Marxian philosophy looks at the world as a set of processes whose unfolding must be analyzed theoreticaly, not as a set of things that can be understood as isolated observable facts. What must be understood about a process are the inner tensions that provide the driving force behind its transformations. These intrinsic conflicts – called „contradictions” by Hegel and Marx – are source of „development” meaning not merely quantitative growth but qualitative transformation. In the language of biology, they were not explaining anatomy but evolution. In the language of physics or economics, they were not explaining statics but dynamics. In the language of sociology they were not explaining structures but processes – and in particular, they way that processes change structures. Causation, in Marx and Engels, is matter of interaction rather than a one – way mechanism. Thus there is neither pure determinism not pure chance, but instead a stream of events reflecting both „accidental” factors and underlying forces whose necessary relationships shape the general tendency of these events as a whole. The manner in which Marx and Engels sought to investigate causation was be seeking underlying patterns of internal tensions, which by definition cannot be seen directly by collecting concrete facts. Rather, the overwhelming complexities of empirical reality must be reduced to manageable proportions by abstracting those features considered essential and focusing the analysis on these. After determining the relationships and conflicts inherent in these essential features, a fuller and richer approximation to reality can be achieved by then considering some of the features initially put aside in the name of simplicity.