Post by on the prowl on Feb 10, 2004 11:25:24 GMT -5
I am frankly surprised no one here has already started this conversation. I will start it and hopefully others will contribute.
Dialectical Materialism is a scientific view of the world and method that recognizes that all things are made of matter in motion. That there is no god or supernatural forces. That there is a contradiction in all things that is never static, but constantly in struggle. This contradiction that comes together is a unity of opposites or a dialectic.
Everything contains different elements that are in opposition, the conflict of opposing forces leads to growth, change, and development.
A dialectical method and outlook can enable a person to look at anything in the world and analyse the conflicting forces in it. Like the struggle of an atom or a river cutting into the earth, or like the struggle between classes, those who monopolize the means of production vs those who work and slave for the means of production.
This is clearly a very complicated subject that I have only touched on. And in many ways my definition here is probably simplistic. I hope people see it as a touching on the subject, not a summation.
Somewhere (I don't know which board) a person on this board, RS2000, mentioned his view that communists think there is one big dialectic (I think Rosa called this the "Fuzzy Dialectic" theory) , and that communists are wrong because they believe in such a metaphysical dialectic that explains everything, or something like that. Lets get down to it, the number of contradictions in this world is beyond count, and is constantly changing. There are no "magical answers" or "magical keys" to understanding, and no real communist should say there is. However over the course of its history, humankind has developed an ever better and more scientific approach and understanding of the world. Historical and Materialist Dialectics is a highly developed and scientific method and worldview, with an ambition to change the world. And it represents the highest method to understanding the world that humanity has developed.
---------I think it would also be cool if people could contribute around spiral, conjuncture. (For those who do not know about this check out notes on political economy by Raymond Lotta)
--------Mao contributsd to our classes understanding of this science in a deep way, here is an article called "On Contradiction" that is an example of his contributions in this realm. www.marx2mao.org//Mao/OC37.html
------Bob Avakian has written extensively on both a Dialectical and Historical Materialism, and always with its outlook and method.
A few choice articles include
Marxism "Embraces but Does Not Replace" rwor.org/a/v24/1171-1180/1180/grasp3.htm
Accepting Reality as It Is...and Transforming It rwor.org/a/v24/1181-1190/1185/bagrasp7.htm
Communism and Religion--Part 4: The Battle of Ideas, The Battle of Material Forces
rwor.org/a/v19/910-19/918/bar4.htm
---------Here are some helpful explanations of matter in motion by Engels
Dialectical Materialism is a scientific view of the world and method that recognizes that all things are made of matter in motion. That there is no god or supernatural forces. That there is a contradiction in all things that is never static, but constantly in struggle. This contradiction that comes together is a unity of opposites or a dialectic.
Everything contains different elements that are in opposition, the conflict of opposing forces leads to growth, change, and development.
A dialectical method and outlook can enable a person to look at anything in the world and analyse the conflicting forces in it. Like the struggle of an atom or a river cutting into the earth, or like the struggle between classes, those who monopolize the means of production vs those who work and slave for the means of production.
This is clearly a very complicated subject that I have only touched on. And in many ways my definition here is probably simplistic. I hope people see it as a touching on the subject, not a summation.
Somewhere (I don't know which board) a person on this board, RS2000, mentioned his view that communists think there is one big dialectic (I think Rosa called this the "Fuzzy Dialectic" theory) , and that communists are wrong because they believe in such a metaphysical dialectic that explains everything, or something like that. Lets get down to it, the number of contradictions in this world is beyond count, and is constantly changing. There are no "magical answers" or "magical keys" to understanding, and no real communist should say there is. However over the course of its history, humankind has developed an ever better and more scientific approach and understanding of the world. Historical and Materialist Dialectics is a highly developed and scientific method and worldview, with an ambition to change the world. And it represents the highest method to understanding the world that humanity has developed.
---------I think it would also be cool if people could contribute around spiral, conjuncture. (For those who do not know about this check out notes on political economy by Raymond Lotta)
--------Mao contributsd to our classes understanding of this science in a deep way, here is an article called "On Contradiction" that is an example of his contributions in this realm. www.marx2mao.org//Mao/OC37.html
------Bob Avakian has written extensively on both a Dialectical and Historical Materialism, and always with its outlook and method.
A few choice articles include
Marxism "Embraces but Does Not Replace" rwor.org/a/v24/1171-1180/1180/grasp3.htm
Accepting Reality as It Is...and Transforming It rwor.org/a/v24/1181-1190/1185/bagrasp7.htm
Communism and Religion--Part 4: The Battle of Ideas, The Battle of Material Forces
rwor.org/a/v19/910-19/918/bar4.htm
---------Here are some helpful explanations of matter in motion by Engels
"It is an eternal cycle in which matter moves, a cycle that certainly only completes its orbit in periods of time for which our terrestrial year is no adequate measure, a cycle in which the time of highest development, the time of organic life and still more that of the life of being conscious of nature and of themselves, is just as narrowly restricted as the space in which life and self-consciousness come into operation. A cycle in which every finite mode of existence of matter, whether it be sun or nebular vapour, single animal or genus of animals, chemical combination or dissociation, is equally transient, and wherein nothing is eternal but eternally changing, eternally moving matter and the laws according to which it moves and changes.
Fredrick Engels
Dialectics of Nature
Fredrick Engels
Dialectics of Nature
"Motion is the mode of existence of matter. Never anywhere has there been matter without motion, or motion without matter, nor can there be."
"Change of form of motion is always a process that takes place between at least two bodies, of which one loses a definite quantity of motion of one quality (e.g. heat), while the other gains a corresponding quantity of motion of another quality (mechanical motion, electricity, chemical decomposition).
" Dialectics, so-called objective dialectics, prevails throughout nature, and so-called subjective dialectics (dialectical thought), is only the reflection of the motion through opposites which asserts itself everywhere in nature, and which by the continual conflict of the opposites and their final passage into one another, or into higher forms, determines the life of nature."
Fredrick Engels
Dialectics of Nature
"Change of form of motion is always a process that takes place between at least two bodies, of which one loses a definite quantity of motion of one quality (e.g. heat), while the other gains a corresponding quantity of motion of another quality (mechanical motion, electricity, chemical decomposition).
" Dialectics, so-called objective dialectics, prevails throughout nature, and so-called subjective dialectics (dialectical thought), is only the reflection of the motion through opposites which asserts itself everywhere in nature, and which by the continual conflict of the opposites and their final passage into one another, or into higher forms, determines the life of nature."
Fredrick Engels
Dialectics of Nature
