Is this a basic definition?

[The Man]

Is this a basic, simple, easily-understandable definition of Dialectical Materialism? (I got it off Wikipedia)


The basic idea of dialectical materialism is that every economic order grows to a state of maximum efficiency, while at the same time developing internal contradictions or weaknesses that contribute to its decay.

If not so, can someone please give a simple, basic, easily-understandable definition?

[VeritablyV]

I believe Dialectical Materialism is more general than simply the economic factors or even society; a larger philosophical thought that can be applied to various topics. I think that definition is more in line historical materialism, which, how I understand it currently, is the Dialectical Materialism applied to the study of history/society. Marx and Engels essentially spoke of Historical Materialism, and the Dialectical Materialism came from somebody else afterwards.

I can't be fully certain, though.

[mikelepore]

I have never heard of the part about "maximum efficiency." I think the wikipedia contributor made that up.

As for the principle that Marx and Engels called either "historical materialism" or "the materialist conception of history", I have saved a list of Marx-Engels quotations that I believe to be definitions of the principle:
http://deleonism.org/materialist-conception-of-history.htm