Skip to main content

THE DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM

MATERIALIST DIALECTICS

Marx and Engels set Hegelian dialectics aright and put it on a materialist basis as partly indicated by feuerbach. The result is an original and epoch making advance in philosophy.
Hegelian Dialectics states that development is first of all the self development of before it is realised in material world.


Hegel, Marx-Engels 



Feuerbach correctly pointed out that ideas are merely the sensuous reflection of the material world in human perception.

He fell short of Marxist comprehension of endless interaction between cognition, reality and capability of man for critical revolutionary activity.

Marx and Engels stated that change is an endless process because anything at any stage always consists of contradictory aspects.
Materialist dialectics or the law of contradiction is the law of motion inherent in matter; springs from the differences and interaction of things and operates in a two way interaction of matter and consciousness.
In the philosophical works of Marx and Engels, three laws of dialectics can be drawn;

1) Law of negation of negation

This law means that things run into their opposite in full course of development. For instance, capitalism started as free competition in contradiction with
mercantilism, but has eventually become monopoly capitalism.

2) The Law of the unity of opposites

This law means that in everything there are two opposite aspects. One is principal aspect that determines the basic character of the whole thing.
The other is the secondary aspect which is needed by the principal one but which continuously struggle to assume the principal position.

For instance, the capitalist class and the proletariat are in the same thing, the capitalist system.
They need each other and at the same time struggle against each other in the course of development. In so far as everything, including capitalism, comes to pass, the struggle of the two classes is permanent and absolute, while their unity within the same system is temporary and relative.

3) The Law of quantitative to qualitative change

This law means that change may at first be conspicuously quantitative or incremental but a point is reached at which the rise in quantity results in what is called a qualitative leap. In other words evolution precedes revolution. Reforms precede Revolution.

Several kinds of contradictions may be at work in the same thing or process. To determine the basic operation of the thing or process is to determine the contradiction. Thus contradiction can be solved one after the other,
the solution of principal contradiction or problem leads to the solution of the next.

Contradictory aspects constitute an identity in the sense that they are bound either in cooperation or in struggle, under given circumstances; and if the secondary aspect replaces the principal one from the ruling position strength merely posses from the former to the latter.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marx’s Theory of Alienation

Capitalist alienation is a Marxist notion that refers to individuals' estrangement or separation from their work, the output of their labour, and each other within the capitalist mode of production. This phenomena arises from capitalism's fundamental contradictions, which result in a system in which labour is commodified and employees are reduced to mere appendages of the means of production. Capitalist alienation happens when labour is converted into a commodity that can be bought and sold on the market just like any other commodity. As a result, the labour of the worker is separated from the product, and the worker is alienated from the outcome of their labour. Furthermore, workers are cut off from their own creative potential because their job is dictated by the necessities of the capitalist system rather than their own aspirations and interests. "The alienation of man thus appeared as the fundamental evil of capitalist society.”   ―   Karl Marx , Selected Writings in...

Karl Marx: On The Great Indian Revolt of 1857

Marx's observations on the Revolt of 1857 are a distinctive component to the study of modern Indian history. Marx was almost the very first to grasp the true nature of the revolt. Karl Marx wrote 31 articles about the 1857 Indian revolt from July to Oct 1857 for the American newspaper 'New York Daily Tribune (NYDT)’. Although the British called it a mutiny/uprising, Marx called 1857 'a national revolt' . When Marx began writing articles about India in the New York Times in 1853, he saw the British as India's saviours. He regarded British colonialism as a necessary evil to break Asia's sluggish economy by investing in the forces required for capitalist expansion. Marx characterized British colonization in India as the "Double Mission of the British". In the puberty, they were contributing positively by breaking down India's Asiatic mode of production, which was hampering its path to capitalism. Second, they were rejuvenating the economy in order t...

On The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Since the end of World War II, the bourgeois historiography has made an effort to embellish a number of events in order to disparage Socialism and the USSR. One of these occurrences, known as the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact," was struck in 1939 and has served as a "banner" for supporters of imperialism and other anti-communists. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is portrayed by bourgeois propaganda as a tool of expansion policy by the USSR and Hitler's Germany in its illogical, unhistorical attempt to connect Communism with Nazism. By distorting historical facts and combining lies and half-truths, Imperialists and their allies hope to discredit the Soviet Union's significant contribution to the anti-fascist campaign during World War 2. The reality, however, is not the same as what the bourgeois historiography portrays. In order to disprove the anti-communist propaganda surrounding the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, we will now look at the circumstances and e...