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An approach that applies dialectical materialist principles—contradiction, development, transformation of quantity into quality, negation of negation—to the study of biological sciences. It rejects static, mechanical models of life, instead viewing organisms, populations, and ecosystems as dynamic, internally contradictory systems that evolve through the resolution of tensions (e.g., between individual and species, cooperation and competition, heredity and variation). This perspective influenced figures like Engels (Dialectics of Nature) and later evolutionary biologists who see natural selection as a dialectical process. Historical‑dialectical biological sciences emphasize that living systems are not machines but historical products, shaped by their own developmental trajectories and environmental interactions.
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