The Dialectics of progress is the problem that when a society dedicates itself to certain standards and those standards change, it is harder to adapt. A society that hasn't committed itself yet will not have this problem. Thus, a society that at one point has a headstart over other societies, may at a later time be stuck with obsolete technology that gets in the way of further progress. A wellknown example of this is England, which was at the forefront of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, which later turned out to get in the way. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... The Industrial Revolution was the major technological, socioeconomic and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. ...
More in general, societies, companies and individuals are often confronted with the decision to either invest now and get a fast return or put off the investment until a new technology has emerged and possibly make a bigger profit then.
A wellknown problem for individuals is the decision when to buy a (new) computer. Computer speed develops at a constant rate, so if you put off the investment for one year, you may have to do with a slower (or no) computer for the first year, but after that (at the same price) you'll have a faster one. But usually the technological development is not so predictable.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of "dialectic" was appropriated by Marx (see, for example, Das Kapital, published in 1867) and Engels and retooled in a non-idealist manner, becoming a crucial notion in their philosophy of dialectical materialism.
Hegel's dialectic, which he usually presented in a threefold manner, was vulgarized by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction, an antithesis which contradicts or negates the thesis, and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.
For Hegel, the whole of history is one tremendous dialectic, major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as slavery to self-unification and realization as the rational, constitutional state of free and equal citizens.
Dialectical monism is an ontological position which holds that reality is ultimately a unified whole, distinguishing itself from plain monism by asserting that this whole necessarily expresses itself in dualistic terms.
For the dialectical monist, the essential unity is that of complementary polarities which, while opposed in the realm of experience and perception, are co-substantial in a transcendent sense.
To establish its premises, dialectical monism posits a Universal Dialectic, which is seen as the fundamental principle of existence.
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