*Greetings All, these are some of my thoughts / summarizations / notes from what has been a roughly 2-3 year long journey of personal study into Dialectical Materialism, This is largely informed by what I have learned from our Vietnamese comrades (shout out to Luna Oi, her YT channel, and her publishing
platform, Banyan House Publishing-which is where I first obtained an English translation of the Vietnamese high school students’ textbook on ML Dialectical Materialism and Philosophy; e-book is free for all those who wish to study alongside), Aleksandr Spirkin’s “Dialectical Materialism” text from ~80’s-era USSR’s education ministry, and my own synthesis of what I’ve learned and studied from across the web with regards to “western” and “eastern” traditions of materialist dialectics, namely with the help of DeepSeek // my apologies in advance for the scattered nature of the organization of these study notes-these will be updated and expanded upon more with time. (Edit: this is not meant to be a 101, this is more intended as a reference point for further sharpening and developing one’s theoretical basis and understanding of our theory and Praxis, from one student of the tradition to another, for comrades who are already taught, essentially. A bottom-up “for-beginners” version/approach may be something that I pursue in the near future, depending on a number of variables) -The main aim was to just get this stuff out there so that more could possibly benefit from this knowledge and my own way of framing this philosophical and methodological tradition that those of us who wish to see and create a better world-have at our disposal:
What is Dialectical Materialism?
First, a little etymological break-down:
Dialectical=both sides of a pair mutually impacting each other
Materialism-the philosophical premise that matter comes before/predates, mind or consciousness
Dialectical Materialism=philosophical body of knowledge undergirding Marxism-Leninism and Scientific Socialism, stating that “all phenomena in the universe, in nature, in human thought and in human societies, are composed ultimately of Matter, matter existed first” as well as that “consciousness (which is a particular form of matter) impacts matter, consciousness came after matter”
(Fun useless fact: at least in the European philosophical context, “materialism” as a philosophical tradition, , was “incomplete” due to lacking the component of dealing with the phenomenon of consciousness; whereas “dialectics” (the Hegelian kind), were “incomplete” due to lacking the component of being grounded in materialist axioms/presuppositions-Dialectical Materialism can be kind of thought of as the “merging” of the best aspects of both by Marx and Engels, transcending (“sublating”, to use a Marxist term) the shortcomings of each)
What is it “for”?: well, lots of things, but primarily, the way I think about it is: 1 it provides the philosophical groundwork for having a scientific worldview and analysis, 2 it is the ontological basis for the praxis of Marxism-Leninism, and Scientific Socialism
How to “use” this philosophy in every-day situations?
=Materialist Dialectics
Materialist dialectics (it’s not word play), is essentially the principles of dialectical materialism (matter comes first, matter determines consciousness, consciousness impacts matter), applied for practical contexts.
Essentially, Dialectical Materialism is the Philosophy of ML, Materialist Dialectics is the Methodology.
Another way to look at it is that Dialectical Materialism is the Philosophy
Materialist Dialectics is a subset of the philosophy, it is an applied field of the dialectical materialist philosophy (ie, using the philosophy’s presuppositions to obtain a coherent framework for thinking about, and enacting change in, the external material world correctly =methdology)
Materialist Dialectics states, among other things; that all things in nature, the external objective material universe, human thought, human society and human social formations-are composed of Relationships, and that all things, processes, relationships, people, thoughts, and phenomena, are always changing all the time, and this change is due to mutual impacts (specifically, Contradictions)
Materialist dialectics also states that all things, phenomena, processes, people, and relationships (really, from different viewpoints, these are all kind of the same thing), are connected, and are always changing
Basic Materialist Dialectical principles and categories in a nutshell (essentially the methodological toolkit for the student of revolutionary science):
-2 Principles of Materialist Dialectics
-6 Basic Philosophical Category Pairs of Materialist Dialectics
-3 Universal Materialist Dialectical Laws of Development/Change/Motion
The 2 principles are:
-the Principle of General Relationships=
