Dialectical materialism

Dialectical materialism is a <a href="/facts/Materialist/VKAovnPt">materialist</a> theory based upon the writings of <a href="/facts/Karl_Marx/CXYTK95X">Karl Marx</a> and <a href="/facts/Friedrich_Engels/bYNwAon1">Friedrich Engels</a> that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_history/gRxLws9I">philosophy of history</a> to <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_science/aonsfhTY">philosophy of science</a>. As a materialist philosophy, <a href="/facts/Dialectic/NTL69ms6">Marxist dialectics</a> emphasizes the importance of real-world conditions and the presence of functional contradictions within and among social relations, which derive from, but are not limited to, the contradictions that occur in <a href="/facts/Class_(social)/gJbHDVNc">social class</a>, <a href="/facts/Labour_economics/RRlxNx0u">labour economics</a>, and <a href="/facts/Socioeconomics/ywuuTTUN">socioeconomic</a> interactions. Within Marxism, a <a href="/facts/Contradiction/PQHH5a2J">contradiction</a> is a relationship in which two forces oppose each other, leading to mutual development.: 256 
In contrast with the idealist perspective of <a href="/facts/Dialectic/NTL69ms6">Hegelian dialectics</a>, the materialist perspective of Marxist dialectics emphasizes that contradictions in material phenomena could be resolved with dialectical analysis, from which is synthesized the solution that resolves the contradiction, whilst retaining the essence of the phenomena. Marx proposed that the most effective solution to the problems caused by contradiction was to address the contradiction and then rearrange the systems of <a href="/facts/Social_organization/EDpvow0U">social organization</a> that are the root of the problem.
Dialectical materialism recognises the evolution of the natural world, and thus the emergence of new qualities of <a href="/facts/Being/zwJ4I8Bc">being</a> human and of human existence. Engels used the <a href="/facts/Metaphysics/fSFt6SHe">metaphysical insight</a> that the higher level of human existence emerges from and is rooted in the lower level of human existence. He believed that the higher level of being is a new order with irreducible laws, and that evolution is governed by laws of development, which reflect the basic properties of matter in motion.
In the 20th century, the revolutionary Marxist <a href="/facts/Vladimir_Lenin/Mrwq2Xs4">Vladimir Lenin</a> proposed his own interpretation of Marxist dialectics, which took an essential place among the views and doctrines of <a href="/facts/Leninism/XH8cVR0R">Leninism</a> and was later propagated by such his followers as <a href="/facts/Leon_Trotsky/082m5WTN">Leon Trotsky</a>. Since the 1930s, a <a href="/facts/Marxism-Leninism/bXD3yf3m">Marxist-Leninist</a> reading of dialectical materialism introduced by such leaders of <a href="/facts/Communist_state/oYaCr1Av">communist states</a> as <a href="/facts/Joseph_Stalin/SHtxGyQn">Joseph Stalin</a> (<a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>) and <a href="/facts/Mao_Zedong/tU9LMYH3">Mao Zedong</a> (<a href="/facts/Maoism/HHVv40IK">Maoist</a> China) set forth the official formulations on dialectical materialism and <a href="/facts/Historical_materialism/JQJUAcHg">historical materialism</a>, which were taught in state systems of education. In the West, different approaches towards Marxist dialectics were proposed by such authors of <a href="/facts/Western_Marxism/VmVjz8ye">Western Marxism</a> as <a href="/facts/Gy%25C3%25B6rgy_Luk%25C3%25A1cs/N6U2d7MB">György Lukács</a> and <a href="/facts/Slavoj_%25C5%25BDi%25C5%25BEek/HsmlUoCy">Slavoj Žižek</a>.

Dialectical materialism open-in-new

Dialectical materialism