine it, can be very easily restated in the form of a practical hypothesis.