All things, phenomena, people, ideas, and processes are defined by their internal and external relationships
-the Principle of Development =
All things, phenomena, people, ideas, and processes undergo change/self-transformation/development, all the time, and this change is driven by internal and external mutual impacts
(Note: “development” here from the Vietnamese understanding of Marxist—Leninist materialist dialectics does not carry the “western” connotation as we understand this commonly in hegemonic discourse, neither in the moralistic, nor economic definitions of the word-it simply refers to the overall collective summarize process of (contradiction->motion->quantitative shift ->qualitative shift=Development), or in simplest terms: “development” is the process of a thing becoming something other than its past self)
These two principles are also why the Vietnamese Materialist Dialectics stress that when performing analysis, one must always 1 have a comprehensive viewpoint, which means to try to understand as many of thing’s internal and external relationships as possible, from as many viewpoint as possible (principle of general relationships) and 2 have historical analysis which means, because all things are composed of relationships and all things are changing all the time because of contradictions defining, and embedded within those relationships, all things have a past and a past “history” of developmental trajectory which must be understood n ofer to have a clear comprehension of the direction and tendencies of the thing’s development in the future (principle of development)
So essentially, Materialist Dialectics 2 core tenets state that all things are defined by their relationships; and all things change all the time, this change is driven by mutual impacts
Mutual impacts is another way of saying a dialectical interaction, or an interaction between two things which impacts both things mutually, which, spoiler alert, is all impacts between two things in the material world-mutual impacts are also another type of relationship
So even put more simply-all things are defined by relationships, and all things are always changing due to relationships
Indeed, another way of appreciating this methodology is that Materialist Dialectics is is the study of relationships, specifically the most universal relationships that are common to all matter (all things, processes, ideas, people, phenomena)
Materialist Dialectics asks us to see all matter (which is all things, phenomena, idea, and processes), as being composed ultimately of Relationships (relationships between atoms, relationships between gravitational bodies, relationships between chemical compounds, relationships between cells, relationships between individual humans in a particular society or workplace or family or culture, etc)
Materialist Dialectics is also an excellent tool for detecting the origin of change in a given system/process/thing/phenomena-namely, Materialist dialectics is a tool for recognizing contradictions, which are ultimately that which define any given thing, process, relationship, phenomena, and are what drive the change of said thing, process, relationship, or phenomena (more on Contradictions later)
When applying these following categories and laws to every day life practical situations, I often orient myself in the fashion of “how can I use these categories to see the given situation or subject of analysis, Relationally (ie, defining it in terms of the relationships it has, to its component parts, to other things like it, to larger systems in which it serves a role, etc), since understanding every thing, process, and phenomenon relationally is the correct way to perceive things as they actually exist in the material world (African and Indigenous Turtle Island philosophical systems share this in common and possibly pre date the European tradition of dialectics which are materialist, but that’s for another write up for another day), as well as helping me understand and identify which Contradictions in a given system or thing are driving the current phase of development or change that the system is undergoing.
6 Basic Philosophical Category Pairs of Materialist Dialectics (there are actually more than this, but only including the “starter pack” basic six pairs for now), these categories can be applied, and can be used to analyze any thing, person, thought/idea, system, relationship, phenomenon, or process in the material universe (can be applied to any level of organization of matter, ie: mechanical, astronomical, chemical, atomic, molecular, biological, social, political, economic, cultural, semiotic/symbolic, mental/psychological, etc), for what? For analysis into understanding the nature of any thing, understanding any phenomenon to eventually be able to change it (revolutionary praxis\the dialectic of practice+theory).
