Dialectical materialism
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Template:Marxist theory Dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism as defined by later Communists and their Parties (sometimes called "orthodox" Marxism). As the name signals, it is an outgrowth of both Hegel's dialectics and Ludwig Feuerbach's and Karl Marx's philosophical materialism, and is most directly traced to Marx's fellow thinker, Friedrich Engels. It uses the concepts of thesis, antithesis and synthesis to explain the growth and development of human history. It should however be noted that dialectical materialism cannot be reduced to this interpretation alone.
For formal approaches, the main predication of 'dialectical opposition or contradiction' must be understood as 'some sense' opposition between the objects involved in a directly associated context. 'Dialectical contradiction' is not reducible to simple 'opposites' or 'negation'.
Some Marxist theorists, critical of dialectical materialism, have called for a reassessment of the place of Engels' work Dialectics of Nature in the Marxist canon. They note that the term "dialectical materialism" originates with Russian theorist Georgi Plekhanov and that Marx preferred the term "the materialist conception of history", which was later shortened to "historical materialism" by Engels. This, they argue, limits his method within a specifically human, sociological context, distinguishing it from a universalizing theory. And apart from the historical materialists, other thinkers in Marxist philosophy have had recourse to the original texts of Marx and Engels and have created other Marxist philosophical projects and concepts which are alternatives, and sometimes rivals, to the often-Party-sponsored ideas of "diamat" (an abbreviation for "dialectical materialism").
While dialectical materialism has been traditionally associated almost exclusively with Marxism, some claim that the philosophy is applicable to a non-Marxist worldview as well. There is nothing in either the concept of dialectic as elaborated by Hegel or in materialism itself which requires Marxism. However, because Marxism is essentially free of traditional theological influences, it is particularly well-suited to dialectical materialism, and a comparable political system based on the philosophy has not yet emerged.
Materialism
In essence, materialism answers the fundamental question of philosophy by asserting the primacy of the material world: in short, matter precedes thought.
Materialism holds that the world is material, that all phenomena in the universe consist of matter in motion, wherein all things are interdependent and interconnected and develop in accordance with natural law, that the world exists outside us and independently of our perception of it, that thought is a reflection of the material world in the brain, and that the world is in principle knowable.
- "The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought." --Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1.
Dialectics
Dialectics is the science of the general and abstract laws of the development of nature, society, and thought. Its principal features are:
1) The universe is not a disconnected mix of things isolated from each other, but an integral whole, with the result that things are interdependent.
2) Nature - the natural world or cosmos - is in a state of constant motion:
- "All nature, from the smallest thing to the biggest, from a grain of sand to the sun, from the protista to man, is in a constant state of coming into being and going out of being, in a constant flux, in a ceaseless state of movement and change." --Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature.
3) Development is a process whereby insignificant and imperceptible quantitative changes lead to fundamental, qualitative changes. The latter occur not gradually, but rapidly and abruptly, in the form of a leap from one state to another. A simple example from the physical world might be the heating of water: a one degree increase in temperature is a quantitive change, but at 100 degrees there is a qualitative change - water to steam.
- "Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes." --Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1.
4) All things contain within themselves internal dialectical contradictions, which are the primary cause of motion, change, and development in the world.
Laws of dialectics
The three laws of dialectics are:
- The law of the unity and conflict of opposites;
- The law of the passage of quantitative changes into qualitative changes;
- The law of the negation of the negation
Quotations
- "The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth, i.e., the reality and power, the this-worldliness of his thinking in practice." --Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach
- "Dialectics is the soul of Marxism." --Joseph Stalin
Selected readings on dialectical materialism
- Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, Friedrich Engels
- Anti-Dühring, Friedrich Engels
- Dialectics of Nature, Friedrich Engels
- Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, V.I. Lenin
- On the Question of Dialectics, V.I. Lenin
- Dialectical and Historical Materialism, Joseph Stalin
- On Contradiction, Mao Tse-tung
- On the Materialist Dialectic, Louis Althusser
- Dialectical Materialism, V.G. Afanasyev
- Materialism And Historical Materialism, Anton Pannekoek
- Reason in Revolt, Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science, Ted Grant and Alan Woods
- Ioan, Petru "Logic and Dialectics" AI CUZA University Press, IASI 1998.
See also
People
Concepts