Key terms
Key concepts
Readings
Activities
Discussion questions/points
Key terms
Dialectics
Quality
Quantity
Subjective
Objective
Materialism
Leap
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Key concepts
Dialectical Materialism is the philosophical outlook of the science of society.
Dialectics is the study of how things develop and change. The principles of dialectics include:
1) Nature is a connected and integrated whole. Phenomena are connected through causality.
2) Nature is in a state of constant change: development, disintegration, dying away and arising.
3) Internal contradiction, the basis of quantitative development, is inherent in all things.
4) Changes are from lower to higher order and occur as negations.
5) Qualitative changes occur by a quantitative extraction from the quality or by quantitative introduction of an antagonistic new quality. Qualitative changes occur as leaps.
6) Quantitative changes are definite and indispensable.
Materialism is the philosophical principle that the world is real and knowable and that ideas come from interacting with the world (as opposed to philosophical "idealism" which says that the world is a product of some idea or ideal).
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Readings
Stalin, Dialectical and Historical Materialism (first part, up to "Marxist Philosophical Realism")
"How and Why Things Change" (Institute resource paper #3)
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Activities
Define key terms
Group work – discuss question and key points
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Discussion questions/points
1. How do things change?
2. Why do things change?
3. What is the leap?
4. What are some other philosophical outlooks besides dialectical materialism? How do they differ from dialectical materialism?
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