The two questions of “Idealism and Materialism” and “Dialectical Materialism” have been briefly dealt with above. We come now to a systematic discussion of the problem of dialectics which has only been mentioned in outline.[2-269]
[p. 235] The Marxist world (or universal) view is dialectical materialism; it is not metaphysical materialism (also called mechanistic materialism). This distinction is a major issue of the utmost importance. What is the world? From ancient times until the present, there have been three major responses to this question. The first is idealism (either metaphysical or dialectical idealism), which states that the world is created by mind, or through extension, by spirit. The second is mechanistic materialism which denies that the world is a product of mind; the world is a material world, but matter (p. 299) does not develop and is unchanging. The third is the Marxist response which has overturned the two previous responses; it states that the world is not created by mind, and neither is it matter which does not develop; rather, it is a developing material world. This latter position is dialectical materialism.[2-270]
Is not this Marxist conception of the world, which has revolutionised the perception of the world previously held by humanity, a discourse of earth-shaking significance? There were those in the West’s ancient Greece who espoused the view that the world is a developing material world; but because of the limitations of the era, it was only discussed in simple and general terms, and their view is described as naive materialism. It did not have (indeed, could not have had) a scientific base. However, its viewpoint was basically correct. Hegel created dialectical idealism, stating that the world is developmental, but is created by mind. He was a developmental idealist. His theory of development (that is, dialectics) was correct, but his developmental idealism was erroneous. In the West during the three centuries of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the bourgeois materialism[2-271] of Germany, France, and other countries was mechanistic materialism.[2-272] They asserted that the world is a material world, and this is correct; however, they stated that the world is machine-like in its movement, with only changes involving quantitative increase and decrease or in place, there being no qualitative change – an incorrect view. Marx inherited the naive dialectical materialism of Greece, transformed mechanistic materialism and dialectical idealism, and created dialectical materialism which hitherto had not been placed on a scientific basis, and which became the revolutionary weapon of the entire world proletariat and all oppressed peoples. Materialist dialectics is the scientific methodology of Marxism, it is the method of knowledge and logic,[2-273] and yet it is a world view. The world [p. 236] is actually a developing material world: this is a world view. This world view becomes a method if used to observe the world, to study, think about, and resolve the problems of the world,[2-274] to lead a revolution, to do work, to engage in production, to direct warfare, and to discuss[2-275] a person’s strengths and weaknesses; this is a methodology. There is no other single methodology apart from this; therefore in the hands of Marxists,[2-276] world view and methodology are a single entity, and so too are dialectics, epistemology, and logic.
We will systematically discuss materialist dialectics and its many issues – its numerous categories, laws, and principles (these several terms have one meaning).
(p. 300) What actually are the laws[2-277] of materialist dialectics? And of these, what are the fundamental laws and which are the subordinate laws which constitute the aspects, features, and issues of the theory of materialist dialectics which are indispensable and must be resolved?[2-278] Why is it that all of these laws are laws inherent in the objective world and not created subjectively? Why study and understand these laws?
The complete revolutionary theory of materialist dialectics was created by Marx and Engels, and developed by Lenin. To the present, with the victory of socialism[2-279] in the Soviet Union and the period of world revolution, this theory has entered a new stage of development which has enhanced and enriched its content. The following categories included in this theory are, firstly:
The law of the unity of contradictions;
The law of the transformation of quality into quantity and vice versa;
The law of the negation of the negation.[2-280]