SOC 5301

STUDENT NUMBER: 201101145

SURNAME: Khalechane

ASSIGNMENT 1

The dialectic is a concept that has been deliberated upon by various scholars. Critically
discuss Karl Marx’s concept of the dialectic as well as its criticisms.

Through centuries, the world has been nothing but a constant series of ever changing
events and people all over the world believe that positive human development, human
evolution, social advancement and growth are necessary features of reality. The
dialectic concept owes much of its existence to the writings of Plato in Greek classical
period. The main focus of this essay however, will be to thoroughly examine Karl Marx’s
dialectic concept which he worked on together with Friedrich Engels which they adopted
from the writings of Karl’s mentor Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The essay will give
examples of places where Karl Marx’s dialectic was put into practice and further
deliberate on the criticisms levelled against it. The essay will first start by giving a
detailed description of what the dialectic concept is according to Karl Marx and what it
was set out to achieve.

Dialectic according to Ollman (2014) is a way of thinking about the relations and
processes in the world and a method of studying them, which enables us to put the
whole in which we are concerned and knowledge back together again. As noted in
Woods (2018), the word ‘’dialectic’’ comes from Greek ‘’dialektike’’ derived from
‘’dialegomai’’ (to converse), or discuss. Originally it signified the art of discussion. Karl
Marx’s concept of the dialectic which became known as dialectic materialism is a view
of history as determined by the struggle between economic forces. In dialectical, Marx
means to see history as progressing through conflict between opposing forces. In
material, he holds that the material factors of human reality are the fields in which these
shaping conflicts take place. For this dialectical method, the central reference is not the
overall mind of man but the total activity of mankind actions and thoughts, physical labor
and knowledge. As a result, the moments of transformation that define dialectical
movement become part of the struggles and contradictions of living activity.

It is of importance to note that, Karl Marx’s concept of the dialectic is an idea about how
societies progress to better states. Unlike Hegel who used the dialectic to describe how
people would eventually embrace rational thinking to become better societies, Marx
used the concept to describe how social change takes place in societies. Karl Marx’s
dialectic concept can be seen as a viewpoint on how societies progress to better places.
This concept of the dialectic therefore, can be easily defined using three distinct
elements; the thesis, which is the starting point or the state at which things are at the
moment. In order for change to occur, there has to be opposition to where things are
and this opposing force leads to another element being the antithesis. When these two
elements clash they lead to a different element being the synthesis which simply means
things have progressed from one state to another.

As noted by Belkhir (2001), the exposition of dialectical materialism does not pretend to
put an end to the forward march of knowledge or to offer a closed totality, of which all
previous systems had been no more than the inadequate expression. No expression of
dialectical materialism can be definitive, but instead of being incompatible and
conflicting with each other it may be possible for these expressions to be integrated into
an open totality perpetually in the process of being transcended, in so far as they will be
expressing the solutions to the problems facing concrete man. Marx acknowledged that
a system will always be relevant to ‘’man’’ (human beings) for as long as it answers to
the needs of their societies at a certain point in time but when they are fulfilled they will
always want better and engage in activities that will make them have better.

Instead of seeing everything being an immaterial mode of God’s consciousness as

Hegel thought, Karl Marx claimed that the universe was made of material things rather
than abstract states of being. Marx suggested that the dialectical process of cultural and
economic development was a result of class-on-class struggles, Gimbel (2020). He
noted that each new socio-economic stage would provide both the advancements in
human life as well as the seeds for its own destruction. Karl Marx saw both the positive
and negative aspects of a system being necessary for its advancements because he
describes slavery as the necessary evil to have existed as through it infrastructure was
improved and it also paved way for another class system as the slaves were able to
rebel and overthrow the system to pave way for a new system that better caters for their
needs. He viewed human history as a result of class struggles between social forces
that have contradictory interests. For example, struggles between Capitalists and
workers in recent times. For examples, Chinese industries in Lesotho have seen a lot of
strikes in recent years, workers seeking better pay and advancements in working
conditions, this struggle between workers and their employers/capitalists according to
Marx would pave way for better, improved systems or ways of doing things.

There are different countries which borrowed Karl Marx’s idea of a dialectic as in the
20th century, the world saw its first constitutionally communist state with Russia. This
was a good example of Karl Marx’s dialectic as he was an advocate and a believer in
communism or existence of a classless society where the state owns everything and
there is no private ownership of property. According to Sammeroff (2019), the Soviet
Union had its origins in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Radical leftist revolutionaries
overthrew Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, ending centuries of Romanov rule. The Bolsheviks
established a socialist state in the territory that was once the Russian Empire. A long
and bloody civil war followed. The Red Army, backed by the Bolshevik government,
defeated the White Army, which represented a large group of loosely allied forces
including monarchists, capitalists and supporters of other forms of socialism.

