Marx developed dialectical materialism based off of Hegel’s dialectical idealism, but while using a materialist ontology. He believed social and economic conditions shape ideas, not the other way around. He saw dialectical materialism not as an abstract philosophy, but as a tool for studying social change and as a revolutionary tool for praxis (practice, but more like what we think and say than what we do).
1. Contradictions
1.1. Contradictions Drive Change
He theorized that history is driven by material contradictions - specifically in economics. And these contradictions generate tensions that would lead to a qualitative transformation.
1.2. Fundamental Contradiction
He believed the fundamental contradictions was the class struggle. The bourgeois (owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (working class) had opposing interest. Capitalism’s focus on profits creates exploitation, leading to crises, which would lead to its downfall.
1.3. Negation Process to Progress
Each historical stage (feudalism, capitalism, socialism) would negate the previous one, but would carry forward elements from its past. This progress is not circular, but progressive, and it leads to communism.
2. Usefulness
He saw that dialectical materialism can help one understand the flow of history, but not solve anything. Since he said history is shaped by material conditions, he understood that it cannot be reshaped by will alone. Individual people may shape history, but only when the material conditions allow for it. The same applies for human freedom in general.
In the same sense, Taoism proposes that all things have a Yin and a Yang that drives history.