On the difference between dialectical materialism and old materialism

Although dialectical materialism and old materialism both adhere to the theory of reflection and think that knowledge is the reflection of subject to object, they are different in nature.

The old materialist epistemology is metaphysical materialist epistemology, which regards human knowledge as passively reflecting and accepting external objects. It has two serious defects: first, it is divorced from practice to investigate the problem of cognition, so it does not understand the decisive role of practice in cognition; Second, we don't understand the dialectical nature of cognition, and we can't regard cognition as a continuous development process without dialectics, but think that cognition is completed at one time. This intuitive passive reflection theory is unfavorable for learning.

The dialectical materialism epistemology inherits the reasonable premise of the reflection theory of the old materialism, but at the same time overcomes its serious defects. First, the dialectical materialism epistemology introduces the viewpoint of practice into epistemology, scientifically defines the subject and object of cognition and their relationship, and holds that the relationship between subject and object is first a relationship between transformation and transformation, and then the relationship between reflection and reflection is produced. Secondly, dialectical materialism applies dialectics to the theory of reflection and the development of cognition, which scientifically reveals the dialectical relationship in many aspects in the process of cognition. Therefore, it fully reveals the dialectical nature of the cognitive process, and regards cognition as a contradictory and dynamic cognitive process from ignorance to knowledge and from shallow to deep.

this theory of reflection, which is characterized by practical and dialectical views, not only refutes idealism apriorism and agnosticism, but also overcomes the defects of the old materialistic theory of intuitive reflection, establishes a dynamic revolutionary theory of reflection based on scientific practice, and realizes the changes in the history of human cognition.