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Karl Marx Dialectical Materialism

Dialectics is the method of discovering truth through a clash of oppos...
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Theories And Concepts Of International Politics (POL C-2-3)

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Academic year: 2021/2022
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Karl Marx Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical Materialism represents the philosophical system of Marx. Marx, however, never used this term. It was first coined by Plekhanov in 1891. Later on, Engels in his Anti-Duhring elaborated and presented it as philosophy. Though Marx borrowed this method primarily from Hegel, he turned Hegelian dialectics upside down. He advocated a philosophy of materialism as opposed to that of idealism. In the idealist views, like that of Hegel, the world of objective reality was a making of the mind, spirit or idea. Hence, for Hegel, mind was more important than matter. The idealists not only emphasized the non-material spiritual world but also took the stand that a part of our world is unknowable. Marx on the contrary viewed matter as primary and also independent of mind. According to him, matter was not rooted in the thinking or consciousness of mind. Actually, whatever be the thinking of man, it in the final analysis was a reflection on the matter as it existed. Marx claimed that the world of matter required a dialectical approach to comprehend it. When so integrated it gave shape and substance to the philosophy of dialectical materialism.

Dialectics

Dialectics is the method of discovering truth through a clash of opposing ideas. Hegel popularized it by using the tripartite of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis. Popularly called the Dialectical Triad, Hegel used it to expose the contradictions and how opposing ideas combine to develop a new idea. He claimed that it was the dialectical process that caused progress in history. At each stage of development, the contradictions became prominent which induced further changes. Each thesis has its anti-thesis, that challenges it to produce newer contradictions. Everything contains within itself the element of its being (thesis) and the contradiction to it (anti-thesis). The being is permanent, but the contradiction is transitory. When the contradictions matured, elements from thesis and antithesis fuse together in synthesis. Each synthesis gradually develops as a new form of thesis, which is again challenged by its anti-thesis, thereby developing a contradiction that gives rise to a new synthesis. Marx inspired by this idea of dialectics uses it to develop his theory, however not without significantly altering it. Where Hegel stressed on ideas, Marx focuses on materialism.

Marx’s use of Hegel’s dialectics

Hegel’s philosophy presented a systematic explanation of dialectics as a method. He used it to explain the development of history. For Hegel, history was a gradual manifestation of human reason, and the expansion of a historical spirit. He claimed that due to conflict in

intellectual forces, freedom and consciousness expanded among humans. The process of history, for Hegel, was marked by two kinds of causation; (a) the individual spirit which desired happiness and provided energy, and (b) the world spirit which strived for higher freedom, that came with the edge of the self. Although Marx was in agreement with Hegel over the issue of dialectics and the constant development through the, but he unlike Hegel emphasized the social and real rather than the intellectual and the ideal. He emphasized on matter rather on mind. So for Marx, the important aspect in development of history was not its philosophy but rather economic and social relations that developed in the process. Hegel, without doubt, had a defining influence over Marx, and Marx also viewed history as a constantly changing phenomenon, developing and transforming through internal contradictions. However, for Marx this contradiction did not appear in the realm of ideas or consciousness, rather for him consciousness was itself dependent on material realities of the being. Therefore, in order to understand the development of history these material realities and their internal dynamics needed to be understood.

Materialism

The basic foundation of all materialist philosophy was the claim that in order to develop any form of consciousness, human beings first needed to be alive. Marx views humans as active beings whose consciousness is not only depended on his instincts but on the “sensuous human activity” that he performs in order to be alive. The most important activity humans are involved in is the process of production through their engagement with nature. In the process, Marx claims, human beings created a whole new world, which did not have existence earlier. This was done primarily because nature and the world around had to be altered in order to ensure his material existence. This creation of new world could not only be produced through intellectual activity, in one’s consciousness, rather one had to engage materially in the process. Marx was deeply influenced by Feuerbach for his views on materialism and used it to attack Hegelian philosophy. But he also noted in his ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, that understanding of materialism was very different from Feuerbach’s, whose philosophy he called ‘contemplative’ materialism. Feuerbach claimed that in order to understand the world and its processes, we should neither look at God not at thought, but at individual and his activities. However, Marx rejected Feuerbach’s materialism as passive, for objects were seen in contemplative way rather than as “sensuous, practical human activity”. The focus on individual’s contemplative capacity in Feuerbach missed his social nature, which according to Marx is inherent to the process of production. At the same time Feuerbach’s ideas stressed on the way individual’s capacity to contemplate or even their being was impacted or even determined by the social and material conditions surrounding him. Though Marx agreed to this proposition, he argued that it undermined capacity of human individuals to act based on

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Karl Marx Dialectical Materialism

Course: Theories And Concepts Of International Politics (POL C-2-3)

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Students shared 23 documents in this course

University: University of Kerala

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Karl Marx Dialectical Materialism
Dialectical Materialism represents the philosophical system of Marx. Marx, however, never
used this term. It was first coined by Plekhanov in 1891. Later on, Engels in his Anti-Duhring
elaborated and presented it as philosophy. Though Marx borrowed this method primarily
from Hegel, he turned Hegelian dialectics upside down. He advocated a philosophy of
materialism as opposed to that of idealism. In the idealist views, like that of Hegel, the world
of objective reality was a making of the mind, spirit or idea. Hence, for Hegel, mind was
more important than matter. The idealists not only emphasized the non-material spiritual
world but also took the stand that a part of our world is unknowable. Marx on the contrary
viewed matter as primary and also independent of mind. According to him, matter was not
rooted in the thinking or consciousness of mind. Actually, whatever be the thinking of man, it
in the final analysis was a reflection on the matter as it existed. Marx claimed that the world
of matter required a dialectical approach to comprehend it. When so integrated it gave shape
and substance to the philosophy of dialectical materialism.
Dialectics
Dialectics is the method of discovering truth through a clash of opposing ideas. Hegel
popularized it by using the tripartite of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis. Popularly called the
Dialectical Triad, Hegel used it to expose the contradictions and how opposing ideas combine
to develop a new idea. He claimed that it was the dialectical process that caused progress in
history. At each stage of development, the contradictions became prominent which induced
further changes. Each thesis has its anti-thesis, that challenges it to produce newer
contradictions. Everything contains within itself the element of its being (thesis) and the
contradiction to it (anti-thesis). The being is permanent, but the contradiction is transitory.
When the contradictions matured, elements from thesis and antithesis fuse together in
synthesis. Each synthesis gradually develops as a new form of thesis, which is again
challenged by its anti-thesis, thereby developing a contradiction that gives rise to a new
synthesis. Marx inspired by this idea of dialectics uses it to develop his theory, however not
without significantly altering it. Where Hegel stressed on ideas, Marx focuses on materialism.
Marx’s use of Hegel’s dialectics
Hegel’s philosophy presented a systematic explanation of dialectics as a method. He used it
to explain the development of history. For Hegel, history was a gradual manifestation of
human reason, and the expansion of a historical spirit. He claimed that due to conflict in

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