As we saw in the previous section Hegel thought Geist came to know itself through the progression of history. A un-Hegalian example may help us to understand the dialectic. Lets suppose that you have a motor bike, but only have a limited understanding of it. Sooner or later, you will run out of fuel. Marx's Dialectical Materialism Marx took from Hegel the notion of dialectical historical development, for Marx it was societies that were developing rather than Geist.
History progresses through a number of epochs, each epoch having a particular economic arrangement.
Marx thought that each epoch contains economic contradictions that could only be resolved by a movement to a new economic form. Marx thought that the factory system would create unemployment and poverty as an antithesis. It is only when a revolution takes place and replaces capitalism with socialism that the synthesis takes place. In liberal capitalist societies, the emphasis on notion of individual freedom is seen by Marx to be a consequence of the economic free market. His ideas are similar to Buddhism as he feels that existence always entails suffering.