Dialectical materialism

Cover of Theses on Feuerbach, an early work by Karl Marx which would elaborate many principles of what would become dialectical materialism.

Dialectical materialism, or materialist dialectics is the philosophical framework of Marxism. It incorporates a materialist understanding of reality and studies it in a way which is dialectical. The application of dialectical materialism to the areas of history, sociology, economics, and politics is known as historical materialism.

"My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, [...] the process of thinking which, under the name of 'the Idea,' he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos (creator) of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of 'the Idea.' With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind and translated into forms of thought." —Karl Marx

Aspects

Interrelatedness

Dialectical materialism understands nature to be an interrelated, interdependent whole of various forces and things interacting with each other and influencing each other, rather than an "accidental" connection as other viewpoints would posit. In its societal application, this would manifest in understanding the nature of the culture, religion, etc. (superstructure) of a society to be related to the nature of class struggle and the need for a ruling class to maintain its power via managing the spiritual life of the exploited.

Motion and change

Dialectical materialism holds that everything is in a constant state of change (motion); nothing remains the same forever. The Marxist conception does not merely attempt to understand how things are in the present, but have things will be in the future based upon their movements over time. An instance of this would be with particular revolutionary demands or objectives. In the 1700s and early 1800s, to advocate a bourgeois republic would be a progressive, revolutionary demand in an era of feudal despotism, yet to support a bourgeois state in the 1900s would be a reactionary, counter-revolutionary demand, as the material conditions and development of capitalist-imperialism demanded a proletarian revolution.

Qualitative and quantitative changes

Changes in things, as understood by dialectical materialism, take place in separate qualitative (large, sudden) and quantitative (small, slow) changes. For a long period, a thing may develop without any noticeable changes, yet those small changes will eventually result in a large, instantaneous qualitative leap by which the object is forever transformed. Instances of this in natural science include water being heated; it remains liquid for a long time, yet at a certain temperature, it begins to boil and transform into vapor.

Contradictions

Within things, there exist inherent contradictions within them and between them; between the past and present, the developing and dying, etc. This is the internal content of the transformation of quantitative changes into qualitative changes. The contradictions of a thing exist until on negates (does away with entirely) the other.

See also

• Materialism

Further reading

• Dialectical and Historical Materialism, by Joseph Stalin