All I have described in terms of relations can also be presented in the language of the dialectic; for above all else Marx's dialectic is a way of viewing things as moments in their own development in, with, and through other things. The vocabulary of the dialectic – ‘moment’, ‘movement’, ‘contradiction’, ‘mediation,’ ‘determination’, etc.–was Marx's preferred mode of expression, more so in his early than in his later writings. However, as the assignment of priorities has indicated, I consider that the basic scaffolding of Marxism is best constructed of ‘relations’. ‘Relation’, too, is a term out of the vocabulary of the dialectic but its broad and easily understood meaning – at least when compared to other terms in this vocabulary – permits it to play this special role.

Besides a way of seeing things, Marx's dialectic is also his approach to the study of problems which concentrates on looking for relationships, not only between different entities but between the same one in times past, present and future. Finally, the dialectic is Marx's method of exposition; this includes how he organizes his topic as well as the terms he chooses to clothe his views. Much confusion over Marx's dialectic, and Hegel's also, has been due to the inability to grasp that it has these three distinct functions.

It is Engels in his later philosophical and scientific writings, rather than Marx, who provides us with the most explicit statements of the dialectic as a means of viewing the world.