*One more note before sharing, the astute observer will notice there are 12 philosophical categories below, but they are “arranged” or “coupled” into 6 philosophical category pairs, this is due to the fact that each “pair” counterpart is sort of like the opposite of the other, while at the same time relying completely on the existence of the other, both mutually defining each other, and mutually connected to the other (each pair is a “dialectic”, or a pair of two things which mutually impact each other), and in some particular situations, can “transform into each other” (more on this later); kind of like the relationship that the pair of yin-yang have with each other, for those interested in/familiar with to any degree, Daoism in Chinese philosophy (and in the broader historic geographic region of the “sinosphere,” which yours truly happens to be a proud diasporic member of). The most important thing that I was taught from our Vietnamese comrades, is that while these categories are indeed universal and are some of the most basic philosophical tools to be able to analyze and understand all material phenomena and change in the world around us, the critical lesson is that Materialist Dialectical methodology stresses understanding the Relationship between each of the 6 Dialectical category pairs, not just the 12 categories in and of themselves.*
Particular, General
Reason/Result
Necessity/Accident
Content/Form
Essence/Phenomenon
Reality/Possibility
Particular-refers to any specific phenomenon, thing, system, and process in the material world
General-refers to the shared characteristics, qualities, and relationships which exist within and between specific phenomenon in the material world
The Dialectical relationship between the two: all Particulars share at least one thing in common with another (General), the General only exists through Particular instances
Example: I am holding an apple (particular), this particular apple is uniquely mine, but shares certain characteristics in common with other particular apples, such as the color red, the fact that it is edible, having a stem, the fact that it has white flesh on the inside and is a fruit (General)
Reason-refers to the mutual impact that occurs between two phenomena
result-refers to the change in both participants caused by mutual impact, which go on to have further mutual impacts with other phenomena
The Dialectical relationship between the two: all mutual impacts between two things (Reason) create changes in both things (Result), which go on to have their own mutual impacts with other things, as well as all mutual impacts themselves were previously changes resulting from previous mutual impacts
Example: a person is cooking an egg in a frying pan, the mutual impact of the egg and the pan (Reason), lead to the previously-clean frying pan becoming dirty, and the egg changing from being uncooked to cooked (Result). The cooked egg will go on to have further relationships and mutual impacts (with my teeth, with my tummy), and the dirty pan will go on to have further relationships and mutual impacts as well (being brought to the sink, being washed under soap and water to be made clean again, etc)
Necessity-refers to the outcomes or results or changes which are inevitable and are due to internal relationships
Accident-refers to the outcomes or results which are non-inevitable/contingent/unpredictable and are due to external mutual impacts
The Dialectical relationship: all Necessity can be transformed into accident due to the fact that every system is an open system capable of receiving external mutual impacts, which can divert what would normally be a necessary/inevitable, internally-caused outcome, all Accident can be transformed into Necessary with sufficient scope and analysis (zooming out one’s scope sufficiently can contain incorporate what was previously an externally-caused outside accidental outcome, into being seen as “internal” within a now-larger system, and can be eventually seen as Necessity once the necessary internal relationships which caused the previously non-predictable outcome, have been sufficiently analyzed)
Example: due to internal relationships, a particular alarm clock will always activate its alarm at 6AM every morning, this is predictable and inevitable (Necessity). However, what is not predictable is whether or not a human user is there to deactivate the alarm, or let it keep sounding off (Accident), since this is external to the system that produces the necessary outcome (alarm activating due to the clock’s internal relationships). Additionally, if sufficient analysis of the human which may or may not deactivate the alarm clock each time it goes off is performed, then it become apparent what necessary relationships cause the human to turn off the alarm clock when it activates, and when, why, under which circumstances, etc, so long as the scope of analysis is expanded to include the once-random variable of the human stopping the alarm clock, within the set of “internal relationships” of the now-bigger system (ie, the human and the clock as the system, not just the clock as the system)
Content-refers to the sum total of all the constitutive elements that a phenomenon is composed of (what it’s made of)
Form-refers to the structure and organization as well as the interrelationships of the internal constitutive elements of any phenomena, which distinguish the phenomena from the rest of the material world around it (the outer shape and structural composition of a thing)
The Dialectical relationship: content determines form, form impacts back onto content, form organizes/structures/arranges content of a thing. When content changes, form will change. A form that suits the content of a thing can augment its development, a form that is not suitable to the content of a thing can hinder its development
Example: a wooden chair is composed of wood planks, nails, and paint (Content), and these constituent parts are arranged in the shape of a platform to sit on undergirded by 4 legs contacting the ground, and one backrest, held together with nails and coated on the external surface with paint (Form)
Phenomenon-refers to any process, event, or system in the material world which is observable by the human subject’s senses
Essence-refers to the deeper, unseen, fundamental set of internal, fundamental relationships which define a process, event, or system, at that current phase of its development
The Dialectical relationship: Essence determines phenomena, Essence expresses itself to the external world as and through phenomena when subjected to external conditions. Phenomenon is temporary, conditional, dependent; Essence is more long lasting, stable, and independent of external conditions. When Essence changes or disappears/transforms, phenomenon changes/disappears/transforms
Example: the synthesis of internal relationships which define a cloud is that it is the H2O molecule, gathered in sufficient quantity at a particular density to be able to float in the sky at high altitudes (Essence), but one of the ways that these internal relationships defining the cloud might externally express themselves, may be in the form of rain, given sufficient atmospheric, thermal, hydrological external conditions, might be in the form of dark shadows on the land, given the proper solar conditions, might be in the form of lightning, etc. (Phenomena). When the water that defines the cloud dissipates or phase shifts to a state that cannot allow the cloud formation to be feasible, the phenomena that the water was expressing itself through will also cease to be (rain will stop, no more cloud=no more shadows under sunlight, no more basis for lightning to form, etc)
Possibility-refers to the not-yet-manifested potential phenomena, forms, qualities, characteristics, mutual impacts, conditions, relationships, processes, modalities, or phases of development, which exist within all actually-existing systems and phenomena
Reality-refers to the totality of configurations of any phenomenon, person, relationship, system, process, condition, which currently exists or is existing, or has existed, in the material world
The Dialectical relationship: reality contains new possibilities, possibility can transform into reality; all realities were previously possibilities which were realized upon meeting certain pre requisites. In order for a possibility to transform into reality, Objective conditions and Subjective factors must be met, which are particular to each possibility.
