Dialectical Materialism for a beginner

Where should a complete Philosophy noob start with dialectical materialism? I'd rather not start with Marx because I don't know anything about Hegel, Feuerbach, or those others he critiques in his works.

I've intentionally avoided the philosophy side of Marx (sticking to economics) because I didn't know where to start, but now I feel like learning about dialectical materialism (though from a secondary source ideally).

Other urls found in this thread:

readpolitzer.org/contents.html
marxists.org/archive/mandel/1967/intromet/index.htm
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1923/marxist-dialectic.htm
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1934/why-marxist.htm
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1937/restatement.htm
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Politzer should be a nice start: readpolitzer.org/contents.html
Also, just read Marx. Getting to other people before him would mean having to get to another bunch of unrelated people and then another and so on and so forth. Read them if what Marx says seems incomplete or makes you interested in them.

Interesting. I'm opposite. Really depends to what you're used to reading I guess.

seconded on just reading Marx

I think it's super important for people just getting interested in this stuff to read the guy himself and develop their own reading of his analysis before accepting others' uncritically

But I don't know any of the figures he critiques, nor the formal meaning of the terms he uses.

Again: just read Marx. A good edition should also have explanatory notes and an essay explaining/talking about the work and its context.
If you are so worried you can also read this intro: marxists.org/archive/mandel/1967/intromet/index.htm by the belgian trot Mandel, which is usually regarded as one of the best intros to Marx.

read hegel

Read these:
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1923/marxist-dialectic.htm
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1934/why-marxist.htm
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1937/restatement.htm

And don't waste your time with Politzer's autism.

This is the one.

Don't actually read this, it's trash.

Marx doesn't just throw out a bunch of formal terms/definitions or whatever without explaining in detail how he's conceiving of them. He explicitly frames his analysis as a critique of political economy (i.e. thoughts/writings of the economic thinkers of his day), so he deploys a bunch of heterodox conceptions of things like the "commodity" or "value," which by necessity he needs to explain pretty clearly in order to establish the points on which he differs from thinkers like Adam Smith, Ricardo, and so on. The first chapter of Capital, for example, is basically an extensive development of the terms which form the basis of his whole critique (commodity, value, use-value, exchange-value, etc.). In other words, don't think that you need any extensive background in philosophy/economic thought just to understand Marx. His arguments are generally structured pretty lucidly, so it's possible I think to gain at least a basic understanding of those just from reading his writing.

Marx actually borrows from Hobbes in terms of formatting, Marx isn't nearly as autistic as Hobbes in terms of definitions and starting from the bottom up, but Marx does explain himself and his terms fairly well, it's not like reading Lacan's Ecrit without Freud, which leaves the layman in a position where it's in one ear out the other.

It's a great, short Diamat. There is nothing wrong with it. He just talks about dialectical materialism, whatever autistic problem you have with George should be checked with at the door in relation this book

Garbage.

Hobbes -> Young Marx -> Old Marx -> Lenin -> Stalin
Then stop and don't read anything else.

Second this

Corbyn confirmed for crypto-Jew.

I have a feeling the two naysayers are in fact same fags, but I can vouch for being the user that posted the PDF so there are at least two supporters. Why do you(s) hate this book?

come on son

tankies ladies and gents


you're not going to learn a fucking thing about dialectics from Stalin

I've never seen someone Reddit space so much.
Hey it's not his fault that Lenin is never wrong.

what even the fuck is reddit spacing
i hit the enter button an extra time oops

Stop hitting it at all man. Don't put those gaps in your paragraphs, it stretches out your postings and makes it obvious you are a new fag.
So how's r/socialism been, banned any cat girls?

get the FUCK OUT

That's autocorrect. I'm not telling you to leave either. Stop being emotional, you look like a retard.
Sageing for my sake.

It's one of those retarded "lmao apples growing on trees is dialectics" bullshits. Might be fun for autistic children but completely useless if you actually want to understand Marx, or dare I say, actually analyse capitalism in its current state.