Marxism and science: Tipping points, catastrophe, and revolution

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Ben Curry (of the Socialist Appeal editorial board)discusses the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism and its application to the natural world. Dialectics is a philosophy of change, explaining that all matter is in a state of motion and flux. But how does this change take place? Using a number of examples from science - from thermodynamics, to evolution, to chaos theory - Ben demonstrates one of the basic principles of dialectics: that change occurs through a process of 'quantity and quality'. In other words, the gradual accumulation of small quantitative changes eventually leads to the qualitative transformation of a system to a new equilibrium state. Such 'tipping points' are seen all around us in nature - and, Ben stresses, in society also, in the form of capitalist crises and revolutions. This is why an understanding of dialectics is so vital for all Marxists and revolutionary activists today.