In Meno, 'Socrates' defines shape as such: “I call that ‘shape’ in which the solid ends;” such a definition is perhaps exemplary of how to go about defining a thing dialectially. To take into account the thing's positive and its negative, to eliminate one sidedness in one’s understanding of (1/2)

“The accident of human arbitrariness and human prudence gives place to conformity to law, i.e., consequently, to necessity.” Plekhanov expounds upon this further: “Modern dialectical materialism has made clear to itself incomparably better than idealism the truth that people make history (1/5)

“In the midst of the accidental and ever-fluctuating exchange relations between the products, the labour time socially necessary to produce them asserts itself as a regulative law of nature.” (Karl Marx, Capital Volume 1) (1/4)

“The new principle is in contradiction with the one that has so far existed; it seems destructive; therefore heroes appear as men of violence who break the laws. As individuals, they are doomed, but the principle itself forges on, even if in another person, and undermines what already exists.”

“The accident of human arbitrariness and human prudence gives place to conformity to law, i.e., consequently, to necessity.” (G. V. Plekhanov, The Meaning of Hegel)

The proletariat’s class character needs to be recognised in its concrete causes and consequences. The proletariat is revolutionary not in itself: the proletariat is revolutionary due to what needs to be done in order to better their conditions, and their revolutionary potential is so great, (1/8)