The rapid development of nature sciences in the second half of the 19th century showed that the fundamental methodological foundations of scientific knowledge that existed before were no longer able to describe the general laws of the development of nature, the phenomena of being.
In addition, problems of a social nature have accumulated, requiring scientific explanation and interpretation. The previously prevailing scientific knowledge of metaphysical philosophy and the principles of Hegel's dialectics could not give an answer to the question of the historical laws of development. A feature of the need for a new method was that it required an explanation of the universe, based on the positions of a materialistic understanding of the unity of the world.
A significant contribution to the development of dialectical methodology in the second half of the century before last was made by K. Marx, who, developing his own view of the basic principles of dialectics, noted his difference from Hegelian philosophy - Marxist dialectics was materialistic in nature. This type of dialectics became the core of all materialistic thinking, and the principles of dialectics in philosophy began to be interpreted from materialistic positions.
Dialectics, in the most common sense, is both a method of cognition and a theory, and therefore includes as a component of the content a general theory of development, as well as a system of principles, laws and categories, with the help of which the contents of this theory are revealed.
The basic principles of dialectics are as follows:
The principle of objectivity follows from the materialistic version of the solution to the fundamental issue of philosophy and involves the recognition that each object of nature exists outside of human consciousness and manifests itself in it. The reflection of the world in the human mind takes place in the process of human activity, that is, thinking “submits” to the subject when it is reflected by consciousness.
The principles of dialectics include such as the principle of comprehensiveness, the essence of which is the recognition of the universal interconnection of phenomena in nature and society. Although all objects are separated by space and time, nevertheless, between them there are indirect connections that affect their properties, states and changes. The most complex of these relationships are present in society. But this principle should not be interpreted utilitarily, because human knowledge is always relative and cannot be turned into an absolute. Otherwise, the dialectic degenerates into a dogma, which studies and analyzes all the phenomena of the universe without their connection with reality and without understanding their ability to develop.
The dialectical principle of development involves the consideration of dialectics itself as a science. That is why many philosophers, considering the principles of dialectics, call the principle of development basic. This principle, in fact, integrates all other principles and characterizes their influence as a whole.
The features of this process are such properties of material objects and phenomena as directionality, deployment in time, generation of a new state, regularity, irreversibility. That is, the interconnectedness of development with the specific conditions of movement of tangible and intangible substances is recognized. And this, in turn, gives rise to the diversity of the world, which consists in the fact that the movement is not always linear, but can manifest itself as a zigzag, accelerated or slowed down, etc. The most striking and simple example of such an ambiguity can be the presence of two main directions in development - progress and regression, each of which reflects a very specific version of movement in the material world.