Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Dialectical materialism
Summary
Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of science. As a materialist philosophy, Marxist dialectics 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 social class, labour economics, and socioeconomic interactions.
In contrast with the idealist perspective of Hegelian dialectics, 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 social organization that are the root of the problem.
Dialectical materialism recognises the evolution of the natural world, and thus the emergence of new qualities of being human and of human existence. Engels used the metaphysical insight that the higher level of human existence emerges from and is rooted in the lower level of human existence. 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 1930s, in the U.S.S.R., the book Dialectical and Historical Materialism (1938), by Joseph Stalin, was the Soviet formulations of dialectical materialism and of historical materialism, which were taught in the Soviet system of education. In the People's Republic of China, the analogous text was the essay On Contradiction (1937), by Mao Zedong, which was a foundation document of Maoism.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (3)
AR-678: Harmony and Conflicts
This is a methodological PhD course focused on the history and description of one case study (building, drawing or projects) and the construction of its historical broader context.
AR-476: UE U : Cartography
Teaching unit on mapping environmental relations in architecture.
AR-505: Modernity, architecture and the environment
Theory course on modernist environmental aesthetics in architecture.
Related lectures (5)
Interpreting the Renaissance
Explores the interpretation of the Renaissance, focusing on architecture, key figures, and the crisis of representation.
Critical Urbanism of Lifestyles
Explores the relationship between urban planning and lifestyles, emphasizing the political implications of architectural forms and urban spaces.
Social and Political Ethics: Arguing and Justifying
Explores religious opposition, the Jewish question, self-emancipation, human rights, and the essence of man in society.
Related publications (6)
Mes aktivizmit dhe herezisë. [Between Activism and Heresy]
This article analyzes the episode of the demolition of the historical National Theatre of Tirana in 2020, which will be replaced by a new building and by residential luxury housing towers. The text focuses on the dialectical relationship between the buildi ...
2023The right to housing? The antinomies of social housing between public and private
What is social housing, is it a right or a property? Is it guaranteed for all by welfare state or non-governmental organizations or a commodity in capitalist production and market relations? According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, h ...
2021Géohistoire de l'Albanie moderne. Une lecture des recensements de 1918 à 2011.
In this thesis, an original database is constituted, described and exploited in a geohistorical perspective, containing the registration of the population at the local level for the fifteen censuses conducted in Albania between 1918 and 2011. The precision ...
EPFL2020Related concepts (18)
False consciousness
In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation and inequality intrinsic to the social relations between classes. According to Marxists, false consciousness legitimizes the existence of different social classes. False consciousness is consciousness which is incorrect and misaligned from reality.
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborator, Friedrich Engels, the ultimate cause and moving power of historical events are to be found in the economic development of society and the social and political upheavals wrought by changes to the mode of production. It provides a challenge to the view that historical processes have come to a close and that capitalism is the end of history.
Naturalism (philosophy)
In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. According to philosopher Steven Lockwood, naturalism can be separated into an ontological sense and a methodological sense. "Ontological" refers to ontology, the philosophical study of what exists. On an ontological level, philosophers often treat naturalism as equivalent to materialism. For example, philosopher Paul Kurtz argues that nature is best accounted for by reference to material principles.