Dialectical materialism is a philosophical approach to reality derived from the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is a materialist theory that asserts the primacy of the material world, meaning that matter precedes thought. Materialism is a realist philosophy of science that holds that the world is material, and that all phenomena in the universe consist of "matter in motion," wherein all things are interdependent and interconnected and develop according to natural law. Dialectical materialism is not a programmatic method for solving particular physical problems, but rather a dialectical analysis that provides an overview and a set of warning signs against particular forms of dogmatism and narrowness of thought.

Key features of dialectical materialism include:

• Dialectics: This is the method of reasoning that involves the synthesis of opposing viewpoints or contradictions. Marx and Engels understood materialism as the opposite of idealism, by which they meant any theory that treats matter as dependent on mind or spirit, or mind or spirit as capable of existing independently of matter.

• Historical Materialism: This is the Marxist interpretation of history, which asserts that the material conditions of a society determine its social and political structures.

• Approximate Relative Character: Dialectical materialism insists on the approximate relative character of every scientific theory of the structure of matter and its properties. It insists on the absence of absolute boundaries in nature, on the transformation of moving matter from one state into another, that from our point of view may be apparently irreconcilable with it, and so forth.

Dialectical materialism is a way of understanding reality, whether thoughts, emotions, or the material world. It is the philosophical bedrock and method on which the whole of Marxist doctrine is founded.