Dialectic Materialism

[Red Spark]

What is dialectic materialism?
Lately I went through some threads in RevLeft and even read 'The ABC of Materialist Dialectics' by Trotsky. But nothing seems to convey the concept clearly. Okay, I quite understand materialism and basically want to know about dialectics. Now, I don't want answers providing natural examples of dialectics like Trotsky does in his work. How one pound is not equal to one pound and stuffs like that. I'm myself student of Physics and clearly understand those stuffs. But I don't think such analogies help(they didn't helped me) to understand dialectic method from socio-political aspect. I think some concrete examples(real or fictional) of dialectic method of analysis will be more helpful. Or just anything other than those natural analogies might do. Thanks.

[Tim Cornelis]

This is a 'stub', but here: http://marxistpedia.mwzip.com/wiki/A...materialism.3F

and: http://marxistpedia.mwzip.com/wiki/Dialectics

maybe it helps a bit.

[Thirsty Crow]

What is dialectic materialism?
Lately I went through some threads in RevLeft and even read 'The ABC of Materialist Dialectics' by Trotsky. But nothing seems to convey the concept clearly.

That's because the concept - as developed by generations upon generations of Marxists - is unclear, vague, and ultimately defective precisely because it licenses such nonsense as one pound is not "equal" to one pound of stuff.

So people unfortunately have to wade through layers of bullshit in hope of retrieving something useful.

Like, the notion that things aren't rigidly fixed, but can change (this simple idea is the kernel behind hopeless abuses of language like A is not A and is at the same time or what have you).

Further, not only things can change, but things change as part of an environment where they're interacting with other things in complex way. That's the basis of the dialectic part, that in a given environment A (for instance, the world market as it pertains to social development) there is a whole web of interactions which acts as a yo-yo of sorts - let's say, new mining tehcnology effects a change in raw material prices which affects raw material export based economies in a way that in turn influences the distribution and further technological development of said techniques (and all of this has numerous other consequences which need to be traced as well).

In any event, what is usually covered by invoking dialectics is an injunction to carefully examine every cranny and nook of this web of interactions, and to pay attention also to how specific aspects of a given object are interrelated.

Atop of this, which is actually quite close to many implicit methodologies employed by working scientists, there will be loads of incomprehensible mystification. Like the idea that the universe is an interconnected whole, which doesn't bear a second of critical scrutiny (it would turn out that the entire trick is equivocation on "connection" or flat out empty notion of it).

If you're interested in Marxist social-political analysis, I'd advise not to worry about any such deep philosophical non-problems, and instead delve headlong into the materials which are of interest and see how certain people proceed and how they reach their conclusions.