Philosophy: An Introduction
By Ideological Department of the Central Committee
"No man steps in the same river twice." Change is eternal. All reality exists in a perpetual state of flux. The superposition exists in a permanent state of collapse. Out of this constant motion emerges the entire universe. We wade through this infinite ocean to find fleeting shapes and sounds that compose our complex world.
Dialectical materialism represents a revolution in philosophy. Thousands of years of development in science and philosophy culminated in a radical new mode of thought that the world is only just beginning to reckon with. We find ideas approximating the core concepts of dialectical materialism throughout the history of class society. Heraclitus' famous statement, quoted above, articulates a conception of eternal motion and emergence. Chinese schools of thought, as captured in the Dào Dé Jīng and the Yijing, describe reality as perpetually in motion. Islamic philosophers such as Ibn Arabi developed the concept of wahdat al-wujud, which conceives of the universe as one self-contained and interconnected whole. These core concepts have matured over time, in tandem with the historical development of class society.
However, dialectical materialism could not emerge at any time, under any conditions. This required conditions that demonstrate to society the fluid nature of reality. Capitalism, solidifying its industrial might in the mid-19th century, produced just such conditions. Thus, dialectical materialism is also the worldview of the revolutionary working class, the class born alongside it.
Dialectical materialism does not belong to one tradition, individual, or oppressive class. It represents a leap to a whole new mode of thinking, one that marries science with philosophy. Dialectical materialism is both a theory and a method. As a theory, it makes fundamental claims about reality. As a method, these fundamental claims provide the basis of what to look for and how to think of the world. The basic claim made by dialectical materialism is that the universe is one self-contained and interconnected whole, existing in an eternal state of motion. As stated by Engels, "motion is the mode of existence of matter." There is no realm outside the material. Everything from the stars above, the grass below, the society we live in, our own conscious minds and ideas all emerge from the development of matter like flowers sprouting, budding, then dying away. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transform. Motion itself needs no beginning; the universe has always been and always will be, driven by its self-motion.
From the standpoint of dialectical materialism, matter is a category encompassing all things that interact with our senses. Matter is everything. For the all-encompassing cosmovision of dialectical materialism, even photons (light) are considered matter. By contrast, the contemporary natural sciences define matter exclusively as things with mass and volume, thereby excluding light. Matter is all that surrounds us, including us. Matter is all that is.
In its component parts, dialectics deals with motion, while materialism deals with matter. United, these parts form our conception of reality.
Further, dialectical materialism claims that the world is knowable. Though everything everywhere is changing at all times forever, this change is not random but governed by definite, discoverable laws. If this were not the case, our world would look very different. We can know the truth, but our conception of truth is only ever approximate. Over time, our approximation becomes ever more accurate. Truth is iterative.
Dialectical materialism is the worldview of the Communist Party, of the revolutionary working class. It enables us to make sense of the world and analyze it objectively, to trace its development. We are able to see what is changing and how at different levels of complexity all the way from subatomic particles to galaxies and everything in between, including human society and history. Rather than presenting us with fixed and unchanging things, dialectical materialism unveils an ever-evolving world that we may grasp in its complex, dynamic motion. Only by adopting and understanding this worldview can the revolutionary proletariat succeed in its historic mission to abolish capitalism and build socialism-communism. In this way, philosophy becomes a living weapon in the class struggle.
"Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."
That is the essence of dialectical materialism, the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism.