Dialectical materialism

Dialectical materialism is a way of thinking about the world. It was created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This theory is a type of materialism. Materialism is the belief that the physical world is what matters most. It says that matter comes before thought.

This idea focuses on real-world conditions. It looks at how people work and how money moves. It also looks at how different social classes interact. This theory helps people understand how society changes over time. It treats the world as a collection of things in motion.

This way of thinking uses three main rules to explain change. The first rule is the unity and conflict of opposites. This means two opposing forces can work together to create something new. An example is the positive and negative particles in an atom.

The second rule is called quantity into quality. Small changes can add up to a huge change. For example, heating water one degree at a time is a small change. Eventually, the water turns into steam, which is a big change in quality. The third rule is the negation of the negation. This is when something turns into its opposite.

In nature, the third rule can be seen in the history of life. Early life forms made oxygen as a byproduct. At first, this oxygen was toxic to other life. This was the first negation. Later, new bacteria evolved to use oxygen for energy. This changed oxygen from a poison into a tool for life.

This is how something can turn into its opposite. Marx and Engels used these ideas to study how humans live. They wanted to move beyond just thinking about ideas. They wanted to understand the physical world of production.

Karl Marx was influenced by a thinker named Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel focused on ideas and the human mind. Marx called this "standing on its head." Marx wanted to turn these ideas "right side up again."

He wanted to ground these thoughts in material reality. This means focusing on economics and social relations. The term "dialectical materialism" was first used by Joseph Dietzgen in 1887. Later, Georgi Plekhanov used the term in 1891. Engels also wrote about these ideas in his work, Dialectics of Nature. These writings helped build the foundation of the theory.

Many different people have used these ideas throughout history. In the 20th century, Vladimir Lenin shared his own version. His ideas became part of a system called Leninism. Later, leaders like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong taught these ideas in schools.

They used these theories to run states like the Soviet Union and China. In Western countries, other thinkers like György Lukács and Slavoj Žižek studied them too. Today, people still use these tools to look at history. They help us see how the world is interconnected. This theory remains a big part of how people study society.