Ivan Sviták

The Law of Contradiction

As usual
you are where you shouldn’t be
and you aren't where you are
Where are you
when you aren’t where you are?
As usual
you are where you are not
and you aren’t where you should be
Where are you
when you are where you are not?
As usual
you are where you should be
so as not to be what you are
But if you aren’t
what are you?
As usual
you aren’t what you are
because when you aren’t
You are nowhere
you are not
And the eagle of time circles over our heads,
as usual

SOURCE: Sviták, Ivan. “The Law of Contradiction,” in “anti-essay 2: introduction to dialectical materialism” (pp. 43-45), in The Windmills of Humanity: on Culture and Surrealism in the Manipulated World, edited by Joseph Grim Feinberg; illustrations by Andy Lass (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 2014), pp. 44.

Contents:
Human, All Too Human?
(Introduction and Homage to Ivan Svitak),
by Joseph Grim Feinberg ........................................................................ 7
Essay I: The Human Being and Utopia ................................................. 27
               anti-essay 1: the monologue of Alexander’s sword ................. 34
Essay II: Interpreting a Work of Art ..................................................... 35
               anti-essay 2: introduction to dialectical materialism 43
                              The Fundamental Question of Philosophy
                              The Primacy of Matter
                              The Law of Contradiction
                              The Transformation of Quantity into Quality
Essay III: Conscience of the Nation? Literature of the Consumer Society 46
               anti-essay 3: little base and little superstructure .................... 57
Essay IV: The Art of the Epoch .............................................................. 59
               anti-essay 4: the story of a sword ............................................ 64
Essay V: The Civilization of the Eye ...................................................... 68
               anti-essay 5: feeling ................................................................. 71
Essay VI: Evolutions in the Structure of Film Language .................….. 72
               anti-essay 6: the monologue of a human shadow ................... 79
Essay VII: Prolegomena to Love ........................................................... 80
               anti-essay 7: a private mythology ........................................... 90
Essay VIII: The Historical Limits of Surrealism .................................. 95
               anti-essay 8: the law of ketman .............................................. 110
Essay IX: The Surrealist Image of Humankind ................................... 111
               anti-essay 9: labyrinth .............................................…........... 118
Essay X: Surrealism and Art ................................................................ 121
               anti-essay 10: the dialectics of wisdom ......……,,....../....…..... 127
Essay XI: Questions of Surrealism (with Vratislav Effenberger) ........ 128
               anti-essay 11: separation ........................................................ 136
Editorial Notes ..................................................................................... 138
Bibliography of Selected Works by Ivan Sviták ................................... 145

The Perspectives of Philosophy (1956)
by Ivan Sviták

“Anthropological Conditions of Modern Culture” (1964): Conclusion
by Ivan Sviták

“The Sources of Socialist Humanism” (1963)
by Ivan Sviták

Baron d’Holbach, Philosopher of Common Sense
by Ivan Sviták

The Dialectic of Common Sense: The Master Thinkers
by Ivan Sviták

Homo kaj Naturo:
La Bildo pri la Homo en la Kapitalisma Socio kaj en Marksismaj Sciencoj
de Lucien Sève, Werner Seppmann, Helga E. Hörz, Hans-Peter Brenner

“Man and Philosophy”
by Karel Kosík

The Crisis of Modernity: Essays and Observations from the 1968 Era (Contents)
by Karel Kosík, ed. James H. Satterwhite

Dialectics in A Dictionary of Marxist Thought
Roy Edgley, Roy Bhaskar, Robert M. Young

Surrealism: Selected Links

Salvaging Soviet Philosophy (1)

Marx and Marxism Web Guide

Offsite:

Ivan Sviták - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ivan Svitak: A Leninist Lunch With A Lonely Sniper
(The Prague Post, October 20, 1993)

The Windmills of Humanity: on Culture and Surrealism in the Manipulated World
by Ivan Sviták

CONTACT Ralph Dumain

Uploaded 9 March 2025