On Understanding "Dialectic" as a Method for Our Perspective on Life

Marxism refers to all of Marx and Engels' thought and it tries to explain the structure and the dynamics of the whole social system, including both its roots and 'probable future*'[1]. It achieves that by focusing on how goods are produced, exchanged, and distributed in the capitalist society. This article states the method to understand all above: dialectic. This method provides understanding a whole, in contrast to mainstream methods. It begins a whole (or a system) and explains reciprocal relations of parts which compose to the whole as inseparable parts of it. I should say that I will utilize Ollman's interpretation related to dialectic. In my view, “Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method” is one of the best books that had been written about dialectic.

Ollman recommends these steps below in his book for composing an idea:

Human beings influence their environment and are influenced from it as active dependent variables in the place where they live. On account of this, their life styles, needs, possibilities, decisions, traditions and similar descriptors cannot be handled independent from the society, time and space. Otherwise, the phenomenon becomes meaningless. This situation ignores the internal relations and provides a linear explanation. Therefore, the thesis attaches importance to historical background, the philosophy of internal relations and it uses dialectic as a research method in Marxism.

The dialectic method is used as a way of seeing the world. It sees things as relations. It gets under the lens to change and interact because of which those are necessary parts of all of historical prosess[2]. In addition, while a part is being analyzed in the system with dialectic, the whole is in the limelight. It means that wide context, real history and possible future of the part are not neglected. Also, when Marx was analyzing capitalism, the thing which provided a holistic approach to him was dialectic.

A dialectical research begins with a real whole or a real system and then the real whole is divided into parts to examine. Each part is researched separately and examined where it locates in the system and how it works. After this, wider information is obtained and back to the whole, but the whole is not the same one anymore. It is a whole in thoughts.

All processes in a specific time interval evolve together according to the dialectical approach; namely a process cannot cause the other one. Every process both determines the others and is determined by the others. The unidirectional determination is not valid in Marxism. This situation (the change and the interaction together) differentiates the abstraction of Marx from other ones.

Examining a system, we separate the reality into pieces and for doing this, we use abstraction. Abstraction is snatching off the part from the whole and thinking on it as though it is alone. Thus, the parts can be analyzed one by one and the information can be organized together. To summarize, abstraction is setting apart the whole into pieces as conscious or unconscious by counting something in it and excluding something.

Abstraction is based on three essential practices for identifying limit according to Ollman's interpretation. These are extension, level of generality and vantage point. Extension is related to temporal and spatial field where abstracted piece is located. On the other hand, level of generality is associated with handling not only the part but also the whole by identifying a limit. Finally, vantage point is a location where other components can be seen in relation. Abstraction makes analysis along with these practices possible.

On the other hand, the abstractions that were mentioned above serve the reality in thoughts. Thinking by using dialectical method brings us from concrete in reality to concrete in thoughts. The concrete in reality is the world we live in and the concrete in thoughts is the thing which is created by reconstructing the world in our mind. As understood from the explanations above, abstraction is connected with the processes of defining, perception, even thinking, conception, and reasoning.

The dialectic approach sees substantive changes in history as a result of opposite tendencies or contradictions in usual mechanism of society[3]. His dialectic approach is different from Hegel's. It is not idealist, not created in thoughts, it is a realized thing. It means that this dialectic approach is also materialist: the materialist dialectic of Marx and the people who think on this dialectial way search for internal contradictions in the system to understand the changes. For example, the emperialist stage of capitalism is associated with contradictions between reduced the rate of profit and concentration -centralization of capital.

While the dialectic method is explained, as I mentioned above, the philosophy of internal relations is important. It provides essential backdrop to use dialectic. Bertell Ollman explains this philosophy in the following way:

“...a carry over from Marx's apprenticeship with Hegel, which treats the relations in which anything stands as essential parts of what it is, so that a significant change in any of these relations registers as a qualitative change in the system of which it is a part.[4]”

Therefore, capital includes 'primitive accumulation', 'accumulation' and 'the concentration of capital', its real history, as part of what capital is. Marx was affected from Leibniz, Spinoza and especially Hegel related to this philosophy. In addition, the common thought of these philosophers is that every piece of the whole carries its relations with the other pieces of the whole. However, the internal relations are not adequate alone for the method. Moreover, Ollman mentions that dialectical categories such as "contradiction" "abstraction (as it is mentioned above)" "totality" "metamorphosis" simplify thinking about interconnections. These concepts explain the most fundamental ways related to movement of the things. For instance; Marx abstracts capital as a relation and while doing this, he examines relation of capitalist and laborer (contradictory classes) totally. Contradiction is used in the sense of development of interconnected elements which are against each other. While these elements are developing, not foster, but also weaken each other. For instance; although capitalism needs workers and nature, the development process of capitalism exploits them.

The dialectical method is a critical, perspectival, revolutionary method. It is a critique, because it provides to see our roles in the process until now. Also, it can see the things differently according to the points of being located. Finally, it is revolutionary because we are aware of our power which affects the system as both a subject and an object.

* It is my own emphasis.

REFERENCES: [1] Ollman, B., 2003, Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method, [online] Available at: <https://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/books/index.php > [Accessed 10 February 2016]. [2] Ollman, B., 1991,Marxism: An Uncommon Introduction, ts.Ayşegül Kars, Yordam Published, 2006, p.11 [3] Ollman, B., 1991, p.11 [4] Ollman, B., 2003