OUTLINE

 Simplied definition of dialectical materialism

 Dialectic
 Materialism
 Engels Law of dialectic
• The law of unity and conflict of opposes
• The law of the passage of quantitative change into
qualitative change
• The law of Negation of the negation
 Historical materialism
 Ideal aspects
 Karl Marx :production theory of historical
materialism
 Mode of production
 Tpye of mode of production
SIMPLIFIED DIFINITION OF
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
 In simplified form, Dialectical
Materialism states that ideas and
thoughts of human changes in a
dialectical process due to the movement
and existance of the matter.

 Dialectical Materialism is not only a

philosophy but also a complete way of
thinking to explain the reality.
SIMPLIFIED DIFINITION OF
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM

 History and Philosophers

 Historical Materialism (K. Marx)

 Dialectical Materialism (F. Engels , K.
Marx)
Karl
Marx (German: [maʁks];
5 May 1818 – 14 March
1883)

was a German-
born philosopher,
economist,
political theorist,
historian,
sociologist,
journalist,
and revolutionary
socialist
Friedrich
Engels (/ˈɛŋɡəlz/ ENG-
gəlz;[2][3]
[4] German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈʔɛ
ŋl̩ s]; 28 November 1820 –
5 August 1895)
was a
German philosoph
er, political
theorist, historian,
journalist,
and revolutionary
socialist. He was
also a
businessman
and Karl Marx's
closest friend and
collaborator.
DIALECTICS

 Dialectics is the science of the general

and abstract laws of the development
of nature, society and thought.
 Dialectical Materialism, the laws of
dialectics developed with a materialist
point of view.
 MATERIALISM

 Materialism is a realist philosophy of science, which holds

that the world is material; all phenomena in the universe
consist of “matter in motion” according to natural laws.
 Materialism asserts the primacy of the material world: matter
precedes thought. Thought is a reflection of material world.

 The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human
mind, and translated into forms of thought.” [1]
ENGEL'S LAW OF
DIALECTICS

The Law of Unity and Conflict of

Opposes

 Allthings in reality composed of

the opposite sides and also they
always have a confliction due to the
opposes.
THE LAW OF UNITY AND CONFLICT OF
OPPOSES
ENGEL'S LAW OF
DIALECTICS

 TheLaw of Passage of the

Quantitative Changes into
Qualitative Changes .
 This law proposes that for the
description of something if quality
of a thing is increasing its quantity
must decrease and vice versa.
THELAWOF THE PASSAGE OF
QUANTITATIVE CHANGE INTO QUALITATIVE
CHANGED
ENGEL'S LAW OF
DIALECTICS
 The Law of Negation of the Negation

 This law is the fundemental of dialectic

change.

 Things in reality develop in a way that

they negated twice. (i.e. They lose their
existance twice to get a developed form of
the one at the beginning)
THE LAW OF NEGATION OF THE
NEGATION
THE LAW OF NEGATION OF THE
NEGATION
 Historical materialism states that the material
conditions of the mode of production determines
its organisation and more importantly its
development i.e. how goods are made influences
society, and how society changes over time.
 Historical materialism is rooted in Marx and
Engels's philosophy of dialectical materialism,
which posits that all things develop through
material contradictions. Animals and plants, for
example, biologically evolve when their methods
of survival contradict their environment.
Ways of thinking, values, ideas - Social institutions
The most important of Marx’s ideas (in later writings)
Marx identifies production as essential for human existence:
Production = making things
Making things = transforming Nature through Labour
Transforming Nature = using TOOLS and LABOUR to transform RAW
MATERIALS into useable GOODS - food, clothes, shelter, etc.
“Men must be in a position to live in order to be able to ‘make history’. But
life involves before everything else eating and drinking, a habitation,
clothing, and many other things. The first historical act is thus the
production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material
life itself.” (Karl Marx, The German Ideology).
Consumption = using those goods (to stay alive)
Mode of Production

“In the social production of their life, men

enter into definite relations that are
indispensable and independent of their
will, relations of production which
correspond to a definite stage of
development of their material productive
forces. The sum total of these relations of
production constitutes the economic
structure of society, the real foundation, on
which rises a legal and political
superstructure and to which correspond
definite forms of social consciousness. The
mode of production of material life
conditions the social, political, and
intellectual life process in general.”

Marx, Preface to A Critique of Political Economy, in Mclellan

(ed) 1977, Karl Marx: Selected Writings, p. 262.
1) Primitive communism
■ Primitive society, no classes, very
low division of labour,
■ All work together for common good
2) Ancient (slave) mode of production
■ Ancient Greece and Rome
■ Aristocracy and slaves
■ Slaves do most of the work
 3) Feudal mode of production
(feudalism)
■ Medieval Europe
■ Feudal Landlords & peasants
■ Peasants do all the work
4) Capitalist mode of production
(capitalism)
■ Capitalists & workers
(Bourgeoisie & proletariat)
5) Socialism / Communism
■ No classes: equality