Worldview

- the whole of an individual’s or society’s opinions and conceptions about the world, humans, life and the position of human beings in that world - directs and orientates our life, including our cognitive and practical activities, as well as our self-awareness - defines our ideals, our value system, and our lifestyle

Methodology

- a system of reasoning - the ideas and rules that guide humans to research, build, select, and apply the most suitable methods in both perception and practice

Dialectic; Dialectical; Dialectics

- regular and mutual relationships, interactions, transformations, motions, and developments of things, phenomena, and processes in nature, society and human thought

Materialism

- the belief that the nature of the world is matter; that matter comes first; and that matter determines consciousness

Idealism

- the belief that the nature of the world is consciousness; consciousness precedes matter; consciousness decides matter

Dialectal Materialism

- the ideological core of a scientific worldview - a scientific understanding of matter, consciousness, and the relationship between the two - the core theory of M-L

Materialist Dialectics

- a science studying the general laws of the movement, change, and development of nature, society, and human thought - the core methodology of M-L and Dialectal Materialism

Historical Materialism

- The application of materialist dialectics and dialectical materialism to the study of human history

Unilateral Consideration

- the consideration of a subject from one side only - idealism originates from this because idealists ignore the material world and consider reality only from the perspective of the human mind

Absolutization

- to hold a belief as always true in all situations without exception - idealists absolutize human reasoning as the only source of truth and knowledge about our world without exception

Primary Existence

* existence which precedes and determines other existences - Idealists believe that consciousness has primary existence over matter, that the nature of the world is ideal, and that the ideal defines existence - Materialists believe the opposite: that matter has primary existence over the ideal, and that matter precedes and determines consciousness - Dialectical Materialism holds that matter and consciousness have a dialectical relationship, in which matter has primary existence over the ideal, though consciousness can impact the material world through willful conscious activity

Social Being

- the material existence of human society

Social Consciousness

- The collective experience of consciousness shared by members of a society, including ideological, cultural, spiritual, and legal beliefs and ideas which are shared within that society

Fedeism

- a form of idealism which holds that truth and knowledge are received through faith or revelation

Subjectivism

- the centering of one's own self in conscious activities and perspective - failing to test one's own perceptions against material and social reality

Empiricism

- broad philosophical position which holds that only experience can be held as a source of knowledge or truth - considered a faulty form of materialism, since it sees the world as only unconnected, static appearances and ignores the reality of dialectical (changing) relationships between objects

Absolute Truth

- the alignment of conscious understanding with objective reality - revealed to us by our sense-perception - truth not dependent in man and mankind

Relativism

- position that all truth is relative and can never be absolutely, objectively knowable - a failure to recognize the existence of objective, absolute truth - opposite of absolute truth

Matter

- a philosophical category denoting things and phenomena, existing in objective external reality, which human beings access through our sense perceptions

Phenomena

- anything that is observable by the human senses

Objective Existence

- Existence which manifests outside of and independently of human consciousness, whether humans can perceive it or not

Mode

- the way or manner in which something occurs or exists - the "how" as opposed to the "what"

Form

- how we perceive objects, phenomena, and ideas

Motion

- the mode of existence of matter - also known as "change", result of the mutual impacts which occur in/between subjects through the negation of contradictions

Dialectal Relationship between different forms of Motion

- every object exists with many forms of motion, but any given object is defined by its most advanced form of motion - the basic forms of motion differ from one another, but they are also unified with each other into one continuous system of motion - motion is absolute and eternal

Motion in equilibrium

- motion that has not changed the positions, forms, and/or structures of things

Freezing

- a special form of motion; motion in equilibrium that is relative and temporary - does not occur in all forms of motion and all kinds of relations

Space

- form of matter - the positional relations between material objects - three dimensions: height, width, length

Time

- form of matter - the speed of change of material objects and the order in which these changes occur - one direction: past to future

Consciousness

- reflection of the objective world in human brains - subjective image of the objective world - arises from nature, and from social activities and relations

Reflection

- any time two material objects interact, traces of some form or another are left on both subjects, mutually impacting one another - all forms of matter share the characteristic of being reflected in the human mind

Life processes

- processes of motion and change which occur within organisms to sustain life - these processes have a dialectal relationship with consciousness

Practice/Praxis

- Conscious activity which improves our understanding, and which has purpose and historical-social characteristics

Labor

- the process by which humans interact with the natural world in order to make products for our needs of existing and developing - physical practice on the material world - allows us to discover the attributes, structures, motion laws, etc. of the natural world

Language

- a system of material signals that carries information with cognitive content; communication - consciousness needs this to exist and develop

Natural Law

- the laws of physics, chemistry, etc., that govern the material world - consciousness can never violate natural law as it arises from natural processes of the natural world

Social Law

- the objective and universal relationships between social phenomena and social processes

Material Conditions

- the external environment which humans inhabit - the natural environment, the means of production, the economic base , and other objective externalities/systems that affect human life

Base/Economic Base

- the material processes which humans undertake to survive and transform our environment to support our ways of living - the relationship which humans have with the means of production, including the ownership of the means of production and the organization of labor

Superstructure

- The ideal (non-material) components of human society, including: media, institutions, music, and art, as well as other cultural elements like religion, customs, moral standards, and everything else which manifests primarily through conscious activity and social relations

Knowledge

- the mode of existence of consciousness - the understanding of human beings - result of the cognitive process - the re-created image of perceived objects

Sentiment

- the resonant manifestation of human emotions - a special form of reality reflection

Willpower

- the manifestation of one's own strength used to overcome obstacles - a manifestation of human consciousness in the material world - arises from self-awareness, and awareness of the purposes of our actions - allows humans to move towards our goals voluntarily

Dialectal Relationship between Matter and Consciousness

- the material determines consciousness, while consciousness can impact the material world through willful activity