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p Marxist dialectics, as we have pointed out, examines the world in constant movement, change and development. Our daily experience, the development of science and the history of society convince us that all objects and phenomena of the world are not immutable.

p Everything in the world develops. The innumerable bodies of the universe, the solar system, the Earth and everything on it are the product of the long development of matter. Man himself also arose in the process of evolution of the material world.

p Human society too is developing. This is vividly demonstrated by the present century, the age of great historical progress and unprecedented social change. The capitalist system is crumbling and a new, socialist society is inexorably coming to take its place. The socialist system has already struck root in a considerable part of the world. This system is steadily developing and accumulating strength displaying its advantages and vast potentialities. Imperialism’s colonial system has disintegrated, and, in fierce struggle against colonialism, scores of nations have gained independence.

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p We are witnessing a tremendous revolution in science and technology. Man has penetrated the depths of the atom and harnessed its mighty energy. The bounds of outer space are receding in the face of omnipotent human reason.

p In reflecting the development of the material world, the consciousness of people, their ideas, theories and views change as well.

p Thus, constant development, the passage of objects and phenomena from one state into.another, their supersession, represent an important feature of the material world. Hence, to gain knowledge of objects and phenomena, it is necessary first of all to study their constant change and development. To really know an object we must examine it in its development, “self-movement”, change.

p Study of the general picture of the world’s development is an important task of materialist dialectics. Dialectics, Engels wrote, is “the science of the general laws of motion and development of nature, human society and thought”.  [72•* 

p How does Marxist dialectics understand the process of development as such?

p It regards development as movement from the lower to the higher, from the simple to the complex, as a leap-like, revolutionary process. Moreover, this movement proceeds not along a closed circuit, but in the form of a spiral, each spire being deeper, richer and more diverse than the preceding one. Dialectics sees the sources of development in the intrinsic contradictions of objects and phenomena. Only Marxist dialectics furnishes the correct, truly scientific understanding of the process of development.

The basic laws of materialist dialectics give a general picture of the development of the world, its cognition and transformation. The law of the unity and conflict of opposites reveals the sources, the driving forces of development. The law of the passage of quantitative into qualitative changes indicates the leap-like, revolutionary change of the world, the continuous transformation of intrinsic quantitative changes of objects into fundamental qualitative changes. The law of negation of the negation characterises the progressive, spiral-like character of development. All these laws will be examined in the next chapter.