DIALECTIC MATERIALISM

1. this philosophy is crudely stated in the following statement: It takes two opposing forces to produce an idea. (HCO PL 14 Aug 63) 2. philosophy that force versus force produces ideas. Actually, ideas versus ideas produce force. (SH Spec 46,6411C10) 3. the anatomy of a problem gone mad. A current philosophy. (SH Spec 68, 6510C14)

in logic, "dialectic" is the action and reaction between opposites, out of which a new synthesis (harmony of the two opposites) emerges. This was an idea originated by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770 - 1831). "Materialism" is a philosophy which maintains that there is nothing in the universe but matter, that mind is a phenomenon of matter and that there is no ground for assuming a spiritual first cause. "Dialectical materialism" was an adaption of these ideas by German revolutionary leader and founder of modern socialism, Karl Marx (1818 - 1883), into his own "general laws of motion which govern the evolution of nature and society." He held that a conflict of opposites in human society is the evolutionary process by which a classless society would eventually b e reached. —SHSBC Binder 14 Approved Glossary