To the reader
In my book The Dialectics of Force: Ontόbia I promised to follow the topic of force into the area of social relations. What I had in mind was to show the phenomena of social life through which ontological force expresses its essence. I believed that I would be able to write that new book quickly, since its scientific content appeared to me less difficult than analysis of force in the inorganic world. Besides, I have studied social relations for a living all my life – albeit in the sphere of international politics. However, I miscalculated big-time.
Firstly, this topic induced me to study problems tied to progress in society – an area in which everyone is a specialist; so I had to delve deep into literature on progress. Here’s a bit of information just for curiosity’s sake: when I googled the topic “idea of progress” back when I started work on the book (in July 2005), I got 22,900,000 hits; when I did it again at the time I was finishing work (late August 2007), the number of hits was 109,000,000 – an almost fivefold increase in just two years! It turned out I was not the only one involved with this topic. Moreover, the mentions I obtained referenced mostly the works of modern authors. Myself, I had to start with the Adam and Eve of philosophy, i.e. the ancient Greeks. Secondly, at a certain stage when I touched on the subject of the force of love – a seemingly collateral topic – I discovered the horrifying statistics on divorce in Russia. I decided to react to this with a small book titled On Love, Family, and the State, in which I was required to finally supply an answer from the perspective of philosophy to that mystical question: what is love? Thirdly, I was compelled to constantly respond with articles to the current events in Russia and the world, as their coverage and interpretation in the press were inadequate. As a result, the publication of this book was delayed, and it is not executed in the way it was intended. In addition to the chapter “on family and love”, it should have included chapters on religion, on revolutions, on social formations. Naturally, these themes are presented in one form or another in this book I am offering to the reader; however, I will have to revisit them later, dedicating a separate sizable work to each of these topics.
Now a few words are in order about the language of the book. Many readers of The Dialectics of Force and even readers of On love… complained to me – through Internet contact or in person – that the text is difficult to understand, especially in the philosophical parts – why can’t I write simpler? These were not ordinary folk, mind you, but science workers, so to say.
Ordinarily I try to write even scholarly books as “simply” as I can, taking care not to use too much scientific terminology. This doesn’t mean, however, that simplification must be carried to the level of ABC. It is in the West, by the way, that many books, even those of scientific content, are written in this fashion – especially the textbooks, which at first seemed to me intended for students with “arrested development”. As a result of using such textbooks and such “scholarly” books, development simply doesn’t take place. Testimony to this is the annually increasing number of people who are incapable of thinking. One doesn’t even need statistics to be convinced of this; it suffices to read certain Internet forums. Therefore I warn the reader right away: if you never picked up a philosophy book in your life (I don’t even mean Hegel or Kant – I mean such easy reads as Voltaire, Rousseau, Marcuse, Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, etc.), then don’t waste your time – this book is not for you.
The book is also difficult because it encompasses different branches of knowledge: philosophy, political science, sociology, demography and even psychology. It’s not because I’m a big fan of all these “logies”; it’s just that the problems of force and progress in society stand at the junction of the sciences mentioned. Without addressing them it would not have been possible to formulate the fundamental problems of force and progress that are the First and Second Principles of social development. These principles are just as fundamental to society as the First and Second laws of thermodynamics are fundamental to the Universe.
Since I am a lone researcher, i.e. I am not included into any scientific paradigms tied to particular colleges or universities, in the preliminary stages I don’t discuss my works with anyone and don’t take anyone’s opinions into account. In the plane of methodology I stick to dialectic and historical materialism, while not rejecting other methods if they help me see deeper into the problem.
Usually my conclusions, deductions and the laws and regularities formulated by me are at odds with commonly accepted views on this or that problem. Hence the irritation, dislike and sometimes plain hostility toward me – primarily from “institutionalized” researchers. Well, you can’t make people love you; let us argue. In all my previous books I constantly demonstrated my readiness for any kind of polemic in any “print” or “internet” arena, but only after the works have been published. Judging by the responses in the Internet, I have many opponents – as is to be expected; however, for some reason they avoid addressing me directly, preferring instead to badmouth me among themselves. I cannot understand this method of searching for scientific truth.
In all my previous books at the end of the Foreword or the Address to the Reader I always thanked my wife for her help which was usually manifested as initial editing. This time I want to thank her again, even though I regard her help as the natural function of a wife; mutual assistance between husband and wife is the norm, not some kind of heroism. Nonetheless, my big thanks go to her.
Alex Battler
Paris, 15 September 2007