dialectical materialism
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌdaɪəˈlɛktɪkəl mɛˌtɪəriəlˈɪzəm/
- Formal
:
materialismo dialéctico
- In "On Practice," Mao combined dialectical materialism and the neo-Confucian school of Idealism.
- theory of dialectical materialism
Examples
-
Evolution is based philosophically on dialectical materialism.
Blog text (10) -
An important principle of dialectical materialism is that both consciousness and conscious human action are socially determined.
Academic text (1992) -
And then, of course, there is our old friend, dialectical materialism.
Blog text (24) -
That method, he claimed, was the use of dialectical materialism.
Academic text (1992) -
I'm a scholar, a philosopher, and an expert in dialectical materialism.
Fiction book (1996) -
He had become convinced that dialectical materialism was the best available philosophy, that is, a framework for understanding science.
Academic text (1992) -
Hegelian dialectical materialism is at the root of Marxism.
Blog text (29) -
However, despite concerns that the dialectical materialism of communism has been replaced by a new consumer materialism, the church continues to strongly defend the basic human rights of freedom of speech, of conscience, of the press, and of assembly.
Academic text (1998) -
Between the end of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Gorbachev era, the only philosophical principles considered acceptable were those of Marxist-Leninist thought or dialectical materialism.
Academic text (1992) -
The great philosopher Karl Marx developed the theory of dialectical materialism to explain how material conditions shape society.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound clearly combines 'dialectical' (relating to dialectic argumentation or method) and 'materialism' (a philosophy that prioritizes material conditions), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a philosophical approach that applies dialectical methods to material conditions. However, the term denotes a specific Marxist doctrine about historical and political change that is technical and culturally loaded, so the precise ideological meaning is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
Dialectical materialism comes from Karl Marx combining two ideas: dialectical (the idea of 'change through opposite forces') and materialism (the idea that 'real life and things' are most important). So it means social and political change happens because people's material needs and everyday life push ideas and institutions to change.