Example: a currently existing inflated helium balloon (Reality) contains the potential of becoming popped/deflated (Possibility), provided the necessary Objective conditions (a pin being present) and Subjective factors (a human present willing/able to use the pin to pop the balloon) are met. Once popped, the newly realized reality itself contains further possibilities (of being thrown away, of being recycled, or being re purposed by kids as a toy).
Additionally, since a “category” in the philosophical definition is the most general way to define shared characteristics or qualities between phenomena in a given field of science or human study, and Materialist Dialectics is the study of the most general laws and level of matter (those applicable to all matter, regardless of form or level of organization), it is also correct and equivalent to say that the Dialectical relationships between these materialist dialectical philosophical category pairs are also Universal Relationships (that is, relationships which are shared by all things made from matter, including phenomena arising from matter, such as human social connections, human cultural phenomena and processes, money, economy, human thought/ideas, and human semiotics/signs, etc)
My way of understanding this universality of these philosophical category pairs’ relationships is that 1 since Dialectical Materialism asserts that all things in the material world are made of matter (not mind), and all matter is changing all the time due to internal contradiction as well as is connected to all other matter by a common foundation in the material world, 2 all matter, no matter how diverse, still expresses common laws or characteristics or relationships with all other matter (due to every diverse thing existing or that could possibly exist in the material universe is still bound together by being made of matter in common, no matter what kind of matter; being made of matter will necessarily involve the thing in question possessing certain properties and relationships to certain laws and which are shared by all things made of matter, that’s one of the purposes of these below philosophical categories-to be able to have a framework that applies to the infinite diversity of material phenomena, starting from the premise of the commonality of the material world and its discoverable laws of relation and change being the universal uniting factor=the methodology of Materialist (matter first) Dialectics (understanding the science of mutual impact // relationships // contradiction // change, which is the ultimate outcome of mutual impact)
So at its heart, materialist dialectics is the study of the universal relationships of matter, these following basic 6 philosophical category pairs reflect some of these universal relationships of matter, (not the only ones though, again, more to come in the future)
Understanding these 6 universal relationships is the first step needed to align one’s consciousness (which materialist dialectics says is a type of reflection of matter and of objective material conditions) to the way that the the material world already actually is (as opposed to idealist (mind before matter, does not mean the commonly-understood version of the word) metaphysical notions and paradigms, such as white supremacy, liberalism, conservatism, euro-centric hetero-normative patriarchy racism, queerphobia, ableism, fascism, climate change denial, Eurocentric scientific chauvinism, etc), which then allows one to be oriented in the optimal way to be able to change the world around them through practical/praxis activity (labor)
The important thing is, without materialist dialectics, one obviously still acts in and changes the world around them, but usually in a limited way, one animated by far less consciousness or awareness of relational dynamics of the material world, and sometimes acts based on incomplete or inaccurate mental reflections of the actual subjects of analysis that they are trying to change, whether this be a sculpture, a chair, or a political formation; materialist dialectics is simply a practical heuristic or a “mental yardstick” to always “check back against” during our political activity & practices of daily life to make sure we are moving through and thinking in material reality in the correct modality that ensures we are perceiving and interacting with material phenomena as they actually exist, not how we wish to see them.
coming soon, the conclusion of this section of notes-on the 3 universal laws of change. *to be continued in part 2*