"The transfer of methods is an exhaustively objective and irrevocable proof of the potential of methods to develop towards unity, i.e. towards a monism of organizational experience. However, this conclusion cannot be grasped by the specialist or by the common reason of our time in general. Every step, approximating this unity, meets with violent resistance from the majority of specialists; the history of science provides us with a great number of such examples. And when the unifying idea finally wins and is adopted by the majority of specialists, they elaborate it with energy and success, but not in the least does this prevent them from being resistant to the next step. This resistance originates in the very thought mechanism produced by specialization; and this mechanism is such that the specialist unwittingly strives to demarcate his familiar and habitual field of work from the rest of experience, where he feels alien and diffident. When the borders are broken, when there is a rapprochement of fields and methods of work, the specialist perceives it as an invasion by something strange, even hostile, of his private economy; and it is much more difficult for him to study these new things than to go along old and familiar paths. This is the reason, for example, why the broad and most deeply unifying idea of the XIX century, that is, the law of the conservation of energy, had to struggle so long for recognition."
—Alexander Bogdanov, "Introduction," Tektology (1912)
"The proletariat as a class exists initially only economically, only objectively; it is the class struggle itself which actually makes this objective, scientific reality of the class subjective, makes it conscious, brings it into real, active, vital life. Because of their mechanical notion of the class struggle, opportunists and putschists alike are bound to have a static view of the concept of the class, seeing it as a once-and-for-all, unalterably given fact, and not as something dynamic which emerges, grows and brings itself to life in the course of the struggle. However, it is only when the constitution of the proletariat as a class is regarded as the goal and the tendency of the revolution that we can discover a firm basis for the constantly changing tactics of communist activity. The economic, scientific reality of the class is of course the starting-point for tactical considerations. But the other reality, the living reality of the class effected by the proletariat - this is possible only as the goal of revolutionary action. Every genuine revolutionary act diminishes the tension, the gulf between economic being and active consciousness of the proletariat. Once this consciousness has reached, penetrated and illuminated being, it is immediately possessed of the power to overcome all obstacles and to complete the process of revolution."
—Georg Lukács, "Opportunism and Putschism" (1920)
"I am familiar with real non-parliamentary powers in Germany (and only they should be taken into consideration), I am acquainted with many leaders and know that they all stem from those four great principles of a nationalistic state: its outlines have already began to form. From the multitude of political movements (which is undeniably a positive factor, up to a point) that some highlight one particular program point, whilst others highlight another. Many of them are still undergoing their becoming, exploiting each calm day, whilst others have completed this process and now they, naturally, are threatened by weakness and internal crisis. For despite the relatively big number of separate movements, independently they are incapable of taking action. The time has come when separate movements must flow into a single nationalistic front. This necessary step will bring about not only solace and an inner strengthening of each individual member, but it will also ignite all their energy for action. Thus our ranks will be joined by all those who have not yet joined any movement - did not join because they longed for a whole and not merely a part."
—Ernst Jünger, "Unite!" (1926)
"The ecstatical unity of temporality - that is, the unity of the 'outside-of-itself' in the raptures of the future, of what has been, and of the Present - is the condition for the possibility that there can be an entity which exists as its "there." The entity which bears the title "Being-there" is one that has been 'cleared'. The light which constitutes this clearedness [Gelicltetheit] of Dasein, is not something ontically present-at-hand as a power or source for a radiant brightness occurring in the entity on occasion. That by which this entity is essentially cleared - in other words, that which makes it both 'open' for itself and 'bright' for itself - is what we have defined as "care," in advance of any 'temporal' Interpretation. In care is grounded the full disclosedness of the "there." Only by this clearedness is any illuminating or illumining, any awareness, 'seeing,' or having of something, made possible. We understand the light of this clearedness only if we are not seeking some power implanted in us and present-at-hand, but are interrogating the whole constitution of Dasein's-Being - namely, care - and are interrogating it as to the unitary basis for its existential possibility. Ecstatical temporality clears the "there" primordially. It is what primarily regulates the possible unity of all Dasein's existential structures."
—Martin Heidegger, "Temporality and Everydayness," Being and Time (1927)
"But what is decisive - from the standpoint of Hegelian philosophy - is that in all the above matters, it is not a case of abstractly conceptual, moral, pedagogical or other such kinds of progress, but of the concrete dialectic of actual current political development, the workings of a spirit which is always present, never merely past, or merely future. The concepts of truth and science in Marxist scientific socialism can only be understood from such a dialectical philosophy of history. Georg Lukács has demonstrated this very forcefully. I also agree with Edgar Salin that the concept of socialism is only correctly employed to refer to a conscious theory and practice that arises from a cognition of the social and political situation as a whole. Socialism is not simply any possible type of criticism of the ills common to all epochs. It is not compassion for the unfortunate and the poor, struggle against injustice, resistance and rebellion. Neither the Gracchi brothers, nor Michael Kohlhaas or Thomas Münzer, are socialists. What is specific and concrete about the socialism of the past centuries, and thus in historico-political terms its sole essential feature, is the premise of a type of knowledge and awareness whose origin is inseparable from what Max Weber has called occidental rationalism, and which belongs, sociologically, to the development of ‘industrial society’. ‘Scientific’ [‘Wissenschaftlich’], here, means a concrete rational consciousness of one’s historical situation as a whole, and, following from this, the claim to shape the entire situation of humanity in accordance with this consciousness. This is no natural-scientific and positive, no natural-historical cognition. The necessities or laws of truths thus known are not the necessities and regularities of physical or chemical processes. The rationalism of this scientific system has the courage to do more than identify the powers of nature, and utilise them technically to ensure a ‘receding of natural limits’. It wishes to construct humanity’s history itself, grasp the present epoch and the present moment, and thereby make humanity into the master of its own fate. A purely natural-scientific rationalism could never grasp what is politically at issue, namely, the concrete situation and the concrete moment. By contrast, Hegel’s dialectical philosophy of history, if properly employed, provides a powerful means to free the concrete here and now, the hic et nunc, from the sphere of irrational intuitions or emotionally guided impressionism, and install man as the master over the irrationality of a fate ordained by God, nature, or providence."
—Carl Schmitt, "Hegel and Marx" (1931)
