Dialectical materialism was based on the achievements of best practice and theory. This doctrine of the most general provisions of the development and movement of consciousness, nature and society has continuously developed and enriched with the progress of science and technology. This philosophy considers consciousness as a social, highly organized form. The dialectical materialism of Marx and Engels considers matter the only foundation of the whole world, while recognizing the existence of a universal interconnection of phenomena and objects in the world. This teaching is the highest form of knowledge, the result of the entire previous history of the formation of philosophical thought.
The dialectical materialism of Marx arose in the 19th century, in the forties. At that time, for the struggle of the proletariat for the social liberation of itself as a class, knowledge of the laws of social development was necessary. The study of these laws was not possible without a philosophy that explains historical events. The founders of the doctrine - Marx and Engels - subjected Hegel's doctrine to deep processing. Having analyzed everything that was formed before them in philosophy, social reality, having learned all the positive conclusions, thinkers created a qualitatively new worldview. It was it that became the philosophical base in the doctrine of scientific communism and in the practice of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat. Dialectical materialism was developed in a sharp ideological opposition to various bourgeois views.
The character of the emerging worldview of Marx and Engels was greatly influenced by the ideas of the followers of the political economy of the classical bourgeois trend (Ricardo, Smith and others), the work of the Utopian socialists (Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier and others), as well as the French historians Migneux, Guizot, Thierry and others. Dialectical materialism also developed under the influence of the achievements of natural science.
The doctrine extended to an understanding of social history, the justification of the importance of social practice in the development of mankind, its consciousness.
Dialectical materialism made it possible to clarify the fundamental role of practice in cognition of the world and social being, to materialistically solve the issue of the active influence of consciousness. The doctrine contributed to the consideration of social reality not only as an object opposing a person, but also in the form of a certain historical activity. Thus, materialistic dialectics overcame abstractness in contemplation, which was characteristic of previous teachings.
The new doctrine was able to theoretically substantiate and practically embody the conscious complex of practice and theory. Materialist dialectics, deducing theory from practice, subordinated it to revolutionary ideas about the transformation of the world. Characteristic features of philosophical doctrine are a person’s orientation toward the achievement of the future and exclusively scientific foresight of upcoming events.
The fundamental difference between the doctrine of dialectical materialism was the ability of this worldview to penetrate the masses and be realized by them. The idea itself is developing in accordance with the historical practice of the people. Thus, philosophy directed the proletariat to transform the existing society and form a new, communist one.
The theoretical activity of Lenin is considered a new, highest step in the development of dialectical materialism. The development of the theory of the social revolution, the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the union of workers and peasants was most closely connected with the defense of philosophy from the onslaught of bourgeois ideology.