With Russia being the biggest and most powerful advocate for Karl Marx’s ideas, most
countries which followed the dialectic eventually kept close contact with the Union. The
communist ideology was faced with a lot of problems and difficulties with poverty among
people being the greatest problem of the time it fell apart in 1991 leading to a more
democratic regime. After the fall of communism in Russia, as the world was showing
more concern for human rights of indigenous people, a lot of communist states began to
crumble and eventually met their downfall. For example, as noted by Anthony (2022),
the People’s Republic of the Congo which was the second-latest Marxist state on the
African continent. The People’s Republic was founded after a leftist militant coup in
1970. The initial leader, Marien Ngouabi, led the local Marxist/Leninist party for seven
years before himself being assassinated. The nation maintained strong ties to semi-
socialist France as well as the Soviet Union–the Soviet Union was the largest sponsor
of African Marxist countries. Like many of the 1992 transitions from Communism, the
initial transition was relatively peaceful. Sadly, the peace did not last, with a civil war
following in the late 1990s, and peace has only returned alongside single-party rule,
with much international concern for the human rights of indigenous communities.

A very interesting and yet confusing country that followed the Marxist ideology is The
People’s Republic of China which borrowed its principles from the Soviet Union. The
ideology introduced a one party regime in the republic, private ownership of property
was prohibited, and the state was the most powerful entity because the idea was to
have a classless society. Just like in the context of the Soviet Union, after adopting the
ideology the country was faced with a lot of problems, especially famine which befell the
people due to the state’s incapability to produce enough agricultural products to feed its
people. Famine related deaths were so much common that the republic had to introduce
economic reforms which ended up allowing people to have private ownership of
property. Therefore, capitalism was introduced back into the economy as it was viewed
as a system that was better suited to reestablish the economy of China. Arguably,
Chine still remains a Marxist state but it has also adapted to the advances of Capitalism
which Karl Marx so much hated.

Cuba is also a strong advocate of Marxist ideology of a socialist state. It is the only
Marxist country in South America and this says it receives a lot of criticism from its
Capitalist neighbors. The country, which is said to be a workers state is also a one party
regime, there is not private ownership of property and the state runs the affairs of the
nation. Everything is run for the common welfare of its citizens and not for profit making.
However, the country allows investors from other countries to invest in its economy
because it sees that it has to be open to the interactions with other countries if it is going
to grow and reach its goals. Cuba is seen to have the best Health system in the world
and seeking medical assistance is completely free for the citizens in as much as it is a
developing country.

Karl Marx’s idea of a dialectic seems to be explaining everything, one can note that
there are some noticeable problems with the concept which makes a person wonder
how exactly it is to work. Karl Marx seems to suggest that existing systems will
disappear completely and give way for a new better system which makes no sense at
all. There is both good and evil in every sphere of life and therefore Karl Marx seems to
be ignorant to the fact that in every system there will be those good practices that
people will not want to forego or else they may lay bases for conflict in the new system.

Marx was also very biased in that he could only foresee conflict as a bases for change.
He suggested that opposing interests in societies lay foundations for revolutions. This
suggests that he could not in any case foresee or advocate for peaceful transformations
or compromise between social groups. He was to an extent a pessimist to only see
some systems as nothing be bases for destructions, one such society which he did not
like was Capitalism. In countries where Marx’s ideas were put to test they did not seem
to work so well as people were facing hunger and starvation due to the state’s inability
to be responsible for everyone, a lot of problems came about and the countries had to
re-visit economic policies, this suggests that the concept of a dialectic was a bit flawed
and needed to be polished in order to suite different changes in the world.

In conclusion, the dialectic concept is a lengthy concept which seems to have no

apparent ending according to Marx. The concept suggests that there will be this shift in
societies until we reach a point where everybody is satisfied and happy with the new
system and way of doing things. The concept seems to acknowledge that there is no
permanent social system as each system give birth to the elements of its destruction.
Dialectic therefore, denotes changes in the world that seek to answer to the needs of
the people that live within the totality. It is a concept of shifts and motions across time
and space. For there to be changes there has to be a notable revolution.
REFERENCES

 Anthony, J. 2022. “Most recent & current communist Nations in the World’’.
https://financesonline.com/10-most-recent-current-communist-nations-in-the-
world Accessed on 1st Nov 2022
 Belkhir, J. A. 2001. “Marxism without Apologies: Integrating Race, Gender,
Class; a working Class Approach”. https://www.jstor.org.stable/4167495
Accessed on 2nd Nov 2022
 Gimbel, S. 2020. “A dialectic view of social Development: Hegel and Marx’’.
Gettysburg College
 History.com Editors. 2017. “Soviet Union’’.
https://watch.historyvault.com/specials/vladimir-lenin-voice-of-revolution
accessed on 1st Nov 2022
 Ollman, B. 2014. “Dialectics and world politics, Globalization’’. Oxford University
Press.
 Sammeroff, A. 2019. “Power and Market’’. Mises Institute.
 Woods, A. ‘’2018’’. “The revolutionary philosophy of Marxism’’. WR Books.