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The changes in dialectics are never smooth and gradual but rapid and abrupt. The development passes from insignificant and imperceptible to open and fundamental changes, also to qualitative changes. It does not proceed along a predetermined path. (3) The process of change and development which dialectics assumes is not simple and uniform. Coming into being and going out of being, in a ceaseless flux, in un-resting motion and change.” Engels wrote “All nature from the smallest thing to the biggest, from grains of sand to sun, from protista to man, has its existence in eternal. Hence, the dialectical materialism is characterised by interconnection among the various parts but also by the continuous movement. In the process of continuous change something new is coming out and old things or forces are dying away. There is a constant conflict between the negative and positive forces and out of the conflict emerges a new force which is also unstable till the final end is reached. (2) The nature is not a stable or stagnant state and because of this continuous change is taking place. Failure to do this will make our attempt to analyze nature a meaningless venture. Isolation of one phenomenon from another will not help understanding the dialectical materialism. The dialectical materialism treats all the phenomena together and starts analysis. The isolation of one phenomenon from another is impossible.
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Naturally any analysis of the material world or the society we live in must be taken as a whole. The dialectical materialism clearly states that all the phenomena of the modern world are inextricably connected with each other. This idea of Marxian dialectical materialism differs from metaphysics. The action of one reacts upon another, and vice versa. (1) Dialectics does not regard nature as an accidental agglomeration of things, of phenomena, unconnected with and isolated from and independent of each other, but as a connected and integral whole. Joseph Stalin, a great interpreter of Marx’s and Lenin’s philosophy, has stated some of the important features of dialectical materialism and we now turn to them. Remembering this Engels once said that Feurbach was within the fetters of idealism. Basically Feurbach was a materialist, but surprisingly he objected to the use of the word materialism or materialist. Then they developed it into a philosophical theory of materialism and kept aside its idealistic-religious, ethical encumbrances. This view of Feurbach highly impressed both Marx and Engels and they began to study society materialistically which finally constitutes materialism. He said that religion or related concept which has no factual or material basis cannot be regarded as the basis of analysis of worldly ideas or topics.
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The idea of materialism or matter was first used by Feurbach who challenged the traditional concept of religion or unearthly ideas. In its proper meaning dialectics is the study of the contradiction within the very essence of things”. It alone furnishes the key to the leaps, to the break in continuity, to the transformation into the opposite, to the destruction of the old and emergence of the new. This alone furnishes the key to the self-movement of everything in existence. That is, in all phenomena and processes of nature there are diametrically opposite forces or tendencies and they are at clash or conflict and this continues until a solution is reached. “The idea is the recognition of the contradictory, mutually exclusive, opposite tendencies in all phenomena and processes of nature. Lenin has summed up the essential idea of dialectical materialism in the following words: To interpret the matter, to know the nature of matter the dialectics is used”. Hence, the process or method is dialectical and the object is materialism. It is called Dialectical Materialism because its approach to the phenomena of nature, its method of studying and apprehending them, is dialectical, while its interpretation of phenomena of nature, its conception of these phenomena, its theory is materialistic. “Dialectical materialism is the world outlook of the Marxist- Leninist Party. Definition and Nature of Dialectical Materialism : After reading this article you will learn about the definition, nature and basic laws of dialectical materialism.
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